NLTI Credit Language and Logos
As a recipient of the NLTI grant, you must add the following NLTI logo to your materials as soon as possible. You will find different versions of the NLTI logos HERE. These have been created to enable you to use the logo that is right for the background you are using.If you have any questions about these guidelines or resources, please contact us at nlti@thelatc.org
National Latinx Theater Initiative Grantees, Locations, and Brief Descriptions
About Productions – Pasadena, CA
In 1988, four collaborators — all fresh out of school at CalArts — endeavored to form a professional creative partnership that would give voice to unique, untold stories and cultural perspectives. Over the next30 years, About Productions has built a reputation for innovative, award-winning theatrical productions and educational programs. Theresa Chavez is co-founder and Producing Artistic Director of About Productions. She is an interdisciplinary theater artist whose work, as director, playwright, and producer, has engaged with numerous communities, and cultural and educational institutions, locally and nationally. Over the past thirty years the work of About Productions has focused on uncovering buried cultural histories and exploring notions of cultural identity and authenticity.
Aguijón Theater Company – Chicago, IL
In August 1989 a small group gathered to discuss establishing a theater company in Chicago whose main objective was to produce theater in Spanish. Its mission would be to explore the social problems that affect the Latino community in the United States. They decided to move forward and chose the name Aguijón, which means “stinger” as it denoted the company’s commitment to stimulate and prick the social conscience of the audience. Rosario Vargas and Marcela Muñoz are co-directors.
Antiheroes Project, Inc. – Miami, FL
Led by Cuban theater maker, José Manuel Dominguez, who, having lost his vision, moved to Miami at the end of 2000 - facing a new reality as an artist with disabilities in an unknown country. Not allowing this to hinder his passion, Dominguez founded Antiheroes Project to cultivate multidisciplinary collaborations with artists from diverse backgrounds and abilities. It is also essential to the organization to nurture new generations of artists to empower the cultural heritage of South Florida, examine its identity, and sustain the advancement of a growing, inclusive Latinx culture.
Arca Images creates, produces, and promotes original contemporary theater and new adaptations of classic plays for Miami’s diverse English-Spanish bilingual audiences, as well as related Hispanic performing arts including music. Arca works with local artists and presents complex works that reflect the region’s multicultural character, while contributing to the evolution of theater as a contemporary art form through educational programs for local youth and adults.
Artefactus Cultural Project, Inc. – Coral Gables, FL
Artefactus Cultural Center is a cultural space located in Kendall, Miami, where community members can enjoy theater shows, art exhibitions, music concerts, book presentations, talks, conferences, festivals, and artistic training workshops. Among its objectives, Artefactus promotes and supports work created by and for the LGBTQ+ community and generates cultural exchanges at a regional and international level.
Asociación ACirc Corp – San Juan, Puerto Rico
ACirc was founded in May 2013 by a group of artists from different disciplines to promote circus and street-arts in Puerto Rico. The purpose of the organization is to promote and publicize the artistic work of circus and street-arts, through various initiatives, including artistic and cultural activities, such as festivals, workshops, and educational exchanges, among others.
A Todo Dar Productions, Cedar Park, TX
Founded by Virginia Grise & Maricella Infante, a todo dar productions stages public interventions and builds convivial spaces for and with community to study, think, imagine, create, and dream together beyond black boxes, border walls, prisons, and cages. To date, ATD has produced theatre in a women’s prison, under the freeway, in cargo boxes, in public plazas, and virtually.
Borderlands Theater – Tucson, AZ
Borderlands was formed in 1986 during a transition time in this country as it witnessed the collective/political energy of many teatros waning. Borderlands’ mission from the start was to present the diverse voices of the U.S./Mexico Border region. At the same time there was a blossoming of Hispanic/Latino/Chicano playwrights, nationally, whose names have now become front and center on playbills and posters, if not yet totally in the national landscape. Barclay Goldsmith, the long-time leader of Borderlines Theater opines, “We also realized, kind of late, that our natural landscape, physical and social, is also in Mexico. How can you have Borderlands in your name and not reflect both sides of the border? That our landscape should include Mexico is a no brainer since before the Gadsden Purchase this was part of Mexico (after Spain of course and on and on backwards).”
