ABOUT US

  Eden Enterprises, an El Paso theatrical production company founded in 2003 by Hector Serrano and David Mills, is involved in promoting cultural tourism, fostering arts education, and developing community based arts events. Eden works in partnership with other civic organizations, non-profits, schools, and city departments to create unique events in a variety of venues that reflect the culture and history of the El Paso region and contribute to a dynamic arts and cultural environment.


Cultural Tourism
Eden works with the City’s Museums and Cultural Affairs Department (MCAD) and other organizations to promote El Paso’s history and to bring visitors to the area.
  • The annual First Thanksgiving Reenactment on the last Saturday of April in San Elizario, produced in association with the El Paso Mission Trail Association, celebrates the arrival of Spanish settlers in 1598.
  • As part of MCAD’s Mexican Revolution Centenary efforts, Eden has provided actors to portray revolutionary figures at historic locales in the downtown El Paso area and has performed reenactments.
  • As part of MCAD’s bi-national Day of the Dead/Día de los Muertos Festival, Eden has staged processions, leading visitors from one venue to the next.
  • Zapateados! is a one-hour dance show that traces zapateado or percussive footwork from the Native American through the Spanish, Mexican, and Western American folk traditions. Although appropriate for all audiences, the show was created especially for visitors, tourists and conventioneers.



Arts Education Outreach
  • School performances—Eden produces plays and dance shows, many of which tour area schools. Recent projects included school tours of Entremeses Cervantinos, Bocón, Shakespeare in LOVE, The Chicano Experience, and Silencio no mas for both the Ysleta and El Paso school districts. Eden often produces in association with the El Paso Community College Drama Department and assists the College’s Theater Department in its productions.
  • Viva los Niños!—At the invitation of the Ysleta ISD in 2004, Eden created Viva los Niños!, a summer musical drama performed each summer by children from Kindergarten through sixth grade at the Ysleta ISD Fine Arts Amphitheater. The youngsters sing, act, and dance the history of El Paso.
  • The Big Read—In 2007 and 2008, Eden partnered with the El Paso Public Library to stage scenes from books featured in the BIG Read, an initiative of the NEA to revitalize the role of literature in American popular culture. The works included scenes from To Kill a Mockingbird and Fahrenheit 451 which were performed at library branches.
  • Shakespeare on-the-Run—This group of four actors and a narrator goes into schools and community settings to present scenes from Shakespearean plays.
  • ZAP Dancers—Two dancers and a narrator perform a 45-minute show demonstrating the Native, Spanish, Mexican and Western American folk dance traditions of the southwest and how they have influenced each other.
  • Theater in Education Project—A project of the El Paso Independent School District’s Department of English Language Acquisition, this initiative took 30 immigrant high school students with limited English proficiency and put them into an intensive three week theater workshop. They wrote and performed their own musical, Nosotros in July 2009 at Bowie High School Theater. In June 2010, they wrote and performed a new musical, Nosotros II.



Spanish Language Theater
Because of its interest in fostering Spanish-language and bilingual theater, Eden partners with the Los Actores Theater Company to stage a season of two Spanish language plays each year at the El Paso Playhouse since 2000 to 2009, and at the Chamizal National Memorial since 2010. Spanish language productions have also been taken into the classroom and into the community. Recent production include Los Amores de Don Perlimplin y Belisa en el Jardin, Cosas de Muchachos, a Christmas Pastorela, and Confessions of Women from East L.A. Los Actores has also presented Telón de Arena'’s production of Contrabando.


Shakespeare on-the-Rocks
Hector Serrano founded the Festival in 1981 while he was the artistic director of Viva El Paso! at McKelligon Canyon Amphitheater. After an eight-year hiatus from 1985-92, he directed and David Mills managed the festival at McKelligon through the 2002 season. They then moved it to the Scottish Rite Temple in 2003 then to the Ysleta Fine Arts Amphitheater in 2004. Starting in 2010, the Festival will take place both at the Chamizal National Memorial and Ysleta Amphitheater. The Festival is committed to making the works of Shakespeare accessible by cutting the scripts as needed, integrating music and dance into the productions, and by giving opportunities to young performers.


SPOTLIGHT
Working with the Border AIDS Partnership, Eden produces SPOTLIGHT—One Night. One Stage. One Reason to Celebrate Life. This one night Gala is a showcase of the performing talent in the El Paso/Las Cruces/Ciudad Juarez region and raises funds in support of organizations that fight HIV/AIDS and honors those living with the disease.


Calendar of upcoming projects
  • Soldadera, a play about women in the Mexican Revolution, scheduled for August 21, 2010, at the Philanthropy Theater in the Plaza Theater Performing Arts Center.
  • Spotlight 2010, a fundraising gala for the Border Aids Partnership at Magoffin Auditorium, October 2l, 2010.
  • The First Thanksgiving Reenactment, Saturday, April 30, 2011, in the afternoon in San Elizario Plaza.
  • Los Actores 2010-11 season: productions, dates, and location pending; go to www.losactores.org.
  • 2010 edition of Viva los Niños! at the Ysleta Fine Arts Amphitheater, July 30-August 1.


   
 
   
       
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