For decades, the American theatrical tradition has often operated on the assumption of a “default” mode of storytelling—a standard of speech, emotion, and presence that frequently requires performers of color to strip away their native dramaturgies to fit a Eurocentric mold. In many predominantly white institutions, Latine actors have been encouraged to become “blank slates,” effectively unlearning their own sounds and souls to embody characters designed by a gaze that is not their own.
The Latinx Theatre Commons (LTC) is working to dismantle this erasure. By focusing on Latinx actor training and the reclamation of ancestral knowing, the organization is moving beyond simple visibility to provide artists with a toolkit for radical authenticity. The goal is not just to get more Latine faces on stage, but to change the particularly way those artists are trained to exist in their bodies and voices.
This mission recently took physical form at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Theatre and Drama, where the LTC hosted its first Actor Training Laboratorio from March 27-30. The intensive program served as a practical application of the theories found in Latinx Actor Training, a foundational volume co-edited by Cynthia Santos DeCure, a professor at the Yale School of Drama, and Micha Espinosa, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Repairing the Eurocentric Gap in Performance
The collaboration between DeCure and Espinosa has spanned nearly two decades, born from a shared realization of the systemic gaps in how Latine talent is nurtured. They describe a landscape where producers often overlook Latine artists, and academia fails to train them to tell diverse, diasporic stories. This lack of specialized training often leaves actors trapped by stereotypes that compress the complexity of their lived experiences.
DeCure argues that the proliferation of embodied authenticity is the only way to truly erase these outdated images. “When we proliferate that, that actually erases the old image, the stereotype, and the populace begins to see, ‘Well, that was a stereotype. This is authentic,’” she explains. For example, the historical image of the Boricua was often filtered through the lens of brownface and misrepresentation in productions like West Side Story.
This cultural occupation is not just a matter of casting, but of consciousness. Though, a new wave of creators is beginning to overshadow these harmful depictions. The influence of María Irene Fornés at the INTAR Theatre’s Hispanic Playwrights-in-Residence Laboratory paved the way for a broader movement. Today, the industry sees the impact of figures such as José Rivera with Marisol, Carmen Rivera with Maria (La Gringa), Migdalia Cruz with El Grito del Bronx, and the commercial successes of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights and Bad Bunny’s DtMF.
Despite these successes, DeCure and Espinosa recognized that while playwrighting had advanced, actor training had lagged. Their motto, “Change the training, change the industry,” seeks to create an actor’s equivalent to the specialized playwright laboratories of the past.
The Laboratorio: A Space for Collaborative Healing
The first Actor Training Laboratorio brought together 32 early- to mid-career actors for a weekend of focused, personalized work. The curriculum was designed to root performers in “ancestral knowing,” drawing inspiration from pioneers like Jorge A. Huerta, who established the Hispanic Acting program at UC San Diego between 1990 and 1994. While such graduate programs are no longer available in the U.S., the LTC aims to fill that void.
The weekend was structured to center the Latine experience in every facet of the craft. The event opened with a special recognition of iconic playwright Josefina López and a keynote lecture by Dr. Chantal Rodriguez. The faculty included contributors to the Latinx Actor Training book, including Michelle Lopez-Rios, who led voice workshops, and Marissa Chibás, who taught “Mythic Imagination and the Actor.”
For participants, the experience was as much about psychological release as it was about technical skill. Daniela Thome, a participant and LTC Laboratorio Committee Member, described a “breath release play” in Lopez-Rios’s workshop where students experimented with choral reading and shifted their perspective by embodying different ages. This process allowed Thome to access blocked emotions in her monologues in ways she had never been able to before.
The emotional impact of the gathering was underscored by participant Kenia Munguia, who noted that Latine actors are often conditioned to view one another as competition due to a “landscape of scarcity.” The Laboratorio instead offered a collaborative environment where artists could approach the craft as a calling “en nuestro idioma.”
Next Steps for the Latinx Theatre Commons
The LTC is currently transitioning into a new phase of organizational growth. Originally a flagship program of HowlRound, the organization is moving toward its first full year as an independent entity, with a milestone anniversary coming up in July. Producer Jacqueline Flores describes the organization as a testament to the act of imagining and then creating a world that does not yet exist.
Looking forward, the organization intends to expand the scope of the Laboratorio. DeCure has expressed a desire to develop future editions specifically for mid-to-late-career artists and to create more opportunities for self-generated projects. The overarching goal is to ensure that this infrastructure for authenticity does not dissolve, as many previous Latine programs have over the years.
As Espinosa notes, the Laboratorio was a space for “gathering, replenishing, and reimagining what becomes possible when Latinx artists are centered in the room.” With the move toward independence and the planning of future training cycles, the organization is establishing a permanent foundation for a new era of storytelling.
We invite you to share your thoughts on the evolution of representation in American theatre in the comments below.
