Displaying items by tag: Paloma Nozicka

Steppenwolf Theatre Company, the nation's premier ensemble theater company, and Teatro Vista Productions are pleased to announce the world premiere production of TVP Artistic Collective member Paloma Nozicka's* BOTH, as a part of a new, multi-year partnership between the two Chicago institutions. Directed by Georgette Verdin, BOTH will play April 11 – May 10, 2026 in Steppenwolf's 1700 Theater, 1700 N. Halsted St. in Chicago. A special Steppenwolf member and Teatro Vista Productions VIP pre-sale begins Tuesday, February 3, 2026 at 12 pm. Tickets go on sale to the general public Thursday, February 5, 2026 at 12 pm at steppenwolf.org and the Box Office at (312) 335-1650.

The multi-year partnership between Teatro Vista Productions and Steppenwolf brings two of Chicago's most vital ensemble theaters together to present ambitious productions to Chicago audiences. Teatro Vista Productions is set to stage a full-length run of a play each season over the next three years in Steppenwolf's 1700 Theater, in an exciting collaboration reflecting the unique artistic ambitions of both companies. The innovative partnership also provides opportunities for Teatro Vista Productions to build institutional capacity after recent record-breaking artistic achievement with shows including The Dream King and Memorabilia. With Teatro Vista Productions in residency at Steppenwolf, both companies look forward to modeling a relationship that they hope will inspire further collaboration in Chicago's iconic theater community amongst organizations of all sizes.

BOTH follows on the success of Teatro Vista Productions' recent world premiere productions in the 1700 Theater: La Havana Madrid (2017), Enough to Let the Light In (also by Nozicka, 2022) and ¡Bernarda! (2023).

Steppenwolf Executive Director E. Brooke Flanagan comments, "For the last decade, Steppenwolf and Teatro Vista Productions have been frequent collaborators, but under this new, multi-year model, we are weaving the two institutions into an even closer relationship. We are thrilled to play host for the ambitions of this extraordinary company: from rehearsals to performances, from donor events to audience engagement opportunities."

"Staging the world premiere of BOTH by TVP Artistic Collective member, Paloma Nozicka, as the kick-off to our multi-year Steppenwolf Theatre Company residency is the ultimate fulfillment of our mission," shared TVP Artistic Director Wendy Mateo and Executive Director Lorena Diaz. "BOTH is a gritty, character-driven look into complicated family dynamics and chosen truths. Great family dramas are a signature of the Steppenwolf brand. To provide our artists with this stage, in the birthplace of ensemble theater in Chicago, is a dream come true. This synchronicity is a moment of profound pride for our theater. As we celebrate our 35th year, we continue to lean into the idea of radical abundance. And with the support of Steppenwolf Theatre Company, we get to do just that. Pa'lante, Juntos. Forward, Together."

BOTH will feature TVP Artistic Collective members Charín Álvarez*, Eddie Martinez*, Ayssette Muñoz* and Paloma Nozicka* with Brian King and Yona Moises Olivares.

*Denotes TVP Artistic Collective member

About the Production:

Xochi is dealing with a lot: a difficult pregnancy, a new relationship, a family that can't stand her and the loss of her twin brother Sebastian, who was declared missing last year. As she tries to navigate her life (and keep her sanity), the impossible happens: Sebastian reappears. Her family is overjoyed, but Xochi is suspicious: where has he been? And why does this version of Sebastian seem so different than the one she knew? BOTH is an eerie examination of family, love, memory, and which version of the truth is the one worth believing.

The creative team includes Sotirios Livaditis (Scenic Design), Johan H. Gallardo* (Costume Design), Maximo Grano De Oro (Lighting Design), Satya Chávez (Sound Design), Shokie Tseumah (Properties Design), Greg Geffrard (Intimacy and Violence), Estrellita Beatriz (Production Manager), Janyce Caraballo (Assistant Director), Adelina Feldman-Schultz* (Casting Director), Julie Jachym (Production Stage Manager) and Olivia Ellery (Assistant Stage Manager).

