CASA 0101 Theater Announces New Documentary Film In The Works LED by Michael and Moni Vargas
Los Angeles, CA (June 14, 2025) – CASA 0101 Theater has announced principal photography is underway for a new documentary film entitled: “CASA 0101: 25 Years of Theater, Transformation and Community,” created and filmed by the three time Emmy Award-Nominated production company, Friends We Love, led by Michael and Moni Vargas.
To learn more about the documentary film and watch a two-minute trailer, “CASA 0101: 25 Years of Theater, Transformation and Community,” please visit the website, https://casa0101film.com/ and follow the film’s Instagram account: https://instagram.com/casa0101film
For those who might have an interest in making a donation towards the film, please visit https://casa0101.org/support-us and make sure to write the word “Documentary” in the tribute note line.
Filmmakers Michael and Moni Vargas of Friends We Love said: “This film underscores the urgency of countering harmful stereotypes and uplifting the stories of Chicanos and Mexican-Americans. It serves as a counter-narrative, showing the beauty, resilience, and contributions of a community that is often misrepresented. In a time when the community faces unjust scrutiny, a film like this is vital. Community, Pride, Transformation…When a dream became a stage, a community found its voice. This is CASA 0101. We presently have a 20-minute proof of concept completed and principal photography is in progress. We are hopeful our film will be ready for release at sometime in 2026.”
Emmanuel Deleage, Executive Director of CASA 0101 Theater and Executive Producer of the film, said: “This year CASA 0101 Theater is celebrating our 25th Anniversary Season. This is an important milestone. Through this documentary we wish to preserve the incredible energy and passion that has been fostered at CASA 0101 and capture the important stories, art and growth that have taken place during these 25 years. We also wish to inspire others to create and build community.”
Josefina López, Founding Artistic Director of CASA 0101 Theater, said: “Sometimes in life when you want something to happen, you have to take charge of your own destiny, and own it, not waiting for others to help you get there. That’s been the mantra of my creative life. My motto has always been: Create, Elevate, Celebrate.”
The film follows three intertwining journeys: Josefina López, the Founding Artistic Director of CASA 0101, whose original play, Real Women Have Curves, which is now the source material, along with the 2002 Sundance Film Festival award-winning film of the same name, co-written with George LaVoo, for Real Women Have Curves The Musical, currently playing on Broadway; Abel Alvarado, a costume designer-turned-writer/director, now telling LGBTQ stories on stage and Katherine Moreno, a shy girl who found her voice at CASA 0101, eventually starting her own Theater Club at her high school.
The film includes insights from key figures connected with CASA 0101 Theater, including: Emmanuel Deleage, Executive Director; Mark Kraus, Director of Development and Edward Padilla, a longtime Board Member and Theater Class Instructor. CASA 0101 emerges as a transformative space in Boyle Heights—a place where elders, youth, and parents are given the opportunity to tell their stories, heal and create the magic that happens when a community sees itself represented on stage. Through the lens of these personal journeys, CASA 0101 is shown not just as a theater but as a space where art becomes activism and a lifeline for a resilient community.
More About CASA 0101 Theater:
CASA 0101, the little theater that could, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization which was founded 25 years ago by Josefina López in April 2000 to fulfill her vision of bringing art and live theater programs to Boyle Heights. From its humble beginnings in a former bridal shop, CASA 0101 Theater has established itself as a leading arts venue for Los Angeles’ East Side, currently offering year-round theatrical productions and classes in dramatic writing and acting for youth and adults.
CASA 0101 is dedicated to providing vital arts, cultural, and educational programs in theatre, digital filmmaking, art and dance – to Boyle Heights, thereby nurturing the future storytellers of Los Angeles. CASA 0101 Theater has grown into a cultural institution in Boyle Heights, nurturing thousands of students, actors, artists, and audience members. CASA 0101 has produced hundreds of new works and has created community for thousands of people who call CASA 0101 a second home.
CASA 0101 is named such, as “casa” means house or home in Spanish. 0’s and 1’s are the binary code computers use to operate. CASA 0101 Theater was founded at the dawn of the digital age, when digital cameras started appearing and moviemaking became accessible to more people. Early on Josefina López taught digital video classes and the thought was that the organization could be a home for the digital revolution. The organization subsequently focused its energies on theatre and not digital filmmaking, but the name stuck.
