“She Flies” stage adaptation highlights Rivera Award celebration

Date of release: 10/20/05

SAN MARCOS – “She Flies,” a play based on the short story of the same name by David Rice, will be performed as a staged reading in conjunction with the Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award 10-year anniversary celebration at Texas State University-San Marcos.

“She Flies” will be performed 3 p.m. Oct. 29 at the San Marcos Activity Center (501 Hopkins) by students in the Department of Theatre and Dance and directed by Charles Pascoe. Admission is free and open to the general public.

“She Flies,” a short story from Rice’s collection, Crazy Loco, deals with a Hispanic girl’s dreams of attending college and her parents’ reluctance to allow her to leave home. The story was adapted for the stage by playwright Mike Garcia of Nushank Productions in collaboration with Rice.

Rice, a Texas State graduate and Edcouch native, splits his time between writing short stories about growing up and living in the Rio Grande Valley, mentoring and teaching students at Edcouch-Elsa High School under the administration of the Llano Grande Center for Research and Development, and helping to advise and grow Cine Las Americas Media Arts Center in Austin. Crazy Loco earned the American Library Association’s “Best Books for Young Readers” award in 2001.  His work appears in five anthologies and has been nominated for the Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award, the Pura Belpré Award and was a Pen Center USA West Awards finalist.

About the Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award
Texas State developed the Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award to congratulate and acknowledge authors and illustrators dedicated to depicting the values and culture of Mexican Americans. The award is endowed by Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. Sponsors of the program include Continental Airlines, La Quinta Inns, the College of Education of Texas State University-San Marcos, the Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award steering committee, the Central Texas Writing Project, and the Texas Library Association. 

Rivera, who died in 1984, graduated from Texas State with both his bachelor's and master's degrees before receiving a Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma. A Distinguished Alumnus of Texas State, Rivera published his landmark novel in 1971 titled ...y no se lo tragó la tierra/ ...And the Earth Did Not Part. In 1979, Rivera was appointed chancellor of the University of California-Riverside, the first Hispanic chancellor named to the University of California system.

For more information on the Rivera Award, please visit www.txstate.edu/tomas.