El Sol Que Tu Eres

October 1 is opening night for El Sol Que Tu Eres, the much-anticipated new play from Anthony Garcia and Daniel Valdez. Garcia is the writer and director of the play and also one of the founders and current head of Denver's Su Teatro theater company. Valdez wrote the music for the play. He, of course, has his roots in El Teatro Campesino and is all over the Rolas de Aztlán CD (several selections from El Teatro Campesino as well as his América de los indios), which I plugged in my previous post on this blog. You can find out more about the venue, tickets, and the play at El Centro Su Teatro's website. There also is a good story in the current Westword. According to the Westword story, the title of the play comes from a duet that Valdez did with Linda Ronstadt on the 1987 album, Canciones de Mi Padre. The play reworks Marcel Camus's 1959 film Black Orpheus, which was an adaptation of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Garcia notes that even though the plot follows the story line of the ancient myth, it is a "very contemporary story. ... It's the story of the role of art and the ability to transcend all the restrictions of the mortal world. ... It's asking, 'Can progress, love and compassion triumph in a world with the encroachment of fascism? Can these ideas last?'" Híjole.