Lunch with Sonia
By Loco7 Dance Puppet Theatre Company
Created & Directed by
Federico Restrepo & Denise Greber
Choreographed by Federico Restrepo
Puppet, Light, Video, & Set Design by Federico Restrepo
Sound Design & Music by Leonie Bell
Costume Design by Becky Hubbert
Stage Manager: Raine Bode
Featuring:
Marina Celander, Hope Kroog, Monica Lerch,
Steven Orrego Upegui, Juan Pablo Toro,
and Federico Restrepo
Voice of Sonia: Luz Beatriz Pizano
Voice Overs:
Marina Celander, Zulivet Díaz, Denise Greber,
Arturo, Solveji Lee, Federico Restrepo
Performers in Kitchen Video: Alberto Quiroga,
with Esmeralda Pinzon, Carolina Restrepo,
Federico Restrepo, & Natalia Schönwald
Camera: Alberto Sierra Restrepo
Research & Selected Writings:
Diana Jaramillo & Catalina Restrepo
Final Song Arrangement & Vocals:
Chris Ignacio; Guitar: Yuto Kanazawa
Sound Capture (Colombia): Gabriel Ponce
*The show runs 55 minutes, no intermission*
Dedicated to
Sonia Jaramillo
(1940-2012)
for inspiring us to tell this part of her story.
Conversations about assisted dying bring up controversial and emotionally fraught issues: morality, religion, politics, and faith.
Loco7 hopes to acknowledge the incredible intimacy and the very personal nature of dying as the final event of living a self-actualized, individual human life and to move the dialogue from the philosophical arena to the realm of personal experience and stories related to the topic of Death with Dignity.
Thank You
Baltimore Theatre Project
Much Gratitude To
All the past and present company members from 2018 to present for your
dedication towards the creation and development of this show.
The Correa, Garcia-Pena, Jaramillo, Restrepo,
Vasquez Families for supporting this project.
Loco7 Dance Puppet Theatre Company, founded by Colombian born artist, Federico Restrepo in 1985, develops and promotes creative productions of Dance, Theatre, Puppets, Visual Arts, and other forms of artistic expression. The company explores the junction of race, culture, history, and media in New York and throughout the global community. Loco7’s cultural policies emphasize pluralism, dialogue, and cultural transformation. Loco7’s artistic mission has been to develop the use of puppetry as an Instrument for the dancer, a style that incorporates dance and design. Utilizing original music, musicians, dancers, body puppets, and larger then life marionettes, the objective is to merge these various elements and weave a choreography which extends beyond the body of the dancer. The undertaking of the ensemble is to deal with themes such as South and Central American Culture and History, the Immigrants’ experience, and New York City Urban Life. Currently our annual programming consists of workshops and performances for children and workshops and performances with seniors in affiliated senior centers, as well as a bi-annual fully realized adult production. Loco7 Dance Puppet Theatre is committed to improving our community through artistic and educational programming. Art has the unique power to unite communities and heal unseen wounds. Loco7 has facilitated workshops at Sirovich Center, The United Jewish Council, Grand Street Settlement, Bank Street Head Start, City Lore, PACT, and NYC-area public schools as well as many universities. Loco7 has premiered many original pieces at La MaMa in New York City, with subsequent tours throughout the world. Most recently Loco7 premiered Forsaken (2024), Lunch with Sonia (2021/2023), Don Quixote Takes New York (2018), Seucy & Boto, epi 2 (2017), Seucy & Boto, epi 4 (2016), Undefined Fraction (2016/2015), Seucy & Boto, epi 1,2,3 (2015), Plunge (2013), Free Falling (2013), Urban Odyssey (2012), In Retrospect (2010), Room To Panic (2008), Open Door (2006), Bokan – the Bad Hearted (2004), 9 Windows (2002), Colores (1998), Aguirre, the Spiral of the Warrior (1996), Cosecha (1990), Loco7 (1989), and two other Gotham fantasies: Locombia (1986), Carrera (1988). In addition Loco7 premiered in Bogotá, Colombia, Piratas de Papel (1994) and Mobile Urbano (1986).
