"I do what I do because I don't see images of myself onstage. I want to complicate the image of what a Latina woman is without standing on a soapbox. I'm dedicated to telling Her stories - to letting us look at life through her eyes. Politically and socially we have gone voiceless for so long and that is obviously reflected in the American Theatre. We have so much to say; I'm making it my job to make us listen."
Tanya Saracho was born in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, México and moved to Texas in the late 1980s. She is a writer, performer and director. She is a resident playwright emerita at Chicago dramatists, an Artistic Associate with About Face Theater and the Founder and Co-Director of ALTA, the Alliance of Latino Theater Artists, www.altachicago.org.
As Co-founding Artistic Director of Teatro Luna, Chicago's all-Latina theater ensemble, Saracho has directed or co-directed most of the company’s shows during Luna’s first decade and her writing has been featured in most of group’s ensemble-devised works including Generic Latina, Dejame Contarte, The Maria Chronicles, SOLO Latinas, SOLO Tu, S-E-X-Oh! and Lunatic(a)s.
Productions include an adaptation of El Nogalar (Teatro Vista at The Goodman Theater- 2011), Enfrascada (Clubbed Thumb, NYC- 2011) The House on Mango Street (Steppenwolf for Young Audiences- 2009), Our Lady of The Underpass (Teatro Vista at 16th Street Theater-2009), Surface Day with Chicago Children's Humanity Festival (2008), Kita y Fernanda with 16th Street Theater and Jarred (A Hoodoo Comedy) with Teatro Luna (2008).
Tanya is a Goodman Theatre Fellow at the Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media at Columbia College Chicago; winner of the 2005 Ofner Prize; a 3Arts Award; named “Best New Playwright” of 2010 by Chicago Magazine; the first winner of the “Revolucionarios” Award in Theater by the National Museum of Mexican Art and winner of an NEA Distinguished New Play Development Grant for “The Good Private” in collaboration with About Face Theater. Saracho is under commission from Steppenwolf Theatre, Goodman Theatre, and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. |
