Drawn from the first ten years of the Goodman Theatre’s renowned biennial festival of Latino plays, the works in this collection expand the definition of Latino theater, resisting the confines of a particular language, locale, or assumed audience. Instead of focusing on similarities that outline the boundaries of Latino identity, these plays look outward, representing the multiplicity of actual Latino experience. The plays were written and performed sometimes in English and sometimes in Spanish; their stories are set in heterogeneous milieus; they’re directed at both Latino and non-Latino audiences; and they incorporate cultural or theatrical elements from vastly different traditions. As a group, these plays indicate the extraordinary range of the festival’s offerings and show how it has contributed to a more complex notion of what Latino theater is and can be.

Henry Godinez is an associate professor in the Department of Theatre at Northwestern University and a resident artistic associate at the Goodman Theatre, where he curates the Latino Theatre Festival.

Ramón H. Rivera-Servera is an associate professor in the Department of Performance Studies at Northwestern University.