Desert Stories for Lost Girls at The Los Angeles Theatre Center

Desert Stories for Lost Girls

The Los Angeles Theatre Center
514 S. Spring St. Los Angeles

Latino Theater Company partners with Native Voices at the Autry, the only Actors' Equity theater company in the country dedicated to developing and producing new plays by Native artists, to present a haunting and lyrical rumination on identity, family and colonialism over generations by Lily Rushing. When 18-year-old Carrie moves in with her grandmother, she is thrown into a world of memory and mystery that unearths her family's Genízaro identity - shining a light on a dark, bloody and little-known period in the history of the American Southwest.

Thru - Oct 16, 2022

Show Type: Drama

Box Office: 213-489-0994

www.latinotheaterco.org

Desert Stories for Lost Girls Reviews

Average Rating based on 5 reviews

Highly Recommended
Recommended
Somewhat Recommended
Not Recommended

Broadway World - Somewhat Recommended

"...There is an essential account that needs to be told in DESERT STORIES FOR LOST GIRLS. That's clear. What's not quite working in this Native Voices/Latino Theater Company co-production and world premiere, however, is the narrative framework, staging, and direction. But the importance of this largely untold and untaught chronicle is nevertheless undiminished."

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- Tracey Paleo

Stage Raw - Somewhat Recommended

"...Rich is funny and personable as Carrie, but one wishes her character were given more to do than simply be the confused receptacle of all the other character's stories. Dunn does what she can with the difficult role of grandmother Rosa, but the poetical/philosophical ramblings of the dialogue as written makes her character more of a cipher. Dickerson fares better as the younger version of Rosa, but is still weighed down by the surfeit of odd things the character does and says. Stanton is solid both as the nightmarish Nicholas and Rosa's husband, Joe, and Allard is humorous as the well-meaning if not very helpful Edgar. Finally, Brenda Banda is tartly bitchy as the dead Josefa, and Bowling is terrific as the wry, justice-seeking Placida."

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- Terry Morgan

Peoples World - Recommended

"...Theatergoers should not expect an expository narrative with a dependable through line. Much of the writing expounds on memory, dream, revelation, intuition, spirit, feeling, and the out-of-joint proverbs of an incoherent old lady. A suitcase-that as a young woman she carried to California-symbolically stands in for the brain as a repository for all these ideations and physical objects. The script comes across as somewhat declamatory; the playwright has uncovered all the sorrow in the tale she spins, but little joy. Still, the subject matter alone will be an attraction to lots of people in Southern California with their own questions about where they come from, and the production itself is a theatrical marvel."

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- Eric A. Gordon

Larchmont Buzz - Highly Recommended

"...Director Sylvia Cervantes Blush brings a sense of history and life after death to the interactions between the generations. In Desert Girls, the dead still live. They affect the lives of their descendants, who carry their bones and circulate their blood, giving them ties to a land that was theirs for thousands of years and ties to each other that are eternal."

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- Laura Foti Cohen

Glamgical - Highly Recommended

"...Playwright Lily Rushing and director Sylvia Cervantes Blush accomplish a magical theatrical experience. The script, in its prose and verse, expresses the history and beliefs of the Genízaros in a lyrical way, accentuated by the poetic visuals of scenic/props designer Christopher Scott Murillo and lighting/projection designers Derek Christiansen and Ruby O'Brien. A powerful play, made by powerful voices."

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Desert Stories for Lost Girls at The Los Angeles Theatre Center