'Solo Tu' is 'by Latinas, about Latinas'

It takes courage to allow audiences to scrutinize the deeply personal and even painful, such as botched surgeries and failed pregnancy attempts.

Tanya Saracho and Coya Paz, co-founders and co-artistic directors of Teatro Luna, in Chicago, have done it for the past eight years with a mix of boldness, humor and poignant realism.

"People ask me, 'so how many children do you have?' and it's not always easy to hear that," said Paz, who on stage has chronicled her yearslong struggle to get pregnant.

Similarly, Saracho gets questions from people who have watched performances revolving around her string of surgeries to remedy the stomach stapling and breast reduction her father made her undergo as a teenager.

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But both women, 32, said that using difficult, intimate subjects in their work has been absolutely worthwhile.

"Our own personal experiences reflect larger issues facing Latina women. This is not like having a reality TV show on stage," Paz said. "We are willing to use our own lives to stimulate conversation about these topics."

Teatro Luna is the only year-round, all-Latina company in Chicago and -- according to Paz and Saracho -- in the country. It has staged more than a dozen productions and opened its newest, "Solo Tu" March 6.

The company performs entirely original work written by Paz and Saracho and the rest of its nine-member ensemble, all of whom live in Chicago. With the exception of its recent production, "Machos," which was based on interviews with men around the country, its work is based on autobiographical experience, although the actors don't always play themselves on stage.

Take your pick within the gamut of Latina experiences -- abortion, motherhood, sex, body image, domestic violence and so on -- and Teatro Luna has tackled it. Although the themes are universal to women's lives, they are examined through the lens of Latinas' experiences.

"We create theater by Latinas, about Latinas and largely for Latinas," Paz said.

While a production like "Lunaticas," a collage of vignettes about women's "crazy" side, would resonate among all audiences, a production like "Quita Mitos," which highlights different types of modern-day Latinas in the United States, would likely most hit the mark among people familiar with the Latino culture.

The collaboration between Paz and Saracho, who met at a theater audition in 2000, started with a four-month "courtship" by Saracho, whose vision of establishing an all-Latina theater company was met with skepticism by Paz.

"Tanya is a true visionary, but she had no idea she had to also balance a checkbook," Paz said. "I didn't know how to balance the checkbook, but at least I knew it had to be balanced!"

To get the company off the ground, Saracho sold a house she owned in her native Texas, and Paz "sold" her inheritance, they said. Today, Teatro Luna has a board of directors and a $100,000 yearly budget. A turning point came last July, when it became profitable enough to afford three part-time salaries, -- including Paz's and Saracho's -- and soon a fourth.

Saracho and Paz take turns directing projects, but the writing process is a creative effort that involves all ensemble members. Knowing each other well makes Teatro Luna's work more honest, Saracho said.

"Someone will come in and want to do something about 'my baby daddy is so wonderful,' and it's like, 'Girl, you've been complaining about that fool for the last three months!'" she said. "People can't get away with not being real."

Longtime ensemble member Miranda Gonzalez, 27, said that she plans to be part of Teatro Luna "forever."

"This makes me feel like I am part of a community of Latinas, in the greater sense of the word," she said. "I have seen this evolve through the difficult topics that we have covered, through our own experience, and it's almost therapeutic to be out there, and to hear it resonate."

Despite being part of the Chicago theater scene for nearly a decade, Paz and Saracho feel like Teatro Luna's work is not always taken seriously.

"It amazes me that people are still surprised and say 'Wow, you guys are really good,'" she said. "The work that Teatro Luna does is increasingly sophisticated, but it has been a constant challenge to do theater that has worth on its own merit."

"They see us as such a quaint little thing," Saracho added. "But it's all original work, and it's all ensemble built work, not just ensemble performed. How many people can say that?"

Henry Godinez, assistant professor in Northwestern University's department of theater and resident artistic associate at Chicago's Goodman Theater, said that Teatro Luna's unique form of theater -- which blends the form of sketch comedy with the substance of character scripting and rehearsing -- can be a conundrum for critics who make a traditional distinction between theater and sketch comedy.

"Teatro Luna is one of the best things to happen in Chicago theater in a long time. They are energetic, provocative and original," he said. "I think they are the real deal."

Other Latino theater in Chicago

Teatro Vista, founded in 1989, currently has about 25 members in its ensemble, mostly Latinos.

Its next play, "Dreamlandia," officially opens March 31.

For more information, visit www.teatrovista.org, e-mail info@teatrovista.org or call (312) 666-4659.

Latino Theatre Festival, Aug. 8 to 24, curated by Henry Godinez and presented by Goodman Theatre in Chicago. Participants will include Teatro Vista, Teatro Luna and Albany Park Theater Project, a multiethnic ensemble theater company in Chicago, plus many others. For information, visit www.goodman-theatre.org.