Teatro Vista Announces Full AMERICAN JORNALERO Run

American Jornalero, a Chicago premiere by Ed Cardona Jr. about a group of Latinx immigrant day laborers who are confronted by self-styled America First vigilantes, is Teatro Vista's official entry in DESTINOS, the 2nd Chicago Latino International Theatre Festival.
Performances are October 18-21, 2018 in the Richard Christiansen Theatre at Victory Gardens, 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago. Show times are Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $25. For tickets and information, visit victorygardens.org or call (773) 871-3000.

Following its weekend run at Victory Gardens, Teatro Vista announced today it will immediately transfer American Jornalero to Humboldt Park's UrbanTheater, 2620 W. Division St., where performances will pick back up for an additional four week run, October 24-November 18. Show times are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.; Sundays at 3 p.m. There are two press opening nights: Thursday, October 25 and Friday October 26 at 7:30 p.m. There is an Industry Night performance, Monday, November 5 at 7:30 p.m., and an added matinee Saturday, November 17 at 4 p.m.
Tickets are $25/$20 students and seniors with IDs/$20 Industry Night and Saturday matinee. For tickets and information, visit teatrovista.org or call (773) 599-9280.

In an empty lot on a New York street corner, six men wait: For coffee. For work. For news. For their luck to change. American Jornalero is a vital new play that places a literal fence line through the center of contemporary dialogue on labor and immigration-and asks whether it's a divide that can ever be scaled.
With its focus on the plight of a group of day laborers (aka "jornaleros") in Queens, American Jornalero is a portrait of the intersecting transient lives in the search for a daily wage in a land of many compromised American dreams. American Jornalero is a compassionate, clear-eyed and illuminating look at lives and people too often ignored in the U.S. landscape.

Ed Cardona Jr.'s works include American Jornalero (Ubuntu Theater Project, West Coast Premiere; Maria Se Fue (As Performance Series, NYU|SteinHardt Drama Therapy Program); RIP 60, Z-SPLIT, HOT READ, EAR HOLE ON 3--BREAK (Source Festival, 10-Minute Plays, CulturalDC); Bamboo in Bushwick (Five Boroughs/One City, Working Theater); I like to be here: Jackson Heights Revisited, or, This is a Mango (Theater 167/Theater: Village Festival, E Pluribus); Audrey Bound, Sir Quince, Super Moon - a collection of ten-minute plays (FOCUS Festival of the Arts, St. Andrew's College); La Ruta (Working Theater, New York Times Critic's Pick); Leveret's Lesson (Christmas Plays, St. Andrew's College); Jackson Heights, 3am (Theater 167); Mongo, performed at the Local 3, I.B.E.W. Diversity Conference in part with membership diversity workshops (Working Theater); Super Moon - a ten-minute play (FOCUS Festival of the Arts, St. Andrew's College); Bottle Rockets and La Perla (Puerto Rican Traveling Theater); With Love, Gabe (Intar Theatre). Cardona has been an artistic associate with the Working Theater, a collaborator with The Brooklyn Generator and Urban Arts Partnership/The New Group. He has been a resident playwright with St. Andrew's College, Hispanic Playwrights-in-Residence Lab at Intar Theatre, The Professional Playwrights Unit at the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, The Hall Farm Center for the Arts & Education in Townsend, VT, and is a member of NY Madness. NoPassport Press, Dramatic Publishing and Smith & Kraus Publishing have published Cardona's work. He received his M.F.A. in playwriting from Columbia University where he received the John Golden Award for his thesis play, PICK UP POTS.

Nate Santana (director) is a Teatro Vista ensemble member, with credits including White Tie Ball and Mommas Boyz. Other Chicago credits include SS! Romeo and Juliet, SS! Twelfth Night (Chicago Shakespeare Theater); The Last Wife (TimeLine Theatre); The Legend of Georgia McBride (Northlight Theatre); Marvin's Room (Shattered Globe Theatre); Ironbound (Steppenwolf Theatre Company); Balm in Gilead, Golden Boy (Griffin Theatre); The River Bride (Halcyon Theatre); Comrades Mine (City Lit Theater Company); The Rainmaker (BoHo Theatre); The Merchant of Venice (First Folio Theatre); and What Happened When and Slipping (the side project). Television credits include Chicago PD and The Exorcist. Santana is also an artistic associate with Shattered Globe. He has been nominated for two Jeff Awards and is a graduate of the School at Steppenwolf. He received his BA from Valparaiso University.
?What's next for Teatro Vista?

