Ensemble Members*
THE CAST
Gabriel
Desmin Borges* is an Ensemble Member of Teatro Vista. Credits include: Off Bway: The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity (Lortel/Drama League Nomination-Lead Actor-2nd Stage). Regional: The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity (Jeff Award-Lead Actor-Victory Gardens/Teatro Vista), Boleros for The Disenchanted (Goodman Theatre), Elliot (A Soldier’s Fugue) (Steppenwolf Garage), The Ascension of Carlotta (16th Street Theatre), The Buddy Holly Story (Mercury Theatre), Esperanza Rising (The Children’s Theatre Co. in Minneapolis), The Defiant Muse and I Sailed with Magellan (Victory Gardens). Television: “The Good Wife” (CBS), “True Blood” (HBO). Film: Mr. Popper’s Penguins, Tower Heist, Dreaming American, Compliance, Cherry, Taco Mary, Viva El Mariachi!, 2 De Noviembre, Good People. a, and a graduate of The Theatre School at DePaul University.
Mayflower
Cheryl Lynn Bruce*
Cheryl Lynn Bruce is thrilled to make her Teatro Vista debut in Freedom, NY. Ms. Bruce made her professional debut in Death and the King’s Horseman directed by its Nobel Laureate author and statesman Wole Soyinka and mounted by Goodman Theatre. She has since performed on stages across this country as well as in Europe and Mexico. She created the role of Elizabeth Sandry for Steppenwolf’s Tony Award-winning production The Grapes of Wrath, adapted and directed by Frank Galati and featured at Britain’s National Theatre International Festival. She also performed selected works by Suzan-Lori Parks at the famous Steirischer Herbst Festival in Graz, Austria and University of Chicago’s Renaissance Society.
In 2010 Ms. Bruce received both a Jane Addams Hull House Association Woman of Valor Award and a coveted 3Arts Artist Award with unrestricted grant in support of her work in theatre arts. She co-created text and narrated the photography exhibition Congo/Women which premiered in Chicago, traveled to Washington, D. C. and the United Nations, before beginning its international tour. Ms. Bruce is completing a research residency at Yale University and retooling several writing projects.
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Inaugural Fellow of the Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media-Columbia College Chicago, in Spring 2006, Ms. Bruce received grant and research support for development of a performance project based on the life of Black colonial slave poet Phillis Wheatley.
Featured stage appearances include: Harriet Jacobs (Kansas City Repertory Theatre); The Old Settler (Writers Theatre); Gem of the Ocean (Ensemble Theatre); The Snow Queen, Eurydice, Hortensia and The Museum of Dreams, Voice of Good Hope (Victory Gardens Theater); Intimate Apparel, Everyman, (Steppenwolf Theatre); Nomathemba (Kennedy Center, Crossroads, Steppenwolf,); The The Story Milwaukee Repertory); Cry, The Beloved Country, The Dreams of Sarah Breedlove, Oo-Bla-Dee, Trojan Women (Goodman Theatre); Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (Missouri Repertory); five regional productions of From the Mississippi Delta including Off-Broadway at Circle-in-the-Square; RACE, co-adapted and co-directed by Lookingglass’ David Schwimmer and Joy Gregory from Studs Terkel's .
V
Film credits include: Stranger Than Fiction, Daughters of the Dust, Music Box, The Fugitive, and The Second Voyage of the Mimi series.
Television credits include: Prison Break, There Are No Children Here with Oprah Winfrey, Separate but Equal and To Sir with Love II both with Sidney Poitier, and Crime of Innocence, for which she shared a Best Ensemble Emmy.
A writer, Ms. Bruce created and directed over a dozen plays for Youth Drama Workshop, the summer enrichment program she co-founded for Bronzeville youth. Most recently she served as Dramaturg for the Chicago premiere of Birthright by Jackie Alexander, and directed both Daniel Beaty’s Resurrection and Gloria Bond Clunie’s Drip all at eta Creative Arts Foundation on Chicago’s South side. She assisted in the development of writer Misty De Berry’s solo performance piece Milkweed and staged its Chicago premiere.
