The Latinx Theatre Commons (LTC) will host a National Convening during the Encuentro 2024: A National Theatre Festival in Los Angeles, California!
The LTC will be partnering with the Latino Theatre Company to create programming specifically for the Commons during the second weekend of the festival. Participants at the Encuentro will attend Festival productions, dialogue with artists brought in from across the country, and have dedicated time to wrestle with theatrical forms, themes, and conventions. We seek to bring current LTC Steering and Advisory Committee, our partners, and community members together.
Thursday 31 October
Opening Ceremonies
1:30 -2:45 p.m. PDT (Los Angeles, UTC -7) / 3:30 – 4:45 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 5:30 – 6:45 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4)
It’s been ten years since the first Encuentro! Join us for a local performance and remarks from Latino Theater Company artistic director, Jose Luis Valenzuela, LTC producer Jacqueline Flores, and the announcement of the 2024 Diane Rodriguez Teatrista Award.
Friday 1 November
Embracing Multiplicities: Redefining Latinidad in Theatre and Performance
10:15 -11:30 a.m. PDT (Los Angeles, UTC -7) / 12:15 – 1:30 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 1:15 – 2:30 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4)
This breakout session will explore how various aspects of Latinidad—such as ethnicity, race, class, gender, and nationality—shape artistic perspectives, storytelling, and performance. Participants will examine through pairings and small group discussions how the diversity within Latinidad both challenges and enriches our understanding of Latinx/e identity on stage, while considering ways to represent these multiplicities authentically, avoiding stereotypes. We will also discuss how personal cultural backgrounds influence the portrayal of Latinidad in performance and navigate the tensions between individual and collective identities in crafting narratives.
Breaking Barriers, Building Legacies: Latinas in LA Theatre
2:00 – 3:15 p.m. PDT (Los Angeles, UTC -7) / 4:00 – 5:15 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 5:00 – 6:15 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4)
Join us for a dynamic panel that brings together some of the most inspiring Latinas shaping the theatre landscape in Los Angeles. Through candid conversations about their journeys, challenges, and triumphs, these artists will share how they have defied expectations, broken barriers, and cultivated spaces of belonging and representation. This celebration honors both the individual accomplishments of our panelists and the collective impact Latinas have had—and continue to have—on the cultural fabric of LA theatre.
In addition to highlighting present-day innovators, we pay tribute to the legacy of the Bilingual Foundation of the Arts and its founders—Carmen Zapata, Margarita Galban, and Estela Scarlata—whose pioneering work laid the foundation for Spanish bilingual theatre in the city. Their trailblazing efforts remind us of the power of storytelling to build bridges across language and culture, inspiring the generations that followed.
Saturday 2 November
Closing Ceremonies (Theatre 3)
7:00 – 8:00 p.m. PDT (Los Angeles, UTC -7) / 9:00 – 10:00 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 10:00 – 11:00 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4)
Closing Ceremonies are never about endings. In this final moment together, we will reflect on what seeds we as convening members would like to take with us to plant in our own communities.
