University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations Dissertations and Theses November 2018 Charting the Terrain of Latina/o/x Theater in Chicago Priscilla M. Page University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2 Part of the Other American Studies Commons, Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Performance Studies Commons, and the Theatre History Commons Recommended Citation Page, Priscilla M., "Charting the Terrain of Latina/o/x Theater in Chicago" (2018). Doctoral Dissertations. 1453. https://doi.org/10.7275/12328595 https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2/1453 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations and Theses at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. 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CHARTING THE TERRAIN OF LATINA/O/X THEATER IN CHICAGO A Dissertation Presented by PRISCILLA PAGE Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY September 2018 Department of English © Copyright by Priscilla Page 2018 All Rights Reserved CHARTING THE TERRAIN OF LATINA/O/X THEATER IN CHICAGO A Dissertation Presented By PRISCILLA PAGE Approved as to style and content by: _________________________________________________ Jenny Spencer, Chair _________________________________________________ TreaAndrea Russworm, Member _________________________________________________ Harley Erdman, Member ________________________________________________ Wilson Valentín-Escobar, Member __________________________________________ Randall Knoper, Department Chair English DEDICATION For my one and only, Brettney Louise Irene Young; and in loving memory of Patricia Louise Chavarin Page, 1948-2005. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I extend my heartfelt thanks to Professors Jenny Spencer, Harley Erdman, TreaAndrea Russworm, and Wilson Valentín-Escobar for their wisdom and guidance throughout this process. I am grateful to Professor Alberto Sandoval-Sánchez who encouraged me to pursue a PhD, served on both my qualifying and comprehensive exam committees, and has been a pillar of support throughout this journey. Without his groundbreaking scholarship on Latina/o/x theater, my work would not be possible. I am indebted to the artists who participated in the interview process with me and whose work continues to inspire me: Liza Ann Acosta, Frankie Davila, Sandra Delgado, Ricardo Gamboa, Henry Godinez, Nilda Reillo Hernandez, Miguel Lopez Lemus, José Lopez, Sandra Marquez, Alex Meda, Coya Paz, Roberto Sifuentes, Edward Torres, and Ivan Vega. I am grateful to Gaven D. Trinidad who transcribed a number of the artist interviews in this study. I would like to thank the UMASS Amherst Graduate School, the Department of English, and the Augusta Savage Gallery for funding my research trips to Chicago. There is a circle of co-conspirators without whom I would not have survived this process nor completed this dissertation. My friends and family have offered the resources of time, space, and money so that I could visit theaters, clubs, and community centers talking to artists, thinking about the purpose of art in our society, and dreaming about a better world. In 2004, my grad school pal Dan Smith was studying at Northwestern and offered me his couch so that I could attend Festival Latino at the Goodman Theatre thus sparking my interest in Chicago’s theater scene. In 2016, I lived in theater artist Sandra v Marquez’s apartment for a month so that I could conduct the bulk of my interviews. My college friend Jessie Amoroso offered his home in Oakland, CA for a writing retreat in Fall 2017. Knowing that writing can be an unnerving and totally isolating process, Isabel Espinal and Carlos “Rec” McBride, and I met regularly to encourage each other to finish writing our dissertations. We shared food, exchanged ideas, and supported each other through over the course of a year. I must also acknowledge Professors Judyie Al-Bilali, Terry Jenoure, Megan Lewis, and Talvin Wilks have shared their love, laughter, and creativity with me. Their generosity and honesty makes me a better artist and scholar. My father William B. Page, Jr., my brother William B. Page, III, and my daughter Brettney Young have offered their unwavering love, patience, and support of me even when I wasn’t able to the best daughter, sister, and mother that they each deserve. Lastly, I would like to thank my loving, kind, and generous partner Glenn Siegel who provides me with sustenance of the mind, body, and soul. vi ABSTRACT CHARTING THE TERRAIN OF LATINA/O/X THEATER IN CHICAGO SEPTEMBER 2018 PRISCILLA PAGE, B.A., CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY EAST BAY