2015 Carnaval of New Latina/o Work

Watch video from the convening here

Chicago, Illinois 23-25 July 2015

The Latinx Theatre Commons (LTC)’s 2015 Carnaval of New Latinx Work was produced in association with Teatro Vista and the Alliance of Latinx Theatre Artists of Chicago (ALTA), and hosted by The Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois and brought together over 200 Latinx and allied theatremakers from across the country and the globe and featured readings of twelve new plays by Latinx writers directed by Latinx directors.

“I want to write plays that are in a constant state of motion: music playing, voices overlapping, and bodies that can’t stop dancing, which to me is the same as dreaming.”—Virginia Grise

Check out the full list of featured artists in our press release from 13 April 2015, and see the full program here. The 2015 Carnaval featured the following plays:

• Parachute Men by Mando Alvarado
• Satyricoño by Migdalia Cruz
• Sweep by Georgina Escobar
• APPEAL - A New American Musical of Mexican Descent by Amparo Garcia Crow
• Perfectamente Loca/Perfectly Insane by Magdalena Gómez
• Siempre Norteada: Always Late, Always Lost by Virginia Grise
• the living'life of the daughter mira by Matthew Paul Olmos
• Wolf at the Door by Marisela Treviño Orta
• Más by Milta Ortiz
• The Sweetheart Deal by Diane Rodriguez
• Swimming While Drowning by Emilio Rodriguez
• Mother Road by Octavio Solis

During preparations for Carnaval 2015, the LTC put out a call to Latinx theatres across the nation to secure productions for the 12 Carnaval selected Playwrights, and in less than 13 hours, 18 responded! This enthusiasm created El Fuego Initiative, which sought to both chronicle and critically position new Latinx theatremaking in the scholarly and public discourses of US American theatre by providing production support for these Latinx plays at Latinx theatres, as well as attaching a scholar to each production to document the process and the impact.. You can read more about these productions in the Ignited series on HowlRound.

“It is a reminder of the in-betweeness of it all. Cultures, voices, people, stories brought together by one main unifying theme that rests on the fact that ‘between cultures’ makes a culture.”—Georgina Escobar