Latino Theater Company Announces 'Circle Of Imaginistas' Playwriting Commission

The Latino Theater Company has been awarded a WarnerMedia Arts and Culture grant funded by the AT&T Foundation to support the first year of Circle of Imaginistas, a new playwright commissioning initiative that pairs established Latinx playwrights with early/mid-career Latinx playwrights to create a 30-play canon of new work over the course of five years.

The Circle, which began meeting in April, pairs Chicano writer and MacArthur "Genius Grant" recipient Luis Alfaro (Electricidad, Oedipus El Rey) with Colombian-born actor/playwright Diana Burbano; Latino Theater Company associate artistic director and resident playwright Evelina Fernández (A Mexican Trilogy, The Mother of Henry, Dementia) with actor/writer Israel López Reyes; Honduras-born playwright and screenwriter Rickerby Hinds (Blackballin' and Dreamscape, adapted into the award-winning film My Name is Myeisha) with UrbanTheater Company producing artistic director Miranda Gonzalez; playwright, poet, essayist and professor at USC's School of Dramatic Arts Oliver Mayer (Blade to the Heat, Members Only) with Collective Voz writers' collective member Joel Ulloa; and Karen Zacarías, one of America's most-produced playwrights (Just Like Us, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent) with poet/playwright Marisela Treviño Orta, who found her way to playwriting while working on her MFA in poetry at the University of San Francisco.

The "Imaginistas" will work closely throughout the year with Latino Theater Company members, who will share the methodologies developed by the LTC over the course of its history.

Public readings of work created by the Circle will be scheduled for March, 2022 on stage at The Los Angeles Theatre Center.

The Latino Theater Company is dedicated to providing a world-class arts center for those pursuing artistic excellence; a laboratory where both tradition and innovation are honored and honed; and a place where the convergence of people, cultures and ideas contribute to the future. The company has operated the City of Los Angeles-owned Los Angeles Theatre Center since 2006, producing 155 plays, creating over 4,125 jobs and helping 938 nonprofit organizations by providing space and resources. The City, recognizing the Latino Theater Company for its "effective first-class theater center operations," recently extended the company's initial 20-year lease for an additional 30 years, through 2056.

For more information about Latino Theater Company's "Circle of Imaginistas," go to latinotheaterco.org/imaginistas.