​

BEYOND THE BOX 

saturday, november 19th

7:30pm crowley theater
 

​

Marfa Live Arts IS THRILLED TO  announce the winners of this year’s Beyond the Box performance art competition

 

This year’s winners are Césaire José Carroll-Domínguez for his play “Spreckles,” which tackles questions of land ownership, colonization, industrialization, race, and class; Dillon Orr, Olivia Pertuso and Robert Aragon for the Mad Max-meets-The Road short film, “Checkers”; and doom metal/cumbia (doombia) music duo Zona Mutante featuring Tyler Spurgin and John Lujan for their song “Tres Danzas de los Cueros Cabelludos Alateos.” The three winning entries will each receive cash prizes and see their work staged at Marfa Live Arts’ Beyond the Box on November 19th at the Crowley Theater.​

​

This year’s Marfa Live Arts Beyond the Box competition winners Césaire José

Carroll-Domínguez, Dillon Orr, and Zona Mutante (Tyler Spurgin and Jonathon Lujan) will have

their respective works presented at 7:30pm on Saturday, November 19 at the Crowley Theater.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

“I am elated and deeply honored to have been chosen to present my work at this year's

Beyond the Box,” said Carroll-Domínguez, whose play “Spreckles” will be staged by

actors Roberta Colindrez (A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN, GIRLS, I LOVE DICK), Amanda

Bloom, Jerram Rojo, Yoseff BenYehuda, Melvin McSpadden and John T. Kennedy. “I

am deeply grateful to Marfa Live Arts and the selection committee and I am honored to

have my work presented with that of other incredible artists involved with the Marfa

community.” “Spreckles,” the young playwright said, is only the first act of a planned

larger play which they hope to eventually present. The play, Carroll-Domínguez added,

was inspired by the world around him, and caused him to “look back at Shakespeare, at

Sophocles, at Arthur Miller, and John Steinbeck,” and pulled from those influences into

“three intimate vignettes.” Carroll-Domínguez is a writer, actor, filmmaker and

experimental multimedia artist based in the US/MX borderlands. His work has been

featured in MCASD, MOPA and SDLFF. He is a two-time IVIE award winner and has

performed at Crossed Lines in London and Museo Careo Gil in Mexico City.

​

​

Dylan Orr’s short film “Checkers,” which was created specifically for Beyond the Box,with

the production team of Olivia Pertuso and Robert Aragon, will be screened following

“Spreckles.” Checkers is a lighthearted post-apocalyptic story about one

survivor's earnest desire to make a friend. For Orr, winning one of the three spots

validated his dreams of being a filmmaker. “I feel incredible about being chosen as one

of the winners of this year's Beyond the Box competition. The feeling of being

recognized, of somebody saying, "hey you, what you made is good"; is wonderful, and

valuable, especially to an artist, and it makes you want to try again,” Orr said.

“Checkers,” he added, was his attempt to “tell a story that felt wholesome, but to do it in

a cool setting,” utilizing the West Texas landscape to accentuate his story which he

described as “not a love story, but a friend story.” Orr is a Marfa Shorthorn and Sul Ross

film student graduate and a self-taught maker living in Marfa, Texas. “I grew up in the

Southwest with a love for making art, and in particular for telling stories through it. I

reject the idea of ever saying something is too crazy to try or to do, and always push

myself to do things just a little bit out there. Sometimes that's as simple as driving all

night to hug a friend, and sometimes it means building a real life Batmobile for

Halloween or making a short film that makes my small-town horizon feel just a little

bigger.” Orr plans on creating more film projects and starting a YouTube channel to use

as a platform for his projects.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Zona Mutante, a cumbia/doom metal (or doombia) two-piece band featuring Tyler

Spurgin and Jon Lujan, will close out the show with a performance at the theater. “I

don’t really win things very often, I’m non-competitive by nature. Now I’m riddled with

guilt because maybe someone else deserves this win more than us,” Spurgin said of the

group’s selection. The song they were chosen for and will perform, “Danza De Los

Cueros Cabelludos Alateos,” is based upon a scene from Cormac McCarthy’s Blood

Meridian,” Spurgin said, adding that the group will continue playing and writing music.

“We’re looking for more collaborators and to play shows with people from out of town,”

he said. “And recording would be nice.”

​

​

Sponsored by National Endowment for the Arts, Texas Commission on the Arts, Mitchell

Foundation, Crowley Theater, Permian Basin Area Foundation and City of Marfa. 

The event will be free and open to the public.

​

 

Marfa Live Arts would like to thank all the artists who participated and submitted pieces.