Destinos, the 5th Chicago International Latin Theater Festival, Chicago’s annual worldwide festival featuring Latin theater artists and companies from Chicago, the US and Latin America, returns September 14-October 16, 2022.
Destinos kicks off Chicago’s Hispanic Heritage Month with five weeks of Latino-centric performances, panels and student performances at downtowns, neighborhood theaters and cultural institutions throughout the Chicago area.
Destinos 2022’s full lineup — 13 stunning productions, including six world premieres, four US premieres and three Midwest premieres — has been set, and tickets for most productions are on sale at destinosfest.org.
Chicagoans and visitors are encouraged to get their tickets now to experience new, vibrant solo shows and large-scale productions playing on major Chicago stages in September and October, each celebrating the Latino experience.
Visit destinosfest.org to purchase tickets and for complete show information. Sign up for CLATA’s weekly e-newsletter for the first notice of festival events. Follow Destinos on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, all at @latinotheater.
Destinos is produced annually by the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance (CLATA), a transformative cultural engine that helps drive the city’s local Latino theater community to a more prominent level, founded in 2016 by Myrna Salazar, National Museum of Mexican Art (NMMA). International Latino Cultural Center (ILCC) and Puerto Rican Arts Alliance (PRAA).
Chicagoans are still reeling from the recent loss of visionary CLATA leader Myrna Salazar, who passed away unexpectedly on August 3rd.
“CLATA’s success would not be possible without a visionary at the helm, a person with the tenacity and passion to bring Chicago’s Latino theater community to a level not yet imagined,” CLATA staff wrote in a program note that cost him this year. Destinations in her memory. “Now, in her honor, CLATA is tasked with ensuring that her legacy carries on with the same unbridled zeal that Myrna brought to her beloved organization, the Destinos Festival, and her daily life .”
Highlights of the 2022 festival include three out-of-town productions from Mexico and Puerto Rico:
World premiere of La Pájara de San Juan, a Trump-era drama about two sisters, one documented, one not, on a fateful night in Chicago, starring Mexican TV stars María del Carmen Félix and Mariannela Cataño. It is written by Victor Salinas and Sergio Gezzi, and co-presented by CLATA and the National Museum of Mexican Art, September 14-17. Opens Wednesday, September 14 at 7:30 p.m
The Midwest premiere of Pequeños Territorios en Reconstrucción, a documentary tale about a group of Colombian women who created the Displaced Women’s League and built 98 houses with their own hands, from Mexico City’s Teatro Línea de Sombra, co-presented by CLATA and the Goodman Theater in heart of Chicago’s Loop, September 21-25. Opens Wednesday, September 21 at 7:30 p.m
The US premiere of Blanco Temblor from Puerto Rico’s Teatro Público. This is a drama about mental health as told through the story of Marina del Mar, a PhD in quantum astrophysics, a Puerto Rican, bipolar, suicide survivor, with an illness from birth: she couldn’t shake. Performances are September 29-October 2 at The Den Theater in Wicker Park. Opens Thursday, September 29 at 8 p.m
Want new plays by Latino writers? Destinos will see a variety of new works from Chicago’s top Latino companies and artists, including:
Las Migas by Colectivo El Pozo, a world premiere drama set on the roof of a Chicago skyscraper as an eerie red moon disrupts the life of the city below, presented at Chess Live Theater in Bridgeport, September 15-October 2. Opens Thursday, September 15 at 8pm
The US premiere of Bruna la Bruja Bruta by Mexican playwright Tomás Urtusástegui, starring Teatro Tariakuri artistic director Karla Galván as a modern-day Latina bruja who flies into her Marquette Park theater’s shop space to drop some things off her chest before Halloween. Performances are Saturdays and Sundays, September 17 – October 16. Opens Saturday, September 17 at 8 p.m.
The U.S. debut of Tebas Land by Uruguayan playwright Sergio Blanco, inspired by the myth of Oedipus, about a series of encounters on a prison basketball court between a playwright and a young parricide (a person who kills a parent or relative), presented by CLATA with the National Museum of Mexican Art, at Chicago Dramatists, September 22 – October 9. Opens Thursday, September 22 at 7:30 p.m
World premiere of Enough to Let the Light In, produced by Teatro Vista and co-presented with Steppenwolf Theater Company. The playwright is Paloma Nozicka, a Chicago-bred, Mexican-American actor, writer, director, and filmmaker based in LA. Her newest work introduces us to lovers Marc and Cynthia, who spend a night celebrating a milestone , but it quickly turns into chaos. as buried secrets are revealed and lives are irrevocably changed. Performances are September 21-October 23 at Steppenwolf’s 1700 Theatre. Opens Friday, September 23 at 8 p.m.
