Latino Theater Company’s 2024 Spring Season to include two exciting world premieres and a crowd-pleasing comedy

L.A.’s Latino Theater Company has announced a 2024 Spring Season of two adventurous world premieres and a sure fire crowd-pleaser. The three productions will open back-to-back, then run concurrently Thursdays through Sundays during the month of May. All performances take place at The Los Angeles Theatre Center, a five-theater complex in downtown L.A. known informally as The LATC.

Kicking off the season on May 4 and continuing through June 2 in the Lupe Ontiveros Cinema Center (Theater 2 of the complex) will be the world premiere of Ghost Waltz by Oliver Mayer (Blade to the Heat, Members Only). Developed in Latino Theater Company’s Circle of Imaginistas playwriting group, this new play is a boldly original recovery of Juventino Rosas, one of Mexico’s most significant composers — an Indigenous musician whose life story has gone untold and whose works have been attributed to Europeans. Following Rosas from his father’s early death to his friendship with ragtime genius Scott Joplin, Mayer mixes music, magic, drama, passion, spirituality and dance in a celebration that explores the lives of people of color during the emerging Americas of the late 19th century and their ghostlike impact on our own lives today. Alberto Barboza directs.

Next up, May 11 through June 9 in the Tom Bradley Theatre (Theater 1) is American Mariachi, written by José Cruz González and featuring original music arrangements by Cynthia Reifler Flores. Latino Theater Company’s Jose Luis Valenzuela directs this big-hearted, feel-good comedy with live music about familia, amor and tradición. It’s the 1970s and women can’t be mariachis…or can they? Lucha spends her days caring for her mother and yearning for more. Defying expectations, Lucha and her spunky cousin hunt for bandmates and take up instruments. A loving gesture for a mother becomes much more as the young women dream big and embrace the transcendent power of music.

Finally, running May 18 through June 16 in Theater 3, is the world premiere of Mix-Mix: The Filipino Adventures of a German Jewish Boy by Boni B. Alvarez. Latino Theater Company joins forces with Playwrights’ Arena to present Alvarez’s epic World War II play inspired by the true-life experiences of Ralph J. Preiss. Directed by Playwrights’ Arena artistic director Jon Lawrence Rivera, Mix-Mix tells the coming-of-age tale of 13-year-old Rudy Preissman, who escapes Nazi Germany at the age of nine with his family to find safety in the Philippines. Their tropical refuge is upended when Japan invades the islands, forcing the family and their Filipino friends to hide in the heights and depths of sacred Mount Banahao.

Following the Spring Season, Latino Theater Company’s free, five-week Summer Youth Conservatory for high school students will return June 23 through July 27; applications are now being accepted at latinotheaterco.org/conservatory.

Looking ahead, the Fall Season will see the world premiere of God Will Do the Rest by Nicholas Pilapil in a second co-production (following the success of This Is Not a True Story in 2023) with Asian American theater collective Artists at Play (August 31 through September 29), as well as a second Circle of Imaginistas-developed production, title and dates TBA. On Saturday, Oct. 5, Latino Theater Company’s 17th anniversary Gala will honor California Speaker Emeritus Anthony Rendon; actor and producer Dan Guerrero; and Chicana artivista and lead singer of Grammy-winning rock band Quetzal, Martha Gonzalez. Encuentro 2024, a 10th-anniversary celebration of Latino Theater Company’s historic National Encuentro Latina/o/x theater festival, will take place October 24 to November 10; applications are now being accepted at latinotheaterco.org/encuentro. On Friday, Dec. 6 and Saturday, Dec. 7, the company brings back its free holiday spectacular La Virgen de Guadalupe, Dios Inantz, performed annually at downtown L.A.’s Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.

The Latino Theater Company is dedicated to providing a world-class arts center for those pursuing artistic excellence; a laboratory where both tradition and innovation are honored and honed; and a place where the convergence of people, cultures and ideas contribute to the future. Now entering its 39th year, the company has operated the City of Los Angeles-owned Los Angeles Theatre Center since 2006, producing 155 plays, creating over 4000 jobs and helping hundreds of nonprofit organizations by providing space and resources. The City, recognizing the Latino Theater Company for its “effective first-class theater center operations,” recently extended the company’s initial 20-year lease for an additional 30 years, through 2056.

For more information about the Latino Theater Company and the 2024 Spring Season, call (213) 489-0994 or go to www.latinotheaterco.org.