Production Details:

Title: BOTH
Playwright: TVP Artistic Collective member Paloma Nozicka*
Director: Georgette Verdin
Cast (in alphabetical order): Charín Álvarez* (Angela), Brian King (Sam), Eddie Martinez* (Juan), Ayssette Muñoz* (Cynthia), Paloma Nozicka* (Xochi) and Yona Moises Olivares (Sebastian)

Covers: Aaron Barker (Cover Sam), Tatiana Bustamante (Cover Cynthia), Lorena Diaz (Cover Angela), Leonel Garza (Cover Juan), El Río (Cover Sebastian) and Amelia Roque (Cover Xochi) 

Location: Steppenwolf's 1700 Theater, 1700 N. Halsted St., Chicago

Dates: Previews: Saturday, April 11 – Thursday, April 16, 2026
Press performance/Opening: Friday, April 17, 2026 at 7:30 pm
Regular run: Saturday, April 18 – Sunday, May 10, 2026
Curtain Times: Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm; Sundays at 3 pm. Please note: there will not be a 7:30 pm performance on Saturday, May 9, 2026

Tickets: Single tickets for BOTH ($47*) go on sale to the general public Thursday, February 5, 2026 at 12 pm at steppenwolf.org and the Box Office at (312) 335-1650. All preview performances and Wednesday performances will be Pay-What-You-Will. *Price includes a $3 processing fee

Artist Biographies:

Paloma Nozicka (Playwright) is an actor, writer and filmmaker based in Los Angeles. Playwriting credits include Enough to Let the Light In (2023 Jeff Awards nominee for Best New Work) and BOTH (2025 O'Neill National Playwrights Conference finalist). Screenwriting credits include Enough to Let the Light In (feature), Horns (feature), Each Lovely Thing (short), HUGE (short). Directing credits include Each Lovely Thing (official selection at the Austin Film Festival, Cleveland International; "Best Screenplay" at the New Filmmakers LA "Best of 2024" awards). She was a member of the 2023/2024 Geffen Playhouse Writer's Room. She is a member of the Teatro Vista Productions collective, a company member with Jackalope Theatre Company and a member of SAG-AFTRA.

Georgette Verdin (Director) is the Associate Artistic Director of Northlight Theatre and a member of Rivendell Theatre Ensemble. Recent directing credits include: the World Premieres of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women (Northlight Theatre); The Singularity Play (Jackalope Theatre); A Mile in The Dark (Interrobang Theatre Project/Rivendell Theatre Ensemble); Enough to Let the Light In (Teatro Vista Productions) and Spay (Rivendell Theatre Ensemble); the U.S. premiere of The Writer (Steep Theatre); and the Chicago Premieres of Mary Jane and Dial M for Murder (Northlight Theatre), This Wide Night (Shattered Globe/Interrobang Theatre Project) and Ironbound (Raven Theatre). Georgette is a five-time Joseph Jefferson Awards nominated director, the 2022 Michael Maggio Directing Fellow at Goodman Theatre and was a 2024 3Arts Award nominee. She's been profiled in NewCity's 2023 "Players: Who Really Performs for Chicago" and in Chicago Reader's "Best of Chicago 2022." She is an associate member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. georgetteverdin.com

Charín Álvarez's (Angela) theatre credits include: A Home What Howls, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, La Ruta, The Infidel, Ordinary Yearning, Fermi at Steppenwolf Theatre; Lettie, Mojada, Oedipus El Rey, Anna in the Tropics, A Park in the House at Victory Gardens Theatre; The Scene at Writer's Theatre; Inherit The Wind, 2666, Pedro Paramo, El Nogalar, Dollhouse and Electricidad at Goodman Theatre; Anna in the Tropics, Passage, Skin of Our Teeth and Clean House with Remy Bumppo' "Bernarda!, In the Time of the Butterflies, Our Lady of the Underpass, I Put the Fear of Mexico in 'Em, Dreamlandia, Another Part of the House with Teatro Vista; Water by the Spoonful at Court Theatre; A Work of Art at Chicago Dramatists Theatre; What We Once Felt with About Face Theatre; Kita & Fernanda with 16th Street Theatre; Esperanza Rising with Chicago Children's Theatre; Two Sisters and a Piano at Apple Tree Theatre; Generic Latina with Teatro Luna; La Casa de Bernarda Alba with Aguijon Theatre. Film/TV credits include: Somebody Somewhere, Paper Girls, Ripple Effects, Chicago Med, Easy, Shameless, Chicago Fire, Mob Doctor, Boss, Chicago Code, Approach Alone, Rooftop Wars, Arc of a Bird, Were the World Mine, Chicago Overcoat, First and Only Lesson, Dogwalker, Rogers Park, Olympia: Manual on How to Live Your Life, Signature Move, En Algun Lugar, Princess Cyd, Single File, Teacher, Hala, Saint Frances, The Rounding, Heartsong, Museum, Last Drop, Single Car Crashes, Adult Children, Ghostlight, Ask a Punk and Kombucha.

