Laura Alcalá Baker Archives

Interior set of a cigar factory with "CIGARS" painted in big white letters on the rear wall. The lector, a man in a white suit, stands on a ladder rear left, holding a book. Another man stands next to him, slouching against the wall. In the center we can see the partial figure of a woman with her back turned toward us. Another woman sits working at a large wooden table in the center of the photo. A man sits on the right edge of the table, with a woman on his lap.

Summer and smoke

by Catey Sullivan February 23, 2023February 22, 2023

Nilo Cruz’s 2003 Pulitzer Prize-winning Anna in the Tropics is a lit-fuse kind of drama, beginning with a slow but unmistakable simmer that ultimately detonates with scorching, devastating impact. Directed by Laura Alcalá Baker for Remy Bumppo Theatre, this lavishly produced, powerfully cast production shows just how relevant—and compelling—Cruz’s words remain. Anna in the Tropics […]

A middle-aged Latinx man and a younger Latinx woman sit together on a couch on a driveway in front of a garage door. He is holding out a box wrapped with Christmas paper to her.

Theater Review

Bullish on Bull

by Jack Helbig October 19, 2022October 19, 2022

This is a play of tiny moments and small details, a play in which characters change slowly, the way people and seasons change—silently, imperceptibly at first and then with the sudden, savage swiftness of leaves tumbling from the trees that takes your breath away. This is a play that needs your full presence as a […]

Three people in exaggerated blonde wigs and blue dresses in a row.

Theater Review

Dictator dictation

by Melissa Renee Perry May 19, 2022May 19, 2022

The energy in the Den Theater last Thursday was electric, as The Secretaries, written by Omer Abbas Salem and directed by Laura Alcalá Baker, made its highly anticipated debut with First Floor Theater. The dark comedic play was first developed through Goodman Theatre’s Future Labs and marks Salem’s first full production as a playwright in […]

Arts & Culture

Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman is Gorey-meets-Kafka

by Irene Hsiao March 3, 2020August 18, 2021

Gift Theatre brings a dark fable to life.

Arts & Culture

The Leopard Play, or Sad Songs for Lost Boys examines a fractured Mexican American family

by Kerry Reid January 28, 2020August 18, 2021

Isaac Gomez’s world premiere at Steep takes us over the border of trauma and truth.