Breath of Fire Latina Theater Ensemble, Santa Ana, CA
Breath of Fire, an award-winning, only Latina theater company in Orange County, based in downtown Santa Ana—the corazón of the county—came into existence to support the work and enrich the lives of Latinas in the performing arts, to provide representation, opportunities, and leadership roles in traditional arts communities. Since 2015, Breath of Fire continues to strive to support its mission by serving as an incubator for voices that have been historically excluded in theater and on the stage. They do this by providing programming that offers guidance in the art of storytelling, playwriting, producing, and acting.
Caborca is a bilingual theatre ensemble under the auteurship of Javier Antonio González. For over a decade, Caborca has occupied a unique space in New York at the intersection of the Latinx and experimental arts communities, building an expansive body of politically and aesthetically charged work that confronts entrenched colonial power dynamics. Their name comes from Roberto Bolaño’s novel The Savage Detectives, where Caborca is not only a town in the desert, but an ephemeral poetry magazine turned cryptic manifesto.
The mission of Cara Mía Theatre is to inspire and engage people to uplift their communities through transformative Latinx theatre, multicultural youth arts experiences, and community action. Cara Mía Theatre produces a professional season of plays and a national Latinx theatre festival at Dallas’ Latino Cultural Center. Since its inception in 1996, Cara Mía Theatre has invested in multi-year development of original bilingual plays with local and national Latinx writers. The company states, “Presenting stories through a Latinx lens not only provides representation to the Latinx community but encourages understanding, compassion, and healing with productions that speak to universal values.”
CARPA San Diego, San Diego, CA
Led by Artistic Director Samuel Valdéz, La Carpa San Diego, a Theater Promoting Social Justice and Healing, supports the social justice work of artists who dedicate themselves on building narratives around the border life experience by addressing current social, political issues through comedic relief. Using the old carpa style setting used in Mexico during the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s, troupes of performing artists focuses on immigration, race, human rights, accessibility, and culture to bring performance and visual art pieces to those most impacted during the pandemic.
CASA 0101 provides inspiring theater performances, art exhibits and educational programs in Boyle Heights, a primarily Latinx neighborhood. It nurtures the future storytellers of Los Angeles who will someday transform the world. Starting in 2000, Casa 0101 became one of the leading arts organizations on L.A.'s East Side. Casa 0101 aspires to present the highest quality work with a commitment to diversity and community. CASA 0101 was founded by Josefina Lopez, author of Real Women Have Curves, to fulfill her vision of bringing art and live theater programs to the community she grew up in, Boyle Heights.
Cazateatro Bilingual Theater Group, Memphis, TN
As the only bilingual theatre group in Tennessee, Cazateatro provides bilingual education and transformative multicultural experiences that showcase the vibrancy and diversity of Latin American art and culture. Since 2006, Cazateatro has worked to strengthen relationships between the English and Spanish-Speaking communities through transformative Latinx theatre, multicultural youth arts experiences, and community engagement.
Chicago Latino Theater Alliance (CLATA), Chicago, IL
The Chicago Latino Theater Alliance was formed in 2016 by the three most prominent Chicago Latino arts organizations: International Latino Cultural Center, National Museum of Mexican Art, Puerto Rican Arts Alliance and arts executive, Myrna Salazar. The Chicago Latino Theater Alliance is a leading advocate organization for Latine theater in Chicago. Supporting the development of emerging and established Latine playwrights, actors, directors, and theater professionals is central to its mission. CLATA’S goal is “To cultivate a vibrant and inclusive theater community, by presenting and producing Latine theater that celebrates and promotes the richness and diversity of our Latinidad. We believe together we can build a stronger and more sustainable Latine
theater industry.”
Combat Hippies/Teo Castellano, Miami, FL
Led by Puerto Rico-born award-winning theater artist and director Teo Castellanos, Combat Hippies is an ensemble of performing artists and Puerto Rican military veterans based in Miami, Florida. Combat Hippies was formed during a creative writing workshop for veterans in 2015 hosted by MDC Live Arts, which culminated with their inaugural theater piece “Conscience Under Fire”. They have since premiered their sophomore theater piece, “AMAL” and have developed multiple evenings of spoken word poetry/music, and offer generative approaches to workshops designed toward healing, community engagement offerings and more. They will use the NLTI grant to support touring opportunities in Puerto Rico and the United States.