More About the Film’s Protagonists:
Josefina López (Founding Artistic Director of CASA 0101 Theater/Writer/Director/Producer/Performer/Author/Activist/Shaman) (of the Boyle Heights area of Los Angeles, CA) is best known for authoring the play and co-authoring the 2002 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL AUDIENCE AND JURY AWARD WINNING film Real Women Have Curves. López started her writing career at 17 and has had over 130 productions produced of her many plays throughout the country. She has been working as a professional screenwriter in Hollywood for over 30 years with countless development deals and screenplay assignments. She has worked with many established producers like Norman Lear (“All In the Family”) and Jaime Paglia (“Eureka”) to bring Latinos to television.
Josefina López Film Protagonist, Founding Artistic Director Of CASA 0101 Theater Photo By Michael Roud
Born to Catalina Perales López and Rosendo López Zuñiga in San Luis Potosi, Mexico on March 19, 1969, Josefina López was five-years-old when she and her family migrated to the United States and settled in Boyle Heights, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, CA. López was undocumented for 13 years before she received Amnesty in 1987 and eventually became a U.S. Citizen in 1995. She is a graduate of Columbia College Chicago, and holds an MFA in Screenwriting from UCLA’s School of Film/Television & Theater.
As the Founding Artistic Director of CASA 0101 Theater in the Boyle Heights area of Los Angeles, CA, her commitment is to present plays that celebrate and shatter the myths and stereotypes of Women and Latinos and she teaches playwriting, screenwriting, and producing to a new generation of Latinos and women artists. Learn more at www.casa0101.org
López is the recipient of numerous awards and accolades, including a formal recognition from U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer’s 7th Annual “Women Making History in Hollywood” in1998; and a Screenwriting Fellowship from the California Arts Council in 2001. She and Real Women Have Curves co-author George LaVoo won the HUMANITIES PRIZE for Screenwriting in 2002, The Gabriel Garcia Marquez Award from Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn in 2003, and the Artist-in-Residency grant from the National Endowment for the Arts/Theatre Communications Group in 2007.
Josefina López’s first short play, Simply Maria or the American Dream was filmed as a PBS special and won a Gold Award from the Corporation of Public Broadcasting and an Emmy Award. Josefina López was also the recipient of a 2025 Woman of Impact Award from Proyecto Pastoral, the 2023 Your Voice Carries Weight Award presented at the 2023 The Creative Coalition Humanitarian Awards Gala, and CASA 0101 Theater, the theater she founded, was the Eastside Arts Initiative 2023 Innovative Arts Organization of the Year Award. LA Weekly recognized CASA 0101 Theater as the “Best Theater Serving Its Community” in October 2016.
As an author López has penned numerous books including: Real Women Have Curves and Other Plays, Detained In The Desert and Other Plays, Real Women Have Curves, 8 Ways To Say I Love My Life!, Confessions of Women from East L.A, the novel, Hungry Women in Paris and the Children’s Book, Shine, Shine, Shine Bright (The Antonio Villaraigosa Story).
Aside from her signature play, Real Women Have Curves, Josefina López’s cannon of plays also includes: Simply Maria, or the American Dream; Confessions of Women from East L.A.; Boyle Heights; Remembering Boyle Heights I and II, Hungry Woman in Paris; Detained in the Desert (which was also made into a feature film); Trío Los Machos; A Cat Named Mercy; Piñata Dreams; Drunk Girl; Lola Goes To Roma; A Cat Named Mercy; Hpysteria; A Woman Named Gloria; An Enemy of the Pueblo and Queen of the Rumba.
