Elvira Colorado
Chichimec, Otomi, Nhanhu SAG, AFTRA, AEA Elvira is a storyteller, writer, performer and cultural activist. Her TV credits include: Another World, Edge of Night, One Life to live, Guiding Light, As the World Turns, Sesame Street, and People vs. Loomis. Film credits: The Beaver, Scenes from a Mall, and The War that Made America. Theatre roles include : BAM- Next Wave Festival - Power Pipes; BAM - Chelsea Theatre Center - The Screens; Truck & Warehouse Theater - Women Behind Bars; New York Theater Workshop - The Rez Sisters. Tours include: Randolph Street Gallery, Chicao; Mexican Fine Arts Center, Chicago; Walker Arts Center, MN; Painted Bride, Phil.; Cleveland Public Theatre; Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, San Antonio; Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas; Centro Cultural de la Raza, San Diego; West End Theatre, Washington, DC. Together with her sister Hortencia and nephew Shan Finnerty, Elvira co-founded Coatlicue Theatre Company, Inc. which has toured nationally and internationally, performing and conducting storytelling/theatre workshops. The Company initiated and organized Day of the Dead celebrations and community altars for the past 15 years at AICH and other community centers, universities, NMAI and at El Museo del Barrio. Coatlicue’s play/ film, A Traditional Kind of Woman, Too Much Not'Nuff" was awarded Best Documentary at the Red Earth Film and Video Festival. Their work has been published in numerous anthologies and theatre journals. They were featured in 500 Years of Chicana Womens History and their play Chicomoztoc-Mimixcoa-Cloud Serpents has been published in June, 2011 by the University of Illinois Press. They are recipients of New York State Council on the Arts Theatre Fellowship and a New York Foundation for the Arts Playwriting Fellowship, a Lila Wallace Grant, a Rockefeller and Ford Foundation grants. They are also recipients of the Ingrid Washinawatok Community Activism Award; the American Indian Community House’s Honor the Spirit Award for Excellence in theatre. They are members of the Network of Ensemble Theatres, the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics at NYU and the American Indian Community House.