The LatinX Theatre Project: Paving the way for the next generation

When a group of artists in Springdale realized they weren’t seeing their own faces—and the faces of their family and friends—represented in the arts and culture scene of Northwest Arkansas, they decided to do something about it—and around 2016, the LatinX Theatre Project was born. Initially, it was going to be a year-long project created by a group of friends looking for a creative outlet; but, says co-founder Martin Garay, the overwhelmingly enthusiastic reception they received from the community convinced them to stick around for a while. Six years later, they’re still going strong. Their devised project, “El Camiòn de Ensueño”, is featured at this year’s Arkansas New Play Festival, and Garay says he hopes the organization’s success will help other members of the community see themselves reflected in the vibrant NWA arts scene.

“In the beginning, I did not understand the capacity and the power that theater has,” says Garay. “If I had known just how useful an art form it is to both convey art, convey emotion, but to also be a call to action, and a place for people to gather and to ensure these stories be told—if I had known this sooner, I probably would have been a lot more invested sooner. If we can help younger folk understand this sooner, the sooner they are able to engage in their art, to develop their art, and to engage with their community.”

Garay and company members Justine Ryan and Gabriela Arroyo answered some questions for us about LXTP, their process, and their work with ANPF.

Martin Garay

You are a LatinX Theatre Project co-founder—tell us how this organization first started.

We started at around 2016, 2017. We were initially supposed to be kind of like a one-off, a one-year writing group. Our intent was to essentially write content and to be able to perform content that is relatable to the community of Springdale, which is predominantly Latinx or Brown—the Brown community there. We had just grown up with very little-to-no representation within the world of like theater and a lot of the plays that were made available to us. We wanted to be able to write stuff that that we could see ourselves in. It was a group of friends that were willing and ready—we just really got to work and saw the need and the value of it within the community. Whenever we would ask for feedback or comments from our audience, the response that we got let us know that we were onto something that was needed, and that people appreciated and wanted to see. That idea of just being a one year, one show kind of project has now turned into a company that is six years strong now.

Your work is collaborative, with everyone pitching in to write or devise your projects. Is that how the group intended to function from the beginning?

Absolutely. From the start we had the idea of all of us being able to collaborate on the content and exactly what we wanted to see in the script and what we wanted to see on stage. Of course, when we first started out, we were young—if I'm not mistaken, we hadn’t even graduated high school at that point. But through trial and error and trust and cooperation, we were able to really find out what works we got the hang o what looks like to to be able to redistribute the role of writer. When it's a group effort, and when it's a group of people, the power dynamic is redistributed amongst us, and so we are then held accountable for the play. It's one of those things that you hear—two heads are better than one. And, and luckily, we’ve got about 10! And we've been able to make it work through compromise.

When you first started the company, were you all already fans of theater?

No, actually and if I were to be 100% honest, I, personally, may have been one of the least interested, simply because, at the time, my understanding of what theater was—it was like Shakespeare. Like Old English, hard to understand, definitely stuff that wasn’t made for us. For me, personally, I was more into music— hip hop and rap and spoken word, poetry. Once we we were in the space that eventually became LXTP, everybody was really open to the idea of trying to find a way to merge these two worlds of theater and music—incorporate music pieces with a narrative. For us, like the music enhances the narrative.

How has it been for your group, working within the ANPF process?

It's been incredible. We we have been blessed with having [director and dramaturg] Rudi Goblen join us to really just help elevate the piece and bring an outside perspective. Rudy has been with the craft for longer than—no disrespect for the man—longer than some of us have been alive, so his experience, his knowledge, his expertise is invaluable, especially in a space like this, where we're all very open to constructive criticism. We're open to new ideas and what he's been able to do with that is just exactly what we need, and that's been great. Of course we’re appreciative to TheatreSquared for opening up the space—we’ve participated in ANPF in the past, but this is the first time that we're one of the main shows, you know? We’re one of those guys now! So that’s very new. That’s something, that, if you were to tell me I'd be experiencing it five years ago, I would tell you that I probably wouldn’t even be here still. This has been a moment of growth, a moment of motivation. And just seeing the piece that we have—I think it was already good, but to be able to receive this feedback, this constructive feedback, and to be able to see how much more we can grow and elevate this piece, and to really hone in on the message that we're trying to share—that’s going to be something that we're going to be able to take with us in the future to help us solidify our foundation. And it will keep growing from there. It’s been wonderful.

Can we expect to see “El Camiòn de Ensueño” in a stage production in the near future?

Come see the show in November! We’re putting on our last finishing touches then will bring it to life and on stage within the next couple of months. You can follow us on Instagram (@latinxtheatreproject) or Facebook (LatinX Theatre Project - Home | Facebook) to find out more about production dates. That’s the best place to catch any information about any future performances or workshops, or any other gigs that we develop and decide to bring to the community.

Justine Ryan

How did you get involved with LXTP?

I joined LXTP in 2019. I was at a job that I knew I was going to leave—I told myself, I do not want to work this job anymore. By the end of the summer, I’m going to leave. Literally the week I was putting in my two weeks, my Aunt saw something on Good Day NWA and took a picture of it on her phone and sent it to me. She said, “You could audition for this.” …So I headed there after I got off of work, but when I saw the sign in sheet and it said “LatinX Theatre Project,” I thought, “Oh, this isn’t a spot for me. I should leave.” I had walked outside, and I saw [co-founder] Martin [Garay] and I said, “Hey, can I be here?” and he said, “Yeah! Go! Audition!” but I thought, “Oh, he probably thinks I’m Afro-Latinx.” So I went in, and the first thing I said was, “Hi, my name is Justine, and I'm not Latinx. I don't want to audition if this isn't for me,” and they just kind of looked at me and then said, “Oh no! We’re inclusive!” I didn’t want to take up space where it wasn’t my space to take up. But I ended up ended up getting a callback and joining LXTP and I would say it's been one of the the best moves I've ever made since since coming to Arkansas. It's helped me so much as an art, and just meeting people, and being able to learn the culture of Northwest Arkansas, because I'm from Richmond, Virginia. I used to say, “There's no state better than Virginia,” but I've come to love Arkansas, specifically Northwest Arkansas, so much, because it has been a home to me the past four years.

Tell me a little bit about the collective, collaborative nature of LXTP.

I was not sure of what I was coming into when they said, “Oh, we devise the work, which means that we all create the work together.” But I thought, oh, that sounds super cool, because it really takes the load off of just one person creating work. American theater can be very, very white, and not being able to see yourself in—so how do you combat that? You create your own work. And that's literally what Latinx Theatre Project does, because we create our own work, our own poems, our own songs. It's a very organic process, which I think is something I really enjoy, because you really get to watch something grow, like a plant that you’ve planted from a seed. There are some times when you think, “I don't see anything growing, it looks the same size.,” but then you come back a week or two later, and it's blooming. It grows in such a way that you didn't expect, and you're so excited and pleased with it when it does, because you had a hand in it—you helped water it, you helped fertilize it, you gave it sun, and we all find a way to do that within our own personal gifts.

One thing I really love about it is that nobody’s ideas get tossed to the side—a lot of times, we’ll blend two ideas together, or we use it later in a different story. I think that’s what I love the most, because we have so many steppingstones to get to where we are, and it’s a very beautiful journey, to see how we’ve created something from a simple idea.

Were you a writer before you joined LXTP?

I would say I was a closeted writer—I wrote for myself, and not to share. One of the reasons I moved out here was my aunt, who writes—she said, “We’ll come out here and we’ll write a one-woman show. You’re an actress, you need a one-woman show.” So we wrote that together, which was the first think I had ever co-written, and I ended up doing that at the Kansas City Fringe Festival, which was really cool.

How is the process developing “El Camiòn de Ensueño” within the Festival going?

“El Camiòn de Ensueño”has been in the works for a while, so it’s very exciting to see where it is now. After the first performance last weekend, we saw that people were taking it in, and that they liked it. Now we’re in this process called “killing your darlings” where we have to cut some of the things that we love a lot—if it doesn’t push the story forward, maybe we need to take it out. This process has been really, really cool. We’re taking some things out, but it’s still growing—you can prune a plant, but it’s always for the betterment of the growth of the plant.

Were the reactions of that first audience beneficial for the work you’re doing this week?

