Puerto Rico es una Cama Twin by Ana Sophia Colón and Black Latina (The Play) by Crystal Roman run October 9 through 18 on Paseo Boricua, with pay-what-you-can tickets from $15 and Friday morning matinees for Chicago schools

CHICAGO, IL — August 2026 — UrbanTheater Company is calling its fall season the Latina Power Fall Series. Nobody on Paseo Boricua needs that explained.

The series brings two productions to 2620 W. Division St. this October, one weekend each. Puerto Rico es una Cama Twin, written and performed by Ana Sophia Colón, runs October 9 through 11. Black Latina (The Play), written by Crystal Roman and performed by a cast of Latinas, runs October 16 through 18. Both are comedies. Tickets are pay-what-you-can starting at $15, and each run opens with a Friday morning matinee for Chicago Public School students.

Since 2005, UTC has made theater on Division Street that preserves the Puerto Rican, BIPOC, and Humboldt Park voice and archives Chicago stories. The company produces original work, develops new plays, and runs education programs in the neighborhood year-round, under the same tagline it started with: From the Streets to the Stage. This October those streets include San Juan, where Ana Sophia Colón is from, and New York, where Crystal Roman built The Black Latina Movement.

PUERTO RICO ES UNA CAMA TWIN, OCTOBER 9–11

Ana Sophia Colón wrote and performs Puerto Rico es una Cama Twin, which won Best Production at the 2025 United Solo Theatre Festival in New York City. She was born and raised in San Juan. UTC came to the play through Mikey Oquendo, who brought Colón’s work to the company’s attention.

Set during a chaotic baby shower in Caguas, Puerto Rico, the play follows 17-year-old Andrea as she returns to confront her fractured family and the secrets she has been hiding. Through sharp humor, physical transformation, and a chorus of Puerto Rican voices, it takes on generational trauma, womanhood, poverty, addiction, and the bittersweet cost of leaving home.

Cándido Tirado directs. He is an award-winning director and playwright, and in 2025 he received the Best Director Award at United Solo for Puerto Rico Es Una Cama Twin. His play First Class was produced by UrbanTheater in Season 8.

BLACK LATINA (THE PLAY), OCTOBER 16–18

Written by Crystal Roman, founder of The Black Latina Movement, and performed by a cast of Latinas in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. The production has toured nationally for over a decade.

Three women. One reunion. A lifetime of stories waiting to be told. Black Latina: The Play brings three Black Latina voices together as they unpack the complexities of identity, colorism, family, love, and culture. Set against the pulse of New York City, this moving and humorous journey explores what it means to be seen, heard, and enough.

They meet at a high school reunion and get into all of it: bullying, dating, colorism, and what acceptance costs inside their own communities and outside them. They talk about hair. About family with opinions. About social media and corporate America. About Celia Cruz walking so everybody else could run, and about mofongo and rice and beans and the food that tastes like home.

IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Both runs open with a 10:30 a.m. Friday matinee reserved for schools at a discounted student rate. UTC has run education programs in Humboldt Park schools and in its own building for years, most recently a residency at Esmeralda Santiago Elementary. A kid in Humboldt Park should not have to leave the neighborhood, or pay downtown prices, to see herself onstage. For both productions this fall, the first audience will be students.

UTC has always tied its performances to the neighborhood around them. Teatro Thursdays and Sundays pairs shows with meals at Division Street restaurants so that audience spending stays local. Since 2013 the company has given free and subsidized space to solo artists and small companies. The Black Latina Movement works the same way on the road: Crystal Roman builds community giveback into the company's tour stops. For this run, UTC is connecting her with Humboldt Park organizations that serve female-identified people.

"We named it Latina Power on purpose," said Miranda González, Producing Artistic Director. "There is always somebody who wants us to say it quieter, or say it differently, or not say it at all. This is a theater on Paseo Boricua. We are going to be loud about who we are, and then we are going to sell out the house doing it."

"I have been waiting to perform this play for a Puerto Rican neighborhood," said Ana Sophia Colón. "I wrote it about a Puerto Rican family in a Puerto Rican kitchen, and Paseo Boricua is where it belongs. Cándido and I are ready to bring la parranda to Chicago."

"UrbanTheater is our first stop this season and we are thrilled to be kicking it off in Humboldt Park," said Crystal Roman, founder of The Black Latina Movement. "I started this company in 2008 because the roles I wanted did not exist, so I wrote them. Eighteen years later the movement is still moving, and now it moves through Division Street. Wherever we go we try to leave more behind than a performance."

LATINA POWER FALL SERIES — SCHEDULE

Puerto Rico es una Cama Twin

Written and performed by Ana Sophia Colón | Directed by Cándido Tirado Friday, October 9 – Sunday, October 11

Friday, October 9 — 10:30 AM (school matinee, discounted) Friday, October 9 — 7:30 PM

Saturday, October 10 — 3:00 PM and 7:00 PM

Sunday, October 11 — 3:00 PM

Tickets: https://ci.ovationtix.com/35769/production/1285427

Black Latina (The Play)

By Crystal Roman | The Black Latina Movement Friday, October 16 – Sunday, October 18

Friday, October 16 — 10:30 AM (school matinee, discounted) Friday, October 16 — 7:30 PM

Saturday, October 17 — 3:00 PM and 7:00 PM

Sunday, October 18 — 3:00 PM

Tickets: https://ci.ovationtix.com/35769/production/1285428

Venue: UrbanTheater Company, 2620 W. Division St., Chicago, IL 60622 (Paseo Boricua) Tickets: pay-what-you-can starting at $15, urbantheaterchicago.org

Black Latina (The Play) is performed in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Press seats and interviews with Miranda González, Ana Sophia Colón, and Crystal Roman are available on request. School and group bookings for the Friday morning matinees: urbantheaterchicago.org.

About UrbanTheater Company

UrbanTheater Company (UTC) is a cultural hub rooted in Humboldt Park that amplifies the voices of the Puerto Rican diaspora and BIPOC communities while archiving Chicago history and incubating new work through storytelling, mentorship, and education. Committed to creating a brave space, UTC preserves cultural identity and inspires transformation and healing through

the power of art.

Founded in 2005 by a Latiné and Black ensemble rooted in its own community, UTC is Humboldt Park's longest-running professional theater company and the only company in Chicago to have consecutively produced plays by Puerto Rican playwrights in English. Its programs include R.A.W. (Real. Aggressive. Writing.), now in its thirteenth year and presented in 2026 as part of Goodman Theatre's 100 Free Acts of Theater; the education program La Tribu; and Teatro Thursdays and Sundays, which pairs performances with meals at Division Street restaurants. UTC was named a Chicago Cultural Treasure in 2021. In October 2025 the company closed on its first owned property at 2452 W. Division St., with plans for an UrbanTheater Cultural Arts Center. From the streets to the stage.

About The Black Latina Movement

Founded by Crystal S. Roman, The Black Latina Movement is a New York based production company creating theater, film, and media that center the lives and voices of Black Latinas and Afro-Latinas. blacklatinamovement.com