Support LATEA: Keep Latino Arts Alive

Help Keep Teatro LATEA's Lights On!

The Board of Directors of Latin American Theater Experiment Associates, Inc. (Teatro LATEA) and its dedicated staff urgently appeal to you because our theater is on the brink of going full dark.

Teatro LATEA (Latin American Theater Experiment Associates, Inc.) is the foundational theater of The Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center (107 Suffolk Street) in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Established in 1982, the remarkable and versatile LATEA stage has served for 42 years as the launch pad of many a Latino/Latinx and Latin American performance career.

Is this the end for LATEA?

The unprecedented financial challenges currently pressing LATEA stem from a long overdue renovation of The Clemente, which includes the addition of an elevator (!). While welcome, the renovation work has tremendously restricted theater operations, preventing Teatro LATEA from earning box office receipts and from generating income from stage/rehearsal room rentals.

Without your help this drastic loss of revenue could very well bring down the curtains.

The Clemente renovation was brought to all residents’ attention late in 2023, started early in 2024 and is currently scheduled to continue throughout most of 2025. Prior to the renovation, and under the best of circumstances (especially after the COVID pandemic) LATEA’s leadership and staff put in long hours to produce/co-produce and present theater, film and music, in addition to renting the space to serve other artists, the community and our city.

We need your help to raise $60,000 to maintain LATEA’s lights on as the ongoing construction of 2024, a year of lost revenue, prevents us from any other self-help.

We need to cover MINIMAL operational expenses and support A SKELETON CREW of staff during the renovation period so we can spring forward with new productions and co-productions by emerging Latino/Latinx and Latin American talent, a lively rehearsal room class and workshop ecosystem and a healthy dose of stage and film rentals.

This year marks the 42nd anniversary of Teatro LATEA’s founding. A story that began in the Lower East Side with three visionary actors -Gomez, Landrieu and Tamayo-, and which has expanded through the years to include a cast of thousands of performance artists, musicians, and playwrights that have come to shine on stage supported by enthusiastic New Yorkers eager for more Latin American theater in the city.

Come together: support the present to arrive at the renovated future of LATEA @ The Clemente, DONATE today - join the LATEA cast!