El Centro Su Teatro's ENRIQUE'S JOURNEY Begins Tonight

Denver's Chicano cultural-arts group El Centro Su Teatro is just a year shy of celebrating a silver anniversary as a cohesive center, and while artistic director Tony Garcia is planning new work for that big occasion, he's decided to celebrate the past first, by bringing back a whole season's worth of audience favorites. It all begins tonight with the return of 2011's Enrique's Journey, Garcia's taut adaptation of journalist Sonia Nazario's book of the same name.

The true story of a young Honduran migrant making his way to the United States, riding atop trains in dangerous company, Su Teatro's original play captures every detail of the trip, right down to the technologically rendered rocking and screeching of the train cars. And you can think of the tightened-up version - with more live music (courtesy of frequent Su Teatro collaborator Daniel Valdez) and a resilient young cast led by returning star Jose Guerrero - as a trial run. In October, Garcia and Valdez will take the show to the Latino Theatre Encuentro in Los Angeles; Su Teatro is one of ten groups selected to perform at the national gathering of Latino theater companies. "Su Teatro has really done a lot to tell local Colorado stories, and one reason we chose Enrique's Journey for the trip is that it is broader; it has a bigger message," Garcia says, adding that L.A. has a much larger Central American community than Denver.

"It will make people ask, 'What is this Mexican-American group from Denver doing, telling a story that would be great to come out of L.A.? That speaks to a lot of things; it [says that] Su Teatro has a national as well as a regional perspective."

Enrique's Journey opens tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Su Teatro at the Denver Civic Theatre, 721 Santa Fe Drive, and runs through October 4; for information and tickets, $17 to $20, visit suteatro.net or call 303-296-0219. http://www.westword.com/events/enriques-journey-2984380?utm_source=Newsletters&utm_medium=email

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