Alma, an American Blues Theater world premiere about a single mother raising her daughter on her own with tough love, home-cooked comedy and lots of prayer. But on the eve of her daughter’s SATs, she is nowhere to be found. Alma, written by 2019 National Latinx Playwriting Award winner Benjamin Benne, runs September 22 through October 22 at Rivendell Theater Ensemble. Opens Wednesday and Thursday, September 28 and 29 at 7:30 p.m.
Poet, actor, singer and Latino favorite Flaco Navaja stars in his first full-length solo show Evolution of a Sonero, a Midwest premiere from UrbanTheater Company. With an undying love for the Bronx, a gift for creating memorable characters and genuine good humor, Navaja and five top-notch musicians bring the charm, rhythm and soul essential to a Sonero Bronx. Don’t miss this fresh salsa epic about growth, inspiration and staying on track. Performances are September 29-October 23. Opens Thursday, September 29 at 8 p.m
World Premiere of BULL: a love story by Chicago playwright Nancy García Loza about a Mexican-American ex-con who returns to his old Chicago neighborhood, Lakeview, only to discover how far he’s come without it. BULL: a love story is a Paramount Theater BOLD Series production, Oct. 5 through Nov. 20 at the new Copley Theater in downtown Aurora, Illinois’ second-largest city with a 40 percent Latino population. BULL also marks Destino’s first expansion into a Chicago suburb. Opens Wednesday and Thursday, October 12 and 13 at 7:00 p.m.
Midwest premiere of Sancocho by Visión Latino Theater Company, written by Christin Eve Cato, directed by Xavier M. Custodio. The play tells the story of two sisters, 25 years apart, who come together to discuss their father’s will while making a traditional sancocho stew that suddenly becomes filled with revelations about their family history. Performances are October 8-30 at the Windy City Playhouse. Opens Monday, October 10 at 7:30 p.m
The US premiere of Cintas de seda from the Aguijón Theater in Chicago’s Belmont-Cragin/Hermosa neighborhood. Set on the eve of the Day of the Dead, this play by Norge Espinosa imagines a painter and nun who come together for an unlikely dialogue with ghosts, hallucinations and images of the past, October 13-November 20. Opens Friday, October 14 at 8 p.m
The world premiere of Ricardo Gamboa’s The Wizards, a supernatural thriller about a brown-and-black couple who find a Quija board in their new apartment in Pilsen that connects them to a Mexican-American cover band of the ’90s 70. The Wizards, co-produced by the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance at Pilsen’s historic APO Cultural Center, runs October 14th through November 26th.
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About Destinos, the 5th Chicago International Latino Theater Festival
Now entering its fifth year, Destinos is the signature program of the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance (CLATA), a transformative cultural engine that helps drive the city’s local Latino theater community to a more prominent level. The organization’s goal is to create the nation’s premier international Latino theater festival with an emphasis on showcasing Chicago’s Latino theater artists and companies.
Visiting companies making their Destinos Festival debut include Teatro Línea de Sombra (Mexico), Teatro Público (Puerto Rico) and La Pájara de San Juan (Mexico/Washington DC). Participating Chicago Latino theaters are Aguijón Theater, Colectivo El Pozo, Concrete Content, Teatro Tariakuri, Teatro Vista, UrbanTheater Company and Visión Latino Theater Company. Presenting partners are Goodman Theatre, National Museum of Mexican Art and Steppenwolf Theatre. Collaborating partners are American Blues Theater and Paramount Theatre. Venue partners are APO Cultural Center, Chess Live Theatre, Chicago Dramatists, The Den Theatre, Rivendell Theater Ensemble and Windy City Playhouse.
CLATA, which produces Destinos, was founded in 2016 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization by Myrna Salazar and three of Chicago’s most prominent Latino art organizations: the National Museum of Mexican Art (NMMA), the International Cultural Center Latin (ILCC), and the Puerto Rican Arts Alliance (PRAA).
“In Spanish, the word ‘destinos’ has multiple meanings: destinies, destinations or destiny,” explained CLATA’s late executive director Myrna Salazar, who passed away suddenly last August and to whom the 2022 festival is dedicated . “Destinos showcases Latino theater artists from Chicago, across the US and Latin America to present engaging and provocative stories that cross boundaries, amplify Latino voices, and diversify Chicago’s scenes to encourage cross-cultural conversation.”
Additionally, CLATA continues to provide local groups with ongoing organizational, marketing, and financial support, and works diligently to create a permanent home for Chicago’s Latino theater artists. Ultimately, CLATA strives to underscore Chicago’s reputation as one of the most exciting and culturally diverse theater cities in the world.
For more, visit destinosfest.org or call (312) 631-3112.
