LEVEL UP! World Premiere and More Set for Latino Theater Company 2026 Season

L.A.’s Latino Theater Company will enter its 41st season with a dynamic slate of productions and arts education programming that celebrates its 20th anniversary operating The Los Angeles Theatre Center. 

Launching the season on April 4 and running through May 3 (previews March 26 through April 3), Fidel Gómez is back at The LATC to direct the world premiere of Level Up!, by Gabriel Rivas Gómez. In this multigenerational play co-commissioned by Latino Theater Company and Children’s Theatre Company of Minneapolis as part of the Mellon Foundation’s Generation Now initiative, and developed in Latino Theater Company’s Circle of Imaginistas playwriting group, Desi embarks on a journey of self-discovery through real and virtual worlds in a quest to save her dog and be reunited with her mom. In the world of her videogame, Desi and her family transform into larger-than-life videogame heroes and find what it means to live as your authentic self IRL.

Running April 18 through May 17 (previews April 9 through April 17), Jose Luis Valenzuela directs the world premiere of the newest work by Latino Theater Company resident playwright Evelina Fernández, also developed in the company’s Circle of Imaginistas playwriting group. Exploring themes of memory loss, family dynamics and the burden of caregiving, The Storyteller of East LA underscores the sustaining power of love, compassion and storytelling, and the resilience of family, despite its conflicts and complexities.

Teatro Alebrijes, a one-of-a-kind LGBTQ Latinx theater ensemble from San Jose, CA, returns to The LATC from May 2 through May 24 (previews April 30 and May 1) with one of the highlights of Latino Theater Company’s 2024 Encuentro Festival: Carlota: Alhajero de Secretos (Carlota: Jewelry Box of Secrets). Carlota holds a family secret ready to burst out of her in this work that is equal parts Lorca, Ibsen and scandal… but all heart. Performed in Spanish with English supertitles.

From April 23 through May 16, Latino Theater Company’s inaugural “Under the Stained Glass” music series will offer live music in The LATC’s Grand Lobby on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Admission is free. Grab a drink, enjoy the sounds, and stay for a performance.

Beginning September 9 (previews September 3 through September 5) and continuing through October 3, the company will present a new adaptation of Antigone directed by Jose Luis Valenzuela at the Getty Villa’s outdoor classical theater. Stay tuned for additional details at a later date.

Opening October 3 and running through November 1 (previews October 1 and October 2), Asian American theater collective Artists at Play and Latino Theater Company embark on their fourth collaboration in as many years with a new production of The Dance and the Railroad, an early work by David Henry Hwang. Set during the 1867 Central Pacific Railroad strike protesting inhuman treatment of Chinese laborers in the American West, this haunting and deeply affecting play contrasts the brutal demands of railroad work with the dream, shared by two workers, to practice traditional Chinese Opera.

Later that month, running October 10 through November 1 (previews on October 8 and October 9), Latino Theater Company brings back another highlight from its 2024 Encuentro Festival: Austin, TX theater company Glass Half Full returns with its unique production of Yamel Cucuy. Performed in both English and Spanish (with Spanish and English supertitles), set to an original score of indigenous percussion, and blending sophisticated puppetry with live actors, this story of a girl haunted by folkloric spirits and ICE agents draws on frightening folk tales and modern horror movies to create a terrifying psychological landscape of legal and spiritual pitfalls.

Closing out October, from October 17 through November 15 (previews October 8 through October 16), MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant” recipient Luis Alfaro continues his exploration of the stories of Chicanos, Pentecostalism and migrant farm workers in California’s Central Valley with Speaking in Tongues. Filled with Chicano humor and struggle, this new full-length play about a dwindling congregation struggling to regain its faith in the modern world and political landscape of the Golden State today was commissioned by Latino Theater Company and developed in the company’s Circle of Imaginistas playwriting group.

November will see the beautiful Los Angeles Theatre Center lobby transformed for Latino Theater Company annual Gala, once again bringing together esteemed artists, generous donors and cherished community members for an enchanting evening of kinship, fine cuisine, and heartfelt toasts.

Finally, on Friday, Dec. 4 and Saturday, Dec. 5, Latino Theater Company marks the 20th anniversary of La Virgen de Guadalupe, Dios Inantzin, the company’s epic holiday production that’s taken place every year since 2006 at Downtown’s Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. Featuring over 100 actors, singers and indigenous Aztec dancers as well as children and seniors from the community, La Virgen is the City’s largest theatrical holiday pageant. Performed in Spanish with English supertitles.