Su Teatro, new play, new home

Stunning performance, tragic and uplifting - Chicano poetry, dialog, humour, amazing singing and dancing, video montage ...

"Saturday was a night of celebration on-stage and off for Su Teatro, Denver's 39-year-old Chicano theater company. It was their opening performance since taking ownership of the Denver Civic Theater "el corazon de la ciudad" — in the heart of the city — at 721 Santa Fe Drive. In front of a rare capacity crowd at the long-neglected Civic — a boisterous throng of 325 that included Interior Secretary Ken Salazar — Su Teatro offered a glimpse of the expanded artistry we can expect now that they're performing on a stage four times bigger than the one they've left behind at the old Elyria school in north Denver. This original, bilingual musical production, written by longtime writing partners Anthony J. Garcia and Daniel Valdez and running through Oct. 30, is a celebration of Sacramento poet laureate Jose Montoya, best known for "El Louie." It's a wrenching, angry poem about the discrimination and disregard a Chicano soldier faces during and after serving in the Korean war. He's a pachuco, from that marginalized generation of Mexican-American youths who sported zoot suits and developed their own gangster culture in the 1940s."

Full report and photos: The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/theater/ci_16389953