Dear Friends,

I remember the first time I encountered the production you are about to see today. Roughly three or four weeks into the pandemic, Anne Hamburger – one of my predecessors as Artistic Director at La Jolla Playhouse – reached out to share a recording of Fandango for Butterflies (and Coyotes). En Garde Arts, the fantastic, trailblazing theatre company Annie founded and has led for many years, was in the middle of their production when everything stopped. Once theatre was allowed to resume, she hoped the Playhouse might consider giving it a home.

Watching the show during those early, bleak days of the shutdown, I felt as though the performers were giving me a warm, comforting embrace. Fandango’s celebration of indomitable immigrant communities – people enthusiastically gathering to sing and share stories, even in the midst of a threat that lingers just outside their walls – resonated so much because we all were being deprived of that vital, primal need to connect.

Nearly two and a half years on, Covid has become a part of our everyday lives, our country grows more fractured by the day, and the joyous, inclusive spirit of Fandango is as urgent and necessary as ever.

I’m delighted to welcome back Andrea Thome, the translator of Guillermo Calderón’s NEVA, which we presented in 2013. And though José Zayas is marking his first production at the Playhouse, I’ve been an enormous fan of his work and theatrical vision since we first crossed paths while working together on a show I directed nearly 16 years ago.

You, of course, are part of our community – the essential component that makes theatre possible – and I am grateful that you’ve gathered here today to enjoy this show.

CHRISTOPHER ASHLEY
The Rich Family Artistic Director of La Jolla Playhouse