This anthology has its origins in the Encuentro theater festival, which was produced by the Latino Theater Company in association with the Latinx Theatre Commons in Los Angeles in 2014. Encuentro means “an encounter,” and meetings form a core theme in these six groundbreaking plays, each prefaced by a critical introduction from a leading Latinx theater scholar.

Playwrights Ruben C. Gonzalez, José Torres-Tama, Rickerby Hinds, Mariana Carreño King, Javier Antonio González, and Evelina Fernández exhibit a wide range of aesthetic approaches, dramatic structures, and themes, ranging from marriage, gentrification, racial and gendered violence, migration, and the ever-present politics of the U.S.–Mexico border. There is power in the communal experience of creating, witnessing, and participating in theater festivals. This anthology is a testament to that power and seeks to document the historic festival as well as to make these works available to a wider audience.

Encuentro: Latinx Performance for the New American Theater addresses interests of general audiences committed to the performing arts; scholars and students of Latinx, gender, and ethnic studies; university, college, and high school theater programs; and regional theaters looking to diversify their programming.

 

TREVOR BOFFONE is a lecturer in the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program at the University of Houston and the founder of the 50 Playwrights Project.

TERESA MARRERO is a professor of Latin American and Latinx theater at the University of North Texas.

CHANTAL RODRIGUEZ is the associate dean of the Yale School of Drama and a lecturer in the Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism Department.
 

"This essential anthology features established and emerging playwrights from a diverse range of Latinx backgrounds (most of whom remain staggeringly under published) as introduced by incisive commentaries from an impressive array of contemporary Latinx theatre scholars and critics. An artfully-edited volume that aptly captures both the excitement and the far-reaching impact of the 2014 Encuentro."  —Brian Eugenio Herrera, Princeton University, author of Latin Numbers: Playing Latino in Twentieth Century Popular Performance