M.F.A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Jenny Spencer There is a rich tapestry of Latina/o/x theater in Chicago. Through in-depth interviews, I use first-voice narratives to construct four decades of Latina/o/x theater history with the artists who were founding directors and/or members of these companies: Latino Chicago, Latino Experimental Theater Company, Teatro Vista, Teatro Luna, and Urban Theater Company. My aim with this project is to listen carefully to Latina/o/x artists in Chicago so that I can play a role in amplifying their voices as they articulate their experiences in this Midwestern city they call home. I organized my findings into three chapters and have kept the artists’ voices and cultural products at the center. In “Chapter Two: The Contours of Color,” I focus on the color line at the Goodman Theatre and Victory Gardens, and examine how Latina/o/x theater artists undo the Black/White racial paradigm that has been traditionally used to theorize Chicago. I focus on production histories, programming initiatives, and the role of theater critics in perpetuating exclusive practices at mainstream theaters. The third chapter, “The Warp and The Woof of Latina/o/x Theater,” centers on approaches to theater making. I share their details about how the artists in this study organized their companies, their approaches to producing vii theater, and descriptions of their productions. I draw out the ways that Latina/o/x theater is always oppositional and that includes its content, forms, and various contexts. In “Chapter Four: Crafting Culture Through Theater,” I look specifically at the concept of latinidad and examine how Latina/o/x artists use theater to create a cultural identity that is unique to Chicago. The artists in this study define the purpose of theater for themselves, share details about their lives and how they navigate their city, a place that many of them describe as highly segregated. My concluding thoughts about Latina/o/x theater in Chicago rely on the idea that Latina/o/x theater is always political and persistent. It is worthy of study, and our work belongs in theater history books, archives, and on stages as part of the cultural record of the “American experience.” viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS………………………………………………………………..iii ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………….v CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION……………………………...…………………………………...….1 Theoretical Framework………………………...………………………………….5 Mapping Chicago………………………………...……………………………......9 Pilsen………………………………………………………………………9 Humboldt Park…………………………………………………………...14 Working Against Invisibility………………………..…………………………...20 Scholarship as Resistance……………………………..…………………………25 Method…………………………………………………………………………...28 A Word on Labels………………………………………………………..35 Names of Places/Neighborhoods………………………………………. .37 II. THE CONTOURS OF COLOR………………………………………………………38 Chicago and The Color Line……………………………………………………..38 The Color Line at the Goodman…..……………………………………………..46 Commercial Theater’s Color Problem…………………………………...50 Concluding Thoughts on the Goodman………………………………….…54 Challenging the Color Line at Victory Gardens………………………………....60 Theater Critics and Latina/o/x Theater……………………………………….….65 Conclusion…….….………………………………..……………………….…....72 ix III. THE WARP AND THE WOOF OF LATINA/O/X THEATER………...…...……76 Introduction………………………………………………………………………76 Latino Chicago Theater Company……………………………………………….81 Latino Experimental Theater Company………………………………………….91 Teatro Vista………………………………………………………………………99 Teatro Luna……………………………………………………………………..107 Urban Theater…………………………………………………………………..116 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...122 IV. CRAFTING CULTURE THROUGH THEATER..…………………………...…124 Introduction…………………………………………………………………….124 Lolita de Lares, Latino Chicago, 1995…………………………………………136 Lolita de Lares at Urban Theater, 2016………………………………………...142 La Havana Madrid at the Goodman Theatre, 2017…………………………….148 Generation Sex by Teatro Luna, 2014………………………………………….155 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...162 V. CONCLUSION………………………………………………...…………………164 Limitations……………………………………………………………………...165 Future Research………………………………………………………………...166 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………168 x CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION “Lolita gave me back my dreams, forced me to look at my own politics, and most importantly, fed my spirit and my soul. The journey of this play was a journey home.” Migdalia Cruz, 1995 From 1991-1998, Chicago was an artistic home to eminent playwright Migdalia Cruz. Cruz, a prolific, award-winning Puerto Rican writer, was most recently recognized as a 2016 New York Foundation