Company of Angels, Inc., Los Angeles, CA
In 1959, a group of working actors, including Leonard Nimoy, Richard Chamberlain, Vic Morrow, and Vic Tayback, founded Company of Angels to provide a space for actors and other theater artists to work at their craft free of commercial constraints. Incorporated by legendary entertainment attorney Bertram Fields, Company of Angels has survived through the years and has reached the enviable position of being the oldest not-for-profit repertory theater in Los Angeles. Now, Company of Angels, which has a majority Latinx Board of Directors and staff, is dedicated to creating theater that is deeply connected to its community. CoA “aims to share and help give voice to the many stories that exist in our community. With a collective of Actors, Directors, Playwrights, Designers, and Administrators, our company forges ongoing and meaningful relationships with the residents of Los Angeles.
Culture Clash, Los Angeles, CA
Culture Clash is a locally, nationally, and internationally recognized award-winning theater ensemble that is currently led by writer-comedians Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas, and Herbert Sigüenza. Founded in 1984 at the Galería de la Raza in San Francisco's Mission District, by the writers José Antonio Burciaga, Marga Gómez, Monica Palacios, Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas, and Herbert Siguenza, Culture Clash's works range from comedic sketches to full-length plays and screenplays, all of which feature political satire and social satire. The troupe's members have appeared separately and together in several films and received numerous awards, commissions, and grants. In 1993 they filmed 30 episodes of a sketch comedy television series, also called Culture Clash. In 2006 they premiered two new full-length plays, the comedy Zorro in Hell and "SF: The Mexican Bus Mission Tour with CC!" Their works have been collected in two volumes, Culture Clash: Life, Death and Revolutionary Comedy and Culture Clash in AmeriCCa: Four Plays.
El Ingenio is an interdisciplinary non-profit organization dedicated to producing, disseminating, and promoting theater with one common denominator: Latin culture. El Ingenio Teatro is committed to providing the finest Hispanic theater, preserving Hispanic/Latino culture, and deepening Latino heritage through the performing arts to transcend language and cultural barriers and foster the integration of all cultures in South Florida. To this end, the company presents bilingual works, and it provides supertitles to reach the broadest range of bilingual audiences in Miami and serves different populations through its ongoing programs.
El Teatro Campesino, San Juan de Bautista, CA
El Teatro Campesino is widely hailed as a pioneer of Chicanx theater. Since its inception, El Teatro Campesino and its founder and artistic director, Luis Valdez, have set the standard for Latino theatrical production in the United States. Founded in 1965 on the Delano Grape Strike picket lines of Cesar Chavez’s United Farmworkers Union, the company created and performed “actos” or short skits on flatbed trucks and in union halls. Taking the “actos” on tour to dramatize the plight and cause of the farmworkers, El Teatro Campesino was honored in 1969 with an Obie Award for “demonstrating the politics of survival” and with the Los Angeles Drama Critics Award in 1969 and 1972. In time for the company’s 50th anniversary in 2015, ETC’s operations embraced its intersecting work across three programming areas: Professionals Arts, Arts Education, and Community Arts. Through delivery and continued expansion of programs in these core areas, ETC’s current generation of leaders and innovators remain passionate and committed to artistic excellence, vibrant education, and the pursuit of social justice.
Argentine-born Hugo Medrano, who came to Washington, D.C. after spending five years directing and acting in Spain, and Rebecca Reed, a dancer, realized that the country’s capital was ripe for a Latinx cultural awakening. Hugo saw a great need for a legitimate Spanish-speaking theater to fill this cultural void. GALA’s principal audience, as well as its actors, have been Argentines, Mexicans, Spaniards, Chileans, Uruguayans, Paraguayans, Peruvians, etc. As a result, GALA has had to respond to issues and concerns of the Latino world at large. For GALA, the unification of its audience has been a paramount objective. “GALA is not Spanish, nor Argentine, nor Puerto Rican,” Hugo has said. “It is Latino in the fullest sense.” Having finally secured a permanent space at the Tivoli, GALA diversified its programs to include film, concerts, dance, presentation by other arts groups, and provided opportunities for outstanding Hispanic artists from across the nation and abroad. They have attracted local, national, and international audiences and visitors as GALA attains an increasingly national profile.
