Bernardo Mazón Daher is an actor, director, educator, and producer from South Bay San Diego. Raised in Chula Vista, his recent work is the help in producing parts of Oye Group site-specific play-within-a-tour of a city Taxilandia, created and written by Modesto Flank, who originally began this project in his own neighborhood of Bushwick, Brooklyn, inspired from his nine years driving a taxicab, documenting conversations with passengers, residents, locals, and immigrants to the neighborhood. Oye Group now works to bring Taxilandia all over the country to develop local versions of this art project.
Daher was chosen as the lead artist for Taxilandia: San Diego, with him inviting guests to ride with him for a day through his South Bay neighborhoods, along with Joy Yvonne Jones as she shares and explores her Carlsbad and Oceanside neighborhood, and Khalil Bleux as he shares and explores his Southeast San Diego neighborhood. Part of the creation is setting up “neighborhood salons” with local artist whose work intersects with gentrification, local artists identifying a tour route, conducting interviews, writing a script and photographing portraits of community members.
Daher said this art project is based on the local history, geography, and economy of the neighborhood. In the San Diego production, Oye Group partnered with the La Jolla Playhouse. He said this is a car experience, with people in the backseat of his car, riding with him as he drives around the South Bay.
“I take people on my own route through the South Bay. National City, Chula Vista, and San Ysidro,” he said. “I do the same thing. Talk about history and economy. Telling local stories, telling my own poetry for 90 minutes. But there are also auxiliary programs from the car experience where we are displaying video poems around local businesses and the region, with poetry from other people from here or poetry by myself, with video and sound design accompany the words that we wrote.”
La Jolla Playhouse Director of Public Relations Becky Biegelsen said this is part of the La Jolla Playhouse’s Without Walls program.
Without Walls productions offer an array of interactive and site-inspired theater. WOW performances take place outside the confines of traditional theater, whether in the backseat of a car, a basketball court, or completely virtually.
“So, all the pieces take place off-site in various neighborhoods. We are funding it, and we are developing it, but it does not take place here in a traditional theater setting,” she said.
Taxilandia: San Diego is an intimate car-ride experience, with up to 3 audience members per performance.
Daher and his production team set up a salon at The Star News, accessible to the public during regular business hours.
Daher is taking participants on his artistic rides Oct. 11 through Nov. 6. In this artistic experience, Daher will show participants of what is here now, how it came to be, and what can be here tomorrow. For tickets, visit https://lajollaplayhouse.org/without-walls/taxilandia/.