Brian King (Sam) was recently seen in HBO's Somebody Somewhere, NBC's The Irrational and Showtime's The Chi. Other TV credits include Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, Boss, Leverage, Empire, Detroit 1-8-7, Crisis, Mob Doctor and Prison Break. His most recent film credits include Candyman, Widows, Man of Steel, Seneca and A Light Beneath Their Feet. Other Chicago stage credits include TimeLine Theatre's Hundreds and Hundreds of Stars, Steppenwolf Theatre's Fair Use, The North Plan and The Drunken City.

Eddie Martinez (Juan) is a member of Teatro Vista Artist Collective previously seen in Parachute Men, Fade and Hope (Victory Gardens and Den Theatre). Other credits include: I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, Our Lady of 121st Street (Steppenwolf); Native Gardens (Old Globe); Fade (Denver Center, Cherry Lane, Theater Works Hartford); As You Like It (Denver Center); Big Lake Big City, Cascabel, Circus Quixote (Lookingglass); Rightlynd (Victory Gardens); Bull (Paramount); Ugly Lies The Bone (Shattered Globe). Film/TV credits include: Sense8 (Netflix), Sirens (USA), Chicago Fire (NBC), Shameless (Showtime) Justified: Primeval (FX) and The Dilemma (Universal). Member of Actors' Equity Association.

Ayssette Muñoz (Cynthia) is a Mexican American actor/director from the Rio Grande Valley. In 2015, the Chicago Tribune featured her as one of the "Top 10 Hot New Faces of Chicago Theatre'' and in 2019, she was nominated for "Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Play" from the Alliance of Latinx Theatre Artists of Chicago. She is a proud teaching artist at Steppenwolf Theatre and an Artistic Collective Member at Teatro Vista. Favorite acting credits include: Teatro Vista, Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Lookingglass, Rivendell Theatre, A Red Orchid Theatre, Definition Theatre. On-camera credits: The Bear, Chicago Med, Chicago P.D. Associate directing credits: Arthur & Friends Make a Musical (Marriott Theatre), An Educated Guess (Definition Theatre, Jeff Recommended), Somewhere Over the Border (Teatro Vista, Jeff Recommended, winner of Best Director, Best Ensemble and Best Production of a Musical) Represented by Big Mouth Talent. ayssettemunoz.com

Paloma Nozicka (Xochi) is thrilled to make her Teatro Vista debut. Chicago theatre credits (selected): The Thanksgiving Play (Steppenwolf Theatre Company), Teddy Ferrara (Goodman Theatre); Native Gardens (Victory Gardens Theatre); Bobby Clearly (Steep Theatre); The Harvest (Griffin Theatre); In the Canyon, The Light Fantastic, Exit Strategy, Long Way Go Down (Jackalope Theatre Company). Regional: Citizen Detective (Geffen Playhouse); Boeing Boeing (TheatreSquared). Television: The Irrational, Chicago Med, Proven Innocent, Chicago P.D., The Red Line, Empire. Nozicka was a 2023 Jeff Awards nominee for "Best New Work" for her play Enough to Let the Light In. She is a member of the TVP collective, a Jackalope Theatre Company member and a proud member of SAG-AFTRA.

Yona Moises Olivares (Sebastian) Chicago: Much Ado About Nothing (Chicago Shakespeare Theater); Sanctuary City (Steppenwolf Theatre Company); Gender Play, or what you Will (About Face Theatre); Anna in the Tropics (Remy Bumppo); Same Sects (Haven Chicago); When Harry Met Rehab (Greenhouse Theater). Regional: Anna in the Tropics, The Winter's Tale (American Players Theatre); How to Defend Yourself, We've Come to Believe, A Christmas Carol, Dracula (Actors Theatre of Louisville). Education: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Accessibility:

Steppenwolf's 1700 Theater is equipped with an induction hearing loop and assistive listening devices (ALDs) are available upon request. Our building features wheelchair-accessible seating and restrooms, push-button entrances, a courtesy wheelchair, and all-gender restrooms, with accessible counter and table spaces at our bars. For additional information regarding accessibility, visit steppenwolf.org/plan-your-visit/accessibility or e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Sponsor Information:

The LookOut Series is supported in part by the Walder Foundation. United Airlines is the Official and Exclusive Airline of Steppenwolf. Steppenwolf is also grateful for the significant season support from lead sponsors Allstate Insurance Company, Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Crown Family Philanthropies, Caroline and Keating Crown, Julius Frankel Foundation, Lefkofsky Family Foundation, Northern Trust, Anne and Don Phillips, John Hart and Carol Prins, Shubert Foundation, Inc, Walder Foundation, and Zell Family Foundation. Steppenwolf also acknowledges generous support from premier sponsors Anonymous, Andrew and Amy Bluhm, Michael and Cathy Brennan, Ann and Richard Carr, Chicago Community Trust, Steven and Nancy Crown, Conagra Brands Foundation, Rich and Margery Feitler, FROST CHICAGO, Joyce Foundation, Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, The Orlebeke Foundation, Polk Bros. Foundation, Bryan Traubert and Penny Pritzker, Sacks Family Foundation, Smart Family Foundation of Illinois, and Vinci Restaurant. Steppenwolf also acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council and the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.

About Teatro Vista Productions:

When the Chicago theater world wasn't ready for us, Teatro Vista Productions made space. For 35 years, we've told true stories that reflect our community. We're not just building on this amazing legacy; we're strengthening and expanding it for the future. Today we continue to actively engage in advocacy that seeks to increase the authentic representations of us on stage and screen.

Teatro Vista Productions believes we are stronger together — across disciplines, across experiences, across mediums, across diasporas. We center our collective of artists at the heart of everything we do. We empower our artists to create with their own authentic voice by providing the tools and resources they need to thrive in the industry. Our work is timely, relevant and authentically reflects our community. Now, as always, We Are Theater With A View.

Lorena Diaz (Executive Director), Wendy Mateo (Artistic Director) and Cruz Gonzalez-Cadel (Associate Artistic Director).

Follow us on Social Media & YouTube to experience the multidisciplinary talents of our Artistic Collective and stay connected to all things TVP! We'll see you there! @teatrovista

About Steppenwolf Theatre Company:

Steppenwolf Theatre Company is the nation's premier Ensemble Theater with 49 members who are among the top actors, playwrights and directors in the field. Thrilling, powerful, groundbreaking productions have made this theatre legendary. From the 1980 phenomenon of Balm in Gilead, to The Grapes of Wrath, August: Osage County, Downstate, The Brother/Sister Plays, and now, the 2025 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning Purpose, Steppenwolf Theatre has had a long-running and undeniable impact on American Theater and Chicago's cultural landscape. Founded in 1976, Steppenwolf started as a group of teens performing in the basement of a church. Today, the company's artistic force remains rooted in the original vision of its founders: an artist-driven theatre, whose vitality is defined by its appetite for bold and innovative work. Every aspect of Steppenwolf is rooted in its Ensemble ethos, from the intergenerational artistic programming to the multi-genre performance series LookOut, to the nationally recognized work of Steppenwolf Education and Engagement which serves nearly 15,000 teens annually. While grounded in the Chicago community, more than 40 original Steppenwolf productions have enjoyed success nationally and internationally, including Broadway, Off-Broadway, London, Sydney, Galway and Dublin. Steppenwolf also holds accolades that include the National Medal of Arts, 14 Tony Awards, two Pulitzer Prize-winning commissions and more. Led by Artistic Directors Glenn Davis and Audrey Francis, Executive Director Brooke Flanagan and Board of Trustees Chair Keating Crown — Steppenwolf continually redefines the boundaries of live theater and pushes the limits of acting and performance.

Steppenwolf's Mission: Steppenwolf strives to create thrilling, courageous and provocative art in a thoughtful and inclusive environment. We succeed when we disrupt your routine with experiences that spark curiosity, empathy and joy. We invite you to join our ensemble as we navigate, together, our complex world. steppenwolf.org, facebook.com/steppenwolftheatre, twitter.com/steppenwolfthtr and instagram.com/steppenwolfthtr.

“Together we created this nothingness,” says Audrey Francis in Steppenwolf’s production of Larissa Fasthorse’s ‘The Thanksgiving Play’. Hot off its Broadway run, this madcap comedy cuts right to the bone. Under Jess Mcleod’s direction, the intimate cast leaps right off the stage.

‘The Thanksgiving Play’ is about three elementary school teachers and one sassy actress who come together to devise a children’s play that illustrates the first Thanksgiving. In a fast-paced one-act, emotions and hypocrisies run amok.

