Block by Block

Directed by Sean San José

November 17, 18, 19
7 pm. Ticketholders, join us for a free drink at the pre-show reception at 6 pm.

Koret Auditorium, de Young

SOLD OUT TONIGHT, Friday, November 17.
Tickets are available for Saturday, November 18. 

Block by Block incorporates dance, mixed-media, and live music (mixing beatboxing, spoken-word movement, battles, and more), along with projected visuals created by acclaimed visual artists Favianna Rodriguez and Evan Bissell, creating an incredibly rich tapestry of performance that's not to be missed!

Audiences will be taken on a journey, quite literally, through the de Young Museum with choreographed, immediate, improvised, and purposeful performances featuring Felonious (led by Keith Pinto, Tommy Shepherd, and Dan Wolf, with Carlos Aguirre), DJ Wonway (Juan Amador), Campo Santo Street Team (Ricky Saenz, Christine Jamlig, and Kelly Strickland), Brian Rivera, Nicole Klaymoon and the Embodiment Project, Susie Lundy and Subway Fillmore Strutting to Carnaval. With the visual art of Evan Bissell, Ricardo Richey, and Favianna Rodriguez and design team Alejandro Acosta, Ray Diaz, Tanya Orellana, Pak Han, Jessica Baldwin, and Gretchen Werner. 

The performances will utilize the immediacy of the space in the de Young and allow the surroundings to help inspire and inform the movement of the dancers and the collective of participating artists and performers. This piece allows the artists to interact with audiences in a new way and invite them into the process, the landscape, the world that is being created through the performance. As the production moves through the museum, audiences will get led into the Koret Auditorium for the main piece, Block by Block. This work brings together a diverse mix of artists, all working in the evolving aesthetics of theater, that deftly combines live music and movement into theater texts.

Campo Santo, led by Sean San José, theater program director for Intersection for the Arts, and featuring members of the Campo Santo Familia, kicks off a new series, creating and presenting new performances in surprising places and showcasing a new era of Intersection programming. This project features a collage of multidisciplinary pieces performed throughout the year and is highlighted by the premiere performance of Block by Block, an original work created with hip-hop theater collective Felonious and writings from Junot Díaz. Founded in 1996 by Margo Hall, Luís Saguar, Michael Torres, and Sean San José, Campo Santo is now entering its 15th year, having produced more than 45 critically acclaimed premiere productions under Executive Director Deborah Cullinan. Campo Santo builds long-term relationships with writers of all genres—poets, novelists, and screenwriters, as well as playwrights—to develop and create new works for the stage. This event is part of the 2011 Artist Fellow series presented with our collaborating partner, Intersection for the Arts. For more information, visit the Artist Fellows website and blog.

Photo by Pak Han.

Ticket Information

Thank you for purchasing a ticket to this production!
Because of the support received by the Irvine Foundation, the de Young Museum, and Intersection for the Arts to cover all production related costs, 100% of your ticket purchase goes directly to the artists involved in the process of creating the artwork.

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