In the lead-up to the 2019 Latinx Theatre Commons Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) Sin Fronteras Festival and Convening, I’ve been reflecting on Latinx TYA and asking questions about where we’re at and how we can grow. I acknowledge that my bias in this article is towards theatre produced in the United States, and I invite perspectives and responses from those working elsewhere.
What is Latinx TYA?
A Latinx TYA play authentically centers around the lives and experiences of Latinx youth. Professional TYA came into its own in the 1970s and ‘80s with the founding of regional theatres like the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis and Seattle Children’s Theatre. Early champions of Latinx TYA were Deirdre Kelly Lavrakas and Kim Peter Kovac at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, who created the New Visions/New Voices festival to encourage professional theatres to develop new plays for young audiences. In the 1990s, New Visions/New Voices featured plays like Alicia in Wonder Tierra (or I Can’t Eat Goat Head) by Silvia Gonzalez S. (commissioned by Body Politic Theater), And Now Miguel by Lynne Alvarez (Lincoln Theatre Institute), The Highest Heaven by José Cruz González (San Jose Repertory Theatre), and Black Butterfly, Jaguar Girl, Piñata Woman, and Other Superhero Girls Like Me by Luís Alfaro (Center Theatre Group). This early phase of Latinx TYA was shaped by playwrights who had mostly written for adult audiences.
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