MIFA Victory Theatre and Palante Present
UrbanTheatre Company of Chicago in La Gringa
Dates & Times:
September 22 at 8:00 PM
September 23 at 2:00 PM and 8:00 PM
September 24 at 2:00 PM
Venue: El Mercado, 413 Main Street, Holyoke, MA
Tickets: $25.00
“90 minutes of laughter…Carmen Rivera has captured the spirit of the Puerto Rican experience” and The Village Voice says, “Carmen Rivera’s deft playwriting delivers María from her personality crisis with spiritual transcendence.” – New York Times
In this Obie Award-winning comedy about a young woman’s search for her identity, María Elena Garcia goes to visit her extended family in Puerto Rico during the Christmas holidays, excited to connect with her homeland. Although this is her first trip to Puerto Rico, she has grown up with an intense love for the island and even majored in Puerto Rican Studies in college. Upon her arrival, however, she realizes that Puerto Rico does not welcome her with open arms. The majority of the Puerto Ricans on the island consider her an American–a gringa—and María considers this a betrayal: If she’s a Puerto Rican in the United States and an American in Puerto Rico, María concludes, then this makes her a nobody everywhere. Her journey to come to terms with who she really is leads María into misperceptions and misadventures. But will an unlikely ally help her find her way to the other side?