The Chicago Latino Theater Alliance Reveals Plays For Inicios: Chicago Latine Playwright Festival

The Chicago Latino Theater Alliance (CLATA) has announced the three new plays selected for the first-ever, Inicios: Chicago Latine Playwright Festival, to be held June 2-4 at UrbanTheater Company, Aguijón Theater and Teatro Tariakuri.

New Personalidad, by Chicago actor and playwright Nelson A. Rodriguez, a play in Spanglish about a family of devout Jehovah’s Witnesses accepting the loss of their youngest son, exploring how religious devotion can bind people together or rip them apart. Xavier Custodio, Artistic Director, Visión Latino Theatre Company, directs. New Personalidad will be presented Friday, June 2, 7:30 p.m. at UrbanTheater Company, 2620 W Division St., in Humboldt Park.

Dulcci, by Raul Dorantes and Emily Masó, about a young high school student from Chicago, who encounters Don Quixote, then decides to give her legal identity to her best friend, who is undocumented and has no possibility of continuing her studies. Dorantes and Masó are both members of Chicago’s Colectivo el Pozo. Marcela Muñoz, Executive Director and Co-Artistic Director, Aguijón Theater, directs. Dulcci will be read Saturday, June 3 at 3 p.m. at Aguijón Theater, 2707 N Laramie Ave. in Hermosa/Belmont-Cragin.

Gasping: A Nicaraguan Fever Dream by Claribel Gross, a young Chicago-based theater maker, director and teaching artist, is a surreal, imagined retelling of a journey about a brazen, barefooted little girl in Nicaragua who is searching for the future only to encounter a wild haired, old woman reminiscing on love, country and her desire for a perpetual Christmas. Karla Lopez-Galvan, Artistic Director, Teatro Tariakuri, directs. Gasping will be performed Sunday, June 4 at 3 p.m. at Teatro Tariakuri, 3117 W. 63rd St. in Marquette Park.

So take a three-day tour of Chicago’s most beloved Latino neighborhood storefront theaters to celebrate the vibrant Latino experience. Be the first to witness the extraordinary talent of Latino playwrights that will make Chicago proud. Tickets are free, but reservations are recommended. Reserve online at clata.org/en/programs/inicios.

Each of the three winning playwrights receives a $1,000 stipend, plus the experience of being paired with an artistic director at a Chicago Latine theater company, participating in a robust, one-week workshop process, seeing their work read aloud by top professional Latine actors in front of a live audience, and gathering feedback during the post-show Q&A.

CLATA’s panelists, who read more than a dozen submissions before selecting the three works to be read at Inicios, are Rey Andujar, a novelist, playwright, performer an artistic associate at Aguijón Theater, and a professor at Governors State University; Sandra Delgado, playwright, actor, director, creator of La Havana Madrid, and a Teatro Vista ensemble member; and Isaac Gomez, the award-winning Chicago and L.A.-based playwright and screenwriter. 

For more information, visit clata.org. To receive the latest updates, sign up for CLATA’s weekly e-news, and follow CLATA on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.