With 2019 comes The Abuelas, another world premiere by Stephanie Allison Walker, author of Teatro Vista's hit production earlier this spring, The Madres. Walker's newest play, set in Chicago, is a sequel to The Madres, and it peels back the layers, long reach and devastating repercussions of Argentina's military dictatorship from 1976-1983. Teatro Vista Artistic Director Ricardo Gutiérrez will direct. Performances of The Abuelas are February 9 - March 17, 2019 in the Richard Christiansen Theater at Victory Gardens.

Teatro Vista produces, develops and commissions plays that explore the wealth and variety of the human experience from a Latinx perspective. The company provides work and professional advancement opportunities for Latinx theatre artists, with special emphasis on the company's ensemble members, and seeks to enhance the curricular goals of Chicago students through theatre. Teatro Vista was recently celebrated as one of "Chicago's Cultural Leaders" by the Arts & Business Council of Chicago and received the League of Chicago Theatre's Artistic Leadership Award.

Teatro Vista's primary focus is producing new works by Latinx theatre artists and presenting classic plays featuring artists of color. Its artistic vision is shaped by the company's ensemble members, a group of multi-generational, multi-ethnic and multi- disciplinary artists. They inform Teatro Vista's artistic aesthetic by devising original works as well as by selecting plays with themes that are engaging and relevant to Chicago's diverse population.

Teatro Vista was founded in 1990 by Edward Torres and Henry Godinez. As Teatro Vista's first Artistic Director, Godinez guided the company during the formative years. He helped stage successful productions and establish vital relationships with other theatre companies and artists. When Godinez stepped down, Torres was appointed Artistic Director. Under Torres' direction, Teatro Vista used the stage to engage, connect and challenge audience members using the company's mission as his guide.

In 2012, Torres moved to New York and the Board of Directors promoted Associate Artistic Director Ricardo Gutiérrez to the position of Executive Artistic Director. In 2017, Sylvia Hevia joined Teatro Vista as Managing and Development Director. Previously, Hevia was Director of Marketing and Development of the International Latino Cultural Center and had her own multicultural event Production Company.

In addition to Gutiérrez, Teatro Vista ensemble members include Charín Álvarez, Max Arciniega, Desmín Borges, Cheryl Lynn Bruce, Ramón Camín, Ivonne Coll, Laura Dahl, Sandra Delgado, Liza Fernández, Khanisha Foster, Cruz Gonzalez-Cadel, Issac Gomez, Erik Juárez, Jon Lyon, Sandra Márquez, Eddie Martinez, Salome Martinez, Joe Minoso, Ayssette Muñoz, Christina Nieves, Marvin Quijada, Tommy Rivera-Vega, Gabriel Ruíz, Nate Santana, Cecilia Suarez and co-founder Edward Torres.

Teatro Vista's Board of Directors includes Ezequiel "Zeek" Agosto, President; Rosanna Márquez, Vice President; Joan Pantsios, Secretary; Tom Vega-Byrnes, Treasurer; and Bhuvana Badrinathan, Adela Cepeda, Edgar Delgado, Ricardo Gutiérrez, Sylvia Hevia, Kelly Jones, Kareem C. Mohamednur, Carina Sanchez, Angel Torres and Jose Vasquez.
Teatro Vista is supported by The Joyce Foundation, Alphawood Foundation, Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, The MacArthur Fund for Arts & Culture at the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events of the City of Chicago, The Shubert Foundation, The Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelly Foundation, the Bayless Family Foundation and The Saints.
Purple Group is Teatro Vista's Headline Season Sponsor. Teatro Vista is a Victory Gardens Resident Theater.

For more information, visit teatrovista.org.

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