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| La Llorona Dolorosa by Irene Vasquez La Llorona is a figure from Mexican folklore who is said in a "moment of insanity" to have drowned her own children & who now haunts rivers and waterways, especially after dark... wailing...searching for her lost children. Here. La Llorona encounters her mother shortly after the murder of her children, a moment testing the limits of endurance, love, motherhood and forgiveness This program includes a production of this original play (with special effects that include slide images of the ghosts of the drowned children…) followed by a workshop in which the audience is encouraged to share similar ghost stories or urban legends, or their own La Llorona stories (if they have versions of the legend they have heard as children). Sometimes we will have them stage short improvised scenes based on these different versions. The plays are used as ice-breakers for discussions on the cultural meanings and purpose of such ghost tales. La Llorona is a Latino figure that resonates with other cross-cultural images (i.e. Medea, Bloody Mary, historic, mythic, legendary, contemporary figures ) typifying this theme : a mother driven momentarily insane, kills her own children, then horrific remorse, inconsolable grief and the endless search for the lost children). La Llorona's persona evokes various issues; the sacred trust of motherhood, the bond of mother & child, sacrifice of mothers, the Eros of women, distraction/disruption of a mother's life-energy, mother-crushing pressures, breaking points, insane moments, insane acts, children betrayed, children dead, lost forever, mother's inconsolable grief & endless seeking for the lost children, open wound of the ruptured sacred trust. |
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