Federico Restrepo (Creator / Director / Choreographer / Puppet / Light Design) was born in Bogotá, Colombia and founded his company, Loco7, at La MaMa in 1986 to expand the use of puppetry in Dance Theater. With Loco7 he has created over twenty original productions, acting as creator, director and designer. He has appeared at La MaMa as a member of the Great Jones Repertory Company in Ellen Stewart’s Asclepius, The Raven, Perseus, Antigone, Mythos Oedipus, Dionysus Fillus Dei, Monk and The Hangman’s Daughter, Seven Against Thebes and Draupai. He is a resident puppet designer, choreographer, performer and director of La MaMa. In addition he has designed lights for over fifty professional productions in New York as well as abroad. Selected companies include: Great Jones Repertory, Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre, New Stage Theatre Company, Edward Einhorn, and Electric Black Productions. Federico is a teaching artist teaching puppet, mask design and construction to adults, children and seniors. Residencies include: Sirovich Center, The United Jewish Council, Grand Street Settlement, Bank Street Head Start, City Lore, PACT, and NYC-area public schools as well as many universities throughout the U.S., including New York University, Trinity College, Hunter College CUNY, Queensborough Community College CUNY, among others. In addition Loco7 has performed and facilitated workshops internationally, in such countries as Colombia, Guatemala, Italy, Poland, Croatia, to name a few. He is the Producing Director of the La MaMa Puppet Series Festival.
Denise Greber (Creator / Director) Managing Director with Loco7 Dance Puppet Theatre since 2001. She has been involved with the creation in Loco7 productions as writer, director, costume designer, and performer: Lunch with Sonia, Don Quixote Takes New York, The Adventures of Seucy and Boto, Urban Odyssey (nominated for a 2012 NY Innovative Theatre Award for best performance piece), In Retrospect, Room To Panic, Open Door, Bokan, The Bad Hearted (for which she was nominated Best Costume Design 2005 Innovative Theatre Awards), and 9 Windows. Additionally, Denise is the Director of Artistic Operations at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (NYC). Denise has been part of the La MaMa Team since 1999, she has held various positions over the years and is currently Director of Artistic Operations. She is the Curator and Director of the La MaMa Puppet Series Festival.
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COMPANY
Leonie Bell (Sound Composition and Design) is a German-American theater artist and sound designer from Berlin, based in New York. She produces much of her work as her free-form theater company LOCAL GRANDMA. In NYC, she has presented work at Target Margin Theater, Performance Space NY, BAM, The Whitney Museum, The Brick, Center for Performance Research, and other venues. Recent sound credits: Arrow of Time (an audio play by Allyson Dwyer, Exponential Festival 2023), Sonntags wird gelogen Or We Only Lie On Sundays (The Brick), Lunch with Sonia (La MaMa Experimental Club), Phase One: The Underbrush (New Phase Collective), Sing, Goddess! (HERE Arts), Women Screaming (The Tank). Sound design awards: 2023 “Mix it Up” Sound Designer of the Year (Young Howze Theatre Awards), La MaMa DesignFest 2020, Indie Shorts Awards Cannes 2021 (Phosphor). www.leoniebell.org
Marina Celander (Ensemble) received the Pan Asian Rep’s Lila Kan Red Socks Award for contribution to Asian American theatre, and nominated for the Innovation In Performance Award for her solo show Mermaid’s Howl at the Stockholm Fringe Festival. Mermaid’s Howl was invited to La MaMa’s Tony award-winning season 2018. Sea She (live), interactive and multidisciplinary performance, in Dumbo 2021; hosted by Brooklyn Arts Council and Dumbo BiD. Stone She at La MaMa Moves! 2022, a meditation on our state of the world and what we do as women to find our witchery to overcome and heal. The Tale of An-Noor, a children’s show at the Estrogenius Festival, is Marina’s most recent solo endeavor. As a hula student Marina had the honor of studying with notable Kumu Hula (hula master teachers), and has made it her mission to spread aloha and hula in New York City’s public elementary schools. Marina Celander is so delighted to be performing with Loco7 again.
Becky Hubbert (Costume Design) designs and builds costumes for puppets, actors, singers and dancers in New York City where she has lived and worked for twenty five years. With Loco7 Becky has designed for Don Quixote Takes New York (2018-2022), Undefined Fraction (2015). Other La MaMa highlights include Ravaged by Romance (2003) directed by Julie Atlas Muse; The Bad Hostess (2008) directed by Linda Simpson; and The Expanded Unicorn Gratitude Mystery (2017) directed by Karen Finley. Collaborations also include a wide range of commercial work and a few television and film projects. Being in the theatre with Sonia is a joy.
Hope Kroog (Ensemble) is thrilled to be performing in Lunch with Sonia once again and sharing the stage with such a wonderful, creative, and generous group of performing artists. She also originated roles in Loco7’s Adventures of Seucy and Boto Series and Undefined Fraction. Other credits include Dance Visions NY and Sarah Berges Dance.
