Archive: Arts & Entertainment

Cornell University senior Irving Torres-Lopez brings Latinx stories center stage with his debut full-length play, Current | Corriente, premiering March 15–17 at Cornell's Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts.

The semi-autobiographical play "paints a portrait of the lives of a generation of Latinxs struggling to define themselves in the eyes of their parents, the world, and themselves," says Torres-Lopez.

In Current | Corriente, actor Hayden Rios confronts his relationship with his terminally ill estranged father. In revisiting his father's stories, Hayden goes on a journey to find answers about his past, his present, and his future.

A senior in The ILR School with minors in theatre and Latina/o studies, Torres-Lopez developed the play from a short performance he created in his Global Stages II class in the Department of Performing and Media Arts. He felt torn between pursuing acting or a traditional career path, and he recognized a lack of Latinx stories in theatre.

"I proposed and created Current | Corriente out of necessity," says Torres-Lopez. "I wanted more people like me, more people like my Latinx peers at Cornell, and more people like my parents represented."

Debra Ann Castillo, director of the Latina/o Studies Program, describes Torres-Lopez as "a leader in creating opportunities for diverse students to express themselves in performance."

Last semester, Torres-Lopez won the Marti Dense Student Leadership Award, which recognizes exceptional leadership within the Latina/o community at Cornell. In addition to performing in more than two dozen performances on Cornell and Ithaca-community stages throughout his undergraduate career, Torres-Lopez serves as the lead theatrical director of the Ordinary People social justice theatre troupe and is the skits producer for Sabor Latino Dance Ensemble.

v14i10