By Katie Vazquez

The UrbanTheater Company, located in Humboldt Park, strives to bring the streets to the stage as their number one mission. Ivan Vega, the artistic director, explained the moving process the company had experienced: “Even through moving around, we always stayed in Humboldt Park”. The neighborhood is UrbanTheater’s home. Vega shares the reasoning behind the company name: “We are giving voice to Chicago playwrights and Chicago stories.”

Recently, they had their grand opening of “Not For Sale”, a new work by Guadalis Del Carmen, that the company decided to produce. The play focuses on Gentrification and how it is currently affecting the Puerto Rican neighborhood of Humboldt Park. This is a struggle that Puerto Ricans have been dealing with for decades. After being pushed out of many areas they called home, the steel flags in Humboldt Park are a symbol of resistance, and will soon become a national landmark. In this play, there are many comedic moments but also pockets of time that tend to provoke deep thought. The show speaks a message that everyone needs to hear. Students get in for fifteen dollars, which is a major steal for a show as amazing as this.

The Theater is a storefront that has lasted for thirteen years. That is an impressive amount of time for a company as small as a storefront to stay alive. Ivan expresses that this company isn’t something him or his team make a living off of: “It is not about us as a theater company or to make money, but it is about the community. This being at the heart of their mission, the Chicago community continues to support such a moving company.