Logan (Audrey Francis) plays the director, a role the actress and Steppenwolf Artistic Director Audrey Francis is used to playing. What a treat it is to see Francis on stage in her element. Francis is a masterful actor, and this play is but another entry in a long list of perfect performances.

Logan is dating her New Age-y coworker Jaxton (Nate Santana) who is also enlisted to help with the Thanksgiving play alongside Caden (Tim Hopper). Thinking they’re being progressive, they hire who they assume is a Native American actress, Alicia (Paloma Nozicka). Without a script, the four theatre artists must work together to tell a story that pays deference to Native American culture. Though well-intentioned, the all-white creative team exposes everything wrong with today’s supposed “woke” ideals.

At its core, ‘The Thanksgiving Play’ is a scathing satire of the “white savior” complex. Though Logan’s heart is in the right place, it’s perhaps her over-education on race-related issues that finds her with her foot in her mouth throughout the play. Larissa Fasthorse’s play suggests that some allies are more concerned with the outward appearance of racism than they are with true authenticity.

As we’ve been told, the very first Thanksgiving was a breaking of bread between settlers and natives to commemorate their collaboration during the harvest season. We can likely agree this probably was more fiction than fact, but for the sake of a children’s play, maybe the gruesome truth isn’t appropriate. Fasthorse’s play asks the audience is there a better way to tell this story with both respect and truth?

Things quickly fall apart between the creatives as they all battle to enact their own will. Sound familiar? ‘The Thanksgiving Play’ is as much an allegory as it is a comedy. Paloma Nozicka’s character Alicia, who is there to be the token Native American character presents an interesting observation: smart people are often not content. The white characters in the play make their lives more complicated with rules and propriety which leads to their unhappiness. Whereas Alicia lives simply and seems really happy. With these parallels established, Fasthorse could be seen as making an argument that European settlers brought neuroses with them to the New World. 

It’s a remarkable thing to hear a crowd of intellectuals be able to laugh at themselves. A lot of the dialogue will leave you with your jaw open because it’s chock full of ideas you know better than to articulate, such as “why isn’t there a white history month?”

‘The Thanksgiving Play’ is not a show for the humorless. It’s a blistering send-up of how bleeding-heart white people can find themselves twisted in knots trying to appease political correctness, and at what cost.

Through June 2 at Steppenwolf Theatre Co. 1650 N Halsted. 312-335-1650

In Native Gardens, an ambitious young couple moves into a fixer-upper in an affluent DC neighborhood. Husband Pablo (Gabriel Ruiz) is a lawyer, his pregnant wife Tania (Paloma Nozicka) is working on her doctorate dissertation. Their nice and lively, albeit politically incorrect, neighbors are a defense contractor Virginia (Janet Ulrich Brooks) and her retired gardening-loving husband Frank (Patrick Clear). Shortly after moving in, Pablo has a bright idea to invite his entire law firm (all sixty people) to a barbeque in their embarrassingly unfinished yard, so the young couple gets to work. The old wire fence separating the neighbors’ properties (very nice design set by William Boles) has to go, but it soon becomes evident that Frank has been gardening on extra 23 inches of land that actually belongs to the new couple, according to the property plans.

Upon further calculations Pablo realizes that those 23 inches along the old fence translate into extra 80 sq feet of land which goes for “about $15,000 at a current market price”. Well, it’s a war then! Frank refuses to let go of his lovingly raised flowers right up against the ill-placed fence, while the young couple is on a mission to re-claim what’s rightfully theirs.

Who knew that an incorrectly placed fence would cause so much commotion? We all did, we saw it coming before the play even started. But despite its predictability, this comedy is still entertaining and somewhat thought provoking. Written by Karen Zacarias and directed by Marti Lyons, Native Gardens is more about generation clash, stereotypes, ageism and racism rather than the property lines. The older couple is from the pre-self-censorship era, and in their ignorance, they don’t always choose words carefully; they say what’s on their minds rather than hide behind politically correct words and ideas. But those words are often offensive to the delicate ears of Tania, whose proper opinions, frankly, make for sterile conversation, enough to put one to sleep. All in all, the two couples can’t effectively communicate, so they threaten each other instead. Will their peace be restored?

Native Gardens runs through July 2nd at Victory Gardens Theater. To find out more about this show visit www.VictoryGardens.org.