¡Colores!; Linda Piper: Bringing People Together; Juanita Wolff

KNME-TV (Television station : Albuquerque, N.M.) · March 20, 1991

Writer, actress, storyteller and performance artist, Linda Piper is a woman of many talents. Having directed and performed throughout the United States and London, she is founder and artistic director of "The Tapestry Players," a multi-ethnic touring theater company. Piper has been working in the theater for fifteen years with the central theme of her productions being the need for greater understanding between different social and ethnic groups. She acquired a Master of Fine Arts in theater direction from the University of New Mexico and often depicts the historical struggle of African Americans to overcome obstacles of racial and gender discrimination. As a member of the New Mexico Endowment for the Humanities Chautauqua Program, Piper tours the state's communities to inform and educate the public through portrayals of powerful figures such as Harriet Tubman, Bessie Coleman and Zora Neale Hurston. Finally, Piper's "Tapestry Players" share culturally rich material with their audiences while providing a "living laboratory" in the theater to examine the factors that separate and divide us from one another. Guests: Linda Piper (Performance Artist), Valencia dela Vega (New Mexico Endowment for the Humanities). Artist Profile: Juanita Wolff. In the ¡Colores! Profile segment, we enter the art studio and home of Juanita Wolff, an artist of many faces; sculptor, painter, photographer and mask maker. Having lived in Argentina, Haiti and other countries outside the United States, she brings to her art a spirited multi-cultural approach. Using the face as her primary theme in her paintings and sculptures, she compels us to confront ourselves. From the process to the product, Juanita makes the connections, from the politics of art to the politics of life.