Tickets on Sale Now for DESTINOS, 5th CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL LATINO THEATER FESTIVAL

Destinos, 5th Chicago International Latino Theater Festival, Chicago's annual citywide festival showcasing Latino theater artists and companies from Chicago, the U.S. and Latin America, returns September 14-October 16, 2022.

Destinos kicks off Chicago's Hispanic Heritage Month with five weeks of Latino-centric shows, panels and student performances at downtown venues, neighborhood theaters, and cultural institutions throughout the Chicago area.

The full Destinos 2022 line-up - 13 amazing productions including six world premieres, four U.S. premieres and three Midwest premieres - is set and tickets to most productions are on sale at destinosfest.org.

Chicagoans and visitors alike are encouraged to get their tickets now to experience new, vibrant solo shows and large scale productions playing on Chicago's top stages in September and October, each celebrating the Latino experience.

Visit destinosfest.org to purchase tickets and for full show information. Sign up for CLATA's weekly e-newsletter for first notice of festival events. Follow Destinos on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, all at @latinotheater.

Destinos is produced annually by the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance (CLATA), a transformative cultural engine helping drive the city's local Latino theater community to a more prominent level, founded by Myrna Salazar, the National Museum of Mexican Art (NMMA), the International Latino Cultural Center (ILCC), and the Puerto Rican Arts Alliance (PRAA).

Chicagoans are still stunned by the recent loss of CLATA's visionary leader, Myrna Salazar, who passed away suddenly on August 3.

"CLATA's success would not have been possible without a visionary at the helm, a person with the tenacity and passion to bring Chicago's Latino theater community to a level that had not yet been imagined," wrote the CLATA staff in a program note dedicating this year's Destinos to Salazar's memory.

"Now, in Myrna's honor, CLATA is charged with the task of making sure her legacy forges ahead with the same unbridled zeal that she brought to her beloved organization, the Destinos Festival, and her everyday life."

2022 festival highlights include three out-of-town productions from Mexico and Puerto Rico:

The world premiere of La Pájara de San Juan, a Trump-era drama about two sisters, one documented, one not, on a fateful night in Chicago, starring Mexican TV stars María del Carmen Félix and Mariannela Cataño. It is written by Victor Salinas and Sergio Gezzi, and co-presented by CLATA and the National Museum of Mexican Art, September 14-17. Opens Wednesday, September 14 at 7:30 p.m.

The Midwest premiere of Pequeños Territorios en Reconstrucción, a documentary fable about a group of Colombian women who created the "League of Displaced Women" and built 98 houses with their own hands, from Mexico City's Teatro Línea de Sombra, co-presented by CLATA and Goodman Theatre in the heart of Chicago's Loop, September 21-25. Opens Wednesday, September 21 at 7:30 p.m.

The U.S. premiere of Blanco Temblor by Puerto Rico's Teatro Público. This is a dramedy about mental health as told via the story of Marina del Mar, a doctor in quantum astrophysics, a Puerto Rican, bipolar, suicide survivor, with a disease from birth: she could not tremble. Performances are September 29-October 2 at The Den Theatre in Wicker Park. Opens Thursday, September 29 at 8 p.m.
You want new plays by Latino writers? Destinos will see diverse new works by Chicago's top Latino companies and artists, including:

Las Migas by Colectivo El Pozo, a world premiere drama set on the roof of a Chicago skyscraper as an eerie red moon disrupts city life below, Performances are September 15-October 2 at Chess Live Theater in Bridgeport. Opens Thursday, September 15 at 8 p.m.

The U.S. premiere of Bruna la Bruja Bruta by Mexican playwright Tomás Urtusástegui, starring Teatro Tariakuri Artistic Director Karla Galván as a modern-day Latina bruja who flies into her theater's Marquette Park storefront space to get a few things off her chest before Halloween. Performances are Saturdays and Sundays, September 17-October 16. Opens Saturday, September 17 at 8 p.m.

The U.S. debut of Tebas Land by Uruguayan playwright Sergio Blanco, inspired by the Oedipus myth, about a series of meetings in a prison basketball court between a playwright and a young parricide (a person who kills a parent or close relative). Presented September 22-October 9 by CLATA in collaboration with the National Museum of Mexican Art at Chicago Dramatists. Opens Thursday, September 22 at 7:30 p.m.

The world premiere of Enough to Let the Light In, produced by Teatro Vista and co-presented with Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Melissa DuPrey (Grey's Anatomy) and Lisandra Tena (Fear the Walking Dead) star in actor/playwright/filmmaker/director Paloma Nozicka's new psychological thriller about girlfriends Marc and Cynthia, who spend a night celebrating a milestone, but it quickly devolves into chaos as buried secrets are revealed and lives are irrevocably changed. Performances are September 21-October 23 at Steppenwolf's 1700 Theater. Opens Friday, September 23 at 8 p.m.

Alma, an American Blues Theatre world premiere about a single mom who has single-handedly raised her daughter on tough love, home-cooked comida, and lots of prayers. But on the eve of her daughter's SAT, she's nowhere to be found. Alma, written by 2019 National Latinx Playwriting Award winner Benjamin Benne, runs September 22-October 22 at Rivendell Theatre Ensemble. Opens Wednesday and Thursday, September 28 and 29 at 7:30 p.m.

Poet, actor, singer and Latino favorite Flaco Navaja stars in his first full-length solo show Evolution of a Sonero, a Midwest premiere from UrbanTheater Company. With unabashed love for the Bronx, a gift for crafting memorable characters, and genuine good humor, Navaja and five top-notch musicians bring on the charm, the rhythm, and the soul essential to a Bronx Sonero. Don't miss this fresh salsa epic about growing up, getting inspired, and staying on track. Performances are September 29-October 23. Opens Thursday, September 29 at 8 p.m.

BULL: a love story by Chicago playwright Nancy García Loza. Bull dealt drugs, got caught, and served his time. After a decade, he is released from prison and returns to an unrecognizable Lakeview. What will it take to really get home? BULL: a love story is a Paramount Theater BOLD Series world premiere, October 5-November 20 at the new Copley Theatre in downtown Aurora, Illinois' second largest city with a 40 percent Latino population. BULL also marks the first-ever expansion of Destinos into a Chicago suburb. Opens Wednesday and Thursday, October 12 and 13 at 7 p.m.

The midwest premiere of Sancocho by Visión Latino Theater Company, written by Christin Eve Cato, directed by Xavier M. Custodio. The play tells the story of two sisters, 25 years apart, who come together to discuss their father's will while making a traditional sancocho stew that suddenly becomes peppered with revelations about their family history. Performances are October 8-30 at Windy City Playhouse. Opens Monday, October 10 at 7:30 p.m.

The U.S. premiere of Cintas de seda from Aguijón Theater in Chicago's Belmont-Cragin/Hermosa neighborhood. Set on the eve of the Day of the Dead, this play by Norge Espinosa imagines a painter and nun coming together for an impossible dialogue with ghosts, hallucinations, and images of the past, October 13-November 20. Opens Friday, October 14 at 8 p.m.

The world premiere of The Wizards by Ricardo Gamboa, a supernatural thriller about a Brown and Black genderqueer couple who find a Quija board in their new Pilsen apartment that connects them to a '70s Mexican-American Motown cover band. The Wizards, co-produced by the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance at Pilsen's historic APO Cultural Center, runs October 14-November 26. Opens Friday, October 14 at
7:30 p.m.

Tickets to all productions will be on sale by mid-August. Visit destinosfest.org for more information and to sign up for CLATA's weekly e-newsletter.

Also, follow Destinos at @latinotheater on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to receive first notice of all festival events.

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