April 2001 Hablame : The Latin Flow on BlackFilm.com

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Elaine Del Valle HABLAME : The Latin Flow on Blackfilm.com This NEW FEATURE @ blackfilm.com will deliver news and information about Latino films, actors, directors, stage plays and more. THERE ARE ONLY "TWO" PERFORMANCES REMAINING: Wednesday the 28th & Saturday the 31st. Fostering good will is what we are about. Stay with us. HABLAME mailto:info@blackfilm.com We would like to thank Elaine Del Valle for contributing the first article to a section that we hope will grow with us. Thanks Elaine. DA SPANISH MOB Adds Latino Flava To A New York City Stage "To grow up in a ghetto and survive the street life takes a lot of smarts, wit, strength, and humor." On February 28th, Pan Y Vino Productions (Bread & Wine) managed to express just that on the opening night of their hilarious stage play, DA SPANISH MOB. Downtown New York City’s, TEATRO LA TEA (in the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center), was electrified from the moment that Michael Del Rio, Nelson Vasquez, Robert Montano, and Sixto Ramos took stage. The unlikely foursome made it hard to breathe through the unstoppable laughter they created when playing the wanna-be mobsters who are trapped in a basement after a botched caper. The memories, relationships, and brotherly love explored permeate an indelibly delicious Latino flava not soon forgotten. Through their shared laughter, differences, commonality and beautifully executed song and dance DA SPANISH MOB creates a rhythm that doesn’t let go. "The stuff that was being written for us, you know, I’d be shot in the first scene, I’d get arrested, or blown up,” said Nelson Vasquez co-founder of Pan Y Vino. When discussing these issues with fellow New York City actor, Michael Del Rio, the duo felt compelled to do something about it. In 1996, Vasquez and Del Rio formed Pan Y Vino Productions. "While we could’ve written about lawyers and doctors, we wanted to introduce characters that would normally not have the chance to be listened to before being judged by their external appearance,” said Del Rio, a native of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Five years later with the help of their partners in crime, Montana and Ramos, the dynamic duo proved more than able to pull this off. Alba Ohms, a thirty-year resident director of the acclaimed Puerto Rican Traveling Theater and winner of the Ace Spanish Critics Lifetime Award, said "Yes" to the mob after Vasquez, her former student invited her to a preliminary reading. "The play was good, it was funny,” thought Ohms, who realized the early potential of DA SPANISH MOB and accepted the directorial offer posed by Pan Y Vino. With only a week left of performances Michael and Nelson are hoping to capture the attention of producers enabling them to both continue the stage-play and bring to the silver screen, among their many other projects, their adapted and completed screenplay of DA SPANISH MOB. All performances are at 8pm, Wednesdays through Saturdays until March 31st, 2001 at the Teatro La Tea, located at 107 Suffolk Street (between Rivington & Delancey Streets) For more information on DA SPANISH MOB visit http://www.daspanishmob.com or call (718)472-0899