Our Programs
Mainstage Season
El Centro Su Teatro annually produces 4 to 5 original works, adaptations, and other Chicano/Latino plays relevant to the concerns, celebrations, and social issues of our community. Our 2008-2009 Season included Braided Sorrow, an award-winning world premiere by Marisela Treviño Orta about the missing women of Juarez; Joaquin’s Christmas, an original holiday play by Su Teatro Artistic Director and Resident Playwright Anthony J. Garcia; and Bless Me, Ultima, Rudolfo Anaya’s adaptation of his own classic coming-of-age novel.
The St. Cajetan’s Reunification Project
What is now known as the Auraria Higher Education Center was once a thriving Westside barrio, and the still standing but desanctified St. Cajetan’s church was the spiritual center of the neighborhood. Once a year, El Centro Su Teatro travels to Auraria to present a community based folk drama and symbolically return the neighborhood to the families it was taken from. The Metropolitan State College of Denver and the University of Colorado at Denver actively collaborate with Su Teatro to produce this event.
The XicanIndie FilmFest
This annual event showcases the work of independent Chicano filmmakers, as well as classics from Mexico’s golden age of cinema and cutting edge contemporary films from throughout Latin America. The XicanIndie FilmFest features visiting filmmakers, prestigious awards, community receptions, and special student screenings.
The Neruda Poetry Festival
Our premier literary event is gaining popularity each year. The Neruda Poetry Festival includes tributes to pioneering Chicano poets, the Barrio Slam spoken word competition, a literary salon, and appearances by visiting poets and performers.
The Chicano Music Festival and Auction
This outdoor roots festival celebrates the music of the Southwest—influenced heavily by Mexican traditions but born on this side of the border, and featuring the finest Colorado musicians as well as visiting bands from California, New Mexico, and Texas. The live and silent auctions feature the original work of local and Southwestern artists.
The Cultural Arts Institute
Next to our Mainstage Season, this arts education program is our largest ongoing project. Current Cultural Arts Institute programming includes La Academia, an in-school theater arts project; Teatro de la Juventud, our youth theater company; Saturday morning theater classes; and four educational touring performances: Papi, Me and Cesar Chavez, Francisca y la Muerte, El Hijo de Cinturón, and The Cancer Monologues, which further our community outreach efforts. We currently tour in Denver, Larimer, Weld, Adams, Jefferson, Boulder, Arapahoe, and Douglas counties regularly, and occasionally in Southeast Colorado, on the Western Slope, and nationally.