Festival Latino Moves to LACE

The first Festival Latino L.A., which began in early May, continues at LACE tonight with “Bailando Una Pieza Sin Musica” (“Dancing Without Music”), a one-act play focusing on the joy and anguish in a love affair. Performed by an experimental theater troupe from Mexico and directed by Pablo Mandoki, the play will be performed in Spanish, todaythrough Sunday at 8 p.m. A bilingual workshop with the cast and director will be held at LACE on Saturday at 3 p.m.

Next week, Argentine performance artist Maria Fiorentino presents her Spanish-language piece, “Piedras and Huevos” (“Stones and Eggs”), which mixes personal themes about a woman’s life with a political message about Latin America, at Highways Performance Space from next Thursday through May 27 at 8:30 p.m. Fiorentino will conduct a workshop on May 26 at 3 p.m.

Another performance artist, Carlos Niebla from Tijuana, will perform “La Reina de su Casa” (“Queen at Home”), a work that takes viewers into the mind of a woman dealing with her unhappy marriage. The tragicomedy is in Spanish, at Zeta Theatre from May 25-27 at 8 p.m.

A night of “ranchero” music ends the Festival on May 27 at Barnsdall Park Gallery Theater at 8 p.m. The group Astrid y Los Tarzanes from Mexico will perform “Heavy Nopal,” combining music and poetry to comment on Mexico’s fascination with legendary singers of “ranchero” music--roughly the equivalent of country-and-Western music.

For further information, call (213) 484-9005.