With support from the California Arts Council, El Teatro Campesino will continue its longest running tradition and stage the multidisciplinary performance, “La Virgen del Tepeyac” in San Juan Bautista. Free theater workshops in San Benito County will also be offered to recruit new performers of all ages and experience levels. Despite challenges with a change in venue this year, audiences will get to experience the show in a new location in the community.
Founded by Luis Valdez in 1965 as the cultural arm of the UFW movement, El Teatro Campesino (ETC) functions as a multi-generational theatre company. For fifty-nine years now, ETC has been at the forefront of using theatre as an artistic generator of social change and continues to empower artists and communities from its home in San Juan Bautista. The spheres of ETC’s work can be summarized into three core areas: professional arts, arts education and community arts. Within these areas, ETC runs an annual theatre season, a developmental lab to create new work, regional/statewide tours, cultural festivals for Latino holidays, community based art making and arts education programming within schools.