Latina/o Theatre Commons Announces All Carnaval 2015 Playwrights Promised Theater Productions by 2019
By: Sally Henry Fuller Oct. 31, 2015
El Fuego "Fueling The American Theatre With Latina/o Plays" Launches to Support Theatermakers CHICAGO - The Latina/o Theatre Commons (LTC), an active initiative of HowlRound, proudly announces that all 12 playwrights presented at July's Carnaval 2015 are being produced by 18 different theater companies across the United States over the next three years.
LTC is launching the new initiative, El Fuego: Fueling the American Theatre with Latina/o Plays, to help grow, support and ignite the field with new Latina/o theater works. Carnaval 2015, at The Theatre School at DePaul University, Chicago, gathered together over 200 Latina/o and allied theatremakers to celebrate and promote Latina/o playwrights and encourage productions of these vibrant voices nationwide.
"We are doing what the LTC does best-facilitating relationships and combining our collective resources to promote the field," says Lisa Portes, Head of MFA Directing at The Theatre School at DePaul University and Carnaval 2015 Champion. "This initiative is the culmination of everything the LTC has been working towards over the past three years. We are igniting a spark, and we hope other companies follow suit."
In early 2015, members of the LTC Steering Committee were approached with the idea of securing production for every one of the Carnaval 2015 Featured Playwrights before 2019. This desire to ignite US stages with Latina/o stories became a historic initiative with 12 theaters committing in less than 24 hours. The number grew to 18 theaters and is made up of nationally recognized theaters in Washington DC, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, and beyond, including:
- Aurora Theater (Lawrenceville, GA)
- Borderlands Theater (Tucson, AZ)
- Camino Real Productions (Albuquerque, NM)
- Cara Mía Theatre Co. (Dallas, TX)
- Duende CalArts (Valencia, CA)
- El Teatro Campesino (San Juan Bautista, CA)
- GALA Hispanic Theatre (Washington, DC)
- Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center & San Antonio Latino Theatre Alliance (San Antonio, TX)
- INTAR Theatre (New York, NY)
- Latino Producers Action Network - LPAN (San Diego, CA/Los Angeles, CA)
- Latino Theater Company (Los Angeles, CA)
- Milagro Theatre (Portland, OR)
- Su Teatro (Denver, CO)
- Teatro Avante (Miami, FL)
- Teatro Prometeo (Miami, FL)
- Teatro Luna (Chicago, IL/Los Angeles, CA)
- Teatro Vista (Chicago, IL)
- Teatro Vivo (Austin, TX)
Every Carnaval 2015 featured Playwright will receive at least one production over the next three years at one of the above theaters, with many receiving co-productions and commissions of new work. Carnaval 2015 Featured Playwrights are:
- Mando Alvarado (Los Angeles, CA)
- Migdalia Cruz (New York, NY)
- Georgina Escobar (New York, NY)
- Amparo Garcia-Crow (Austin TX)
- Magdalena Gomez (Springfield, MA)
- Virginia Grise (New York, NY)
- Matthew Paul Olmos (New York, NY)
- Milta Ortiz (Tucson, AZ)
- Diane Rodriguez (Los Angeles, CA)
- Emilio Rodriguez (Detroit, MI)
- Octavio Solis (San Francisco, CA)
- Marisela Treviño Orta (San Francisco, CA)
This exciting step forward towards inclusion and a diversity of stories in the American Theatre is just one more in a line with the visionary work that has come to fruition as a result of the LTC.
The LTC will track the progress of each of the collaborations and projects as they develop over the next few years, and will work to ensure the productions are supported at every step of the process.
The Latina/o Theatre Commons (LTC) operates as a collaborative initiative with HowlRound housed at Emerson College. HowlRound, through Emerson College, acts as fiscal sponsor for the LTC, and provides infrastructure and mentorship to support our growth. In our actions, the LTC espouses the philosophical methods of HowlRound, and works to promote a commons-based approach to update the narrative of the American Theatre through advocacy, artmaking, convening, and scholarship.
In May 2012, HowlRound hosted eight Latina/o theatre practitioners at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. to discuss the state of the not-for-profit theatre field for Latina/o theatermakers. Called together by playwright Karen Zacarías, this group of artists set about making a change, and their conversations sparked the inception of the LTC. In 2013, they partnered with Latina/o theatre communities from around the US to create a steering committee and produced the first large scale gathering of Latina/o theatre practitioners since 1986, the LTC National Convening, hosted by HowlRound at Emerson College, October 31-November 3, 2013. In Fall 2014, the LTC associate-produced Encuentro 2014: A National Latina/o Theatre Festival with the Los Angeles Theatre Center and hosted the second LTC National Convening during the final weekend of the Festival. In July 2015, the LTC produced Carnaval 2015 in association with Teatro Vista and the Chicago Alliance of Latino Theatre Artists (ALTA) and was hosted by at The Theatre School at DePaul University.Over the next fourteen months, the LTC plans to expand its points of accessibility to three more cities by ways of physical convenings, and to countless others through their online conversation platform, Café Onda.
About HowlRound: A knowledge commons by and for the theatre communityHowlRound, located in the Office of the Arts at Emerson College, designs and develops online communication platforms and in-person gatherings that promote access, participation, organizational collaboration, field-wide research, and new teaching practices to illuminate the breadth, diversity, and impact of a commons-based approach to theatre practice. Over 40,0000 people visit HowlRound per month. For more information, visit www.HowlRound.com.
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