Betsy!
Roadside Theater and Pregones Theater
BETSY! tells the story of a Bronx jazz singer forced to confront her twin Spanish Caribbean and Scotch-Irish roots. Her dilemma stirs up the ghosts of six generations of American women, and musical currents spanning four continents.
Dreamed up by Roadside Theater ensemble artists Ron Short and Dudley Cocke, together with legendary Nashville pianist Beegie Adair, and Pregones Theater ensemble artists Rosalba Rolón and Desmar Guevara, BETSY! exemplifies a collaborative creative practice that grows over time, engages an audience during the formative process, involves multigenerational artists of a high caliber, and results in a musical theater experience that is out of the ordinary. The team’s prior musical co-creation, Promise of A Love Song, toured nationally in 1999-2002 and is published in Ferdinand Lewis’ Ensemble Works: An Anthology (Theatre Communications Group, NY).
Pregones Theater
With its own arts facility in the South Bronx, Pregones Theater is home to a multigenerational network of Latino artists known for mining connections between theater and popular culture, creating plays of dynamic visual and rhythmic character, and growing strong and diverse local audiences. Building on a rich tradition of popular and experimental theater, the ensemble has 80 original premieres and more than 500 national and international touring credits since 1979.
Commentary
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“BETSY!” was a rare gift of recognition. Together, we were celebrating the tenacity and talent of two wildly different – but not dissimilar – cultures (Puerto Rican and Appalachian)”
The Indypendent (NYC)
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Latin ACE Award – Best Musical
