![]() ![]() ![]() In 2016, Letters to Cleo returned with Back to Nebraska, their first release in 17 years, and started a tradition of short annual tours. After a 17-year banking career, he founded an Aurora-based nonprofit that each August hosts the month-long Afrik Impact Summit to celebrate and advocate for the African immigrant community in Colorado.The following interview was done in 2021, in advance of the Letters to Cleo tour last fall.ġ1/5 The Roxy Theatre West Hollywood, CA TIXġ1/17 Portland House of Music Portland, ME TIXġ1/18 Paradise Rock Club Boston, MA TIX // Two Day Passġ1/19 Paradise Rock Club Boston, MA TIX // Two Day Pass Dia, a native of Senegal who immigrated to Denver in 1998, used his first job stocking books at the Tattered Cover Book Store to teach himself how to read, write and speak English. The chosen eight each receive $35,000 to support their personal leadership advancement journey over the next three years.Īmong the newly named class of 2023, we’ve recently told you about Papa Dia, executive director of the African Leadership Group and Rita Valente-Quinn, producing director of Boulder’s True-West Award-winning Motus Theater, which is fully focused on social justice. The name could use a gender refresh, but as arts-leadership recognition goes, it gets no better than being named to the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation’s annual class of Livingston Fellows. Courtesy Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Bonfils-Stanton Livingston Fellows Bottom row: Carla Mestas, Viniyanka Prasad, Paula Smith and Rita Valente-Quinn. The Bonfils-Stanton Foundation's 2023 Livingston Fellows, top row from left: Sam Battan, Papa Dia, Shannon Francis and Carmen Medrano. We talk a lot about how we're going to change Broadway, and I think we're going to change it – one production at a time.” “It's always meant something to me to open doors and provide opportunities for folks that may not have had access,” Paulus said. Still, Eslaminia was among 28 actors, musicians and backstage crew who made their official Broadway debuts with “1776” last October (by director Diane Paulus’ count.) And Paulus is proud that “1776” put Eslaminia’s name into the Broadway annals forevermore. It’s the first time I’ve ever been cast as my blood on stage – and as soon as I was cast, saying no to the tour just made sense.” “With everything going on there lately, I’ve felt such a pull to my Iranian heritage while simultaneously feeling so helpless. “This play just feels so important to me,” said Eslaminia, whose father was born in Iran. It’s a “seriocomedy” by Iranian American playwright Sanaz Toossi about four adult Iranians who are preparing to take an English test so they can leave the country for varying reasons. “It was an incredibly hard decision to make,” said Eslaminia, whose first order of business is performing in a new play called “English,” opening March 31 at Berkeley Rep in California. ![]() But Eslaminia, whom local audiences might remember for playing the mandolin in the DCPA Theatre Company’s world-premiere play “Appoggiatura” in 2015, is in high demand right now, and her agent didn’t want her to miss out on several potential projects that are being finalized while “1776” is out on tour. As the Rutledge understudy, Eslaminia did get to play that juicy role about 20 times on Broadway. ![]() The brief, two-month Broadway production last fall was planned as an intentionally limited New York engagement, after which the entire original cast was to be sent out across America to cities like Denver, where the show is now performing through April 2.Įslaminia, who played Congressional Secretary Charles Thomson in the Broadway production, was even offered a promotion for the tour: She was asked to play menacing South Carolina delegate Edward Rutledge, the brute who managed to get Thomas Jefferson to strike the clause in the Declaration of Independence that would have outlawed slavery a century sooner than it was. This week’s Denver arrival of the new national touring production “1776,” which features a cast of all non-binary, trans and female-identifying actors, was – for a time – going to mark the triumphant return of Regis Jesuit High School graduate Mehry Iris Eslaminia. Muriel Steinke for the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Mehry Eslaminia, left, who was in the first freshman class at the formerly all-boys Regis Jesuit High School, plays Elham opposite Sarah Nina Hayon and Sahar Bibiyan in rehearsal for Sanaz Toossi’s upcoming 'English' at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. ![]()
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