Round I Projects
PROJECT
Young Teatristas: Somos Aire
Mabelle Reynoso and Johnny Bear Contreras's collaborative campaign Young Teatristas: Somos Aire aims to increase awareness about air pollution and potential responses drawn from youth wisdom as well as environmental justice experts through theatrical performance, visual art (including comics) and interactive student workshops. in the lowest quartile of California Healthy Places Index communities in San Ysidro and National City. The campaign includes Young Teatristas workshops consisting of partnering with two juvenile community court schools and San Ysidro youth from an after-school program to help shape the play, which will be set in San Ysidro and explore the community's air quality and environmental justice through the eyes of a young person obsessed with comic books. Following the interactive workshops, a community performance of the play featuring set pieces, costumes, and sound design and the production of a comic book adaptation to share with the participating schools and communities and beyond (distributed free) to memorialize this community campaign.
LEARN ABOUT THE ARTIST + CULTURAL PRACTITIONERS
Mabelle Reynoso
San Diego County
Mabelle Reynoso is an award-winning playwright, educator, and applied theatre practitioner. She recently had work produced or commissioned by Theatre SilCo, Orlando Repertory Theatre, Olympia Family Theatre, Kaiser Permanente Educational Theatre, and the San Diego Symphony. Her plays for multigenerational audiences are largely informed by her experience as a teaching artist for the arts education organization Playwrights Project. She works with underserved and marginalized populations, including Spanish-speaking immigrants, expectant teens, foster youth, and justice-involved youth and adults. Mabelle is co-host of the podcast Hey Playwright and leads TuYo Theatre's Pa' Letras, a workshop for emerging Latinx playwrights. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from New York University and a Master of Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts. Reynoso is pursuing her Ph.D. in Education for Social Justice at the University of San Diego. She was proudly born in Tijuana, Mexico.
Johnny Bear Contreras
San Diego County
"From the ocean to the desert and everything in between" is how Johnny Bear Contreras answers the question of what influences his work. He works in the medium of sculpture, specializing in bronze, aluminum, and stainless steel and combining all three with resin. A critical component in his work is the representation of indigenous peoples within the arts industry, sharing that "our work is our belief system on display for the whole world to see."
Johnny Bear Contreras
"From the ocean to the desert and everything in between" is how Johnny Bear Contreras answers the question of what influences his work. He works in the medium of sculpture, specializing in bronze, aluminum, and stainless steel and combining all three with resin. A critical component in his work is the representation of indigenous peoples within the arts industry, sharing that "our work is our belief system on display for the whole world to see."