Josefina López’s original play, Real Women Have Curves, and the HBO film, Real Women Have Curves written by Josefina López and George LaVoo, are the source materials for an adaptation of the new Broadway show, Real Women Have Curves The Musical, which debuted in New York at the James Earl Jones Theatre on Sunday, April 27, 2025. The musical is produced by Barry and Fran Weissler and Jack Noseworthy, directed and choreographed by Sergio Trujillo, with Book by Lisa Loomer with Nell Benjamin, Music and Lyrics by Joy Huerta and Benjamin Velez, with Music Supervision by Nadia Digiallonardo and Casting by X Casting and Arc Casting. The musical received its World Premiere production at American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) in the Loeb Drama Center in Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA, in December of 2023 and January of 2024. Learn more at https://realwomenhavecurvesbroadway.com/
The prolific Josefina López is currently working on numerous writing projects for the stage, screen and for print. López’s latest film, 20 Pounds To Happiness, a companion piece to her film, Real Women Have Curves, recently debuted at the 24th Edition of the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival. López’s latest new play entitled, Electrico, a Feminist Western dealing with the lynching of Mexicans in 1908, will debut at CASA 0101 Theater later this season. She is also working on her memoir titled Real Women Have Courage. For more information about Josefina López please visit: www.Josefinalopez.biz www.casa0101.org @JosfinaLopezRWHC @thejosefinalopez @20PoundsToHappiness Follow her on social media @JosefinaLopezRWHC
Abel Alvarado (of Silverlake, CA) is a Musical Book Writer/Lyricist, Designer, Producer. His award-winning work has been seen on numerous stages throughout the Los Angeles area including CASA 0101, The Pasadena Playhouse, 24th Street Theatre, The Renberg Theatre, Plaza de La Raza and the San Gabriel Mission Playhouse. His musical ARENA: A HOUSE MUSIC-al played to sold out crowds with rave media reviews. As an openly Gay Chicano, producing the largest and longest running LatinXperience LGBTQ+ writers workshop and festival “Brown & Out” is one of his greatest highlights, and fulfills his lifelong mission to always amplify and uplift the voices of his comunidad that he loves, through stories, music, and art.
bel Alvarado Film Protagoni
Abel Alvarado’s credits as a Costume Designer, Writer and/or Producer at CASA 0101 Theater include the following productions: Lin-Manual Miranda’s and Quiara Alegría Hudes’ In The Heights (2013) Costume Designer, a co-production with TNH Productions; William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar (2014) Costume Designer; The World Premiere of Drunk Girl, written by Josefina López, Rocio Diaz and Libette Garcia (2015) Costume Designer; the Los Angeles Premiere of Karen Zacarias’ Mariela in the Desert (2016) Costume Designer, a co-production with Angel City Theater Ensemble; the World Premiere production of Josefina López’s An Enemy of the Pueblo (2017) Costume Designer, Disney’s Aladdin Duel Language Version/Edición De Lenguaje Dual (2017) Costume Designer, a co-production with TNH Productions and Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (2017) Costume Designer, a co-production with TNH Productions; the World Premiere of Emmanuel Deleage’s and Lorenzo Alfredo’s An L.A. Journey (2018) Costume Designer and Brown and Out IV (2018) Writer and Back By Popular Demand – Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (2018) Costume Designer, a co-production with TNH Productions; Brown and Out V (2019) Executive Producer and Costume Designer and Sister Act, the Musical (2019) Producer, a co-production with TNH Productions, El Centro del Pueblo and San Antonio Winery; the World Premiere of Dan Kwong’s and Rubén Funkahuatl Guevara’s Masao and The Bronze Nightingale (2022) Costume Designer, a co-production with the Japanese American National Museum and the World Premiere of Abel Alvarado’s ARENA: A House MUSIC-al (2022); the World Premiere of Corina: From Lap Dance to Sundance (2023) Costume Designer, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman (2023) Costume Designer, a co-production with Brown Fist Productions and the World Premiere of Josefina López’s The Queen of the Rumba (2023) Costume Designer; and most recently, Alan Menken’s and Stephen Schwartz’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame (2024) Associate Producer.
Katherine Moreno (of the Boyle Heights of Los Angeles, CA) is a 14-year-old girl who loves Theater, Math and Science. Moreno has been attending Hollenbeck Middle School since August 2023. On June 10, 2025, Moreno finished 8th grade. She will begin to attend Ramón C. Cortines High School of the Visual and Performing Arts in the fall of 2025.
Katherine Moreno Film Protagonist Courtesy Photo 2025
From an early age when Moreno was in Preschool at Kinder Care in South Los Angeles her teachers told her mother, Connie Valencia, that Katherine loved to observe others and keep to herself. Starting in Kinder Care Moreno was part of school performances with the support of Mrs. Gabby Mendoza. This experience shaped Katherine’s experience.
After graduating preschool, Moreno started Breed Street Elementary in Boyle Heights, where Josefina López attended elementary school. Breed Street funded opportunities for students to engage in dance and musical theater. Starting in 2018 Breed Street Elementary received a grant from Disney. The school put on the Three Little Piggy Opera. Katherine Moreno was one of the few second graders to be selected to be one of the three little pigs. Once the show ended, Katherine asked her mother to place her in acting classes. Upon searching for affordable acting classes her mother came across CASA 0101 Theater.
In late 2018, Valencia met Eddie Padilla at a CASA 0101 acting class registration event. At that time classes were $25 and Eddie encouraged students to sign up for acting class. Katherine and her mother had to do a skit. They recreated the scene from the Three Little Piggy Opera. This allowed the shy little seven-year-old Katherine to sing in front of another audience. After this experience, Katherine kept saying, “I think I only want to do CASA for one session.”
