Subtext Studio Theatre Company Launches Inaugural Season With THE AMERICAN DREAM at Destinos Fest

Subtext Studio Theatre Company has announced the inaugural, 2023 season featuring the world premiere play The American Dream by Juan Ramirez, Jr., as part of Destinos: 6th Chicago International Latino Theater, plus free staged new play readings by this season's featured emerging playwright, Alaric Hinchcliffe. The play is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts. 

Under the direction of SSTC's Artistic Director Omar Fernandez, The American Dream examines the price of freedom. Guatemalan immigrant Corina (Kairis Rivera) has made her way across the border guided by Efren (Jorge Aguilar), a human smuggler, aka coyote. Efren imprisons her while awaiting the final payment from her husband. Lies and truth get tangled as each desperately battles for their own definitions of freedom. Run time is about 90 minutes with no intermission. Designers include Harrison Ornelas (set), Irma Gualpa (sound), and Zuzel Garcia (lights). Attendee masks are required for the two October 22nd performances, and strongly encouraged for all shows throughout the run.

The American Dream runs October 5-29, 2023, at Madison Street Theater, 1010 Madison Street, Oak Park, IL, 60302. Show times are Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., and Sundays at 3:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Performances on Sunday evenings on October 8, 15 and 22 will be in Spanish with English subtitles. Spanish subtitles will be available at the October 7-14 shows. Post show discussions will be held after the October 7, 7:30 p.m. show for the Destinos Festival opening (including a cast Q&A), and following the October 29, 3:30 p.m. performance. Tickets are $22 (for students, seniors and military with ID), $25 (general admission), $30 (reserved seating), and are available at SubtextStudioTC.org. Free and paid street parking is available, and the theater is near the Green Harlem/Lake CTA stop. 

Free staged readings by Alaric Hinchcliffe (he/him), a trans Filipino poet, will explore his cultural and trans/queer experiences:

·       Friday, August 18, 7 p.m. what earth does when you're sleeping. This devised theater piece uses poetry, movement and music (run time around one hour). Friendly Community Room, 6729 Roosevelt Rd., Berwyn. Free tickets at SubtextStudioTC.org, with reservations required as seating is limited. Cash bar and street parking.

·       Friday, November 17, 7 p.m., Falling Into Grey. A biracial transgender poet struggles with the feeling that he's always in the grey area of life. He doesn't feel integrated in Caucasian, Filipino or queer culture. He loves and loses, then realizes he'll do it all a thousand times again, because life is a beautiful chaos that's worth living. Venue TBA. 

Juan Ramirez, Jr., (he/him/his) is an internationally-produced, award-winning playwright, monologist, screenwriter, actor, director, filmmaker, producer and poet. He is a Dramatists Guild member, a 2020-2021 Dramatists Guild Fellow, Dramatist Guild End of Play Partner, founder of The PlayPen Collective and R and R Productions with his wife Cristy Reynoso, a NYC LatinX Playwright Circle Member, an ATG PlayLab member, a producing member of The Bronx Repertory Company, a film assessor and script reader who has taught classes from improv to screenwriting. He received his B.A. from Lehman College and his MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU Tisch. Visit juanramirezjr.com.

 Omar Vicente Fernandez (he/him/él) is a Mexican American playwright, actor and director, born in Chicago and raised in Berwyn. He has been active in professional theater since his teens, working with Berwyn's 16th Street Theater NFP in various capacities for nearly a decade, and in 2022 as a staff member.  Alaric Hinchcliffe (he/him/his) is a trans Filipino American whose work focuses on the human relationship with the Earth, plus environmental activism and restoration inspired by his Environmental Sciences BS degree from the University of Illinois, Chicago. In autumn 2023, he will study and implement coral restoration in the Philippines for three months. As a poet, Hinchcliffe writes about the queer biracial experience and uses the Earth as an artistic device to write about the human experience.

The signature program of the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance (CLATA) is Destinos: Chicago International Latino Theater Festival, an annual, citywide festival showcasing Chicago's Latine theater artists and companies. Alongside top Latine artists from the U.S. and Latin America, performances are presented at marquee venues downtown, as well as storefront theaters and cultural institutions throughout Chicago.  Artistic Director Omar Fernandez and fellow UIC students founded the original Subtext Studio in 2021 to provide opportunities for emerging BIPOC and LGBTQ+ artists to gain valuable professional theater production experience. Fernandez created Subtext Studio Theatre Company in December 2022, and brought in Jean Gottlieb as Managing Director to fold in Dragonfly Theatre Company's mission, which Gottlieb founded in 2020 as a virtual creative outlet for artists during the pandemic. The pair met and first collaborated together at 16th Street Theatre NFP.

“The theater is in the midst of a political and ideological reckoning, and the opportunity to reform the landscape of American theater is on us. Subtext Studio TC believes the newest generation of artists can lead the way, if given the opportunity,” Fernandez said.