Josefina López is a Los Angeles theater legend. As the Founding Artistic Director of the much-loved Casa 0101 in Boyle Heights, she knows how to bring a vision to life. The arts organization she created for her own East Side community is a 99-seat theater with an art gallery and classroom space. It’s just a block away from its original 2000 location in a former bridal shop.
López is the author of Real Women Have Curves, a 1990 play with an impressively long life.
A native of San Luis Potosi, Mexico López and her family migrated to LA when she was five. She was undocumented for 13 years before she received amnesty in 1987 and eventually became a U.S. Citizen in 1995. She holds an MFA in Screenwriting from UCLA’s School of Film/Television & Theater, as well as a Diplôme de Cuisine from Le Cordon Bleu, Paris, France.
On the eve of a new production of Real Women Have Curves, we asked López about her experiences in the theater and beyond.
Your 1990 play Real Women Have Curves was adapted as a movie in 2002 and now will be a world premiere musical this month from American Repertory Theatre on Harvard’s campus. Why do you think it has such staying power?
The camaraderie of the women and the authenticity of the story dealing with intersectional feminism makes it a unique story, but being underestimated and judged by our looks is a universal oppression. Ultimately the message that women are powerful when working together is worth repeating in different mediums and platforms. Also, as women we are fed up with being told our looks give us our value. My story is very much about the worth and value of women’s lives, and stories’ contributions to society. It’s sad that this story has become even more relevant because women are still shamed for not being perfect.
What kinds of changes did the two adaptations make to the original play? What stayed the same?
I’ve not made any changes to the play as a result of the adaptations. The only thing is that there is a modern version of the play now, and the original one remains in 1987.
What was it like to work with collaborators, both on the movie and on the book and music/lyrics for the musical?
I really enjoy working with collaborators because I’ve learned so much as to what works on film versus what works in a book for a musical. I love hearing the songs that have been created by the lyricist and composer. I’ve enjoyed seeing how the story has evolved and how we can revisit the ’80s and look at the immigration scene and create more female characters in the factory and deal with the Salvadorian and Guatemalan refugee situation in the musical. I also see the challenge in trying to tell an authentic story while at the same time making it universal and commercial.
How have you incorporated your identity as a Chicana into your playwriting, through works such as Real Women Have Curves, Detained in the Desert and Queen of the Rumba?
Yes, being a Chicana is the way I honor myself in stories by making myself a protagonist or showing a story from the point of a view of a woman, her values and how she measures her worth. I am an activist who writes, and being a Chicana is what motivates me to make my community visible and to celebrate my humanity.
What would you say have been your greatest achievements and challenges in almost 20 years of founding and running Casa 0101 in Boyle Heights?
Keeping the doors open has been the biggest challenge. We had to close during Covid, but we have always been determined to tell stories about our community for our community and making theater accessible and affordable for people in Boyle Heights. It is also challenging to produce theater now because it’s so expensive with AB 5 in place.
How is the LA theater world different now from when you started out? Where do you see it heading?
I’ve seen several white, male, Artistic Directors step down knowing they are not the right people to lead their theaters into the future, and I’m happy they recognize their blind spots have created a theater that became inaccessible to many. I am happy that we are finally asking “Who is being left out of the theater?” I am happy that the larger theaters now have Diversity and Inclusion Directors trying to bring equity and accessibility. I am happy that when I started my theater we were leaders and now other theaters are catching up to our mission and ability to represent and serve our community. However, I see theater becoming less accessible because it’s become so expensive to produce theater in Los Angeles and little theaters are having a harder time producing plays with actors who they have to pay as employees. I also see more women becoming directors and playwrights so the theater will finally have equity in gender.
You are one of only a small group of women who run theaters in LA. How do you think that has shaped your leadership of Casa 0101?
I became aware early on that we had to nurture women, not just to tell their stories, but to direct and produce as well. I have put women at the forefront of our storytelling and as part of the process with a program I started called Chicanas, Cholas & Chisme that nurtures Latinas to become playwrights and leaders. I also have made sure that the Latino LGBTQ community is represented in our stories and in the creative process.
You not only write plays and run a theater, you’re a novelist, screenwriter, poet, activist and teacher, with your Latinx Screenwriting Academy. Could you talk a little about how all of these come together in your career?
I lead by example. I am a “Renaissance Woman” and I do so many art forms because it’s my natural self-expression. I have so many stories so I don’t limit myself with telling them in one medium. Some stories are better as short films and some others as poetry, so I honor the story by expressing it in the best genre, medium and platform.
What role does spirituality and your interest in the paranormal play in your career?
Being Chicana means being connected to my indigenous heritage which means my connection to ancestors, spirits, divine guidance and nature. I honor my culture and identity by honoring the reality I live in filled with other realms and experiences that are non-western perspectives on life. I have had several paranormal experiences since I was a little girl and saw that my mother and grandmother also had a spiritual connection like I did. I honor this connection with my mother and grandmother and have taken up the role of Curandera/healer and keeper of the wisdom of my community. I am an Elder and share this spiritual wisdom in my stories. I want to share a lot of stories with spirituality organically embedded in them to give others permission to do the same so our stories can be elevated to address trauma and painful issues that need a spiritual perspective to introduce other possibilities for healing our community.
Besides Real Women Have Curves, what’s next, for you and Casa 0101?
I am writing a play about Supervisor Gloria Molina to open in May and am writing an animation film for Sony/Netflix titled The Cleaning Ladies. I am also trying to finish writing my autobiography, Real Women Have Courage.
Currently playing at Casa 0101 is Corina: From Lap Dance to Sundance, an original play written by Corina Calderon. Driven by a deep-seeded love of performing, Corina’s story travels from farming towns to government housing, to the underbelly of American society on her way to Hollywood’s door. Tickets are available here.
