IRENE CHAVEZ GALVAN
SAN ANTONIO, 2022 - 2023
Irene Chavez Galvan (she/her) is a poet, playwright, storyteller, and entrepreneur.
Las Cochinas Christmas, a play she wrote and directed, was featured in the Teatro Salon at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Theatre. She also co-wrote the screenplay for the short film The Prey. In 2017, the City of San Antonio Department of Arts and Culture, with support from Gemini Ink, chose her poem “Esperanza” as part of the 30 Poems for the Tricentennial, an anthology compiled by a panel of nationally recognized poets and tell the story of San Antonio, celebrating the city’s people, places, and history. Her work has been published in the St. Mary’s University Pecan Review.
Irene’s project is a one act play titled “Las Comadres de Morales Street” that is focused on two older women who are at the center of a changing neighborhood on the westside of San Antonio. Irene has partnered with Seniors in Play, a program founded by actor Tony Plana that “utilizes performing arts to develop senior citizens’ well-being and maintain cognitive health.” Through regular conversations with different groups of seniors around San Antonio, Irene was inspired by the story of the Edgewood ISD Veterans Group who, during the Vietnam war, lost the highest proportion of men in the nation. She has been joining them for several R.O.M.E.O. (Retired Old Men Eating Out) lunches and has listened to their stories of camaraderie and the issues they are facing now as San Antonio West-side residents. Incorporating themes related to the issues of gentrification, health inequities, and trauma, Irene is sharing light on the experiences of seniors in San Antonio and highlighting untold stories in our community that will culminate in a performance in the Fall of 2023.
CULTURE HUB
The Public Theater of San Antonio produces live professional theater that inspires, educates, and connects communities. The Public Theater works to produce high quality theatrical productions year-round in multiple venues contributing to its reputation as the city's center for professional locally-produced theater as well as contributing to the city’s economic and cultural growth. Theater for all serves as our vision as an arts center for South Texas. The Public Theater of San Antonio is the longest running theater in South Texas, producing shows in one of the country's oldest municipally run playhouses. It was established in 1912 as the San Antonio Dramatic Club and incorporated on April 6, 1927 as the San Antonio Little Theatre. The Public Theater has seen many company and leadership changes over the last century, operating as a community theater and transitioning in 2017 to the only AEA union theater of professional productions produced here in San Antonio. Under new leadership as of Fall of 2021, The Public Theater of San Antonio is transforming and growing, focusing programming and outreach efforts on developing new audiences, better reflecting the diverse people of San Antonio, and working to contribute to San Antono's vibrant cultural economy and quality of life.
SOCIAL IMPACT INITIATIVE
ARTS IN PLAY is newly formed not-for-profit organization founded by stage, film, and television actor, Tony Plana. It is dedicated to the transformative, healing power of the arts in underserved communities and their essential role in developing the whole person through curricula designed cross generationally and cross culturally for elementary, middle and high school students, as well as adults over 50 years old, via signature programs such as Language In Play, Teens In Play, Kids In Play, and Seniors In Play.