Waking up early on Saturday mornings was a bit hard for Katherine. After the first session ended Eddie mentioned the amazing opportunities coming to CASA. Katherine said, “Okay, one more session.” This was the case for the first year up until one day when Katherine said, “No need to ask me again. We are doing CASA every Saturday.” Moreno loves going to CASA 0101 because she gets to work with different teachers and it allows her to spend time with her friends. During the first year, Katherine took classes led by Eddie Padilla and Maria G. Martínez.
Over time Katherine took classes with Laurie Muniz, Leslie Montoya, Blanca Soto, Chrissi Erickson and Jocelyn Sanchez. During the summers Katherine had the opportunity to work with Claudia Duran and Maria G. Martínez on Las Selena’s, and a short film, The Giant Wave, with Yelina De León. Other summers Katherine was cast in children’s musicals, as an Ensemble Member in Matilda Jr. and as Mama Shrek, Duloc Dancer, Priest and Puppeteer in Shrek Jr.
In mid 2020, during the pandemic Moreno began taking writing classes with Rosa Navarrete. These classes taught Katherine how to write scripts and develop a story and characters. In the writing classes Katherine was starting to imagine actors reading her script. Navarrete invited a group of actors to read all of the scripts they had written. Katherine enjoyed sharing her script and getting people’s reactions. During the pandemic Katherine also started taking violin and voice classes at the Neighborhood Music School.
Upon entering Hollenbeck Middle School in August of 2023, (also where Josefina López once went to school), Moreno was eager to join a Theater Club. Katherine was devastated when she learned that there was no Theater Club. By the second week of school she found a small group of teachers and students interested in running a Theater Club. Katherine wanted to share the skills she learned at CASA 0101 and create a space. With the support of Eddie Padilla, Ms. Nicholls (librarian), Ms. Klanfer (MESA and Math instructor) and Emmanuel Deleage and Itzel Ocampo at CASA 0101 Theater, Katherine learned how to form a small Theater Club. Katherine is also grateful for the support she received from Jacqueline Guido, Julie Matsomoto and Josof Sanchez.
Moreno auditioned for LACHSA and did not get in. However, she decided to sign up for Ramón C. Cortines High School of Visual Arts and Performing Arts. Eddie Padilla was a big part of this process and helped Katherine prepare for her audition. Moreno loves Math, Science and Theater. Her goal is to get into to UCLA and major either in Psychology or Physics with a minor in Theater. Katherine hopes to continue acting and writing throughout her life.
More About Filmmakers Michael and Moni Vargas and Friends We Love:
Michael and Moni Vargas of the production company, Friends We Love, are an acclaimed husband-and-wife filmmaking team whose work has received three Emmy Award nominations (Red Table Talk, Best Daytime Talk Show, 2019; Con Safos, 2022; and A Ruben Ortiz Torres Story, 2023); two National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards (Con Safos, Documentary Feature, First Place, 2022 and, Con Safos, Diversity in Music/Arts TV/Video, 2022); and two Southern California Journalism Awards (Con Safos, Entertainment Personality Profile TV, First Place, 2022, and Con Safos, Entertainment News, Under Five Minutes, First Place, 2022) and a nomination for Best Documentary Short in the 2021 Official Latino Film Festival for Our Stories in Vivid Color. Their films have aired nationally on PBS, streamed globally, and screened at venues like the Brooklyn Museum and Bronx Museum. Their work centers focuses on powerful, underrepresented stories that challenge the status quo and uplift community voices.
(L To R) Filmmakers Michael And Moni Vargas Photo Courtesy Of Friends We Love
The Vargas’ have worked with talents like Will Smith, Queen Latifah and Eva Longoria, and partnered with studios including PBS, Sony Pictures, Apple and Westbrook Entertainment. Established in 2008, their signature project, Friends We Love, is a groundbreaking, self-funded digital archive of over 100 short-form documentaries spotlighting underrepresented artists and creative communities. Friends We Love’s work has been broadcast nationally, streamed and screened at international film festivals, and the United Nations. With a deep commitment to inclusivity, equity, healing, and collective liberation, Friends We Love continues to push the boundaries of independent filmmaking while partnering with youth programs, public institutions, and cultural spaces to amplify stories that shift narratives and spark lasting connections. Learn more at www.friendswelove.com