ADELINA ANTHONY

   This artist hails originally from the Southside and Westside barrios of San Antonio, Tejas.  She received her B.A. in Drama from the University of Dallas, and an M.A. in Drama from Stanford University.  But her formidable theater training is also deeply rooted in the drama and comedy found in her MeXicana childhood household.  Her cultural and political formations are greatly influenced by the radical writings, arte and teachings of queer womyn and feminists of color.  She works for her ancestors, for those she loves today, and for the future generations-- who will hopefully inherit a more just and conscious world.

   "But the question is a matter of the survival and the teaching. That's what our work comes down to. No matter where we key into it, it's the same work, just different pieces of ourselves doing it." --Audre Lorde 

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    As a national touring artist, Adelina performs many of her works and provides workshops at university campuses and cultural organizations.   She has performed at University of California Los Angeles, University of Southern California, Princeton, University of California Riverside, Stanford, University of Texas El Paso, University of California Berkeley, Southwestern University, Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, University of California Riverside, University of Oregon in Eugene, University of California  Santa Cruz, Pomona College, St. Cloud University, University of Texas San Antonio (via Trinity University), University of Illinois Urbana-Champagne,  University of Texas Austin, Cal State Los Angeles, James Madison University, University of California Davis,  University of Colorado, University of California Irvine, Hamilton College, Penn State University, Wellesley College, and many more campuses. 

   Some cultural/ performance venues where Adelina has performed include La Peña Cultural Center, Teatro Dallas, South Dallas Cultural Center, Highways Performance Space, Hyde Park Theatre, Celebration Theatre, Theatre Rhinoceros, Teatro Visión, WOW Café, The McCadden Theater, Teatro LA TEA, The Davidson/Valentini Theater, The Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center, The Renberg Theater, the REDCAT (via the Outfest/ Fusion Film Festival), and the historic Victory Grill in Austin.  Her performances are consistently sold-out engagements; she has a very loyal following of fans and supporters.

    As a theater producer and director, Adelina has collaborated on over 50 productions/workshop productions/ or staged readings.  During her short tenure at Cara Mia Theatre Co.  (where she served as founding Artistic Director along with founding Managing Director, Eliberto Gonzalez), she produced and directed the company's inaugural play: Shadow of a Man by Cherríe Moraga. A year later, she produced and directed Milcha Sánchez Scott's Latina. Eventually, Adelina would return to direct Moraga's The Hungry Woman: A Mexican Medea, a production that would garner her Best Theater Director (Dallas Observer), one of the top ten Best Productions of the Year (Dallas Morning News) and a Best Actor nomination (Leon-Rabin Awards). This play was also later co-produced with Celebration Theatre and listed as one of the top ten productions of the year by Frontiers Magazine.  It was finally presented at Stanford University in 2005 in a fully realized production visualized by Celia Herrera Rodríguez, co-directed by Moraga and Adelina (who also reprised the role of Luna). 

   The collaborations between Moraga, Herrera y Rodríguez and Adelina resumed in 2010.  Through a NALAC supported mentorship grant a co-production between cihuatl productions and Breath of Fire Latina Theater Ensemble presented Moraga's Digging Up the Dirt.  Again, Adelina co-directed and in this production she originated the role of the Poet.  In 2012, cihuatl productions helped realize the ambitious multi-media project:  New Fire: To Put Things Right Again.  This collaborative work played to over 3,000 people at Brava Theater Center in San Francisco. 

    As a teaching artist and cultural activist, Adelina has over 17 years of mentoring and instructing political teatro, acting, and creative writing to youth of color and lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender/two-spirited communities of color and university students.  Having experienced first hand the obstacles that keep Chicana/os out of the mainstream arts, she helps create safe spaces for her students to pursue their creative expressions.

   Some examples of her long trajectory in this line of community work include the 1997 creation and implementation of Cara Mia's CAST (Chicano Academy for Summer Theatre) at Mountain View Community College; and the initiation of neighborhood touring educational programs in the public schools funded by the Office of Cultural Affairs in Dallas.  In 1997-98, along with Marta Lucía and Angie Cruz, she participated in the formation of Women In Literature & Letters (a women of color centered writing group).  In 2002, Adelina co-designed and co-led community projects around queer and undocumented immigrant youth, a MY LUCHA project awarded funding by the ASTRAEA Foundation. She has also been an artist-in-residence for allgo, The L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center and La Peña Cultural Center.