Gazoline

US Premiere
Written by Jordi Casanovas
Directed by Jorge B. Merced
Performed in Spanish with English supertitles

CAST
Frances Arroyo, Diego Chiri, Gilberto Díaz, Idalia Limón, Mateo Lamuño

TEAM
Set Design by G. Warren Stiles
Costume Design by Leni Méndez
Lighting Design by Miguel Valderrama
Sound Design by Haydin Díaz & Gabriel García
Stage Manager: Cristina Viesca
Photography by Gustavo Mirabile y John F. Barragan

ABOUT
Originally set in Paris and inspired by the 2005 French riots, where a group a local youth resorted to burning the luxury car of a “one-percenter” each night to raise awareness of the world’s desperate need to redeem-itself and re-embrace peace, equality and justice, to avoid potential self-destruction. Gazoline provides a fitting reflection on young immigrant voices of dissent.

For the US premiere, we set the action in a New York City street, with audience seated at opposite sides of a narrow corridor-like playing area. The adaptation is informed by the the tense sociopolitical climate that repeatedly portrays Spanish-speaking youth as delinquent and socially disengaged.

In the story we are introduced to five Latino millennials planning on burning a car to make a statement about two opposite but equally oppressing circumstances: police brutality and the abuse they experience by adult thugs in their neighborhood. In the process they are forced to become adults overnight, questioning the emotional and social ties that have bound them together since they were 5 years old.