Displaying items by tag: Lorena Diaz

Teatro Vista Productions, the Midwest's only Latine-led Equity theatre company, led by Executive Director Lorena Diaz and Artistic Director Wendy Mateo in collaboration with Associate Artistic Director Cruz Gonzalez-Cadel, announces its 2026-27 Season. The season opens with the groundbreaking live looping hip-hop musical Mexodus, November 7-21, 2026, presented by Studebaker Theater, P3 Productions and Audible, in collaboration with Teatro Vista Productions. The musical, making its Chicago Premiere, is written and performed by Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson, choreographed by Tony Thomas, and directed by David Mendizábal. The season continues with Luis Alfaro's Mojada, March 12 - April 11, 2027, directed by Wendy Mateo and Denise Yvette Serna, presented in partnership with Court Theatre. Concluding the season is the Chicago Premiere of Reggie Hoops by Kristoffer Diaz, directed by Khanisha Foster, and presented as part of Teatro Vista Productions' multi-year partnership with Steppenwolf Theatre Company.

As part of its commitment to community engagement, supporting its artists and creating new digital projects, the TVP Season 36 includes the launch of a new In Process: Podcast starting in October featuring in-depth Artist on Artist conversations. The first episode will feature TVP Artistic Collective members Max Arciniega and Paloma Nozicka. Live Mexodus Listening Parties, on October 11, 18, 25 and November 1, will be held in locations throughout the city and strategically en route - from Teatro Vista Productions' homebase at The Exchange in Jefferson Park to where Mexodus is playing at the Studebaker Theater downtown - with each stop mirroring a chapter in the play's journey. TVP will also continue workshopping plays to live audiences with In Process Live; presenting La Lupe: My Life, My Destiny, by Carmen Rivera  and directed by Cándido Tirado, on January 23, 2027.

The 2026-2027 season includes:

Studebaker Theater, P3 Productions and Audible,

in collaboration with Teatro Vista Productions present

Mexodus

Written and performed by Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson

Choreographed by Tony Thomas

Directed by David Mendizábal

Studebaker Theater, 410 S Michigan Avenue, Chicago

November 7-21, 2026

Press Opening: Saturday, November 7, 2026 at 7:30pm

Creators Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson perform this groundbreaking hip-hop musical, using live instruments to build a soundscape live each night incorporating looping to layer rhythms, melodies, and harmonies to create full arrangements on the spot at each performance.

Told through bold storytelling and sick beats, Mexodus reimagines the Underground Railroad heading south to Mexico—unearthing a powerful, untold chapter of American history. Called "thrilling" by The Washington Post and "genius in motion" by the San Francisco Chronicle, this is theatre you feel in your body and your bones.

Tickets available at: https://www.fineartsbuilding.com/events/mexodus/.

Mojada

By Luis Alfaro 

Directed by Wendy Mateo and Denise Yvette Serna 

Presented In partnership with Court Theatre

Court Theatre, 5535 S Ellis Ave, Chicago

March 12 - April 11, 2027  

Press Opening: Saturday, March 20, 2027 at 7:30pm

An adaptation of an ancient classic tale of revenge, sacrifice, and the high price of pursuing freedom, Mojada renders Euripides's Medea myth urgently and achingly alive in the city of Chicago.

Medea survived a treacherous journey from Mexico to the United States in search of a better life, but the promise of the American Dream is quickly unravelling. She sews exquisite garments in her backyard, suffocated by fear. Her son sheds tradition as fast as he can, trading huaraches for Vans. And her husband grows distant, seduced by ambition and proximity to power. Trapped between who she was and who America demands she become, Medea finds herself in a standoff with the very dream she risked everything to reach. 

Co-directed by Teatro Vista Productions' Artistic Director Wendy Mateo and Artistic Collective member Denise Yvette Serna, Mojada confronts the contradictions at the center of American identity: opportunity and erasure, belonging and betrayal. Both a love letter and a searing indictment, this electrifying production asks: What are we willing to sacrifice in the pursuit of liberty?

Tickets are available at https://www.courttheatre.org/season-tickets/2026-2027-season/mojada/ .

The Chicago Premiere of

Reggie Hoops

By Kristoffer Diaz

Directed by Khanisha Foster

Co-Presented with Steppenwolf Theatre Company

Steppenwolf's 1700 Theater, 1700 N Halsted, Chicago

May 2027

Reggie was one of the NBA's most promising young executives and one of its most compelling characters: a queer Afro-Latina with a gift for structure and a keen appreciation of the art of on-court sacrifice. After an abrupt firing, she finds herself back at home navigating suburbia, parenthood, and her parents' anything but revolutionary past. An unexpected visit from a one-time fling forces her to reconsider what really matters and how far she's willing to go to succeed at the only things she's ever loved.

Reggie Hoops is a sharp, funny, and modern story about parenthood, generational pressures, and the pain that comes with chasing your passion, from the Tony-nominated writer of Hell's Kitchen and The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity.

Reggie Hoops is the second production presented as part of the multi-year partnership between Teatro Vista Productions and Steppenwolf. With Teatro Vista Productions in residency at Steppenwolf, both companies are modeling a relationship that they hope will inspire further collaboration in Chicago's iconic theater community among organizations of all sizes.

Tickets will be available soon at steppenwolf.org/.

Community Engagement and Special Events

In Process Podcast

Episode 1 featuring Max Arciniega and Paloma Nozicka
October 2026

Mexodus Listening Parties

Cafecito and Loops: A Mexodus Listening Tour headed South

October 11, 18 and 25, November 1, 2026

Mexodus will host four listening parties featuring excerpts from the Audible Original, each stop acting as a chapter in the experience. This series of events turns a night at the theater into a greater story. These listening parties will be scattered throughout the city, strategically en route from Teatro Vista Productions' homebase to the Studebaker Theater.

