Focus Group
Thursday, February 27
4:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Act One Art Gallery
You’re invited to reading of a play about Carmelita Colon. We’ll gather with others across the state via a hybrid Zoom meeting* to share our feedback with the playwright and others. It’s a chance to get a sneak peek of a work in progress, and help shape the final product. At the very least, you’ll be entertained and enlightened about a fascinating woman who history overlooked.
* You can join us in Concrete where we’ll watch the presentation together, or you can join via Zoom from wherever you are.
- It’s a tale of gold rushes, wars, outlaws, and tamale recipes!
- Historical fiction immerses you in one woman’s treacherous and triumphant journey from 1860s Mexico to WA territory.
Once completed, the touring version of the play will be performed on the stage of the Historic Concrete Theatre.
The story of Carmelita Colon – written by Ana Maria Campoy.
Meet Carmelita Colon. Born in Mexico, she arrived in Walla Walla, Washington Territory, with her husband Sebastian in the 1860’s. For several years, they ran a mule train to the gold mines in Idaho. Later they sold tamales and ran a Mexican restaurant in Walla Walla.
What was life like in Walla Walla in the late 1800’s? What was Carmelita’s life like? Might she have seen women’s rights pioneers Susan B. Anthony and Abigail Scott Duniway speak about suffrage when they toured the Pacific Northwest (including Walla Walla) in 1871?
Based on extensive research, Ana Maria Campoy has created a vibrant portrait of Carmelita Colon, from her childhood in Mexico to life in California and then migration to Washington. She has brought this early Walla Walla resident to life and written her back into history.
CARMELITA is being developed by Key City Public Theatre (KCPT) in Port Townsend, under a Washington Stories Fund grant from Humanities Washington.
The program is part of KCPT’s Washington Women’s History Tour: Suffrage Lecture Series – a dramatic chronology of the suffrage/women’s rights movement across Washington State with a special focus on under-represented voices and little-known stories of BIPOC women.
An expanded, fully-staged version of CARMELITA will run as part of Key City Public Theatre’s mainstage season beginning in late April. A touring version will also be available.
Making it Happen
These are the women who are bringing Carmelita back to life.
Ana Maria Campoy is a
Mexican American theatre artist, educator, and advocate.
Barbara Callander is an actor who has been touring original plays about women’s history for many years.
Christa Holbrook is an actor who performs regularly at the Key City Public Theatre in Port Townsend, WA.
Denise Winter is the Executive Artistic Director at Key City Public Theatre in Port Townsend, WA.