Tri-Theater Case Study: INTAR Hispanic American Arts Center, Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, and Repertorio Español (1990)

Say the word "theater" to the average person in the industry and he/she will immediately bring to mind the images of the mainstream: Broadway, Off-Broadway and the regional institutions around the country. However, one has only to veer slightly away from the center to find a whole spectrum of theaters with entirely different cultural points of reference, flavors, and colors: the theaters of the ethnic minority populations within the United States. Between April 1984 and April 1985, Joanne Pottlitzer conducted a survey of 145 Hispanic theater organizations. Thirty-four of the theater organizations surveyed were located in New York, followed by thirty-two in the Southwest, thirty-one in California, twenty-one in San Juan, Puerto Rico, eighteen in Florida and five in the Midwest. Data collected from 87 of the 101 theater groups show that 30 of the 87 groups were founded since 1980 and that seven are twenty years old or more. Most theaters produce an average of three plays a year in 100- t