Pregones Theater and the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater to Merge in November

According to the New York Times, two New York City-based Latino theatre companies will merge together on November 4- Pregones Theater and the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater.

Pregones Artistic Director Rosalba Rolon told NYT: "This merger is about our collective future, while preserving an important legacy. We can both expand the reach of our work with that uptown-downtown flow and consolidate the administrative aspects. It's very exciting."

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Pregones Theater is a Bronx-based ensemble whose mission is to create and perform original musical theater and plays rooted in Puerto Rican/Latino cultures, and to present other performing artists who share twin commitment to the arts and civic enrichment. The company is owner of a professional performing arts facility on Walton Avenue, south of Yankee Stadium, in the heart of the burgeoning South Bronx Cultural Corridor. Pregones Theater is widely recognized as a leading Latino arts producing and presenting organization. In the early 1980s, we were among only a handful of professional artists creating arts programs for low and moderate income Bronx residents.

The Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre (PRTT) was founded in 1967 following the highly successful run of the English-language production of THE OXCART, René Marqués' classic drama of Puerto Rican migration. The play was directed by acclaimed director Lloyd Richards and starred Miriam Colón Valle, the late Raúl Juliá, and Lucy Boscana. Realizing that such a professional production was not accessible to most of the families from economically disadvantaged communities, Ms. Colón Valle, the PRTT's Founder and Artistic Director, made the decision to present the play free of charge in New York City streets with funding secured from then Mayor John Lindsay. This initial summer production helped launch the Spanish bilingual theater movement and led to the creation of a major cultural legacy for the State of New York and the U.S. Many Latino theaters exist in cities across the nation today inspired by the pioneering efforts of the PRTT.