DOWNEY — Rich Loya has spent almost 30 years in prison. At Avenal Prison, he was directed to specifically recruit 25 inmates to participate in an upcoming Tim Robbins’ Actors’ Gang Prison Project residency.

Loya came back with a list of five hardcore members from each of the self-segregated racial groups, including Whites and Blacks who by prison policy could not mingle. They were approved.

Loya has been successfully released now for six years. He married his teenage sweetheart, purchased his first new car, and adopted two dogs. He and his wife have made Downey their home.

He has also returned to prison. But this time as program manager for The Actors’ Gang Prison Project which is active in 14 state prisons and in LA County Probation facilities.

Many people know of Tim Robbins the Oscar winning actor of “Shawshank Redemption,” “Dead Man Walking,” “Mystic River”, and others. Most people don’t know of Tim Robbins the Artistic Director of The Actors’ Gang. For 40 years it has been a highly regarded ensemble creating some of the most significant theatre, and innovative theatre projects in Los Angeles.

For 17 years, The Prison Project has been recognized internationally as a rehabilitation program that has had a profound impact on incarcerated men, women, and youth.

Of the original 25 who participated in the Avenal Prison Project, 18 had life sentences. The Prison Board has found 17 suitable for release; 22 of the original 25 are now home.

“Prison culture does not allow the expression of emotions, especially fear,” Loya said. “We began in a circle just introducing ourselves by our birth name. Not our monikers. I realized I didn’t even know my best friend’s name. How cut off from humanity I was. And from myself. I was ready to change.”

“It was an intense experience,” he added. “We discovered our humanity. Then came communication and understanding. Trust then empathy. By day three I was in tears. I wasn’t alone. We learned emotional honesty, and how to break down barriers. To support human connection, and tools for life beyond bars.”

Loya goes on to describe how theatre games and trust exercises led to the creation of high energy, highly stylized “Commedia dell’ Arte” exaggerated stock characters. Faces were made into masks with makeup. Costumes were added. They improvised and created ensemble movement. All to express the key emotions of anger, happiness, sadness and fear with urgency.

Loya has since been invited to join the professional ensemble of “Ybor City”, their new play which opens March 7. It is their first bilingual play written and directed by Mariana Da Silva, with movement by Stephanie G. Galindo. Infused with popular Latin songs, and projections, it is performed in English and Spanish with supertitles.

Robbins has guided the writing and production saying, “This innovative approach invites audiences into a mesmerizing world where movement and language converge, transcending cultural and linguistic barriers.”

Yorba City in Tampa, Florida was founded in the 1880’s by Vincente Martinez-Ybor who moved his cigar factory from Cuba and built a vibrant community including housing for his immigrant workers from Cuba, Spain, and Italy. The cigar factories were hugely successful and provided the world with cigars for over 50 years.

Ybor City was a vibrant, radical, and diverse community, interested in politics and ideology.

The play introduces the oral tradition of the lector, or reader. The workers hired the lectors themselves. The lectors provided relief from the work. They also educated the illiterate workers.

Lectors read from newspapers, pamphlets, and novels while the workers hand rolled cigars. Labor conditions were poor. Many of them died on the job. Conditions worsened. In the play, a radical consciousness leads to the first female lector.

Robbins notes, “as the lector reads to the workers - particularly Miguel de Cervantes’ “Don Quixote” and Henry David Thoreau’s essays - we also celebrate the transformative power of literature. ‘Ybor City’ portrays a culture at its peak - blending historical fiction, fantastic realism, supernatural intrigue, and the revolutionary spirit - as it speaks directly to the human heart, which is part of The Actors’ Gang artistic mission.”

As a former teacher and school administrator in the Los Angeles County Office of Education, the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, and as project director for CTG/Mark Taper Forum, L A TheatreWorks, and Theatre of Hearts Guest Artist Residencies, I have witnessed young people opened to a new awareness of who they are, and who they can be through the arts.

The Downey Arts Coalition is “Empowering Voices in the Community” by inviting the community to join them at DAC Night at the Actor’s Gang – Ybor City, on Saturday, March 23, at 8 pm. Discount tickets $20 are available online at theactorsgang.com using the code DAC5 or call (310) 838-4264.

The performance will be followed with a talkback with Rich Loya.

“Ybor City”

The Actors’ Gang at The Ivy Substation

9070 Venice Blvd., Culver City

March 7-30; Thursdays-Saturdays at 8 pm; Saturday, March 30 at 4 pm

Friday post- show talkbacks

Tickets $25

310-838-4264

Theactorsgang.com

Thursday pay-what-you-can at the door