Latinx Theatre

We hope 2015 activates us all and that we can continue to function as a digital-stage in which to strengthen our conversations, and augment our visibility. For now, we leave 2014 by offering you some of our favorite excerpts from Café Onda this year.

University of Kentucky director desires a multicultural environment; writes and directs a theatre piece based on Mexican painter Frida Kahlo.

The Border. Where people become ambassadors of culture, of politics, of opinions, of languages, of rituals. We are Fronterizos.

South Coast Rep shares model and journey of project El Largo Camino De Hoy with Encuentro 2014 attendees. Roxanne Schroeder-Arce reflects on the overall impact.

I found myself asking: Why can’t my works for the stage mix up forms like Butoh dance, spoken word, and projections of sepia-tinted people? Who says it’s not legit to create evening-length shows comprised of non-linear short-form vignettes?

Ariza spoke in depth about her work in an interview with Diana Taylor, Director of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center at The Graduate Center at CUNY. She discussed the nature of peacekeeping and cultural change in Colombia and the difficulties she encountered at the beginning, including getting shot at and thereafter having to wear a bulletproof vest.

Playwright Elaine Ávila illuminates her eye-opening trip to Portugal—wittingly nicknamed Tíaland—as the winner of the DISQUIET International Short Play Competition. There, she is met with historical narratives of overcoming socialized barriers. 

Carol Kearns writes about Zoetrope: Part 1, a drama set in 1951 Puerto Rico, looking at its multimedia aesthetic, bilingual presentation, and political themes.

Teatro Vivo's mission includes these rich conversations after the performances. Our commitment to bilingual, socially relevant plays that are available to both Latino and Non-Latino audiences allows for these conversations to thrive.

Our art must reflect the communities we serve. As an institution of higher learning, it is our responsibility to serve our students theater that reflects their world—and the world, as we know, is rapidly changing.

As a Black woman, millennial, playwright, and producer who is not Latina, I felt acutely aware of the gestures of absolute inclusivity, both small and large, that comprised my Encuentro experience.

Vickie Vértiz writes about Teatro Luna's production of Your Problem with Men

This long standing collaboration can be felt through and through the ensemble work on display. Premeditation is tantalizing with promise—a talented cast and inventive staging in a noir 1940’s-esque comedy about marriage, infidelity, and murder.

I call the process of creating and performing trauma “spiritual work,” because it feels that way. Embodying trauma is a cathartic experience that transforms specific memory that lives in my body, into story-physical manifestation.

In the Latin American tradition, the poet, performer, and artist bears a social responsibility, an almost mythic duty, to document and articulate the people’s struggle—la lucha de la gente—when they are denied effective means to have their voices heard in their fight against oppression and their many oppressors. I am an interdisciplinary artist, and I explore the underbelly of the “American Dream” mythology and the Latino immigrant experience through writings, performance, and visual art practices.

Jose Luis Valenzuela had a vision of a festival that included artists from all over the country. Through seeing his vision realized in the form of this festival, I too am realizing my own vision: To see and support the work of artists that I would not have access to otherwise.

This manifesto was delivered by José Luis Valenzuela as part of the opening session of the Latina/o Theatre Commons National Convening held at the Los Angeles Theatre Center’s Encuentro 2014 on Thursday, November 6, 2014.

Professor Jorge Huerta gives a short overview about the precedents that led to the historic and revolutionizing event, focusing on the growth of Chicano/a theatre festivals since 1970. 

The Carnaval endeavors to increase the visibility of work by Latina/o playwrights and to encourage the production of that work in the nation’s theaters. The event will include eight readings of new work representing the four geographical regions of the United States; three pieces by master Latina/o directors devised with DePaul Theatre School students; and conversations between producers and the Latina/o theatermaking community.

The painful step, though, is realizing that to exorcise those demons is to perhaps challenge the very notion of an identity. Perhaps the solution is to do away with trying to consistently define ourselves as Latina/o theater, and merely say we are Latinas/os or Latin Americans who make work.

There is a very gentle story at heart about a boy who wants his mother. We all feel that separation; we all want to return to that place in our lives where our mother’s voice, scent, and presence can solve everything. That makes it pretty universal.

The 2014 Latinx Theatre Commons Second National Convening at Los Angeles Theatre Center's Encuentro 2014 runs November 6-9, 2014 and is open to all theatermakers, artists, scholars, administrators, and advocates with an interest in Latina/o theater (or the New American Theater). If you plan to come to any Convening events, please RSVP here no later than November 1, 2014.

My experiences doing archival research in Austin led me to question the current state of Latina/o theater and the growing need not only to return to the archives to learn about the past, but the urgent need we have to archive the present for the future.