Group.BR Limited, New York, New York
Founded by Andressa Furletti, Debora Balardini and Thiago Felix, the company started in 2011. Group.BR’s mission is to present the “calor” and diversity of Brazilian culture through the performing arts. By using avant-garde, physical, choreographic, and contemporary theatre as tools, Group Dot BR engages a multicultural community with a forward-thinking approach to its “presencial” and online programs. As the longest-operating Brazilian theatre company in New York, but realistically probably in the whole United States, it supports artists by creating a bridge for exchange beyond borders and holds up Portuguese as a heritage language.
The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center was founded by a group of Chicano/a artists determined to play a critical role in shaping the artistic and cultural experiences of San Antonio’s residents and visitors alike. Nearly thirty-six years ago this band of artists formed a pro-active group called the Performance Artists’ Nucleus (PAN). They represented different organizations that were seeking municipal funds to support their work and to preserve and promote the rich traditions of Chicano, Latino and Native American culture.
International Arts Relations, Inc. (INTAR), NY, NY
INTAR Theatre, founded in 1966, is one of the oldest Hispanic theater companies in the United States. Founding Artistic Director, Max Ferrá, INTAR soon became a home for many celebrated and acclaimed Latine artists. As the NY Times profile on Max Ferrá puts it, “The playwrights who have had their works produced at Intar include the Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa, Manuel Puig, José Rivera, Luis Santeiro, Migdalia Cruz, Caridad Svich, Carmelita Tropicana, Eduardo Machado and Nilo Cruz, whose play ‘Anna in the Tropics’ won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.” Now led by Artistic Director, Lou Moreno, INTAR continues to produce bold, innovative, artistically significant plays that reflect diverse perspectives.
LatinUS Theater Experience Company, Inc., Cleveland, OH
LatinUs Theater Company, Inc., was formed in January of 2018 to fulfill the growing need for a Hispanic/Latino artistic space, in Northeast Ohio, and to enrich the community with the cultural expression and artistic manifestation of the Hispanic/Latino arts. LatinUs Theater Company contributes to educating the Greater Cleveland community by promoting and producing artistic and theatrical works in Spanish, honoring the cultural heritage and traditions of the Latin American population of the region.
Latinx Playwrights Circle, Middletown, NY
The Latinx Playwrights Circle (LPC) started as a "pop up" playwrights circle in October 2017. Since 2018, the group has been spearheaded and organized by playwrights Guadalís Del Carmen and Oscar A. L. Cabrera with Janio Marrero serving as Executive Director. Its mission is to build a network of Latinx Playwrights nationwide in order to promote, develop and elevate their work while making their plays accessible to theater makers looking to find the next generation of American storytellers.
The Miracle Center’s Adult Theater Ensemble offers individuals, 18 and above, an opportunity to further their experience on stage and to continue their life-long love for theater. All are welcomed to audition. Young actors will rehearse a show (usually a musical) for approximately eight weeks. Casts consist of 10 to 20 actors who sing, dance and act for community audiences. The Miracle Center continues its commitment to offer quality programs and theatrical productions for all age groups in Greater Chicago believing that programs in the arts, particularly theatre, will continue to produce successful adults who learn life-long lessons as hard work, commitment, and cooperation.
Miracle Theatre Group (Milagro), Portland, OR
José Eduardo González, Executive Director, and Dañel Malán, Teatro Milagro Artistic Director, founded the Miracle Theatre Group, a.k.a. Milagro, in 1985, making it one of the longest running Latinx theaters in the country. Now, nearly 40 years later, El Centro Milagro, acquired in 1997, was renovated to include an intimate 121 seat theatre, administrative offices, scene shop, and costume and prop storage. In 2010 an area of the building was renovated to create El Zócalo Milagro’s community space. NLTI funds will be deployed as follows: 1) continue the recovery of its operations and programming from the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and 2) fulfill the principal objectives articulated in the Milagro’s 2020 Strategic Plan, updated to reflect new insights and learnings resulting from the pandemic.
Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater (PRTT), Bronx, NY
Pregones was founded in 1979 when a group of artists led by Rosalba Rolón set out to create new works in the style of Caribbean and Latin American “colectivos” or performing ensembles. Soon established as a Bronx resident company with a home season, Pregones remains in the vanguard of an arts renaissance radiating throughout and beyond The Bronx. Led by stage and film icon Miriam Colón, PRTT was founded in 1967 as one of the first bilingual theater companies in all the U.S. It is credited for nurturing the development of hundreds of Latino artists, forging cultural connections throughout the Spanish-speaking world, and pioneering models for community engagement. The two organizations merged in 2014.
In January 1955, the governor of Puerto Rico announced before the legislative assembly that he intended to create a public corporation to preserve and promote Puerto Rican heritage. Since then, the Instituto, considered the state arts agency of Puerto Rico, has been a vital cultural force on the island. The mission of the ICP Performing Arts Program is to preserve, promote, disseminate, and enrich artistic expressions in the disciplines of Theater and Dance throughout Puerto Rico and abroad. This mission is achieved through the commissioning of works created by composers, playwrights and choreographers and the dissemination of their works in concerts, presentations, plays, workshops, conferences, publications, recordings, videos, documentaries, and high-quality shows that contribute to the development culture of our people. The Performing Arts Program includes the Theater Division and manages the Francisco Arriví Theater and the Victoria Espinosa Experimental Room.
SINERGIA Theatre Group-Grupo de Teatro SINERGIA, Los Angeles, CA
Teatro Sinergia, based in the Ramparts District of Los Angeles – one of the City’s most densely populated areas, serves the Latino community with professional bilingual plays (English/Spanish), focusing on the problems and social issues confronting the community Sinergia offers workshops for at risk youth, and adults; offers new artists an opportunity to present their work to the public.
Spanish Theatre Repertory Company, Ltd. (Repertorio Español), NY, NY
Repertorio Español is the vision of the late Producer Gilberto Zaldívar and Artistic Director Emeritus René Buch. They combined forces in 1968 to produce excellent theatre in Spanish. Robert Weber Federico joined them in 1971 and was named Executive Producer in 2005. The organization is now led by Rafael Sanchez, the Executive Artistic Director. At the Gramercy Arts Theatre since 1972, Repertorio haspresented an unparalleled body of theater that promotes and divulges the rich heritage of Hispanic theatre. The Company presents over 300 performances of 15 different productions in rotating repertory and guest events annually. The productions, some of which remain in repertory for many years, are directed, designed, and performed by a talented ensemble of experienced and emerging Latino theatre artists from diverse Spanish-speaking nations as well as the United States. The company’s productions are most often performed in Spanish with English captions opening the door to non-Spanish speakers to experience Latino theater as well.
Su Teatro was borne at the height of Chicano Civil Rights Movement. In a class at the University of Colorado at Denver, in 1972 a student-organized theater group was formed as Chicano Teatros and spread across the southwest. For the next 10 years, Su Teatro lived on the picket line, the parks, the political rallies, a nomadic troupe telling the stories of the movement around them. Under the direction of Anthony J Garcia, Su Teatro started to do full blown plays at rented spaces such as the Denver Center and Slightly off Center Stage. In 1986, they performed Intro to Chicano History:101 at Joseph Papp’s Festival Latino at New York City’s Public Theater. In 2010, Su Teatro purchased and renovated the Denver Civic Theatre, centrally located in Denver’s Santa Fe Arts District. The newest move is part of Su Teatro’s plan to become a regional Latino cultural arts center—the only one of its kind in the area.
Tantai Teatro PR, San Juan, PR
Tantai Teatro PR works for the cultural strengthening of the Puerto Rican people through the performing arts. The company produces shows from a contemporary perspective with stagings that investigate, question, or respond to the most current or postmodern concepts. Tantai Teatro PR connects the local offering with the performing arts that reinvent the theatrical experience, whether with classic or contemporary texts, by deploying a scenic language that dialogues with the technological universe of the digital native spectator. Led by Ismanuel Rodríguez, Artistic Director and Rafa Sánchez, Executive Producer, Tantai was founded in Madrid but later incorporated in Puerto Rico in 2007.
