Displaying items by tag: Paloma Nozicka

From the moment BOTH starts, the play demands attention. Flashing lights, sirens, and the sounds of heavy breathing build as Xochi (Paloma Nozicka) locks herself inside, trying to shut out the world. She just lost her twin brother, and nothing will be the same.

Co-presented by Teatro Vista Productions and Steppenwolf Theatre Company, BOTH is a gripping thriller that weaves humor, trauma, and terror. Is truth important, it asks, when a lie seems to be the fix?

Years after the tragedy, Xochi is now expecting a child with her doting boyfriend, Sam (Brian King) and anxiously awaiting the arrival of her family at her baby shower. Her relationships with her mother (Charin Alvarez) and brother (Eddie Martinez) are strained due to their loss and her “fictional” novel, which is actually a thinly veiled account of her rough childhood.

Xochi isn’t apologetic about it though. To her, you are either good, or you’re a liar. But her conviction is a bludgeon to those around her who need “their truth” to sugar-coat the past, their addiction, their motives, or the reality of what happened to Xochi’s twin - is he dead or only missing?

Xochi is confident that he died... until he crashes the party. Is this man (Yona Moises Olivares) actually Sebastian or someone pretending to be him?

As the lead and playwright, Nozicka is a commanding presence who gives her character intelligence and grit as she stands her ground as the walls close in on her. Olivares is a good foil for her, bouncing between sweet and sinister effortlessly, making one question what is real. What truly makes this piece work though is the intricate, flesh-out performances from the entire ensemble. Their complexity makes them feel tangible, perhaps even evoking one’s only family members.

One important character not mentioned yet is the beach house. The beach house set, designed by Sotirios Livaditis, is pristine and almost too perfect at first glance—an immaculate showroom of a life Xochi desperately wants to hold together. But as Xochi’s emotions spill over, the home takes on a life of its own. It serves as the perfect backdrop as black‑and‑white muddies into gray and control melts into chaos.

Georgette Verdin’s sure, intuitive direction threads humor, dread, and heartbreak together, allowing the play’s deeper emotional currents to resonate fully. BOTH is part Ordinary-People and part Rosemary’s-Baby. While the end does leave a bit to be desired given the play’s sharp execution, it still satisfies and leaves the audience questioning what the truth is as they unravel the mystery.

Teatro Vista and Steppenwolf have built a steady creative partnership in recent seasons, with Teatro Vista serving as a resident company in Steppenwolf’s 1700 Theater. The collaboration pairs Steppenwolf’s institutional reach with Teatro Vista’s commitment to Latine storytelling, resulting in annual productions that spotlight new voices and ambitious work. BOTH is yet another worthwhile entry in that partnership, reflecting the shared investment both companies have made in developing bold, ensemble‑driven theater.

BOTH runs at Steppenwolf Theatre until May 10, 2026.

This review is proudly shared with our friends at www.TheatreInChicago.com.  

“Together we created this nothingness,” says Audrey Francis in Steppenwolf’s production of Larissa Fasthorse’s ‘The Thanksgiving Play’. Hot off its Broadway run, this madcap comedy cuts right to the bone. Under Jess Mcleod’s direction, the intimate cast leaps right off the stage.

‘The Thanksgiving Play’ is about three elementary school teachers and one sassy actress who come together to devise a children’s play that illustrates the first Thanksgiving. In a fast-paced one-act, emotions and hypocrisies run amok.

Logan (Audrey Francis) plays the director, a role the actress and Steppenwolf Artistic Director Audrey Francis is used to playing. What a treat it is to see Francis on stage in her element. Francis is a masterful actor, and this play is but another entry in a long list of perfect performances.

Logan is dating her New Age-y coworker Jaxton (Nate Santana) who is also enlisted to help with the Thanksgiving play alongside Caden (Tim Hopper). Thinking they’re being progressive, they hire who they assume is a Native American actress, Alicia (Paloma Nozicka). Without a script, the four theatre artists must work together to tell a story that pays deference to Native American culture. Though well-intentioned, the all-white creative team exposes everything wrong with today’s supposed “woke” ideals.

At its core, ‘The Thanksgiving Play’ is a scathing satire of the “white savior” complex. Though Logan’s heart is in the right place, it’s perhaps her over-education on race-related issues that finds her with her foot in her mouth throughout the play. Larissa Fasthorse’s play suggests that some allies are more concerned with the outward appearance of racism than they are with true authenticity.

As we’ve been told, the very first Thanksgiving was a breaking of bread between settlers and natives to commemorate their collaboration during the harvest season. We can likely agree this probably was more fiction than fact, but for the sake of a children’s play, maybe the gruesome truth isn’t appropriate. Fasthorse’s play asks the audience is there a better way to tell this story with both respect and truth?

Things quickly fall apart between the creatives as they all battle to enact their own will. Sound familiar? ‘The Thanksgiving Play’ is as much an allegory as it is a comedy. Paloma Nozicka’s character Alicia, who is there to be the token Native American character presents an interesting observation: smart people are often not content. The white characters in the play make their lives more complicated with rules and propriety which leads to their unhappiness. Whereas Alicia lives simply and seems really happy. With these parallels established, Fasthorse could be seen as making an argument that European settlers brought neuroses with them to the New World. 

It’s a remarkable thing to hear a crowd of intellectuals be able to laugh at themselves. A lot of the dialogue will leave you with your jaw open because it’s chock full of ideas you know better than to articulate, such as “why isn’t there a white history month?”

‘The Thanksgiving Play’ is not a show for the humorless. It’s a blistering send-up of how bleeding-heart white people can find themselves twisted in knots trying to appease political correctness, and at what cost.

Through June 2 at Steppenwolf Theatre Co. 1650 N Halsted. 312-335-1650

In Native Gardens, an ambitious young couple moves into a fixer-upper in an affluent DC neighborhood. Husband Pablo (Gabriel Ruiz) is a lawyer, his pregnant wife Tania (Paloma Nozicka) is working on her doctorate dissertation. Their nice and lively, albeit politically incorrect, neighbors are a defense contractor Virginia (Janet Ulrich Brooks) and her retired gardening-loving husband Frank (Patrick Clear). Shortly after moving in, Pablo has a bright idea to invite his entire law firm (all sixty people) to a barbeque in their embarrassingly unfinished yard, so the young couple gets to work. The old wire fence separating the neighbors’ properties (very nice design set by William Boles) has to go, but it soon becomes evident that Frank has been gardening on extra 23 inches of land that actually belongs to the new couple, according to the property plans.

Upon further calculations Pablo realizes that those 23 inches along the old fence translate into extra 80 sq feet of land which goes for “about $15,000 at a current market price”. Well, it’s a war then! Frank refuses to let go of his lovingly raised flowers right up against the ill-placed fence, while the young couple is on a mission to re-claim what’s rightfully theirs.

Who knew that an incorrectly placed fence would cause so much commotion? We all did, we saw it coming before the play even started. But despite its predictability, this comedy is still entertaining and somewhat thought provoking. Written by Karen Zacarias and directed by Marti Lyons, Native Gardens is more about generation clash, stereotypes, ageism and racism rather than the property lines. The older couple is from the pre-self-censorship era, and in their ignorance, they don’t always choose words carefully; they say what’s on their minds rather than hide behind politically correct words and ideas. But those words are often offensive to the delicate ears of Tania, whose proper opinions, frankly, make for sterile conversation, enough to put one to sleep. All in all, the two couples can’t effectively communicate, so they threaten each other instead. Will their peace be restored?

Native Gardens runs through July 2nd at Victory Gardens Theater. To find out more about this show visit www.VictoryGardens.org.