Programs
Doing Latinx theater in Spanish in the U.S. is an act of resistance with important impact. We do so while building much-needed bridges between diverse Latinx communities that include immigrants, farmworkers, LGBTQ+ individuals, people living with HIV and people with dissabilities.
Desco achieves its mission through its year-round programming which includes:
Theatrical Productions
Desco stages/develops 3 to 4 full length plays annually.
We focus on staging critically acclaimed Latin American Authors that because of white supremacy and Euro-centrism have not received the general public recognition they deserve.
We also stage devised pieces. Devised theater starts without a script and is collectively created by the actors. This work tackles community issues and/or is based on real-life stories in collaboration with community members and/or topic experts. Examples of our devised work includes topics of Mental Health, Empathic Communication, and HIV Stigma.
Community Conversations:
“Conversaciones en Comunidad"
“Conversaciones en Comunidad” is a series of conversations inspired by Popular Theater and Theater of the Oppressed, which take place after a play or an event. In this activity, we watch a performance and have a conversation about it, in community.
We blend theater craft and facilitation expertise to provide unique, needed services to the populations we serve.
We interweave our performance and workshop practices, using theater to platform and center the voices of our historically marginalized and oppressed communities. Community Conversations lifts up audiences’ lived experiences, and centers the importance of storytelling and preserving our culture as immigrants.
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Annual International Encuentro (more than a festival): EDALX
Our annual Multidisciplinary Latinx Arts Encuentro, EDALX, now in its 5th year, is one-of-a-kind, international and multidisciplinary Encuentro. It brings world-class, international, national, and local Latinx artists together, supporting the “Adelante Caminante” program from the Hope Community Center for immigrant children/youth who crossed the U.S. border without adult accompaniment.
EDALX features Latinx artists in theater, music, visual art, dance, performance art, video art, poetry, literature, and more. EDALX is an “Encuentro”: we connect and build community among artist participants, maintaining ongoing connection year-round, year after year. EDALX brings together diverse, world-class, international and local artists, making Orlando a central hub for Latinx artists.
EDALX began in 2020 as an online, single-event Encuentro with an open call to Latinx artists around the world. We got so many submissions we had to curate the event. Since 2021, EDALX is a hybrid event reaching national and international audiences.
EDALX Related Programming:
We expand EDALX to include several collaborations with select EDALX artists throughout the year, including one event featuring an EDALX artist selected from previous Encuentros.
Collaborations with other Organizations
Desco collaborates with arts, organizations, individual artists, service organizations, and service providers.
In any given year, we host several local, national, and international artists and collaborate in different projects with arts organizations. Some of these collaborations have included work with arts organizations like Timucua Arts Foundation, Huellas de Colombia Folk Dances, and Fusion Fest, and collaborations with individual artists like Leo Aether.
We also collaborate with some of the largest Latinx, immigrant, and LGBTQ+ organizations in our community, including Hope Community Center, Come Out With Pride, Farmworker Association of Florida, the Mexican Consulate, and QLatinX, among others.
Work with Community Members
Desco works with vulnerable communities to create theater about their experiences, learn theatrical tools, relate to one another around their specific experiences, and educate the larger community about issues they face.
Desco brings tools of Theater of the Oppressed, Applied Theater, and Socio-Artistic Process, to support participants in exploring their identities, re/connecting with their bodies, and confronting pressing issues they face in their communities using the tools of theater.
These artistic processes are often followed by public performances with process participants, presenting the work at large and small community events, amplifying community member’s voices and the process’ impact.
Examples of this work includes work with people living with HIV, and Trans and Gender nonbinary individuals.
Workshops
We provide free, monthly, bilingual workshops that engage the community to discover and share together as we explore different topics that surround theater, acting, and life.