Portia
Paige Collins is thrilled to be working with Teatro Vista for the first time! Around town you may have seen her in Eclipsed and understudying for A Civil War Christmas at Northlight Theatre, Hunting and Gathering with Theatre Seven of Chicago, The Twins Would Like To Say with Dog + Pony Theatre as apart of the Visiting Company Initiative at the Steppenwolf Garage. She has also worked with Filament Theatre, Appletree Theatre, and Halcyon Theatre. She graduated with a BFA in Acting from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where she was seen in Necessary Targets, (Anon)ymous, and In the Continuum
THE DESIGN TEAM
THE PLAYWRIGHT
Jennifer Barclay is an actor, playwright and screenwriter who is now based in California, but still considers Chicago her artistic home. Her plays have been produced and developed at Steppenwolf, The International Theatre of Vienna, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Northlight, Piven Theatre, Remy Bumppo, Teatro Vista, Stage Left, American Theatre Company, Collaboraction, NY Theatre Experiment, Beyond the Wall Productions, The Kennedy Center and UC San Diego, among others. As an actress, Jennifer has performed in Chicago with Steppenwolf, Court Theatre, Live Bait, Mary Arrchie and Collaboraction. She has also performed in Austria, Scotland, California and New York, and has toured her one-woman show, Clearing Hedges, far and wide. Jennifer has been granted playwriting residencies at The Hawthornden International Writers Retreat (Scotland) and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Awards include The Samuel Goldwyn Writing Award, Kennedy Center National Science Playwriting Award, Princess Grace finalist, Heideman Award finalist, Final Draft Big Break semi-finalist, Pinter Review Gold Medal, San Francisco Fringe Best Dramatic Solo, and Northwestern’s Mary Margaret Linn Theatre Award. Jennifer is a graduate of Northwestern University (BS) and UC San Diego (MFA), and is currently the Playwright in Residence at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, CA. www.BarclayStudios.com.
THE DIRECTOR
Joe Minoso* is the Associate Artistic Director for Teatro Vista and was most recently the assistant director for The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Diety at Victory Gardens and was also the assistant director on Teatro Vista’s smash hit Our lady of the Underpass. He was most recently seen in Writer's Theater world premiere production of Brett Neveu's Do The Hustle. Acting credits include: Alejandro Arroyo in Welcome to Arroyos and Luis Felipe in Celebrity Row both for American Theater Company. Eusebio in the world premiere of Jose Rivera’s Boleros for the Disenchanted at Yale Rep and at the Goodman Theater, Fifo in Nilo Cruz’s Park in our House (Victory Gardens). Don Luis in Esperanza Rising (Chicago Childrens Theater), Erik in Teatro Vista’s Massacre…Sing to Your Children at the Goodman Theater. George Gibbs in Our Town (Madison Repertory Theater's), Samuel in Hortensia and the Museum of Dreams (Victory Gardens), Officer Freddy Fernandez in Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner (Teatro Vista), Angelo in Short Shakespeare! Comedy of Errors (Chicago Shakespeare Theater), Bobby in Living Out (American Theater Company, Teatro Vista coproduction), and Truffildino in The Servant of Two Masters. (SummerNite). Regional credits include Lenny in Marisol, Andrew Gomez in the Laramie Project (NIU) among others. Television credits include guest starring roles in Prison Break, The Beast, Shameless and The Chicago Code.
Logan Vaughn (Asst. Director)
Helen Colleen Lattyak (Stage Manager)
Is happy to be working on her first production with Teatro Vista. Helen is company member at TUTA Theater Chicago where she has stage managed Baal, The Wedding, Maria’s Field, Uncle Vanya, It’s Only The End Of The World, Tracks and, Birds A few of her other stage management credits include. Betrayal at Oak Park Festival Theater. Celebrity Row at American Theatre Company. Little Shop of Horrors, Doubt, and Be My Baby for Peninsula Players Theater; Helen is a graduate of Loyola University Chicago.
Regina Garcia*(Scenic Design)
Originally from Puerto Rico, Regina has designed for directors Rosalba Rolon, Michael John Garces, Victor Maog, Daniella Topol, Miriam Colon, Bartlett Sher, Giovanna Sardelli and Thomas Kail, amongst others. She has also worked with renowned Latino theaters including Repertorio Español, PRTT, INTAR, and was the Resident Scenic Designer at Pregones for ten years. Regina is a fellow of the NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Designers, and a recipient of a Princess Grace Award in Scenic Design for her work with Pregones. Other recently completed projects include: 26 Miles by Quiara Alegria Hudes, directed by Tara Mallen, for Rivendell and Teatro Vista; and Autophobia choreographed by Paige Cunningham for Dance @ Illinois, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. She has designed for the St. Louis Black Repertory Company (Ron Himes, Artistic Director) for seven seasons, and is a company member with Teatro Vista and Rivendell Theatre Ensemble. She is a professor of Set Design at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Christine Pascual* (Costume Design)
Previously for Teatro Vista, she designed El Nogalar, 26 Miles (co production w/ Rivenell), Our Lady of the Underpass, Massacre (co production w/ Goodman), Living Out (co production w/American Theater Company, Elliot A Soldier's Fugue for Rivendell/Teatro Vista at Steppewolf Recent credits: Madagascar at Next Theatre, GL 2010: Not Your Generic Latina for Teatro Luna, Sizwe Banzi is Dead at Court Theatre, The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity at Victory Gardens and Second Stage NY, The House on Mango Street at Steppenwolf, Welcome to Arroyo's for American Theatre Company, Lunaticas, Jarred for Teatro Luna, Relatively Close, The Romance of Magno Rubio, Hambone, Concerto Chicago, Symmetry and Blackbird for Victory Gardens, Sanctified, St James Infirmary, Joe Turner's Come and Gone at Centerstage Baltimore, Seven Guitars, Elmina's Kitchen, From the Mississippi Delta, A Soldier's Play and Black Nativity for Congo Square Theatre, Ten Cent Night for Chicago Dramatists, Piano Lesson, The First Breeze of Summer, Flyin' West for The Court Theatre, La Rondine for Roosevelt University, True West, Topdog Underdog, People's Temple, Living Out for American Theater Company. Christine's design for The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity is exhibiting at Prague Quadrennial 2011 and is a 2010 Henry Hewes Design Award Nominee for Noteable Effects. She wishes to thank her family for their unending support and love.
Mac Vaughey (Lightning Design)
Mac Vaughey (Lighting Design) is a Chicago based lighting designer and electrician. Mac is the resident lighting designer for the 16th Street in Berwyn and an artistic associate with Teatro Luna and Premiere Theatre and Performance. Recent credits include work with the American Theatre Company, Porchlight Music Theatre, Prop Thetr, Infamous Commonwealth, Teatro Luna, The Guild Complex Collaboraction, Walkabout Theatre, the Next Theatre, The Goodman Theatre, The Sinnerman Ensemble The Steppenwolf Theatre Company and Chicago Shakespeare. Mac is also the master electrician for The American Theatre Company, Timeline Theatre, the Next Theatre and Light Opera Works. Mac is also the Development Director for Studio BE, an non-profit youth theatre in Lakeview.
Andrew Wheatley (Sound Design)
Transplanted from the mountains of Montana, Andrew Wheatley is a garden-fresh Chicago sound designer, composer, musician, and teacher. After studying theatre sound design and music composition at the University of Evansville, Andrew moved to Chicago in 2009 to serve as the sound apprentice at Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Since his recent arrival, design credits have included Sonnets for an Old Century (Urban Theater Company), State of the Union (Strawdog Theater Company), and Oleanna/Speed the Plow (American Theater Company). Andrew is also a digital audio/music mentor with Digital Youth Network.
