What if building your identity, seeking out knowledge, and facing conflict felt more like… a video game? Join two siblings as they navigate their curiosities and needs around crushes, gender, and feeling safe and confident in their bodies. Though they’ll meet shame—and their own anxieties—along the way, a solid support system keeps them resourced on their journey … and that includes YOU! Incorporating true stories from Illinoisians of all ages, mindfulness practices for everyday life, and honest conversation, We Could Be is an interactive new play that asks: In a world where societal expectations lay out your path, do you dare to choose your own adventure?

About Face Theatre began touring interactive theatre productions to schools in 1997 to open up dialogue about sexuality and gender with young people. We Could Be joins this powerful legacy of theatre and activism to build community and support with and for LGBTQ+ youth. Photo credit to  T.G. Samuel, Starbelly Studios, Inc.

You Can’t Cover the Sky with Your Hand(s), by Marisel Vera (my mother, novelist and co-creator), uplifts the experiences of the one-third of Puerto Rican women who were systematically sterilized through a decades-long population control collaboration between the U.S. and PR governments.  Like Puerto Rican women before and after them, Delfina and Isabel make the best decisions they can for themselves and their families, while navigating untenable situations.  Infused with Afro Puerto Rican Bomba music and everyday intimacy, Sky pulls the impact of reproductive violence into sharp focus, illuminating present-day struggles for healthcare, agency, and thriving communities. Read our feature on the Pivot Arts blog. Currently in development.

An experiential, expansive theatre piece guiding audiences (literally) through tender topics. An immersive mixture of live storytelling, physical movement, and audience invitations, Meeting Our Desires explores how the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has affected our relationships to sexuality and intimacy. Playing with aesthetic and somatic elements like distance, proximity, meditative walks, and the energetic reciprocity of trees, I led a devising ensemble to build this production specifically in and for Walking Stick Woods in North Park Village Nature Center.

Based on histories of real-life women of color and non-Eurocentric fairytales, Epic Tales from the Land of Melanin tells a hilarious, imaginative adventure tale of three young warrior-explorers taking on the world! Along the journey, our fierce young heroes must attempt to reclaim the power that was stolen from them and their people. Through audience participation, young audiences will help the heroes defeat monsters and evil forcefields, reaching their goals by activating the forces of community support and action.

​This participatory theatre for young audiences play explores themes of displacement, discrimination, consent, colonization, and queer love and skills like organizing, self-care, calling on our ancestors and more — all through an age-appropriate lens.