Latinx Theatre

In this second installment, Olga Sanchez discusses the act of physically and metaphorically crossing borders at the 2014 TCG Conference.

In this first installment, Luis Alfaro reflects on his experience at the 2014 TCG National Conference: Crossing Borders.

We are committed to providing a safe, crowd-sourced space for online dialogue and discussions around the topic of Latina/o theater. As the definitions of Latinidad and Latina/o theater continue to shift and evolve, so will Café Onda / Nos dedicaremos a proveer un espacio positivo, creado de opiniones publicas donde las conversaciones acerca de los temas de el teatro Latino/a puedan florecer. Así como es cambiante e indefinida la identificación académica y artística de lo que es Latinidad y el teatro que lo representa, así también Café Onda será siempre cambiante y evolucionará en forma colectiva.

Dani Snyder-Young writes about Generation Sex, a devised piece from Teatro Luna looking at misogyny, violence, Latina identities, modern femininity, and more.

The Los Angeles Theatre Center (LATC), in association with the Latinx Theatre Commons (LTC), is proud to announce the 2014 LATC Encuentro: A National Latina/o Theatre Festival. This groundbreaking festival will be the largest national Latina/o theater festival in over twenty-five years, bringing together 100 artists from across the country to explore the aesthetic, thematic, and cultural diversity in the field.

Theater for students of color is needed in the University: to speak about these issues and at the same time to break the “Berkeley Bubble” by showing that issues students study about in their classes—including, race, class and gender—have a real impact on campus life.

Before college, I found myself in the stories of Shanley and Shepard—but now I was only getting cast in parts such as Mexican pregnant girl, homeless person, or getting included in all non-white casts. I am half Mexican and a quarter Lebanese, but that never mattered before. Growing up, white stories were reflected all around me so much that I thought I was white.

For an American playwright today, where is Mecca? Where does it all come together: actors of high quality who give maximum effort to a new script; directors with a sense of humor to match their ability to move bodies in space and make moments that signify on stage; audiences who not only love going to theater but do so a lot and make it part of their daily lives; and great bars before and after the show? Mecca (for me anyway) is Chicago. And my most recent hajj was to Teatro Vista.

When I read the list of speakers on the mayor’s panel, it was made of six women, including five artists and one critic. In terms of racial diversity, only one was African-American and another was from Iran. The rest were white speakers. Where was the Latina? Dallas is an astounding 42 percent Latino and the mayor is going to “Re-Imagine Art in Dallas” without including anyone to speak on our behalf?

And although I’m proud of the production and of the nearly-all Latina/o creative team that gave Mariela en el Desierto an authentic voice, an issue arose as the last weekend of performances approached: No critics from the periodicals in the Atlanta area had attended or reviewed the show.

Since the October 2013 Latina/o Theatre Commons (LTC) National Convening in Boston, the LTC has been moving forward on a number of upcoming planned initiatives. As the momentum and enthusiasm for the LTC has grown, so to has the need for a full-time, dedicated producer. On behalf of the LTC Hiring Committee, I'm pleased to announce that we have hired Abigail Vega—she will begin working full-time in June as the dedicated Latina/o Theatre Commons Producer.

Sara Guerrero shares the process and successes behind South Coast Repertory’s Hispanic Playwrights Project, a bilingual theatre project to gather and tell the stories of the Santa Ana Latino community.

Playwrights Julie Marie Myatt and José Cruz González discuss South Coast Repertory's Dialogue/Diálogos project, which features the stories of more than 700 residents of the Santa Ana community.

Los Angeles Theatre Center Encuentro: A Festival of National Latina/o Theatre will be held October 12-November 10 2014 and will feature ten companies from around the country, presenting their work in repertory over the course of the Festival. During the day, the companies will work together to share artistic practice and methodology which will culminate the final weekend of the Festival with public performance(s) of the co-created new work.

Chris Garza reviews Muy Very Authentico, from the Minneapolis based collective Theatre Forever. Garza shares his skepticism the production as it balances between absurdity/satire and offesnive misrepresentation.

Holly Derr writes about the Latino Theater Company and their role operating the Los Angeles Theatre Center, presenting multi-cultural work through partnerships with other organizaitons, and engaging local communities.

Emerging from the  Latina/o Theatre Commons is a list of plays everyone should have access to. This list helps start jumpstart the exploration of (but not define) Latina/o theatre.

What would happen if ALL of the US Latina/o theatres banded together to share and create together? Could we turn the system upside down?

José Carrasquillo recaps the findings and goals of the National Convening of Latina/o theater artists, and explains where we're headed... and how we can change the trajectory of representation onstage.

With such a long history of Latina/o theatre, Linda López McAlister looks at the current picture by highlighting some current companies and history.

Day three of the Latinx Theatre Commons asks for everyone to make a commitment to mentoring and being a mentee to each other in order to continue building community.