Performance & Events

Upcoming Performances & Events

TEJANA ATÓMICA  AUGUST 25 – 26

A celebration of Tejana culture returns to Jump-Start Theater!

This year, Tejana Atómica will bring together four of San Antonio’s most powerful storytellers including las cuatas Sarah and Lilith Tijerina, la única Florinda Flores Brown y la jefa Ruby Nelda-Pérez, for two magical and electrifying evenings of original performance. Performances take place on Friday, August 25 and Saturday, August 26, 2023 at 7 PM, at Jump-Start Theater, 710 Fredericksburg Rd. San Antonio, TX 78201. Admission is Choose-What-You-Pay: $5, $10, $15, $20 or $25. Tickets available at JUMP-START.ORG

Originally from Laredo, TX, Florinda Flores-Brown has made San Antonio a home for over 12 years. Flores-Brown will be presenting “The Heights,” a short story from her in-progress collection titled Laredo: Barrio Stories.

Twin sisters Sarah and Lilith Tijerina have been collaborating with each other since birth; this time performing together in Chupacabrona, written by Sarah and Lilith and described as “a Jennifer’s-body-meets-TEETH-meets-Cherrie-Moraga-meets-Texan-urban-legend punk rock boy eater.”

Legendary Queen of Teatro, Ruby Nelda Pérez is a beloved Teatrista and Chicana cultural worker. Ruby will be performing Plática y Escenas/ Conversation and Scenes (working title).

“Tejana Atómica is about honoring and celebrating Tejana voices and experiences. I’m grateful to have the artists living and working in our city and that they’re willing to tell us their stories and share their journey so maybe we can find this greater connection most of us search for.” -Clint Taylor, creator and lead producer. 

Guest Artist Community Workshop and Performance w/  Diana Burbano  September 6 – 9

Jump-Start will host a 3-day writing for theater workshop led by guest artist Diana Burbano.  The Workshop is open to the community and will culminate with original workshop performances. Burbano completes her visit with her solo performance Linda at Jump-Start Theater. This event is open to the public.

The workshop, open to all and facilitated by Diana Burbano, explores the craft of writing for the theater. Through active discussion, in-class writing exercises, and work on a sustained piece, students explore scene structure, action, events, voice, and dialogue. The class emphasis is on process, risk-taking, and finding one’s own voice and vision. The goal at the end of the class session is a 10-minute play for presentation. 

The community workshop will run Wed. – Fri., Sept. 6 – 8, 2023 from 7 PM to 10 PM and includes a performance on Sept. 9, 2023 at 8 PM. All sessions will be held at Jump-Start Theater, 710 Fredericksburg Road, San Antonio, TX, 78201. 

Diana Burbano concludes her residency with her solo performance Linda open to the general public Saturday, September 9, 2023 at 7PM at Jump-Start Theater. 

About Linda: Wearing a Wonder Woman costume and carrying a guitar, a Chicana embarks on a journey to figure out her place in the world. But this quest is not without its challenges. As she battles racist boys on the playground, mean girls at the talent show and her own self-doubts, will Linda cave under these evil forces? Or will she find new kinds of superpowers—strength, empowerment, resilience—in learning to love her heritage?

Tickets for Linda are choose what you pay: $0 $5 $10 $15 $20 and are available at www.jump-start.org.

Diana was named as part of the Los Angeles Times’ “La Vanguardia” 2022. She is a Colombian immigrant, a playwright, an Equity actor, and a teaching artist. Diana’s play Ghosts of Bogotá premiered at Alter Theatre in 2020 just before the pandemic shut down. Ghosts was produced at the Actors Theatre of Charlotte in 2022. Sapience opened at Moxie Theatre in San Diego in 2022. Fabulous Monsters, a Latinx Punk Rock play premiered at The Public Theatre of San Antonio, featuring the music of FEA in 2023.

She was in the Geffen’s Writers Lab in 20-21 and has commissions with Center Theatre Group, Artists Repertory Theatre, Breath of Fire Latina Theatre Ensemble, HERO Theatre, and Livermore Shakespeare Festival. Residencies include Marfa Live Arts, Milagro Ingenio, Workshop Theatre Lab at Echo Theatre, and the Mercury Company for Artists Repertory.

As an actor, Diana played Amalia in José Cruz Gonzáles’ American Mariachi at South Coast Repertory and Arizona Theatre Company, Marisela in Isaác Gómez’s La Ruta at Artists Repertory, and Izzy in the world premiere of Julie Hébert’s Drunk at the Base of the Bohdi Tree for Mile High Theatre. You can also see her as Viv the Punk in the cult musical Isle of Lesbos.

Diana has been awarded the Advance Gender Equity in the Arts grant 2022, the Bay Area Rella Lossy Award, the Long Beach Arts Council Professional Artist Grant 2019, 2020, and a 2021 Jane Chambers Awardee for excellence in Feminist Playwriting. She currently represents Southern California on the Dramatists Guild council. www.dianaburbano.com 

Past Performances & Events

Pop-Up Poetry Production April 2021

Visiting Guest Artist Dennis RedMoon Darkeem April 2020 (Bronx, NY)

Performance Party XXX6: Tradionally Untriditional Jan. 2021

Brunch of Champions Dec. 2020 

Allerseelen Nov. 2020

I’ll Remember For You Sept. 2020

8 x 8 Cabaret Du Jump en Noir Aug. 2020

Tejana Rasquacha July 2020 

She Wears Bells (INKubator June 2020)

Model Talks Mar. 2020

Jessica St. John: Memories of a Drag Queen (On & Off Fred. Rd. Studio Tour Feb. 2020) 

Performance Party 35 Jan. 2020

Tejana Atomica Oct 2019

Brunch of Champion Oct 2019

Connected by Teletextile (INKubator Sept. 2019)    

8 x 8 Cabaret Du Jump – August 2019

Gaylord’s Last Happy Hour by Chuck Squier – June 2019

Payasos on Parade – April 2019

Flatbed Teatro – Westside Walkout – March 2019

On & Off FREDericksburg Rd. – February 2019

Guest Artist: Judith Sloan (Queens, NY) – February 2019 

Semana de Sueños by Eraina Porras – January 2019

Performance Party 34 – January 2019

Tejana Rasquacha by Marisela Barrera – December 2018

Brunch of Champions – October 2018