Sunday, October 11: The Exchange, home of TVP - Jefferson Park

Sunday, October 18: Magnifico Coffee Roasters & Coffee Shop - Avondale

Sunday, October 25:  Caña - West Town

Sunday, November 1: Groundswell Coffee Roasters - Fine Arts Building - Chicago Loop 

In Process Live: La Lupe: My Life, My Destiny

By Carmen Rivera

Directed by Cándido Tirado

Starring Melissa DuPrey as La Lupe

January 19-23, 2027 - Workshop

January 23, 2027 - Presentation with invited guests

Teatro Vista Productions will revisit this groundbreaking script 25 years after its world premiere with fresh talent and an evolved understanding of Afro-Latinidad in American pop culture.

Before there was Janis Joplin, Patti La Belle, and Madonna – there was LA LUPE.  Best known for her powerful voice, electrifying performances, and controversial life, La Lupe gained fame as one of the first Latin cross-over musical superstars. She was born Guadalupe Yoli Raymond in Santiago de Cuba in 1936, and became one of the most influential Latin performers of the 20th century.

After a fall from grace, La Lupe - now far from the spotlight and living in the Bronx - receives an "F" on an essay about her own life from a skeptical professor, igniting a struggle to reclaim the truth of her extraordinary musical legacy in a powerful story of defiance, passion, and redemption.

About Teatro Vista

Teatro Vista is a non-profit theatre and production company dedicated to multidisciplinary artists of color whose artistic expression on stage and beyond is rooted in the transformative power of owning and telling our own stories.

When the Chicago theater world wasn't ready for us, Teatro Vista Productions made space. For 36 years, we've told true stories that reflect our community. We're not just building on this amazing legacy; we're strengthening and expanding it for the future. Today we continue to actively engage in advocacy that seeks to increase the authentic representations of us on stage and screen.

Teatro Vista Productions believes we are stronger together — across disciplines, across experiences, across mediums, across diasporas. We center our collective of artists at the heart of everything we do. We empower our artists to create with their own authentic voice by providing the tools and resources they need to thrive in the industry. Our work is timely, relevant and authentically reflects our community. Now, as always, We Are Theater With A View.

The company is led by Executive Director Lorena Diaz, Artistic Director Wendy Mateo, and Associate Artistic Director Cruz Gonzalez-Cadel.

Follow TVP on social media & YouTube to experience the multidisciplinary talents of our Artistic Collective and stay connected. @teatrovista

The play is set in the late 1970s during Argentina’s notorious Guerra Sucia, otherwise known as the “Dirty War.” Three story follows three generations of women - a grandmother, a mother and a daughter – as they stand together against a corrupt government that has been known make its opposers disappear.

As “The Madres” opens we see a grandmother, Josefina (played in Chicago by Ivonne Coll from TV's hit show “Jane the Virgin”), getting an unexpected visit from her church's priest, Padre Juan (Ramon Camin). Padre Juan seems to be trying to help Josefina protect her daughter, Carolina (Lorena Diaz), who has been openly demonstrating against a vicious military dictatorship by wearing the white head scarf of "The Madres,” a group of courageous mothers who took to the streets of Argentina in front of the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires to protest the kidnapping , torture and murder of not only their children but hundreds of thousands of citizens , artists, journalists and activists. 

From 1976 to 1983, during the "Dirty War," this military regime enlisted members of the catholic church who kept a close eye on their congregations to scare the families of the "disappeared" into not searching for them. The whole situation strongly resembles the Nazi tactics which forced Jews and non- Jews alike from all walks of life to decide between keeping their own lives and remaining family members safe and pressuring the police and clergy to release the living but captive family members from torturous conditions of imprisonment. 

At one point the enormity of this genocide is put across by the description of "hundreds of packages falling from the sky onto farm land" - packages which were filled not with supplies but with the dismembered bodies of the thousands of kidnapped citizens. 

It is a shockingly relevant play given how recently this violence all occurred and the hostile stance that President Trump is actively taking, encouraging against demonstrators and journalists alike who speak out and/or attend protests of his various "actions" like the Muslim ban and the building of the pipeline on Native American land which resulted in severe injuries to protesters. 

During the play, a soldier for the government pays a visit to the family who was a childhood friend of Carolina and an ardent admirer of her daughter who has been kidnapped along with her husband even though she is pregnant. Felipe Carrasco plays the soldier, Diego, with a scary and realistic edginess of a madman who clearly wants to use the kidnapping as an opportunity to be with Carolina's daughter- even though she hates him and is under extreme physical and emotional  distress. 

Ivonne Call and Lorena Diaz really convey the daily struggle and psychological toll that living under these horrific circumstances cause and there were many tears shed with these talented actresses monologues in the catharsis of this short but very informational and moving piece.    

Although the subject matter is difficult and depressing, playwright, Stephanie A. Walker, succeeds at showing the audience both the horror of the genocide and the beauty and pleasures of the Argentinian family lifestyle that the "Dirty War" interrupted and ended for at least 100,000 innocent civilians.  

The play, which opened in Los Angeles last year could not be better, clearly shows how impossible it is for civilians to survive or even to publicly protest the advancing hatred of a violent ideology once a dictator-like regime has taken physical control of the populace including their clergymen, police and legislators. 

Highly Recommended. 

Teatro Vista’s “The Madres” is being performed at Victory Gardens Biograph Theater through May 27th. For more information visit TeatroVista.org.