It’s odd to say when you look forward to a theatre project’s journey but that is exactly the case with the world premiere of Luzmi by Diana Burbano, performing at The Rosenthal Theater at Inner-City Arts in Los Angeles.

Luzmi, directed by HERO Theatre Producing Artistic Director Elisa Bocanegra, marks the U.S. premiere of HERO Theatre and HERO Multimedia’s Nuestro Planeta, a new works commissioning initiative rooted in research around environmental justice issues happening in Latine countries and how Latine American families are directly affected. As for the show itself? It is an endearing show that combines a cultural identity discovery journey with that of environmental activism along with an imaginative collection of puppetry and multimedia that will be sure to entertain & enlighten both young and old.

Nuestro Planeta: COLOMBIA, Luzmi is about a young woman, Luzmi, who travels back to her birthplace of Colombia, a place she left as a child, to learn more about her family after her mother’s recent death. The play begins with a trip to the lush coffee-growing mountains of Colombia and follows her into the Amazon rainforest, where she searches for the answers to a dark secret her mother kept. Based on two research trips to the Amazon rainforest with Producing Artistic Director Elisa Bocanegra, the play educates audiences about the rich biodiversity of Colombia and the environmental injustices indigenous communities in the Amazon rainforest face.

Cultural identity journeys are some of the common tropes used in storytelling for global majority folks so what makes Luzmi stand out is the utilization of puppetry and multimedia to create a more dynamically interesting world for the audience to partake in. Coupled that with the environmental activism aspect that is the heart of this entire piece, the play is certainly ambitious in tackling both storytelling worlds at the same time.

The end result is more successful than not, but there are times when the play feels like watching Dora the Explorer on stage with the amount of environmental issues the actors must tell to the audience members while also outwardly projecting her woes of “who am I?” One could argue that the show is geared towards younger audiences as it hits all the notes in a family friendly Disney animated story that has an incredibly endearing protagonist (Stephanie Hoston as Luzmi), her hunky and charming love interest (Peter Mendoza as Carlos), the dastardly and selfish villain (Helena Betancourt as Claudia), and a whole lot of rainforest animals that interact with the hero. In a way, one could even say that Luzmi is a Disney princess.

Hoston embodies the Disney princess energy to a T and brings so much radiating joy and heart into the title character. Peter Mendoza is incredibly earnest and charming as Carlos while Helena Betancourt chews up the scenery deliciously as the selfish villain Claudia. Villain may actually be too harsh of a word as her antagonistic character does have a very good reason behind her motivations and like all good compelling antagonists, she sincerely believes she is doing the right thing to help others.

Betancourt is complemented nicely by Julián Juaquín as Elan, Claudia’s boo who is greatly in love with her but also isn’t afraid to speak his mind. On that note of speaking one’s mind, while the play comes off as a family friendly tale, this is definitely recommended for age 13 and above as there are certain jokes in the show that are, well, a bit too raunchy for kids younger than 13. This is definitely made evident with Elan

The rest of the talented ensemble fills out nicely with Julián Juaquín, Emanuel Loarca, Bibiana Navas, Carla Valentine, Maya Gonzalez, Peren Yesilyurt, Osiris Galvez Parades, Anne Taguba, and Adrian Quinonez (who pretty much steals the entire show in one scene as Torito the Cat).

To help bring the show to life, much credit goes to Beth Peterson (Puppet Designer), Jesus Hurtado (Scenic and Projections Designer), Willow Edge (Sound Designer), Gabe Rodriguez (Lighting Designer), Maggie Dick (Costume Designer), Osiris Galvez Paredes (Props Designer), Andrés Felipe Jiménez (Cinematographer and Photographer), and Alejandro Montoya (Music and Colombian Music Consultant). And of course Ashley Weaver (Production Stage Manager) and Alyssa Sandoval (Assistant Stage Manager) for running the show smoothly and efficiently.

There are only a few criticism points that I need to make and one being the reliance on the “dead mother” trope that is excessively used in so much of storytelling that I’ll go out of my way to point it out in any production I see. Just once, just ONCE, I would love to see a story that has the protagonist reconnecting with their mother who is alive and well. In this particular story, Luzmi finds some solace in her dream state where her mother is the Moon personified but those moments were perhaps the weakest to me as I would rather much see the mother alive from my overtly stated point just earlier.

Second, the actors were doing just great projecting on their own so there is no need for any microphones as it unfortunately created a lot of tech issues that were distracting. And finally, as mentioned earlier in this review, the combination of environmental activism and cultural identity discovery creates some clunkiness in the dialogue as the actors have the difficult job of delivering both issues at hand. In several areas of the play, the need to deliver such dialogue comes off as unnatural and stilted but this is more a critical note on the writing and not so much on the acting or the directing.

I don’t blame the production for trying though and as the first commission of the Nuestro Planeta series, I see this first play as the beginning step to an incredible and truly exciting endeavor that is not only unique to see but extremely necessary in our world that is past the point of no return when it comes to saving it from the destruction we are entirely responsible for (particularly the billion dollar corporations that hack & slash and dump waste without a whiff of concern whatsoever). Such an initiative is a most welcome one and it is for that reason alone along with a wonderful guided sense of direction from Elisa Bocanegra that Luzmi brings a breath of fresh air to the LA theatre scene and to the entire American theatre world.

Ticket & Location Information
**All performances are located in downtown Los Angeles at Inner-City Arts
720 Kohler Street
Los Angeles, CA 90021

Performance Dates/Times
Friday, October 11, at 8PM
Saturday, October 12, at 2PM
Saturday, October 12, at 8PM
Sunday, October 13, at 5PM
Saturday, October 19, at 2PM
Saturday, October 19, at 8PM
Sunday, October 20, at 2PM
Friday, October 25, at 8PM
Saturday, October 26, at 2PM
Saturday, October 26, at 8PM
Sunday, October 27, at 2PM
Sunday, October 27, at 7PM

You can buy tickets here. The play is presented in English and subtitled in Spanish with a running time of two hours, including a 10-minute intermission.