“ISLEÑA” BY RAICES THEATRE COMPANY (JUN 20-JULY 3, 2022) A ONE-WOMAN SHOW IT WAS!

I usually have a hard time enjoying a theatre production when the play relies on one individual for the acting, the movement, and the energy.  Honestly, I try to always avoid one-person productions. Why did I go to this one?

The answer to the question is simple. I know the performer, I know the organization’s reputation, and I’ve enjoyed all the productions they’ve produced – and I was not disappointed.

Victoria Pérez is an amazing woman. She is a woman of all seasons, demonstrating repeatedly that she earned her gifts and talents from the universe. She is for real. If you are not familiar with Victoria, she is a Theatre Director, Actor, Writer, and Playwright. Oh yes, she is also the co-founder and Artistic Director of the Raices Theatre Company; with all these roles, her human experience added to her performance as wife and mother, and by the way, she also sings and dances.

What more can you ask for from this beautiful artist? She is truly enjoying her experience as a human being on this planet. She is a role model, and we can learn much from her, and I mean A LOT!  Her one-woman production, composed by Victoria and her sister, is an hour show, a show that will keep you awake, just in case, and it’s full of music, love, singing, and dancing some salsa. The play is about an individual struggling to fit in a world between Puerto Rico (Isleña) and Buffalo, a place with roots, a bilingual coqui cough in Buffalo trying to get back home, a cultural comfort zone, or a frog trying to get back to the “city of good neighbors”, a story of a confused soul searching for her permanent space – here or there?

It’s a pity they missed the deadline, and we were not able to promote this product in our June issue. This is a play that needs to come back, become a traveling theatre, and perform in our Puerto Rican/Latino institutions.  Her play started in the kitchen, but it moves your imagination to travel to her island and back to Buffalo, two places dominating her journey, starting when she was just a small girl, age nine.

We can go on, but the space in the Village is limited, and we need to stop here. You might miss this play, but you must reach out and get to know the wonderful work by Victoria and her theatre company, a gift to Buffalo’s Puerto Rican/Latino community — and the city of good neighbors.

I will keep my eyes open for their next production. Hats off to Victoria Pérez, her sister, and her wonderful team.