Suburban actresses describe Teatro Vista's 'Bernarda!' as a theater experience unlike any other
Teatro Vista's new interpretation of “The House of Bernarda Alba,” early 20th-century Spanish poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca's tragedy about a despotic matriarch and her repressed daughters, may not be the sort of production audiences expect.
“Our Lorca is not your particular Lorca,” said Sonya Madrigal, who co-stars in playwright Emilio Williams' adaptation “Bernarda!,” which Madrigal describes as a “gift to Latina women.”
Helmed by co-artistic director Wendy Mateo and featuring an all-female cast and an all-femme design team, Teatro Vista's co-production with Steppenwolf Theatre finds women taking back ownership of the story, said Madrigal, who grew up in Elgin and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in theater from the University of Illinois Chicago.
“Emilio did such a good job of keeping the Lorca energy, but making it of our time,” she said of Williams' play, which pairs Lorca's poetry with a modern aesthetic. “If we're going to claim the story and take it back, it needs to show us as the women who we are now.”
Before “Bernarda!” Madrigal had never been in a production dominated by female Latina theater artists.
“It is definitely unusual. I've never had this experience,” she said.
Madrigal said she and her fellow ensemble members felt they could truly be themselves during the rehearsal process.
“There was such release in that. Even in the most loving, caring space, sometimes the pressure is still there,” she said, “that wasn't the case here.”
“I feel this experience has changed me artistically,” she said.
The opening of “Bernarda!” comes weeks after Teatro Vista earned eight Joseph Jefferson Awards for its stellar production of “The Dream King.” That's a tough act to follow, even for this acclaimed Chicago company.
“I'm happy for ‘The Dream King's' success,” said fellow cast member Alix Rhode, who grew up in Huntley and earned her BFA in Musical Theatre from the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. “For that success to be grounded in the Latino theater community makes me proud as a Latina.”
“But ‘Bernarda!' is going to stand on its own,” she said confidently.
The 75-minute production focuses on the women's inner lives, their wants and needs, said the musical theater veteran, whose first Teatro Vista production was the play-with-music “La Havana Madrid.”
“The fact that these women are so severely repressed and physically locked down, yet are able to express their own desires is a beautiful thing,” she said.
“Visually, it's a stunning work of art,” she said referring to Satya Chávez's compositions, Lauren M. Nichols' sets and Sarah Albrecht's costumes — especially the costumes.
“Even though these women are in mourning, they're not giving up fashion,” Rhode said, with a laugh.
Like Madrigal, she cherished the opportunity to work with a large group of Latino women, saying it was an experience she will “forever hold close to my heart.”
“There was never a day when I walked in (to a rehearsal) when I felt I couldn't be authentically 100% myself,” she said.
Madrigal encourages prospective audiences to see the show, which, despite its tragic undertones, has humor and a lot of joy, the greatest of which is to experience “powerful Latina women all together on one stage playing powerful women and having joy in that.”
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“Bernarda!”
When: 8 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday through Nov. 19
Where: The Steppenwolf 1700 Theater, 1700 N. Halsted St., Chicago, teatrovista.org/bernarda
Tickets: $40