TEATRX produces work that creates awareness and promotes change on social issues that affect our community while developing a community of Latinx artists and building partnerships with local arts and cultural institutions. By producing work that celebrates Latinx stories, history, and social issues, TEATRX is giving the Latinx community a voice and ownership of the art being created.
In 2018, TEATRX produced La Vida Es Cortos / Life Is Shorts, to kick off their inaugural year. TEATRX used the underutilized mediums of short plays and short films to advance Latinx theater and film in Houston with multiethnic, multicultural, and multigenerational stories in English and Spanish that better reflected the majority-minority population of Houston. This festival was the first of its kind; no other festival in the nation showcased performance arts and films together. La Vida Es Cortos allowed TEATRX to bring together local Latinx artists and filmmakers from around Latin America to put on a great celebration of Latinx stories.
In 2019, TEATRX produced stage readings and a workshop performance of three new plays with social justice themes. Following each play, TEATRX led community conversations about mass incarceration, veteran mental health, and the complicated relationship between the Black and Latinx communities. That same year TEATRX educated audiences about immigrant rights at the Alley Theatre’s El Zocalo community celebration with the micro play, “Know Your Rights“ by TEATRX co-founder Marissa Castillo. Lastly, TEATRX performed “Las Dos Caras Del Patroncito”, a satire about Labor Rights by El Teatro Campesino, during “A Conversation with Dolores Huerta” in collaboration with Holocaust Museum Houston.
In 2020, due to Covid-19 TEATRX explored and adapted to the virtual world created by the pandemic. TEATRX was fortunate to be awarded a grant to explore new ways to create art virtually while staying true to its mission. The virtual project, “Balcony Scene in Quarantine”, explored theatricality through Zoom. TEATRX produced a five-episode web series that culminated in a live-streamed performance of a bilingual adaptation of Shakespeare‘s famous balcony scene from “Romeo and Juliet.” The web series documented the search for theatricality through virtual platforms, the challenges facing Houston theatre artists during the pandemic, and the effects that outside factors (Social Distancing) had on people’s relationships with their loved ones.
In 2021, TEATRX produced its first full-length production and toured it around Houston. “Sonia Flew” by Melinda Lopez shines a light on Operation Pedro Pan, a political maneuver that separated thousands of Cuban children from their parents in the 60s and gave voice to a distinct community with dual identities (Latinx and Jewish). By touring the production to various Houston locations, we reached several communities and invited them to analyze the parallels and shared trauma of familial separation by Holocaust victims, enlisted soldiers leaving their families for war, and the current refugees seeking safety in the US. The “Sonia Flew” tour was made possible by funding awarded to TEATRX by Midtown Entertainment and Cultural District, and through community arts partnerships with Holocaust Museum Houston and MECA.