Teatro Alebrijes, San Jose, CA
Teatro Alebrijes is a theater ensemble that seeks to amplify the voices of Spanish speaking LGBTQ Latinx individuals in the Santa Clara Valley. They perform original work with a distinctive style where humor is the main star. A one-of-a-kind LGBTQ Latinx Theater ensemble, it includes several immigrants from Latin America, many of whom had not had theatrical experiences prior to joining the ensemble. Realizing that in the United States, most representations of LGBTQ theater is conducted in English, the company is committed to creating works in Spanish that speak to its primarily Spanish-speaking audiences.
Teatro Avante, Inc., Miami, FL
Teatro Avante, founded by actor, director, and playwright Mario Ernesto Sánchez in 1978, focuses on preserving Hispanic theater and culture. Teatro Avante was created to provide a venue for Spanish-language art theater in Miami. The company's first production was the play Electra Garrigó by the Cuban playwright Virgilio Piñera. In 1986, Teatro Avante began organizing and producing an annual theater festival, originally called the Festival of Hispanic Theatre. Four years later, the scope of the festival was expanded, and its name was changed to the International Hispanic Theater Festival of Miami (IHTF). Throughout its trajectory both the ensemble, Teatro Avante, and the IHTF have received prestigious national and international awards. these include three from Spain: the Federico García Lorca Award; the Ollantay Award given to a promoter of Ibero-American theatre and presented by the Centro Latinoamericano de Creación and Investigación Teatral; and the Festival Internacional de Teatro de Cádiz - Atahualpa del Cioppo Award. Throughout the years, Avante has represented the United States in festivals throughout Latin America, Europe, and Japan.
Teatro Breve is a Puerto Rican cultural organization founded in 2006 in San Juan, Puerto Rico by a group of actors interested in exploring new forms of artistic production and creation. As a collective, Teatro Breve continues to evolve to provide a consistent offering of ambitious programming, accompanied by a diversity of multi-platform experiences that offers its followers new and more intimate ways to share with their favorite characters. With NLTI support, the company will expand to reach audiences in the United States and have targeted New York, Chicago, Miami, Orlando, and Boston – all major centers of Puerto Rican life.
Teatro Círculo was launched in 1994 by Founding Artistic Director José Cheo Oliveras to revive Spanish Golden Age Theatre. Like the popular reach of Shakespeare back in his time, Teatro Círculo performs plays from Spain’s golden age, of which approximately eighty percent were performed in the streets at the “corrales” to the common citizens of Renaissance Spain. Teatro Círculo sees the themes of Spain’s Golden Age plays as universal and relevant to the social justice issues of our time, with such contemporary concerns as social mobility, women’s rights, equity, and justice. At the same time, Teatro Círculo also produces plays by contemporary Spanish and Latin American playwrights. By pairing both Golden Age classics and contemporary Latin American works in Spanish, the company brings its theatrical history, heritage, and cultures full circle: hence, Teatro Círculo.
Teatro Dallas was founded in 1985 by Jeff Hurst and Cora Cardona. As a cultural institution, its focus is on international theater and the Latinx experience as lenses through which to experience the human condition. Teatro Dallas stages productions for adults and children from classical and contemporary Latino, US, and international playwrights. The organization supports emerging local artists and produces works from a variety of genres, expanding the definition of theater to include visual, musical, spoken word, performance art, and more. Teatro Dallas is a pillar in its community with seasonal productions and ongoing classes for children and adults no matter their financial need. The company regularly represents the United States abroad at world-class theater festivals. And they have proudly hosted its own International Theater Festival for the past 20 years - the first of its kind in the Southwest.
Teatro de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, San Juan, PR
Since its construction, the University Theater has been the most important cultural center in the country. It stages a range of productions of the most diverse profile. It is an important venue for major theater and dance companies, symphony orchestras, operas, and popular artists. Many of Puerto Rico’s best actors, actresses and directors developed their talents at the University Theater: Miriam Colón, founder of the New York Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, José Luis Marrero, Cordelia González, Teófilo Torres and many more.
