Touch the Water

A River Play

Written by JULIE HÉBERT

Directed by JULIETTE CARRILLO

May 28 - June 21, 2009

Performed on the bank of the Los Angeles River

Rio de Los Angeles State Park - Bowtie Parcel

entrance adjacent to 2800 Casitas Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90013

Touch the water, man. Touch the water where you live or you will not know where you are.

Under the City of Angels runs a fierce river flowing from the mountains to the ocean. But do you know it’s there? Once an unpredictable and mighty stream that sustained a complex ecology and a multitude of human and animal lives; once a bountiful life source subject to raging floods, the Los Angeles River has lived under a shroud of concrete for the past fifty years. Today, having been tamed and transformed into an industrial flood channel, the river is at the center of much debate. What happens when we change Nature? Should we free the river from her concrete corset and let Angelenos finally touch the water? Come to the river this spring and let the magical waters of Los Angeles wash over you.

This play was created in collaboration with local river residents, engineers, biologists, environmentalists, activists, advocates and patrons who walk, fish, bike and ride horses on the river. Touch the Water wrestles with the issues surrounding the L.A. River and the people who live, work and play there.

Community Partners include: Friends of the Los Angeles River (FoLAR), Metabolic Studio/Farmlab, South Asian Network (SAN)