La Luna Nueva Festival — Miracle Theatre Group’s festival of Hispanic arts and culture from around the world in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month — will be held September 16 through October 1, 2011. In this series of articles, we visit with our guest artists, offering an inside look at their life and their work. Here, guest blogger Angela Bolaños-Osorio chats with Jay Alvarez, the author and performer of “Be Careful! The Sharks Will Eat You!” — a hit at the recent NYC Fringe Festival where it was awarded Overall Excellence in Solo Performance. Don’t miss this show when it comes to Portland for three nights only: Sept. 19, 20 and 21.

Angela: What can our patrons expect from “Be Careful! The Sharks Will Eat You!”?
Jay: They can expect to see a heartfelt story with themes of separation, courage, hope, determination and most of all love; the love from a mother and father, as well as some humor. The play, as a friend of mine puts it, is a love letter to my father.

What comes to mind when you hear the word “Cuba”?
Cuba is our humor, Cuba is our music, Cuba is our sense of family, Cuba is our perseverance. It is a longing that I was born into; a nostalgia. Cuba is so much part of who I am, but at the same time takes nothing away from who I am as an American.

How will you introduce humor to a heavy and controversial subject such as immigration?
I think that humor is something that is inescapable. It is the way that quite often we deal with very difficult situations. It could come at someone’s death bed as I have experienced or in the middle of the ocean or crossing deserts as so many do to get here. I’m not saying that any of these things are at all humorous, but sometimes even in those situations when you least expect it there is a moment of grace that allows you for maybe just a second to chuckle at some absurdity as you push through the horror of the moment.

Can you tell us a particular aspect of this show about Cuba and immigration that we might not have heard of or explored before?
In the end, although this is Cuban specific, it is more universally the American immigrant story. Sometimes you don’t have to share something unexplored, it’s enough to remember, reconnect and share a communal experience as a group or a moment of recognition between the audience and myself. I hope for some of that connection when I share Sharks.

Read more about the show and then purchase your tickets.

La Luna Nueva is sponsored by PGE Foundation and The Oregonian. This project is supported in part by a grant from the Oregon Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. Festival events occur September 16 through October 1, 2011 at El Centro Milagro, 525 SE Stark Street, Portland, Oregon 97214; a complete schedule is available here. Admission varies; many events are FREE. Purchase tickets at 503-236-7253 or www.milagro.org