Smashed Between Two Convenings: Teatros Unidos Breaks Bread
November 29, 2024 | By Maya Malan-Gonzalez
Early November 2024 was a busy time for Latine Theatre makers and scholars and just lovers of Teatro in Los Angeles. The Latino Theatre Co. at The Los Angeles Theatre Center (LATC) was buzzing due to their third Encuentro and this Encuentro came with 2 convenings. The first was held from October 30th to November 2nd for the Latinx Theatre Commons (LTC) and the following weekend of November 7th to the 9th the National Latino Theatre Initiative (NLTI) gathered. In between these two gatherings, a not-so-secret meeting occurred between a small group, called Teatros Unidos.
Teatro Unidos is an emerging and growing collective of Teatros and BIPOC Theatre organizations that uplift and give voice to their historically silenced communities by producing plays, multicultural and multigenerational community programs
Now I could write all about the Encuentro, or the LTC, or even the NLTI gathering- and if that's what you’re looking for, sorry to tell you, you’ve come across the wrong blog. I’m going to tell you all about that not-so-secret Teatros Unidos meeting, a small but mighty group of teatros that began meeting virtually in 2020 and had its first in-person gathering at our Studio in Boyle Heights.
After four years of zoom meetings, co-producing Ingenio 2020- a virtual festival of new plays, and co-producing a virtual summit featuring A Live Reading of CITY WITHOUT ALTAR by Jasminne Mendez– it was time for our group to gather in person, have thoughtful conversation, and share actual real space.
It was time to metaphorically break bread. Thank you Inka Wasi for filling our stomachs with delicious Peruvian food that had vegan options!
In attendance we had Jose Gonzalez with Milagro, Sara Guerrero with Breath of Fire: Latina Theatre Ensemble, Ivan Vega & Antonio Bruno with UrbanTheater Co., Marc Pinate with Borderlands, Rodrigo Garcia and Jacob Yoder-Schrock with Teatro Vision, Richard Falcon with Teatro Nagual, and of course myself and Alex Meda here at Studio Luna.
We began with a grounding exercise led by Marc Pinate, then we release through a burning ritual (you know how we get down at Luna, there’s always a little smoke involved), and in true Luna fashion, we made space at the top to give everyone an opportunity to share their voice by checking in. We shared projects we are working on that could involve collaboration with other Teatros Unidos orgs. And we took the time as a group to really hone in on what this group is.
Zoom meeting attendance had begun to dwindle, questions were raised whether this group was still needed or if it had served its purpose during the darkest days of the pandemic- the question of if it was still needed was answered by the gathering of these 7 teatros. The Encuentro offered a fantastic window that theatre makers would be coming to LA, and almost all of the groups gathered at this event are recipients of the NLTI grants, but the individuals of these teatros still had to make arrangements to come to LA, a little early just for Teatros Unidos.
We discussed group and meeting structures moving forward, and ultimately walked away with this group being a place for 3 things:
Knowledge Sharing- this is an intergenerational space with similar sized orgs, but still varying in size, staff, capacity, relationship to a physical space- we all have a vast wealth of knowledge and we are a space for folks to share and ask questions that can help build individual orgs.
Collaborations- we have had 2 collaborations within our group, and many relationships have begun to build around those projects.
Convenings- We had done virtual convenings and this meeting at Studio Luna was a seed for future gatherings with more members of Teatros Unidos- and perhaps an expanded Teatros Unidos that continues to add more teatros to the conversation. Would you be interested in joining our meetings? If so, email Maya@holastudioluna.org