Word for Word presents: RETABLOS By Octavio Solis

Featuring the Chapters Retablos, The Way Over, Consuelo, El Judío, La Migra, La Llorona, Nothing Happens, The Quince, Mexican Apology, El Segundo, Neto, My Right Foot, and Jeep in the Water

February 19 – March 15
Directed by Sheila Balter and Jim Cave

Word for Word’s latest full production is from author & playwright Octavio Solis. Retablos is a coming of age memoir; each chapter a memory tale, verging on fable, which paints a dreamlike picture of life in El Paso in the 60’s and ’70’s. Drawing from his own childhood, Solis says that he wrote these stories “to see how that skinny brown kid riding his bike out there in the desert made sense of his complicated, deeply beautiful and troubled world.” Octaviosolis.net

“A retablo is a devotional painting, playwright Octavio Solis tells us. In this poignantly written, heart-warming coming-of-age memoir, Solis pays tribute to those cornerstone moments in his life, negotiating borders at once personal and cultural, with such color that the reader is left spellbound. Astonishing, what more can I say?”
—Greg Sarris, author of How a Mountain Was Made and longtime Word for Word friend

An Evening with Octavio Solis

Join us on February 27. The evening’s performance of Retablos will be followed by a conversation with the author, moderated by Greg Sarris. Both writers are longtime friends of Word for Word. Mr. Solis is a nationally renowned playwright in addition to being a prose author, and Greg Sarris is Tribal Chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria. The evening includes a reception and book signing to cap off the night.