Yes, I think a lot of a lot of it was. We were kind of nervous because this was the first time we were doing a public reading of it. We laugh at all the jokes because we know the jokes. But to get people to laugh, to hear people laugh at those same jokes, was very rewarding. We also learned certain things—”Wow. Okay. They laughed at that? Is it okay that they laughed at that?” or “Do you think they got this joke?” And we did ask the audience some questions, and those are the notes that we took to keep track of how we can telll the story better, make sure all the characters have an arc, either they have a resolve, or they don’t, but on purpose. Once you’re able to do all of that, that’s what makes the story amazing. I feel like once we’re all done with this process, it’s definitely going to be ready for production, so I’m really excited.

How important do you think programs like the ANPF are to the playwriting community?

Very beneficial. Mainly because where these programs do exist, there aren’t a lot of people involved from the BIPOC community—if they do exist, they’re white, with a lot of white playwrights. It’s a matter of access, and we’re lucky to have this access. We’ve been showcased but we’ve never actually participated, this is our first year. To have someone who believes in our mission as an organization and says, '“Oh, have you guys ever thought about this?” and opens it up to discussion, it’s so helpful to do that. We’re learning, for our future plays, for our future writing.

Gabriela Arroyo

Tell me a little about how you first got involved with LXTP.

I’ve been with LXTP since 2019. I started because I had just graduated from high school, and I was looking forward to getting into the workspace of theater, but I was a little bit hesitant because there weren’t a lot of spaces for people of color in theater—it was mostly white spaces. I had followed them on Instagram around early 2019, and was curious about them. WhenI saw that they were doing auditions, I auditioned for them, and then I joined.

What drew you to theater when you were in high school?

When I was really young, around five and six, I was really outgoing, and I loved the camera. But around middle school and early high school I became really shy—t just made me feel like I needed a change. I realized that my love was an acting, and I took a chance and got into the theater program in my high school, which starts when you're a freshman—so I was in a class with freshmen when I was a junior. And then that same year, I had auditioned for our musical, which was the Little Mermaid, and I got the one of the main parts—it was really cool to have that kind of validation. I was also into film, and I knew that getting into theater would be a good passage to becoming a film director.

Can you talk a little bit about what the collaborative writing process is like?

One word that we use a lot is trust. When creating a project, usually it starts from an idea like: “Hey, our next play, I feel like it should be about social media,” and then we start writing prompts. Honestly, I think it's easier working with multiple people rather than one person when you’re writing a play. because everybody has so many different ideas. It's a lot of cooperation and collaboration in being able to push aside things that maybe won't fit in the overall play. But we always know that we can still go back to that, maybe use it in a future play. And whatever we’re working on is something that every single person contributed equally to, and has a love for.

You mentioned not seeing a lot of people of color on stage when you graduated from high school—is it important for LXTP to tell the stories of BIPOC people, as well?

For sure. The play we’re working on now is very close to home to me because in it, we’re going to the state of Michoacan in Mexico, and that’s where my family is from, and that’s where a big part of the Mexican community here in Northwest Arkansas is from. Being able to kind of show it in a space that like TheatreSquared, where a majority of the audience members are older, middle class white people, is so exciting, because then you can show them more than just what they see in other forms of media. Also, we have this specific idea of what it's like to be a young Latinx person here in Arkansas. Some of our members don't speak Spanish or speak very little Spanish, but that doesn't take away from their identity as a Latinx person. I feel like that's a big chunk of what we try to expose is—there are people in the Latinx community that speak fluent Spanish or that speak no Spanish and that doesn't divide us—that kind of makes a very beautiful art piece.

How has the ANPF process been for you so far?

It's been so exciting, because it's our first year actually being part of the workshopping process. They hired a director from out of state, Rudi Goblen, to be our director and dramaturg.His resume is extensive, and he knows what he's talking about. By reading our play and helping us and guiding us and asking the questions—that has been so good for us.

Did the reaction of the audience last weekend help inform any changes you made to the script this week?

Yes, for sure. After the performance, we had a talk back, so we have the opportunity to ask them questions like, “Were you confused during this part?” “Did you like this part?” Seeing their responses made us feel more reassured of where the play is going. There were so many parts where I thought, “I really hope they laugh,” and then they did. And that was awesome. There were also other parts where they didn't laugh and I thought they would, or I didn't expect it to be a funny moment, and then they would laugh. So that also helped us kind of see, ‘Well, if they saw that as funny, let’s dig into that. Let's figure out how we can work on that.”

These interviews have been edited for space and clarity.

For more information about the ANPF and to purchase tickets, visit Arkansas New Play Festival.