Chris Ignacio (Final song arrangement and vocals) is a Filipino-American theatre artist, musician, puppeteer, producer and educator currently pursuing his MFA in Theatre/Interdisciplinary Digital Media at Arizona State University. He recently worked as a cover puppeteer in The Met’s Madama Butterfly. He is currently working on a digital puppetry project called Manifesting Monsters. He is thankful for his La MaMa family who taught him everything he knows about puppetry and thriving as an artist. IG: chrisiggie chrisignacio.com
Monica Lerch (Ensemble) is a puppet artist, director, performer and fabricator based in Brooklyn, NY. Favorite projects include El Niño with the Metropolitan Opera, Lunch with Sonia by Loco7, Song of the North by Hamid Rahmanian and puppeteering the head of a 17 foot reindeer named Tiptoe in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Monica’s original puppetry has received support from The Jim Henson Foundation, and she looks forward to further developing her craft as a director and fabricator. @monica_lark_
Beatriz Pizano (Voice of Sonia) is an award-winner actor/director and playwright. She is the founder and Artistic Director of Aluna Theatre in Canada, a company recognized for its unique approach to creation, its daring political work, and its experimentation with multi-language productions. She has received a number of prestigious awards including the John Hirsch Prize, the Chalmers Fellowship, the K.M. Hunter award and numerous Dora awards and nominations as playwright and director. She is the first Latinx actress to win a Toronto Critics award and a Dora for her performance in Blood Wedding. As a playwright she has participated numerous times at the Banff Centre for the Arts Playwright’s Lab and in 2019 she was invited back as the senior playwright in residency. That year Beatriz was also named one of TD’s 10 Most Influential Hispanic Canadians. Most recently Beatriz has appeared in the acclaimed productions of Alien Creature (TPM), Dividing Lines (Aluna Theatre), and Four Sisters (Paradigm Productions/Luminato Festival). Since coming back from the pandemic Beatriz has been busy acting and directing. Last year she played Bernarda Alba in the co-production between Aluna and Modern Times Stage Company and directed Children of Fire, a play about the women Kurdish fighters written by Anna Chatterton and Shahrzad Arshadi; and Rubble a play about Gaza and the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish and Lena Khalaf Tuffaha written by Suvendrini Lena and co-produced by Aluna Theatre and Theatre Passe Muraille.
Steven Orrego Upegui (Ensemble) is a Queer Colombian dancer who has trained and performed throughout NYC specializing in company work as well as video and film. His New York training includes the Jazz and Contemporary Trainee program at the Joffrey Ballet School, as well as Peridance Capezio Center Certificate Program. He has performed with several companies including: Elisa Monte Dance, Revolución Latina, Jazz Ain’t dead, Lane CoArts and most recently joined the Baira mvmnt philosophy Company. Steven’s dancing has been included in several music videos, films and museum archives including an extensive art installment featuring Tyler Gilstrap and the Windmill factory at Panorama Music Festival, Play bill “Courting up” concert, and the work premiere of Broadway On your Feet en Español in Washington DC.
Juan Pablo Toro (Ensemble) was born in Medellín, Colombia, educated at The Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute in NYC, recent productions include Forsaken by Loco7 Dance Puppet Theatre Company, Awake by Nysa Nischal, The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov, Medea, by La MaMa’s Great Jones Repertory Company, directed by Zishan Ugurlu, and Macbeth by Willima Shakespeare with Downtown Shakespeare.
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Loco7 Dance Puppet Theatre Company BOARD OF DIRECTORS:
Jocess Francisosa, President, Denise Greber, Treasurer, Cristina Correa, Secretary, Members: Taina Rivera, Catarina Leitao, Beverly Petty, Federico Restrepo
Loco7 Dance Puppet Theatre Company, Inc.
69 East 4th Street, #4C, NY, NY 10003
www.loco7.org
Lunch with Sonia had it’s world premier at the Ellen Stewart Theatre as part of the La MaMa Puppet Festival September 2021, and it’s Colombian premiere in September 2022 at Casa e Borrero.
Loco7 Theatre had a process residency at The Eugene O’Neill Arts Center, September 2021. Cheryl Henson and The Jim Henson Foundation Puppetry Residency is an annual residency at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, which in addition to rehearsal space, room and board offers dramaturgical support, in additiopn received both workshop (2018) and project (2020) grants form the Jim Henson Foundation. Addionally Loco7 was in residence at La MaMa during it’s 59th Season. Gaining access to rehearsal and performance space to further develop this piece.
PRESENTATIONS
September 15–16 2021
Eugene O’Neill Theater Center (New London, CT)
September 29–October 3, 2021
Ellen Stewart Theatre at La MaMa (New York City, NY)
September 28–October 20, 2022
Casa e Borrero (Bogota, Colombia)
April 12–16, 2023
The Club at La MaMa (New York City, NY)
July 21–23, 2023
Mimi Hispanic International Theatre Festival (Miami, FL)
January 25–27, 2024
Chicago International Puppet Festival (Chicago, IL)
February 23, 2024
El Parque National (Bogota, Colombia)
March 7–8, 2024
Festival International de Casteliers (Montreal,CA)
November 21–24, 2024
Theatre Project (Baltimore, MD)