Trinity Rep Presents Fade

Trinity Rep continues its 2019-20 Season with the behind-the-scenes dramatic comedy Fade by Tanya Saracho. Directed by Tatyana-Marie Carlo, the show features guest artist Elia Saldana as Lucia, a Mexican-born novelist who just accepted her first job writing for television, where her ambition might make her betray everything she thought she valued. Opposite Saldana is resident acting company member Daniel Duque-Estrada as Abel, an ex-Marine working as a janitor at the station who has more to his story than meets the eye. Fade runs December 5, 2019 – January 5, 2020, with press opening on Monday, December 9 at 7:30 pm. Tickets start at $27. More information can be found at www.TrinityRep.com/fade.

About The Show
Lucia is understandably nervous. It’s day one at her first TV writing job. As a Mexican-born novelist, she may actually be the “diversity hire” she’s heard whispers about. Uncertain whether she can make a place for herself in cutthroat Hollywood, at least she feels less alone when she meets Abel, the Latino janitor. They form a bond and share stories, but it turns out that what Lucia gains from their friendship is not what Abel expects in this witty dramatic comedy about class, integrity, and culture.

Directing a show that is so heavily rooted in the experience of Latinx characters, and one that also includes elements of Spanish language, is a perfect fit for Carlo. A member of a Puerto Rican family, she is the first member of her family to go to college, and was the first Latina to be accepted into the Brown/Trinity Rep MFA Program in Directing. “I am incredibly proud and grateful for the opportunity to be working with this team, and to be part of the changing landscape of the American theater,” says Carlo.

The Arthur P. Solomon and Sally E. Lapides artistic director Curt Columbus had to say, “Tatyana-Marie Carlo is an extraordinary young director, theater-maker and theater-leader. Her work is always joyful, even when she is inviting audiences into consideration of dramatic or complicated subjects. She builds theater that is visually rich while making work that welcomes audiences in exciting ways. She is going to take the American Theater in bold, new directions in the coming years and I can't wait to watch that happen.”

Cast and Creative Team
Tatyana-Marie Carlo is a Puerto Rican director from Miami, FL who received her BFA in Acting from the New World School of the Arts and will graduate from the Brown/Trinity MFA program in spring 2020. She is the artistic director of Micro Theater Miami. She has directed a diverse body of work including: References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, She Kills Monsters and Commedia de las Equivocaciónes a bilingual Spanish/English adaption by Kufa Castro. Carlo has worked on the Trinity Rep and Rhode Island Latino Arts (RILA) partnership, Teatro en El Verano, which brings free bilingual adaptations of classic plays to locations throughout Rhode Island. In 2018, she directed The Tempest/La Tempestad and in 2019 she was at the helm of Much Ado About Nothing/Tanta Bulla ¿Y Pa Que? She has been commissioned to direct both locally and nationally. Most recently Tatyana was named the 2019 Matt Harris Directing Fellow at Williamstown Theater Festival.

Carlo will be working alongside Efren Delgadillo, Jr. (set design), Amanda Downing Carney (costume design), Pablo Santiago (lighting design), and David R. Molina (composer and sound design).

The cast of this production features resident company member Daniel Duque-Estrada and guest artist Elia Saldana.

Daniel Duque- Estrada is a resident acting company member at Trinity Repertory Company, which he joined in 2018. He has a Bachelor of Arts in acting from the University of California Berkeley, and an MFA in acting from the Brown/Trinity Rep acting program. He has appeared at Trinity Rep numerous times in A Christmas Carol and was featured as Pablo Del Valle in Native Gardens and Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He was last seen in New York City in the off-Broadway production of Our Dear Dead Drug Lord, and the off-Broadway run of Recent Alien Abductions.

Elia Saldana holds a BA in theater from the University of California San Diego. She has appeared at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Goodman Theatre, Arena Stage, and South Coast Repertory. She has appeared in such film and television pieces as Criminal Minds, Jane the Virgin, The Cleveland Show, Street Level, and Cry Now. She received a Best Actress Award at the Nosotros American Latino Film Festival.

Playwright
Tanya Saracho was born in Sinaloa, México. She is a playwright and television writer who’s worked on How to Get Away with Murder, and HBO’s Looking, among other shows. Currently, she serves as the creator and showrunner of the series Vida on Starz. She is also developing a television series called Brujas with Big Beach, which deals with the intersection between Brujería culture and feminism. Named Best New Playwright by Chicago Magazine, Saracho has had plays produced at: Dallas Theatre Center, Victory Gardens Theatre, Theatreworks, Primary Stages and 2nd Stage in NYC, Denver Theatre Center, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Goodman Theater, Steppenwolf Theater, Teatro Vista, Teatro Luna, Fountain Theater, Clubbed Thumb, NEXT Theater, and 16th Street Theater. Saracho was named one of nine national Latino Luminarios by Café magazine and given the first Revolucionario Award in Theater by the National Museum of Mexican Art. She is the founder of Teatro Luna (all-Latina theater company) as well as the founder of ALTA (Alliance of Latino Theatre Artists). She is currently under commission with South Coast Repertory Theatre and Two River Theatre.

Community Partnerships and Special Events For Fade
Continuing Trinity Rep’s tradition of offering affordable tickets for all, the theater will have discounted previews of Fade. Thursday, December 5 is a Pay What You Can performance. Pay What You Can tickets go on sale at 6:30 pm that evening, and are limited to one per person.

Other special performances for Fade include an Open Captioned performance for the show on Sunday, December 8 at 2:00 pm and Wednesday, December 18 at 2:00 and 7:30 pm. The Next Generation Night will be held on Thursday, December 12, and includes a special event for the next generation of theater-goers. The Teens Talk performance will be held on Friday, December 13, which features Trinity Rep’s Teen Ambassadors discussing their perspective on the show following the 7:30 performance.

A Context & Conversation panel discussion will be held in partnership with Providence Public Library on Monday, December 16 at 6:00 pm at Sophia Academy at 582 Elmwood Avenue in Providence. At this free event, panelists from the community will discuss first impressions and how they might tell us more about ourselves than other people. Christina Bevilacqua, Trinity Rep’s conversationalist-in-residence and programs and exhibitions director at Providence Public Library will moderate the discussion.

The media sponsor for this production is The Providence Journal. The 2019-20 Season Sponsors are Ocean State Job Lot and Rhode Island Council on the Arts. The 2019-20 Season supporting sponsor is The Providence Tourism Council. Southwest Airlines is the official airline of Trinity Rep.

Trinity Repertory Company
Rhode Island’s Tony Award-winning theater, Trinity Rep has created unparalleled professional theater for and with its community since its founding in 1963. Trinity Rep strives to facilitate human connection and has been a driving force behind the creativity that fuels and defines the region for more than 50 years.

Trinity Rep is committed to reinventing the public square and inspiring dialogue by creating emotionally-stimulating live productions that range from classical to contemporary and innovative education programs for all ages and abilities. Its annual production of A Christmas Carol has brought families together for more than four decades and made memories for over a million audience members. It will return again in 2019 for its 42nd year.

Subscriptions and single tickets are now on sale for the 2019-20 Season, which included the world-premiere of The Prince of Providence by George Brant, based on the book The Prince of Providence by Mike Stanton; and continues with Fade by Tanya Saracho; August Wilson’s Radio Golf; A Tale of Two Cities by Brian McEleney, based on the novel by Charles Dickens; Sweat by Lynn Nottage; and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler.

For more information on our 2019-20 Season, call the box office at (401) 351-4242 or visit Trinity Rep's website at www.TrinityRep.com.