Teatro del Pueblo, Saint Paul, MN
Founded in 1992 by a group of Latino artists and community members on the West Side of St. Paul in the heart of the city’s Latino population, Teatro del Pueblo is a small, non-profit Latino theater; it has grown since its inception to serve the St. Paul, Minneapolis metro area andgreater Minnesota. Teatro del Pueblo promotes Latino culture through the creation and presentation of performing arts. Teatro develops and supports Latino artists, provides educational opportunities for all to experience Latino culture, and promotes cross-cultural dialogue.
In 1997, a Providence public high school teacher named Nancy Patiño convened a group of Latino artists in Providence to offer youth afterschool programming where they could explore their own cultures. This was the beginning of the Educational Center of Arts and Science (ECAS). Led by Francis Parras, Teatro ECAS has been the leading Latino theater in New England, presenting classical and contemporary plays in Spanish, training a generation of actors, and offering educational programming for all ages. Teatro ECAS has also staged plays in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and Cuba. Today, Teatro ECAS is the only Latino repertory theater in New England.
Teatro Nagual (TeNa) was founded in 2006 and incorporated in 2009 with the mission to create innovative, artistic, educational programming that embodies the core values of Cesar Chavez and foster service to others. TeNa brings life to the issues of economic well-being, health disparities, environmental justice, immigration challenges, voter participation, and stories relevant to the community - sometimes encouraging people to laugh while finding common ground, promoting civic engagement, and empowering citizens and performers to seek change to better their lives and the lives of their families.
Teatro Paraguas stages contemporary award-winning Latinx plays in English and bilingual productions of Hispanic/Latinx poetry and classic cuentos (folktales), while promoting children's theatre, producing the works of New Mexico playwrights, and celebrating the history, richness and diversity of New Mexico's many cultures and artistic talent. It has functioned for 19 years as a volunteer-driven organization and has achieved a solid and respected position as a cultural center in Santa Fe and northern New Mexico. Teatro Paraguas is a valuable component in the cultural landscape of New Mexico, whose population is 48% Hispanic/Latinx, the highest percentage in any state. In 2015 there were seven other Latinx theatre companies in the state besides TP— the pandemic, economic conditions and other reasons caused them to fold. The NLTI grant will allow the company to compensate its Executive Director, Technical Director, and Artistic Director.
Teatro Público was born on June 15, 2017, in Puerto Rico. Its vision is to serve as a microcosm of the potential for excellence, innovation, diversity, and social transformation of theater in Puerto Rico. From a deep love and respect for theatrical work, TP wants to create a space for experimentation and creative search for actors, directors, playwrights, designers, and technicians, resulting in a meticulous, vital and honest artistic product. As part of its artistic vision, the company, directed by four artists and cultural managers, seeks to contribute to the strengthening of the theater industry through new forms of production and contact with the public, and with faith in the creation of alliances and of community spaces.
Reaching over 75,000 children and young adults every year, Teatro SEA (the Society of the Educational Arts, Inc.) is considered the premiere Bilingual Arts-in-Education Organization and Latino Children’s Theatre in the United States. The organization, established by Dr. Manuel A. Morán, currently has offices in San Juan, Puerto Rico; New York; and Florida. As one of the hardest working/productive and popular Latino Cultural Organization and Theater for Children, Youth and Families in New York City, SEA has experienced significant growth in recent years in both size and complexity. Teatro SEA produces the highly regarded International Puppet Fringe Festival, New York’s only international fringe festival dedicated to puppetry. NLTI funds will be used to support the salaries of a full-time Technical Director and an Operations Manager.
Teatro Visión is a Chicanx theater company with more than three decades of service to the community. Its work amplifies the voices of Latinxs, creates a dignified and empowering sense of identity, inspires action, builds respect and understanding, and explores the social and psychological experiences of Latinxs. In 2016 Theatre Bay Area selected Elisa Marina Alvarado, Co-founder, and former Artistic Director to be honored at their 40thanniversary celebration as one of forty individuals who have been pivotal in making the Bay Area theater community one of the most dynamic in the nation. In 2019, Teatro Visión received the Legacy Award from Theatre Bay Area for its longstanding service to the field and the community.
