LOOKING BACK
For a decade now, Boyle Heights Beat’s youth journalists have reported on some of the neighborhood’s most outstanding businesses, institutions and individuals. In this recurring series, we’re revisiting our sources and updating some of those stories.
Why not in Boyle Heights? That’s the question that drew Josefina Lopez in 2000 to open Casa 0101 Theater in the community in which she grew up, bringing art and live theater to the neighborhood.
A year after the theater’s opening at a small space on 1st Street, Emmanuel Deleage met Lopez and became enthralled with her project and vision for the neighborhood. With some experience in nonprofit administration and writing grants, plus a passion for theater, Deleage soon became a part of Casa’s staff.
Working alongside Lopez, he helped grow and maintain the playhouse –which moved to its larger, state-of-the-art facilities at 2102 1st Street in September of 2011. Today, at 49, Deleage serves as the organization’s executive director while Lopez maintains her role as the company’s artistic director.
“I loved this notion of creating worlds where you can be lost for hours, where time is imaginary,” Deleage said. “If there’s a way for you to create a world, isn’t that a fantastic thing? A world that can give you insight into the real, to solve problems, to bring healing, to be inspired.”
“The hope is that, like in the real world, you can extrapolate lessons and solve problems in your own life,” Deleage added. “That’s what attracted me to theater in the first place.”
That, he says, is why such a space is so important in Boyle Heights. It not only provides entertainment that Eastsiders can access at an affordable price and without traveling to a different part of the city, but also an opportunity to artistically explore issues facing the neighborhood through a sort of creativity attainable only on the stage.
Boyle Heights Beat has written extensively about Casa 0101 over the last decade, mostly about what’s presented on stage. Many of those productions have explored themes ranging from racism, misogyny and homophobia to classism, gentrification and immigration –mostly focused on the people that call the Eastside their home. These plays encouraged audiences to think about those issues after attending a performance.
One such work is ‘Remembering Boyle Heights’, a two-part play focused on the collective memories and stories of the neighborhood. The play highlights significant moments in Boyle Heights history, from the East LA Walkouts to forced sterilizations at the County Hospital.
But in a 2017 story, BHB student journalist Xóchil Ramírez wrote about the organization’s youth-oriented programs. This month, CASA 0101 completed its fall youth program of acting and singing classes for students 7-18.
“Our mission is to nurture the future storytellers of Los Angeles who will someday transform the world,” said Deleage. “There were very few amenities in Boyle Heights when we started where folks could go to learn how to tell their own stories.”
“We’ve always wanted to be that sort of space, where people who want to can study the craft of acting, to become playwrights, to become storytellers,” Deleage added. “That’s what Casa has been for over 20 years now.”
“Our mission is to nurture the future storytellers of Los Angeles who will someday transform the world… We’ve always wanted to be that sort of space, where people who want to can study the craft of acting, to become playwrights, to become storytellers.”
Emmanuel deleage
Maintaining the space for the last two decades has proven to be a challenge though. In early 2018, the organization announced it was at the “brink of closing” due to financial woes and launched a fundraising campaign to keep its doors open. Though the nonprofit only raised about half of its donor goal that year, it was able to stay afloat after expanding its executive board and letting go of “Little Casa,” its original location just down the street from the current site.
The theater company underwent a significant struggle again during the pandemic, when the company was forced to close the theater for over a year. On top of that, Casa 0101 had to deal with additional expenses to comply with Assembly Bill 5, which went into effect in January 2020 and set a new standard for who classifies as an independent contractor and who is an employee.
Deleage said the law, though well-intentioned, hurt the performing arts world.
“Luckily we didn’t have to deal with it immediately because of the lockdown, but as soon as we reopened, we struggled because of it,” he said. “The price of producing theater skyrocketed, and we had to shift how we went about productions. It was a major blow combined with rising inflation and general costs. It’s made things very difficult.”
Even with rising costs of staying open, Casa 0101 tries its best to keep ticket prices affordable for the community, even offering a discount for folks who live in Boyle Heights.
“The arts are a beautiful thing that can uplift important stories, highlight worlds that aren’t often seen in the mainstream,” Deleage said. “It’s why Josefina opened Casa 0101, to give back, and why we’re still here through everything. It’s a lofty mission.”
READ THE ORIGINAL:
In 2017, BHB student journalist Xóchil Ramírez wrote this Casa 0101 feature:
