Tucson's Borderlands Theater brings back ‘Barrio Stories’

You dig beneath the surface of what you think you know to discover more nuances, stories that somehow got buried with time.

Those are the stories that Borderlands Theater unearthed for its inaugural “Barrio Stories” festival in 2016.

This year, as the festival marks its 10th anniversary, Borderlands Producing Director Mark David Pinate is digging even deeper to tell the story of a community that has never forgotten what it lost 50 years ago in the name of urban renewal.

“Barrio Stories” will mark the anniversary by returning this weekend to the Tucson Convention Center's Alva B. Torres Plaza, 260 S. Church Ave., a spot that prior to the late 1970s had been part of Barrio Viejo.

The 10-year anniversary festival Thursday, Nov. 12 to Sunday, Nov. 15, borrows from the four festivals Borderlands spun off including in Barrio Anita. Pinate selected two or three plays from those events and commissioned a couple of new ones including a play about the Beehive Bar, Tucson’s first Black-owned bar that operated from around 1900-1938 on South Meyer Avenue.

“It's a story that so few people know,” Pinate said.

The Beehive in a adobe corner storefront attracted musicians from all over the country, many of them S&P Railroad pullman porters passing through. If they had their instruments on them, they would walk from the downtown depot to the Beehive in the barrio and play late night shows.

“They would have these jam sessions. It was Blacks, Mexicans, Native people, Chinese people that were all going to this bar and dancing,” Pinate said.

Another new play is about Jose Maria Sosa III, who built the historic Sosa-Carrillo House, and his grandfather, one of the soldiers who built the Presidio that established Tucson.

Pinate said the Presidio Museum helped him with the research and writing, which is something he didn’t have for that first event.

“The first time we did it 10 years ago, we didn't really know anybody, so we were kind of on our own,” he said. “This time I think we have like seven partners.”

Pinate and Ortiz first conceived “Barrio Stories” two years after they started working for Borderlands. The pair were focused on creating site-specific theater, works that resonated in large part because of the setting.

Pinate found the perfect jumping off point after reading Lydia Otero’s “La Calle: Spatial Conflicts and Urban Renewal in a Southwest City,” which focused on urban renewal that demolished nearly two-thirds of Barrio Viejo to make way for the Tucson Convention Center.

Over the 10 years since that first event, he and Ortiz have taken the festival to other Tucson neighborhoods including Barrio Anita.

This year’s festival collaborators including the University of Arizona Poetry Center and the International Mariachi Conference are providing content to the festival, from the mariachi musicians performing in the courtyard to the theater kids from Tucson High performing one of the plays.

As many as 36 actors will be part of the 10 plays that explore neighborhood histories like the story of the Beehive Bar and family stories as well as Tucson cultural traditions. The plays will be performed in repertory, from 10-minute performances throughout the plaza to 30-minute Main Stage productions.

In addition to Pinate and Ortiz, featured playwrights include Chanel Bragg, Lydia Otero, Elaine Romero, Veronica Weatherbie, Silviana Wood and Martín Zimmerman.

“Barrio Stories: 10-Year Celebration” also will feature live mariachi music and poetry readings from Mariana Rivera, Eva Sierra, Mele Martinez and Ofelia Zepeda.

Other events:

• Heritage Workshops: Sonoran flour tortilla-making with Rachel Pollack and Los Descendientes; oral history workshops with Maribel Alvarez and the Southwest Folklife Alliance; adobe brick installation and adobe story collection; and the “Chinese Chorizo Project” with Feng-Feng Yeh.

• Exhibition: The “Barrio Stories 10-Year Retrospective Photo Exhibit,” sponsored by Rio Nuevo at the historic Sosa-Carrillo House; a community traditions video installation; and “El Pueblo 50: Celebrating the Living Heart of the Southside” pop-up exhibition.

• More to Explore: Barrio Viejo walking tours with Trejo's Walking Tours, children's art activities, heritage food vendors and a special performance of “Los Tres Pueblos” by Tucson High School theater program on Sunday.