Combat Hippies

Combat Hippies | AMAL

“A ferocious theater piece…riveting, authentic original work…Combat Hippies show that they’ve become a powerfully expressive ensemble – drawing on raw emotion, devastating experience and an uninhibited political point of view that comes from having lived with the consequences of our country’s exercise of power. Amal could stand proudly on any stage in the world.” – CultureViewMIA

COMBAT HIPPIES

Led by Artistic Director Teo Castellanos, the Combat Hippies is an ensemble of Puerto Rican military veteran performing artists based in Miami, Florida. They formed during an MDC Live Arts creative writing workshop with Castellanos in 2015. Their first show, Conscience Under Fire (CUF), toured regionally in Florida from 2015-2017. CUF explored their lives as Iraq War veterans before, during, and after war. Their current production, AMAL, will premiere in March 2019.

Artistic Director Teo Castellanos is an actor/writer/director, who works in theater, film & television. His award winning solo NE 2nd Avenue toured extensively for a decade, winning the Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Scotland 2003. He founded the Dance/Theater Company Teo Castellanos D-Projects in 2003. For over twenty years Teo has toured solo & company works throughout the U.S., Europe, South America, China & the Caribbean. He is the recipient of several awards & grants including NEA, NEFA, MAP, NPN, Knight Arts Challenge, Knight Foundation People’s Choice Award, Miami-Dade County Cultural Affairs & also won the State of Florida Individual Artist Fellowship 2005 and 2013. He’s a Sundance Institute Screenwriters Intensive Fellow 2015. Teo is a member of SAG/AFTRA, & Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers and holds a BFA in Theater.

shows

AMAL
Directed and Dramaturged by Teo Castellanos
Featuring Combat Hippies

NEFA National Theater Project Award Recipient! Subsidy Available!

A provocative and inspiring spoken word theater piece that delves into the societal impact of war.

Direction and Dramaturgy by award-winning theater artist, Teo Castellanos, written and Performed by military/war veterans Combat Hippies, with a head bangin’ original AfroRican Punk soundtrack produced by DJ Brimstone 127 with live percussion by Angel Ruben Rodriguez Sr.

AMAL examines the impact of war with equal parts humor and urgency. It explores the quest for meaning, purpose and identity sought through enlisting in the military and shares the unifying experiences of combatants and noncombatants as people of color. Tough and tender, AMAL relays stories of veterans’, refugees’ and civilians’ adjustment to life after war. This all-Puerto Rican theater company places Puerto Rico’s colonial status, cultural and military heritage center stage.

AMAL was made possible with major support by the Knight Foundation; by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Theater Project, with lead funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and additional support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation; by the MAP Fund, supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; by a grant from the Network of Ensemble Theater’s Touring & Exchange Network (NET/TEN); and a grant from the National Performance Network/Visual Artists Network, with lead funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Stage: Blackbox / Proscenium
Capacity: 100-350
Traveling Personnel: 5
Running time: 80 minutes
Language: Various