Teatro Vista, (Theatre with a View), was founded in 1990 by Edward Torres and Henry Godinez to address the lack of opportunities for Latinx artists and other artists of color, and to explore the new work of Latinx writers that challenged not only the actor and director, but also the audience. Since 1995, Mr. Torres has been the Artistic Director. Under his direction, Teatro Vista uses the stage to engage, connect and challenge audience members through Latinx stories that reflect the universality of our humanity. Teatro Vista has presented over 65 productions, including more than 20 world premieres and 15 Midwest premieres, providing a platform for Latine artists and artists of color to thrive. In 2011, Teatro Vista was celebrated as one of 25 of “Chicago’s cultural leaders” by the Arts & Business Council of Chicago and received the League of Chicago Theatres’ Artistic Leadership Award.
Thalia’s arts trajectory has always accompanied the growth of Hispanics in New York, and particularly in Queens. Thalia Spanish Theatre was established in Sunnyside, Queens in 1977 by actress and director Silvia Brito to serve the cultural needs of the boroughs’ diverse and rapidly growing Hispanic community, which now numbers nearly one million from every Spanish-speaking nation in the world. Back then, Thalia was committed to the preservation and promotion of zarzuela, the only lyrical heritage of the Spanish stage. In 2000, the theatre made the transition from founder Silvia Brito to her successor Angel Gil Orrios, a Spanish director, producer, writer, and designer He is known for his concept of the “total theatre experience” – a combination of text, music, dance and visual arts to truly bring the stage alive. Thalia Spanish Theatre's Board of Directors and its Senior Management team decided to engage on a Succession Planning for its 47-year-old non-profit organization. This Succession Planning is part of Thalia’s 5-year Business & Strategic Plan for passing the leadership roles of Executive Director and Managing Director on to the next generation.
The Sol Project, an Obie Award-winning initiative, works to fortify a national theater movement that brings Latiné playwrights and their stories to the forefront of American theater. It calls upon the wider theater field to include the work of Latiné playwrights on our country's most visible stages. The Sol Project pairs 12 Latiné playwrights, at various career stages, with 12 leading theaters to support meaningful productions of each playwright’s work (one playwright, to one company). In tandem, The Sol Project cultivates national partnerships with theaters and organizations across the country to provide additional platforms of support for these and other Latiné playwrights through readings, workshops, and/or productions. As of 2023, The Sol Project has championed eight writers—Hilary Bettis, Martín Zimmerman, Luis Alfaro, Charise Castro Smith, Noah Diaz, Mara Vélez Meléndez, Christin Eve Cato and Guadalís Del Carmen—with six New York productions and two national productions.
Urban Theater Chicago DBA Urban Theater Company, Chicago, IL
Urban Theater Company (UTC) was founded in 2005 by a Latino ensemble deeply rooted in their community and culture. UTC is founded
by, led by, and for people of color in order to preserve the Puerto Rican and Humboldt Park community voice. Urban Theater Company is located in Humboldt Park, a largely Puerto Rican North Western suburb of Chicago. In 2005, UTC presented its inaugural production of Miguel Piñero’s 1974 Drama Critics Circle Award and Obie Award-winning play Short Eyes, directed by Court Theatre’s Resident Artist/Director Ron OJ Parson. UrbanTheater has reached a pivotal moment in its 18 yr. history. This multi-year NLTI grant will provide a pathway to increasing capacity, being able to focus on securing future operational funding through additional foundational support and supporting the creation of an endowment to ensure the long-term sustainability of the organization in its efforts to become a legacy theater in Chicago.
Water People Theater, Chicago, IL
The company’s name, Water People, is born from its leaders’ Venezuelan roots and is inspired by the term that names one of Venezuela’s indigenous ethnicities: Yekuana, people on the wood that opens paths in the water. The very essence of the organization is rooted in their leaders’ Venezuelan heritage, where they draw inspiration, passion, and a deep reverence for the stage. Water People is driven by an unwavering commitment to upholding Human Rights and embracing the principles of social and environmental responsibility. Water People Theater is a Latina-owned and led non-profit organization that believes in the transformative power of theater. For over two decades, the theater has been dedicated to producing socially engaged bilingual and inclusive theater with and for diverse audiences.