Teatro Vista Archives - Chicago Reader

A woman in a tulle flowered skirt with a silvery headdress swings on a rope and pair of rings at left. A man in a white shirt and dark trousers dances behind her.

The Dream King delivers heartbreaking hilarity

by Kimzyn Campbell May 24, 2023May 24, 2023

Silent Marvin is living in a silent world that is just as monotonous as ours. The daily grind of shuffling papers at his office job and flipping channels at night leaves him unsatisfied. Where is the purpose? Fortunately for Silent Marvin, he has his dreams. Each night he enters a Dadaesque landscape where flowers are […]

A man on a bed covered with a white blanket reaches a hand upward to a starry sky.

Arts & Culture

Subconscious romance

by Alejandro A. Riera May 11, 2023May 11, 2023

“What is it like to be a character in a dream?,” asks the protagonist of Waking Life (2001), Richard Linklater’s first stab at rotoscope animation. The question lies at the heart of clown, mime, and musician Marvin Quijada’s The Dream King, Teatro Vista’s new production codirected by ensemble member Sandra Marquez and Physical Theater Festival […]

Two women stand together center stage. An older woman with short blonde hair embraces a younger woman with long darker hair, who is holding onto her in fright. Hanging above them are large cutouts of noses and eyes dangling from branches

Arts & Culture

Two Destinos plays center women’s experiences

by Matt Simonette September 27, 2022September 27, 2022

Two emotionally intense woman-centered productions are among the offerings at this fall’s fifth Destinos: Chicago International Latino Theater Festival, with the first focusing on the psychological pitfalls in a tested relationship, while the second delves into a brilliant, neurodiverse woman’s challenges and triumphs. Enough to Let the Light In Through 10/23: Thu-Fri 8 PM, Sat […]

Two Latinx women sit on the rug in a living room. A blue couch is behind them. Marc (Melissa DuPrey) sits behind Cynthia (Lisandra Tena), who seems to be in emotional distress. Marc has her hands on Cynthia's back.

Theater Review

Stranger things

by Emily McClanathan September 26, 2022September 27, 2022

What if the person you love—the one you want to spend the rest of your life with—were to confess a secret so bizarre, so disturbing, that it makes you question whether you know them at all? How do you truly accept every part of a person when you can’t begin to understand one of their […]

Arts & Culture

Remembering Myrna Salazar 1947-2022

by Kerry Reid August 12, 2022August 13, 2022

Next month, the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance will present the fifth annual Destinos Chicago International Theater Festival. But it will be bittersweet; the woman most responsible for making the festival a reality, CLATA cofounder and executive director Myrna Salazar, won’t be there to see it. Salazar died on Wednesday, August 3, two weeks after celebrating […]

Agenda

Sunset 1919, CUFF, Atomic Sketch, and more

by Micco Caporale, Salem Collo-Julin and Kerry Reid July 27, 2022July 27, 2022

Atomic Sketch, which bills itself “Chicago’s original drink and draw” event, celebrates its 14th birthday today in the best way it knows how: a special anniversary drinking and drawing session from 6-10:30 PM tonight at Green Eye Lounge (2403 W. Homer). Featured artists Cecilia Jane, Rebeca Soto, Vivian Jones, Mel Valentine, Morgan Hall, and Megan […]

Photo of Monty Cole, a Black man in a black T-shirt, blue denim jacket, and a tan stocking cap

Ghost Light

Swinging for the Fences with Monty Cole

by Kerry Reid June 30, 2022June 30, 2022

In 2016, Monty Cole made his directorial debut in Chicago with Eugene O’Neill’s The Hairy Ape at now-defunct Oracle Productions—and what a debut it was. His staging of the story of Yank, a swaggering stoker on a steamship who is ultimately destroyed by a society that sees him only as a brute, brought together a […]

A large group of people gather in front of a flag that echoes the flag of the city of Chicago, emblazoned on top with "Quienes Somos—¡Aqui Estamos!," and on the bottom with "Chicago Latino Arts and Culture Summit."

Ghost Light

Latino arts organizations tell funders: ‘Here we are’

by Kerry Reid June 2, 2022June 2, 2022

Back in 1996, the late playwright August Wilson delivered an address at the annual conference for Theatre Communications Group, the national service organization for theaters in the U.S. Entitled “The Ground on Which I Stand,” Wilson’s speech (later released as a book) took aim at racism and Eurocentrism in American theater, particularly when it comes […]

A young woman stands holding an infant with a screen projection of lightning behind her. A group of musicians sits in a pit on the stage before her. The scene is drenched in blue light.

Theater Review

The incredible journey

by Kerry Reid May 25, 2022May 25, 2022

Six years ago, Brian Quijada and Teatro Vista teamed up to present Quijada’s solo show, Where Did We Sit on the Bus?, an endearing and poignant portrait of growing up in the Chicago suburbs as the child of Salvadoran immigrants. The title of that show came from a question young Brian had for his third-grade […]

City Life

Sales, sanctuaries, giardiniera, and Mortified

by Micco Caporale, Salem Collo-Julin and Kerry Reid May 20, 2022May 21, 2022

Looking for some things to do? Consider these options! We found some happenings all over the map this time around, including Evanston, Back of the Yards, downtown, Logan Square, South Shore, and the universe of the internet. FRI 5/20 The Unitarian Church of Evanston (1330 Ridge, Evanston) is hosting its annual rummage sale today until […]

Ghost Light

Remembering Gustavo Mellado; Silk Road announces new paths

by Kerry Reid January 14, 2022January 18, 2022

As a year filled with many losses in Chicago’s theater community wound down, word came in late December that Gustavo Mellado, a founding ensemble member of Teatro Vista, had died at age 69. A December 29 tribute on the company’s Facebook page noted that Mellado was “a wonderful actor with a beautiful singing voice,” and […]

Audrey Francis, a white woman in blue jeans and a black jacket, is standing left, and Glenn Davis, a Black man in dark trousers and shirt, is standing right in front of the empty new theater at Steppenwolf.

Performing Arts Feature

Plays in a pandemic

by Kerry Reid December 22, 2021January 6, 2022

By the time this year ends (it is gonna end, right?), Reader critics will, by my count, have reviewed 69 live theater and dance performances. That’s far less than in most years, but a veritable cornucopia after the onstage famine that began in March 2020. But just when we think it’s safe to go back […]

Woman stands in front of columns and fountain in Millennium Park, surrounded by suitcases

Arts & Culture

Destinos showcases local and international theater companies

by Kaylen Ralph September 23, 2021September 30, 2021

By definition, futurology is the study of current trends, the findings of which can be used to forecast future developments. It’s also a schema that applies perfectly to this current, uncertain era of Chicago theater, and one that is the driving ethos behind Teatro Vista’s 30th season, the first to be helmed by the company’s […]