There Is a Future/Tenemos un futuro is one of my favorite projects I’ve worked on to date. Co-directed by me and Elizabeth Nungaray, TIAF is a kind of “Environmental Justice 101” - our primary goals with the project were to 1.) uplift current EJ organizing efforts on the South and West sides of the city and 2.) support audiences unfamiliar with EJ work in connecting their everyday problems to a larger pattern of treating our communities as “sacrifice zones” for industrial pollution. TIAF started as an outdoor show in July 2023, touring to parks in collaboration with the Chicago Park District. The show is bilingual (Es/En) and surprisingly funny for a play about being poisoned by people who don’t care about our wellbeing. We used puppets, masks, physical comedy to make a show with broad appeal in our communities. Ironically (?), we had to cancel several public rehearsals because of the air quality - always bad on the mid-Southside, it was made much much worse by smoke from Canadian wildfires.

After our summer run, we moved inside and reworked the show for a more intimate performance. We opened in Free Street’s new Storefront space in Back of the Yards, and then toured to indoor spaces across the city. Good news! It is available for touring!

Here’s a short mini documentary about the project: