The history of San Jose’s Chicanx theater company Teatro Visión is marked with transcendent highs and devastating lows. The resilient troupe has big plans for the future, yet not before their big night to celebrate the past and toast what’s ahead.
Teatro Visión’s 40th Anniversary Gala is taking place Aug. 24 at Mexican Heritage Plaza. Live music, performances and the presentation of a short documentary about the company is slated for the celebration.
For Elisa Marina Alvarado and Rodrigo García, the only two artistic directors in company history, the evening will be special. It is a celebration of perseverance and a true reflection of the South Bay’s Latino community.
“One of the most important things that has kept the teatro alive is the foundation on which it was created, which was community participation,” García said. “This company was built on the very specific values of representation, social justice and equity. The folks who created this community were part of the Chicano movement in the 1970s, people who cared about the issues of the community.”
For many years, Teatro Visión would produce a full season, with at least three full-length plays, many of those world and regional premieres with up-and-coming and established playwrights such as Octavio Solis, Josefina López and Maria Irene Fornés. Many actors who have worked with the company have gone on to established careers, thanks in no small part to the experience Teatro Visión provided.
For the company’s first 15 years, multiple South Bay theater spaces served as temporary homes for productions, offering community connection and an outlet to share joyful, communal pride.
“I think we provided an opportunity to see theater and let people know it wasn’t just for wealthy white people,” said Alvarado, the company’s co-founder who turned over artistic director reins to García in 2019. “You didn’t have to get dressed up and stay quiet.”
Despite the success Teatro Visión had in the ‘80s and ‘90s, finally moving into a permanent 500-seat theater at Mexican Heritage Plaza in 1999 was not the boon the company hoped for. A sellout at a different space was a small turnout for the new venue. Recalculations, artistically and financially, were in order.
Everything came to a head in the early part of the 2010s, when the great recession wreaked havoc on many arts organizations. Gone were the days of the three-play season. Even things like staff salaries were a convenience the company couldn’t always afford.
What got the company through the challenging times was what brought them success in the first place — understanding what their community was all about.
“It is a challenge to fill that theater every time, let me tell you,” García said. “We don’t want to be producing the same plays every year, but it has taken from 2010 to now to continue gaining the continued confidence of our funders. It’s been a labor of years to slowly climb up and then look at what else we can do. But it has been the foundational principle of community participation that has kept us in the community who has continued to support us.”
Despite the challenges, the idea of closing the doors permanently and riding off into the sunset, legacy secured, was never considered.
“We could live in a beautiful 500-seat theater, or we could live in a school auditorium or the park,” Alvarado said. “That flexibility and agility we always had has been part of our experience. The standards of quality were not just technical, but in the quality of the text and the direction, and the experience of watching a good play is what makes the ethical value to a community.”
Community is a foundational principle for both Alvarado and García. That renewed purpose was the result of rethinking the company’s future despite the financial challenges. In 2013, a multi-year tradition was established with the company’s popular, original production of “Macario.” Youth productions and community projects were emphasized. And co-producing the musical “Miss You Like Hell” with City Lights Theater Company in 2023 was a success.
Bay Area theaters nowadays often face glum financial realities. Fortunately, Teatro Visión now gets to work with something of a surplus, allowing them to approach their next act with a renewed sense of purpose and optimism.
García is thrilled for what may be just around the corner.
“It excites me that I can be fully creative and start dreaming about what the future is without worrying about if we could make it for the next year. That is really exciting.”
David John Chávez is chair of the American Theatre Critics Association and a two-time juror for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (‘22-‘23); @davidjchavez.
‘TEATRO VISIÓN
40th anniversary gala
When: 7:30 p.m. Aug. 24
Where: Mexican Heritage Plaza, 1700 Alum Rock Ave., San Jose
Tickets: $50-$1,000; teatrovision.org
