TuYo Theatre is putting up its first independent production with 'UN-'

April 22, 2019 3:45 PM PT

The new TuYo Theatre was formed around a mission to tell stories from a Latinx perspective. (The troupe prefers that gender-neutral term for Latino/Latina.)

Now the San Diego company is putting its passion into practice with “UN-,” TuYo’s first independent production.

The piece, which continues this weekend after initial performances earlier this month, is centered on a series of original stories by Latinx writers from San Diego and around the country.

Through movement, music, film and more, says TuYo, the piece aims to “reclaim what it means to be American by amplifying the voices of ‘Dreamers,’ DACA recipients and the undocumented who’ve been disenfranchised around citizenship.”

Company co-founder Peter Cirino directs the play, which features stories by Kennedy Garcia, Jesus Valles, Cynthia Ochoa, Marielle Vizcarra, Diana Burbano, Georgina Escobar, Mario Vega with Eliza Vedar, and Mabelle Reynoso.

“UN-”

When: 8 p.m. April 26-27; 2 p.m. April 28.

Where: TuYo Theatre at the Lyceum Space, 79 Horton Plaza, downtown.

Tickets: $12.50.

Phone: (619) 544-1000.

Online: lyceumevents.org.

James Hebert

James Hebert is The San Diego Union-Tribune’s theater critic, and has covered the San Diego arts scene for more than two decades. He earned his master’s degree at Columbia University in New York and worked as a magazine editor in Boston before joining the U-T. Hebert’s awards include a national arts-writing prize from the Society for Features Journalism (for a profile of the choreographer Twyla Tharp), and some two dozen local and regional journalism honors; his work also has been republished in two college writing textbooks. In 2009, Hebert served as a juror for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama.