Latino Theater Company to grant $9 million in funding Latino theater programs nationwide

Latino Theater Company, a Los Angeles-based theater group, will distribute $9 million in grants to more than 50 Latino theater programs across the US and Puerto Rico.

The grants will be awarded through the National Latinx Theater Initiative, a new program created to boost the profile of Latino theaters and "nurture artistic voices in a post-pandemic landscape," the company said Monday in a news release.

"The National Latinx Theater Initiative is the first time that national and local foundations have come together to address the challenges and opportunities faced by the Latinx theater sector," said Olga Garay-English, co-director of the initiative. "We hope this is a long-term investment in a vivid and critical piece of the United States' theatrical ecosystem."

Teatro Breve, a theater in San Juan, Puerto Rico, was among those selected to receive a $75,000 annual grant for three years.

The theater's executive director, Naima Rodriguez, said she hopes the funding will help expand the impact of Puerto Rican theater across the US.

"I want to use the money to cover travel costs for the actors and production crew so that we can bring their work to the US and connect with the Puerto Rican diaspora," she said. "I want to invest in new projects for them so we can have more programs in San Juan."

Latino Theater Company artistic director Jose Luis Valenzuela said, "This is life-changing for many of the companies because these are three-year grants."

The company said it was awarded $5 million from the Mellon Foundation to spearhead the initiative. The remaining funds were donated by the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Joyce Foundation, the California Community Foundation, and an anonymous donor, according to the release.

The Latino theater program builds on the success of the Mellon Foundation's "The Black Seed" initiative, which gave grants to Black-owned theater programs, according to Garay-English.

"As with The Black Seed, this is the first-time major donors are systemically addressing the perennial under-funding and under-capitalization of Latinx theater companies," Garay-English said in the release.