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Sample Track 1:
"Dervish" from Avant Ango, 2003 CD Mixies
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Sample Track 2:
"Amanecer" from Noche Flamenca, Album de Steve Cordeau
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Sample Track 3:
"Site Contara" from Joe Vasconcellos, Banzai
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"El Caiman" from Semilla, Semilla
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"El Hueso" from Petrona Martinez, Bonito Que Canta
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"Alfonisna y el Mar" from Tania Libertad, Alfonsina y el Mar XX Años
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"El Baile De L. Alonso" from Banda Sinfonicade Vall De Uxo, Paso Doble Y Seleccionde Zarzuelas
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Cachet in Queens: A New Kind of Theatre, Ten Years Later: Queens Theatre in the Park and the JPMorgan Chase Latino Cultural Festival
A new type of institution has emerged in the nation’s most culturally diverse county: Queens, New York. While its development from condemned building to multi-million dollar performing arts center is admirable in itself, the Queens Theatre in the Park (QTP)—housed on the 1964 World’s Fair site in Flushing Meadows Corona Park—is unique because of its unsurpassed commitment to serving the nearby diverse community, even when its residents have shifted over the years. The Theatre brings such high caliber performances that Newsday called it a place “where the name on the marquee has as much cachet in Corona as it does at Lincoln Center.”
Queen’s Theatre in the Park’s JPMorgan Chase Latino Cultural Festival—now in its eleventh year—is evidence of the Theatre’s commitment to serving the local Queens community. In the late ’90s, QTP recognized that a rising number of Latinos were making their homes in Queens, and the 2000 Census confirmed that one out of every four residents of the Borough is Latino. Over the last decade, a modest cabaret series with one headline act has grown into the nation’s largest Latino multi-disciplinary, cultural festival. The fete features USA and New York debuts, commissioned dance works, and Latino icons alongside up-and-coming artists. With its financial commitment and high artistic and production standards, the Theatre continues to demonstrate that this is not a token event solely for a photo op in its annual report. This is an ongoing allegiance to doing what is artistically right as a mainstream institution in a multicultural borough.
“Each year, the artist roster is part of a much bigger quilt,” explains Theatre director Jeffrey Rosenstock. “We're taking a big look at Latino culture; so big we can’t do it in one festival. We don’t think that during any one summer our Festival represents a definitive look at Latino culture. There is an institutional compulsion to exploring what Latino art is in its diversity. The Festival mission is to expand our vocabulary of what Latino culture is in Queens and New York City.”
Though the Festival started with a committee of community residents to program the performers, Rosenstock soon realized that to make the annual event a success, they needed the help of someone with access to the highest quality of performers on the international circuit. “We didn’t have access to what was out there. There was a lot more out there we needed to find,” says Rosenstock. “We didn’t want to settle for the lowest common denominator. We needed someone who was traveling around and could measure artistic quality on an international level.” He recruited as Festival Director, Claudia Norman, who has also consulted with Lincoln Center, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Mexico Now.
Norman says, “The Festival stands out because our vision has been not only to bring the icons, the very well-known artists to New York’s mainstream audiences, but also to identify and support young performers by providing a serious platform. I think people keep coming to the festival because you can share your cultural identity with others, as well as find something new. If you are part of a multiethnic marriage or family, you can bring your kids and show them the music you grew up with. That is very important.”
The Theatre does not stop with the Festival. The organization also produces a year-round Latino Cultural Series; a Black Cultural Arts series; Immigrant Voices, which highlights new theatre works; and an Asian Cultural Festival. This is in addition to more-traditional theater offerings equal to those of any Off-Broadway house in Manhattan. “These initiatives are really exploring where we are, and, in some ways, we are what America is going to look like in 25 to 30 years. And we are programming that way.”
The Theatre is also staffing and proactively marketing to Latino audiences. Forty-four percent of Theatre staff is bilingual in Spanish and English. Audience members can purchase tickets in Spanish, be greeted in Spanish, and hear on-stage introductions in Spanish. Spanish-language media outlets have embraced the Theatre, recognizing it as a rare mainstream institution that has supported Latino art forms and cultures.
The corporate and funding worlds have also taken notice. “They realized we are bringing Latinos into the Theatre,” explains Rosenstock. “This is a demographic everyone wants to find and here they are coming to shows, using credit cards, coming into a mainstream theatre environment. People see the value in that.”
Over 120,000 people attended 400 QTP events last year. The Theatre’s success led the Mayor, Borough President, and City Council to commit $20 million toward an expansion project to include a new cabaret, café, and 3000-square foot lobby.
Interestingly, what began as segmented programming for specific cultural audiences is now leading to specific communities attending across cultural lines. “It's not just about Latino programming for Latino people,” says Rosenstock. “We're getting rid of the silos. We're finding people who appreciate contemporary dance or spoken word, coming to see things, regardless of the ethnic background of the performers. So now you’ve got a man .who came to the Theatre as a Chilean to see Illapu from his home country, and now he is coming back as a father to see ‘Beauty and the Beast’ with his kids, or subscribing as a fan of theatre.”
“Rising out of the World's Fair ruins, we’re everything the World’s Fair espoused to be,” concludes Rosenstock. “We’re not just taking a simple formula of what's accessible, or what’s easy to define. That's where Claudia’s curatorial expertise comes in. We're stretching everyone’s concepts. And sometimes that takes years. But that’s OK… We’ll be here.”
Queens Theatre in the Park - Commitment to Diversity and the Arts
The Numbers
2 million = Number of total residents in Queens
500,000 = Number of residents in Queens that are Latino
25% = Percentage of Queens residents that are Latino
25% = Percentage of total Queens Theatre 2006 adult attendees that are Latino
1% = Percentage of Queens Theatre 1996 adult attendees that are Latino
13% = Percentage of QTP programming that is specifically Latino
206 = Number of events held as part of the Latino Cultural Festival (since 1997)
50 = Number of visas processed as part of the Latino Cultural Festival (since 1997)
$85,000 = QTP’s 1997 gross ticket sales
$85,000 = Latino Cultural Festival’s 1998 gross ticket sales
44% = Percentage of QTP staff that is bilingual (including staff in production, stage, box office, development, and Board members)
43% = Percentage of African-American audience members who first came to QTP to see an African-American performer and came back to see a performer that is not African-American
Additional Info
The Roots, Stars, and Innovators of the JPMorgan Chase Latino ...
Cachet in Queens: A New Kind of Theatre, Ten Years Later: Queens ...
Funders List for Latino Cultural Festival publications and web sites
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