Teatro V!da (the other TV)                             Arts for Real Life.

Magdalena Gomez, Co-founder, Artistic Director,
Teaching Artist, Performer

Co-founder and Artistic Director, Magdalena Gómez, is an internationally acclaimed teaching artist, performer, poet, lyricist and playwright.

Ms. Gómez has facilitated arts training, arts integration residencies and professional development for educators and students in countless schools throughout the country.  As the Theater Specialist and Program Director for Johnny Colon's East Harlem Music School in the late 70's-80's, her acting students included singer, Marc Anthony, MacArthur Genius Award Winner and Eco-Activist, Majora Carter, and writer, Yoruba Rahman. Many of Ms. Gómez's students have gone on to pursue illustrious careers in the arts, activism and health fields.  In 2008, she received a Proclamation from the Springfield City Council for her over three decades of work in the arts and her local arts contributions to the city of Springfield, MA.  In 2008, Ms. Gómez was one of five recipients of the D.C. based Black Women Playwright’s Group’s, first 2008 national, Whisper. Laugh. Shout. Award for her national contributions to the field of theater.  In 2007, she was named an Unsung Heroine by the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women for her arts-based community work in Western Massachusetts.

Ms. Gómez’s plays, monologues, poetry and  short stories are included in college syllabi throughout the country. She has performed her work in venues which include:  Lincoln Center, Vanderbilt University, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Augusta Savage Gallery of the University of Massachusetts, New WORLD Theater and was the inaugural poet for the installation of Lasell College President, Michael B. Alexander earlier this year.  Her poems have been widely published: Tea Party Magazine, Massachusetts Review, Latino Boom, Puerto Rican Writers at Home in the USA, Palabra Journal, upstreet journal, and the Berkshire Review, among many others.

In 2007, Ms. Gómez was commissioned by choreographer, Peggy Choy, of the University of Wisconsin, to write and narrate the text for a dance theater production, based on a concept by Ms. Choy, Gateless Gate:  Women of the Scarred Earth, on the WWII Comfort Women, which premiered at the world famous Union Theater in Madison, Wisconsin.

Ms. Gómez is a regular collaborator of jazz poetry performances with world-class composer and baritone saxophonist, Fred Ho.  Her latest bilingual (Spanish and English) CD, Bemba y Chichón, features her poetry and songs of resistance created in collaboration with composer Abraham Gómez-Delgado, featuring guitarist, Juancho Herrera and percussionist, Reinaldo DeJesus. Her first album, Amaxonica (howls from the left side of my body) now out of print. Her third album featuring intergenerational spoken word and music, is currently in the works.

One of her award winning solo shows, Chopping (the way mami said shopping) will premiere in NYC at Hostos Community College, in 2009, featuring NYC actor, Rhina Valentin under the direction of Ms. Gómez.  Ms. Gómez was also a judge in the 2008 Met Life New Plays Competition for NYC’s Repertorio Español.  Her play on the lingering and devastating legacy of McCarthyism, Lobster Face (or the shame of amanda cockshutt) premiered off-Broadway in 2004, under the direction of Daniel Jaquez, and was a NY Times pick of the season.

Ms. Gómez  also write plays and stories for children as well as adults.  She is currently collaborating with visual artist, Beverly Naidus on a children's book for those with special needs.  Her archives have been selected for inclusion in the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center of the University of Connecticut at Storrs.

For bookings, workshops  and performances use our contact tab or our voice mail:  413.330.8210

You may visit Magdalena at www.latinapoet.net
Photo courtesy of master Puerto Rican photographer, George Malave, http://www.georgemalave.com

Heshima Moja, Music Director, Performer and Teaching Artist

Heshima is an internationally acclaimed vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, composer/songwriter, and teaching artist.

He has shared the stage with, and/or recorded with: Patti Labelle, La India, Avery Sharpe, James Carter, Amira Baraka, Marion Meadows, Rick

Bachus (Backstreet Boys, Alicia Keys), National Dance Company of Mozambique, National Dance Company of South Africa,to name a few.

Heshima has one album to his credit as a leader: “The Awakening” with Souljourn Music Group. He will be releasing two albums this year:”Ofrecimiento’ and “Inside Songs”. In addition, Heshima travels the country teaching music/writing workshops

With his program, “Inhale Music, Exhale Life” he performs healing work through his music.

To Purchase C.D: www.cdbaby.com/heshima  “The Awakening”
                                  www.myspace.com/heshimaiam


For Bookings and Inquiries: 
Use our contact tab or leave a voice mail:   413.330.8210

Maria Luisa Arroyo, Artistic Associate, Teaching Artist

Award-winning poet, educator, literacy and arts advocate, multi-linguist, single parent, and North End Springfield native, María Luisa Arroyo facilitates English, Spanish, and bilingual poetry workshops that create a positive learning space for poets of all ages and experiences to read poems by other poets as well as to write, to respond to and to perform poems-in-progress and finished poems.  As an Artistic Associate of Teatro Vida this cycle, one of María’s goals is to work with ensemble members specifically to explore, to challenge, and to write about our own cultural and gendered perceptions by using print and visual media representations of individuals from other world cultures. María’s additional upcoming engagements include:  poetry panelist for the Connecticut Arts Council; workshop facilitator of multicultural poetry at the 40th Annual Massachusetts Reading Association Conference; and guest poet in a “Women’s Studies” course at Holyoke Community College taught by Prof. Lisa Mahon, who adopted María’s collection of poems, Gathering Words/Recogiendo Palabras, for her course. For further information, please contact: www.marialuisaarroyo.com or mlarroyo67@hotmail.com.
 

James Lescault, Advisor and Media Specialist

James Lescault has been a film maker and community organizer since the early 1970's.  He is currently the Executive Director of Amherst Community Television, in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Mr. Lescault was born and raised in Holyoke, Massachusetts, the first planned industrial city in the U.S.   During the mid- 1970’s Mr. Lescault began to incorporate video production work into community issues confronting residents of Holyoke, first working with inner-city teenagers.  His community organizing work expanded into issues concerning housing, health, violence prevention, teen pregnancy, police/community relations and education. 

Mr. Lescault pursued and obtained a BA degree in Community Planning from the University of Massachusetts College of Public and Community Service  (CPCS).  While studying he became the Executive Director of the Boston based, national non-profit consulting agency, Urban Educational Systems.

As an independent video producer, Mr. Lescault has numerous credits servicing community-based organizations, as well as unions, museums and city government.

His 1995 bilingual documentary- Power/Poder: a working class history of Holyoke, MA. , is still being incorporated in local college curriculum.

From 2003-2007, Mr. Lescault was an employee of the Holyoke Public Schools, most recently as the Supervisor of the Holyoke Even Start Family Literacy Program.

Mr. Lescault, along with a crew of college interns, documents Teatro Vida events and training, providing archival as well as evaluative tools.  Through the support of ACTV and Mr. Lescault's dedication to Teatro Vida, he has supported us in reaching thousands of viewers regionally through programming and in-studio performance projects.  He works closely with all Teatro Vida staff and supports our fundraising, performance and educational efforts.

Diego Angarita-Horowitz, Stage Manager

Diego Angarita-Horowitz is a renaissance man, who excels at everything he sets out to do.  We were very happy to have Diego as our stage manager for "...and literacy for all" and as the producer of "Awake in Times of War." Diego is a graduate of Hampshire College with training in nutrition and dance.  He is also a provocative video media artist who created an original art video for Teatro V!da using photos taken by ensemble members to illustrate the relationship between literacy, power and self-determination. More to come about Diego soon!

Here is one of Diego's videos: