Tune in this Saturday for the finale of Apollinaire Theatre’s three-part series and online summer celebration: Chelsea People!
Apollinaire Theatre gave itself the challenge of creating an original operetta a week for three weeks based on the lives of Chelsea residents who were nominated by Chelsea’s leading community organizations. The original operetta being written this week is about Jessica Armijo, who was nominated by the Chelsea Collaborative.
A creative team of more than 20, who had the pleasure of interviewing Jessica on Sunday, are spending the week creating songs, scenes, and artwork to showcase moments from her life which will comprise the operetta.
Who is Jessica? A woman with strong conviction and forward momentum, she channels her energy into helping others. Even when her family was left with just the clothes on their backs following hurricane Mitch in Honduras and had to live on a bus, she gave to others. “Difficult experiences help you grow. When you encounter people with problems bigger than yours it makes you value what you have and pushes you to help others.”
Through her work with the Chelsea Collaborative, Jessica educates immigrants on their rights. She spoke about the complicated situations immigrants face and the importance of getting information out into the community. Currently with the Collaborative, she plays a key role in feeding up to 2,000 Chelsea residents a day as part of the pandemic response, an effort she describes as titanic and also beautiful.
She shared many stories with the Apollinaire creative team about where her life has taken her. As a dancer in Honduras, her time with Ballet Folklórico Sectur took her all over the Americas and Europe. Her fight for immigrants brought her to Washington where she marched in support of DACA. And she and her husband’s dreams for a better future for their family brought her to Chelsea, where it took her seven years to reunite her family.
Don’t miss the final installment of Chelsea People and the chance to get to know Jessica! This performance will be bi-lingual and Spanish and English captioning will be provided.
More on the Chelsea People project:
Moved by the heroic ways Chelsea has come together in the face of the pandemic to provide for its residents, Apollinaire Theatre has set out to create an exciting work of art that celebrates the heart of Chelsea: its people.
Apollinaire asked three Chelsea organizations, GreenRoots, The Neighborhood Developers, and the Chelsea Collaborative, to each nominate a Chelsea resident to be the subject of an original play with music, which will be created over the course of one week. Four Chelsea residents— Grace Muwina, Terry & Joe Englen, and Jessica Armijo— will each have their life stories developed into original operettas and presented live over Zoom by a large Apollinaire Theatre creative team.
Chelsea People will stream live on Saturday, August 8 for Free.
Participants are welcome to begin gathering online at 7:30 pm for pre-show programming with the show itself beginning promptly at 8 p.m.
All performances will be presented with simultaneous Spanish/English interpretation.
Register for FREE tickets at www.apollinairetheatre.com
Apollinaire Theatre Company would like to thank all our supporters.
This program is supported in part by a grant from the Chelsea Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.
This program is also supported by the Chelsea Cultural Council through the Chelsea Heritage Celebrations Grant. The Chelsea Heritage Celebrations Grant was awarded by the Chelsea Cultural Council to support a broad range of cultural events that promote the community’s heritage, quality of life, recreation, and cultural activities.
Additional major support was provided by Eastern Salt, and the Bob Jolly Charitable Trust, which was established by the late Boston actor Bob Jolly to support local theater artists. Additional support from Exelon. Apollinaire Theatre is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.