Studio Luna History
Forged through a history of activism, Luna believes that theatre is one of the best tools for bearing social change into our lived experience.
Luna has performed in over 40 US cities and four countries and has created and produced over 16 original full-length devised plays that have world-premiered and toured internationally. In 20 years Luna has created and produced over 400 one-night events in cities across the United States alongside our tours to colleges, universities, and performance venues across the country with a blend of ensemble-created performances, workshops, and lectures.
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Miranda Gonzalez
Carolina Jimenez
Erika Martinez
Dr. Coya Paz
Nilsa Reyna
Editha Rosario
Tanya Saracho
Marisabel Suarez
Maria Vega
Teatro Luna was founded in June 2000 by Coya Paz and Tanya Saracho, with an original ensemble of women from diverse Latina/Hispana backgrounds. In their words: “We came together because we realized that the stories and experiences of Latina/Hispana women were undervalued and underrepresented not only on the Chicago stage, but beyond. We were also concerned that the few parts written for Latina women often went to non-Latina actresses. We felt that we had to do something. Our answer was Teatro Luna, Chicago’s first and only all-Latina theater.”
As an ensemble, they decided to approach their work as theater artists from the perspective that “ stories matter, that our histories matter, and that our stories represent experiences beyond our individual lives that are not often heard.” We use an ensemble approach to create performances based on autobiographical experiences and true-life stories.”
At this phase of the company's history, the ensemble was focused on building shows as a collective, incubating single author plays, and developing solo performance. All of this work always started by a simple act: “talking to each other about our lives, about our own experiences with the themes of the play or workshop, and use our varied experiences as the starting point to create performances that speak to diverse Latina lives.”
2007
2000-2007 was a period of incubation, growing pains, and mad-cap creation where multiple iterations of Luna ensembles began to cobble together across generations, a unique methodology for creating performance around autobiographical content; the golden rule quickly became: we give our bitter political pill a healthy coating of sugar so it slides down real smooth.
By 2007, the fourth generation of the ensemble formed and created work intimately for more than five years together, leading to one of the strongest generations of Ensemble in Luna history.
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Maritza Cervantes
Belinda Cervantes
Yadira Correa
Gina Cornejo
Dana Cruz
Suzette Mayobre
Miranda Gonzalez
Coya Paz
Tanya Saracho
Artistic Associates
Dr. Liza Ann Acosta
Desiree Castro
Ilana Faust
Dawn Herrera Helphand
Diane Herrera
Gwen LaRoka
Diana Pando
It is this particular blend of women that created and world-premiered MACHOS: HOW TO BE A MAN, Luna’s first break-out success, directed and developed by Coya Paz, with support from the National Performance Network in NYC and partners in Texas. (Performing Borderlands, Embodying Latino Masculinity: Producing Masculine Latinidad, Blacktino Queer Performance )
The relationship between Teatro Luna and the history of U.S. Latine Theatre was becoming clearer as touring their own work became more fully realized. This teatro was always specifically focused on the creation of work by and for Latinas and women everywhere, but a larger responsibility was beginning to emerge as the company headed towards its ten-year celebration and a major leadership transition.
Teatro Luna was becoming one of the leading theaters and ensembles to develop and produce vibrant and complex Latine theatre nationally.
2013
In 2013 five Lunas went where no other Luna’s had gone before, self producing an International tour with the production of Luna Unlaced and Your Problem With Men, directed by Alexandra Meda. The tour visited twenty-three cities in the U.S. and the production was featured at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, jumping headfirst into the thrilling adventure of festival life.
The bug that was performing and viewing new work at Theatre festivals changed the company's direction drastically as the idea of #LunaOnTheRoad expanding to Luna maybe, possibly, hopefully sitting down in multiple cities with multiple regional ensembles began to take root for the new leadership team of Alexandra Meda, Abigail Vega, and Liza Ann Acosta. This period also marks the transition from a singularly Latina Ensemble to a Latina and Women of Color Ensemble.
2015
Festival-thirsty as ever, being selected as one of the 2014 National Encuentro Festival’s lineup with the West-Coast World Premiere of Your Problem With Men by Emilio Williams became a risky but delicious opportunity to bring several Lunas to Los Angeles for a year-long residency with The Latino Theatre Company at the Los Angeles Theatre Center that would end with the world-premiere of Generation Sex in 2015, unofficially giving birth to Teatro Luna West.
2019
Five years of trying to operate in both Los Angeles and Chicago proved too much for the very under-resourced yet super-mighty team of women, especially when new opportunities kept bringing more of the Chicago Ensemble to the West. Mid 2019 the ensemble emerged in its seventh iteration. Living that California life, Teatro Luna West located at their new home in Boyle Heights which launched with their signature program, Talking While F’ckd: Live Storytelling Sessions (fka Talking While Female) in the fall of 2018. The success from this monthly storytelling event that showcased women of color telling original stories around a theme launched a partnership with Audible, resulting in the Audible Original Talking While Female & Other Dangerous Acts: 25 Stories of Risk & Resilience by Teatro Luna West, co-produced by Christina Igaraividez and Alexandra Meda.
2022
Studio Luna launches Latine History Month 2022 with their eighth ensemble:
Gabriela Bonet
Franceli Chapman
Christen Celaya
Melissa Huerta
Christina Igaraividez
Maya Malan-Gonzalez
Ysaye McKeever
Alexandra Meda
Blanca Melchor
Monica Montoya
Gabriela Ortega
Kelley Williams
Forever changed by a global pandemic, Studio Luna advances beyond its legacy of Teatro Luna, a Latina Theatre Ensemble. Still housed on the same block, but having moved a few doors down, Studio Luna embraces a makeover reflecting this new iteration of the ensemble. With a newly modified vision and values the ensemble continues to grow and lead the field of collectively generated work.
