Rose Cano

Rose Cano

Rose Cano is a graduate of Cornish College of the Arts. She is co-founder/ Artistic Director of eSe Teatro: Seattle Latinos Take Stage since 2010. She is a bilingual actor, playwright, director, lyricist and translator. Her plays Don Quixote & Sancho Panza, Homeless in Seattle and Bernie's Apt. were produced in partnership with ACT Theatre in Seattle in 2014 and 2016. Rose’s has spent the last 30...
Rose Cano is a graduate of Cornish College of the Arts. She is co-founder/ Artistic Director of eSe Teatro: Seattle Latinos Take Stage since 2010. She is a bilingual actor, playwright, director, lyricist and translator. Her plays Don Quixote & Sancho Panza, Homeless in Seattle and Bernie's Apt. were produced in partnership with ACT Theatre in Seattle in 2014 and 2016. Rose’s has spent the last 30 years promoting the breadth, depth and diversity of our cultures, bringing over 50 indigenous and Afro-Latino artists from South America and the Caribbean.

Rose recently directed and translated MUD/(BARRO) by María Irene Fornés for eSe Teatro’s 4th Mainstage production. She is honored to have been done the first-ever translation of Elliot: A Soldier’s Fugue by Quiara Alegria Hudes into Spanish. Rose is also the founder The AFrican ConeXion Project, uniting Latino and African American communities through theatre, music and dance since 2000. She wrote the book/ lyrics for two bilingual musicals in collaboration with composer Paul Thomas: Mabaire! Don't Forget! Me, inspired by a Afro-Cuban myth, and Callejón , based on an Afro-Peruvian play by Teatro Del Milenio.

Her third musical, Imaginary Opus with collaborator composer David Nyberg, was produced at Seattle’s Center Theatre, in partnership with Sound Theatre Company. She will direct her translation of The Journey of the Saint by Cesar de Maria, produced in partnership with ACT Theatre in Seattle in September of 2018.

Plays

  • AGE OF SEPIA (The Exoticism of Blondes and Brunettes)
    Synopsis of AGE OF SEPIA (The Exoticism of Blondes and Brunettes)

    Two women, a blonde and brunette, meet again after many years in a small vacation town far away from modern life. Jogged by the unearthing of an old sepia-toned photo, they remember the relationship they once shared with “cousin Hank”, a budding photographer, when all three were young and naive about love. 25 years ago they...
    Synopsis of AGE OF SEPIA (The Exoticism of Blondes and Brunettes)

    Two women, a blonde and brunette, meet again after many years in a small vacation town far away from modern life. Jogged by the unearthing of an old sepia-toned photo, they remember the relationship they once shared with “cousin Hank”, a budding photographer, when all three were young and naive about love. 25 years ago they spent a summer together at “Granny’s” cabin in the woods. Their love and memories of Granny permeate the reality of their relationship which was documented with hank’s old camera using black and white film. Scenes flash forward and backward in time, accompanied by projections of photos in black & white and sepia.

    The play deals with archetypal roles of women and men of the 50’s and the stereotypes of blondes, brunettes and skin color. The beige tone sepia photos exoticized the subjects in the portraits in the same way black and white movies exotized blondes and brunettes. As the women progress from sepia-toned characters of the 50’s to full color complex characters of the 2000’s, their ideas of gender roles change.

    This play first began during an playwriting workshop with Maria Irene Fornes at Theatre For the New City in 1995. The genesis came from the writing exercise using black & white/sepia-toned photos from an anonymous family album that was found at a flea market. The photo of a blonde and a brunette reminded me of the sepia-toned photo albums of my young parents in Peru in the 50’s. I noticed that the absence of full color reduced the obvious racial differences and tended to exoticize the people in the portraits. Every day folks looked like they were in a Hollywood movie of the 40’s and 50’s. This notion of color versus black & white is explored literally and figuratively in this play about obsessive relationships and family .