Prologue from the Artistic Director

I met John Leguizamo 10 years ago. He came through Berkeley Rep with Ghetto Klown, one of his legendary solo shows that was making its way around the country before landing in New York. I immediately fell in love with John’s rapacious intellect and take-no-prisoners sense of humor. We hit it off, talking deep into the night about the terrors and joys of the theatre, our kids, and the New York Knicks. Shortly thereafter he asked me to work with him on a new play, and we’ve been in rehearsal, for one thing or another, ever since. It’s been a fantastic ride that continues tonight with Kiss My Aztec! The show is further evidence of our shared lunacy and ambition, our love of very low comedy and highfalutin ideas, and our mad desire to celebrate modern Latinx culture.

Our small army of collaborators includes composer and co-lyricist Benjamin Velez, co-lyricist David Kamp, and our choreographer, Maija García. They are each brilliant artists and spectacular human beings. Along with the gifted David Gardos, our music supervisor, they have toiled in the musical trenches until we have all wept...with laughter, despair, hope, and exhaustion. Along the way, we assembled a team of righteously talented designers and actors, whose infectious spirit made every rehearsal feel like a trip to Animal House. A new musical tests the stamina, patience, and strength of everyone involved, and Kiss My Aztec! is appropriately named. We hope it kisses you in all the right places.

Finally, I have to acknowledge that this is my final show as artistic director of Berkeley Rep. I say “have to” because this is the place where words truly fail me. It is impossible for me to describe to you what is in my heart...the confluence of feelings, thoughts, and memories that reside there being too great for me to encapsulate with a few poor words…

I have been privileged to work at this Theatre for half my life.

I have had the immense good fortune of watching it grow with the support, guidance, and love of thousands and thousands of people…most of whom I have never met.

To the board members who volunteered their expertise and gave so generously, to the administrative and production staff who worked so damn hard to support the work, to the artistic staff who put up with my ridiculous self and who taught me every day about the art of being human, and to you, the audience, who decided to support our efforts to build a large, artistic institution creating work that is risky on every level…

I salute you. Berkeley Rep is an ongoing experiment, one filled with challenges only solved by the imagination. I leave it in extraordinary hands of Susie Medak and Johanna Pfaelzer, who will lead it, as always, into the glorious unknown.

Yours truly,

Tony Taccone