Photo Flash: First Look at Teatro Vista's I PUT THE FEAR OF MEXICO IN 'EM

Teatro Vista kicks off its 2012-13 season with the world premiere of i put the fear of méxico in 'em, a humorous, bold work by Matthew Paul Olmos about an American couple vacationing in Tijuana who stumble off the beaten path and are accosted by a Mexican couple in an alley. i put the fear of méxico in 'em runs now through December 9, 2012 at Chicago Dramatists, 1105 W. Chicago Avenue, Chicago. Get a first look at the production below!

Newly appointed Co-Artistic Director Ricardo Gutierrez will helm Teatro Vista's season opener, which deftly explores stereotypes and challenges notions of boundaries, safety and identity. The cast includes Charin Alvarez (Juana, most recently seen as Jocasta in Victory Gardens' Oedipus El Rey), Cruz Gonzalez Cadel (Vivia), Cheryl Graeff (Adray), Miguel Nunez (Efren), Bryn Packard (Jonah) and Marvin Quijada (multiple roles). Designers are Regina Garcia (set), Christine Pascual (costumes), Sarah Hughey (lights) and Christopher Kriz (sound).

Matthew Paul Olmos' (playwright) play i put the fear of méxico in 'em was developed and/or presented by Sundance Theatre Institute, Intar Theatre, The Working Theatre, LaMicro, Lark Play Development Center, The Kennedy Center with The Inkwell, and the Gala Theatre in DC. It will also be published by NoPassport Press. New York's La MaMa etc. will present the world premiere of his play 'so go the ghosts of méxico in April 2013. Olmos was born and raised in Los Angeles to a police officer and labor/delivery nurse. He moved to New York in August 2001 to pursue playwriting. He is the 2012 Princess Grace Fellow in Playwriting, which includes a residency at New Dramatists. He is also the inaugural recipient of La Mama E.T.C.'s Emerging Artist Award, as selected by Sam Shepard, a Sundance Institute Time Warner Storytelling Fellow, a 2012-12 New York Theatre Workshop fellow; two-time Resident Artist at Mabou Mines/Suite, Ensemble Studio Theater lifetime member, Brooklyn Arts Exchange Resident Artist, and was recently awarded the "Top prize for the Americas" by the BBC 2011 International Playwriting Competition for his play The Nature of Captivity. He is co-founder and former artistic director of woken'glacier theatre company (two-time New York Innovative Theatre Award nominee), a member of No Passport with Caridad Svich, a National Endowment for the Arts New Play Development reader, a New York Innovative Awards judge, a Final Selection Committee member for Playwrights' Week and a core staff member at the Lark Play Development Center. He holds an M.F.A. in Playwriting from The Actor's Studio Drama School, a B.A. in Playwriting from UC Santa Barbara, and was given UCLA's GOP Award for Graduate Playwriting. For more information visit matthewpaulolmos.com.

Ricardo Gutierrez (director) is Co-Artistic Director with Edward Torres of Teatro Vista through March 1, after which Gutierrez will be sole Artistic Director. He directed Teatro Vista's hit Chicago debut last season of Candido Tirado's Momma's Boyz. Other Teatro Vista directing credits include La Magica Posada and the staged reading of Yamaha 300 for Goodman Theatre's Latino Theatre Festival. Elsewhere he staged Quita Mitos by Tanya Saracho at Next Theatre and Romeo and Juliet and The Magic Ofrenda for Glass Onion Theatre, where he is the co-founder and Artistic Director, and The Glass Menagerie for Absolute Shakespeare. He has directed more than 20 musical productions including Let the Eagle Fly for Goodman Theatre's Latino Theatre Festival. He is also former Artistic Director of Canterbury Theatre in Indiana. While residing in Los Angeles from 1986 to 1994, Gutierrez was Artistic Director of Nosotros, an Artistic Associate of Theatre 40 in Los Angeles, where he directed the world premieres of Goods and Pasquini the Magnificent. Goods earned Gutierrez a Los Angeles Dramalogue Award for Directing. As an actor Gutierrez's most recent Chicago appearance was last April at the Goodman in the world premiere of Candido Tirado's Fish Men, presented in association with Teatro Vista. He can currently be seen on television as Alderman Mata in the Starz series Boss.

Teatro Vista, Theatre with a View, was founded in 1989. Today, Teatro Vista is celebrating its 23rd season, having grown to be Chicago's premier Equity Latino ensemble theater company. Teatro Vista produces new work by new playwrights with a focus on sharing the stories of the multicultural Latino experience. Featuring a talented and diverse ensemble, Teatro Vista gives voice to artists of all backgrounds and shares their stories with a large, sophisticated audience. In 2011, Teatro Vista was celebrated as one of 25 of "Chicago's cultural leaders" by the Arts & Business Council of Chicago, and received the League of Chicago Theatres' Artistic Leadership Award.

The Teatro Vista Ensemble includes Ricardo Gutierrez and Edward Torres, Co-Artistic Directors; and Charin Alvarez, Max Arciniega, Desmin Borges, Cheryl Lynn Bruce, Ivonne Coll, Lauri Dahl, Deb Davis, Sandra Delgado, Liza Fernandez, Khanisha Foster, Erick Juarez, Jon Lyon, Sandra Marquez, Joe Minoso, Marcela Muñoz, Christina Nieves, Marvin Quijada, Juan Gabriel Ruiz, Tony Sancho, Cecilia Suarez and Juan Francisco Villa.

Teatro Vista's Managing Director, Kate Ingold, joined the company in February 2012. Ingold is the former Executive Director of the Neighborhood Writing Alliance, a consultant with several area non-profits and a poet and visual artist. Teatro Vista's Board of Directors includes Betty L. Cleeland, Tom Greensfelder, Amy Lindner, Joan Pantsios and Tom Vega-Byrnes.

Regular performances run through December 9: Thursday and Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. Exceptions: There is an added show, Monday, November 19 at 7:30 p.m. No show Thursday, November 22. Tickets to regular performances are $25. Group tickets for 10 or more to all shows are only $15. Tickets go on sale October 5th at teatrovista.org or by phone at 773.599.9280.

Photo Credit: Carrillo Photo

) Jonah (Bryn Packard) is confronted by Efren (Miguel Nunez) in a Tijuana alley, as Efren’s wife Juana (Charin Alvarez) and Jonah’s wife Adray (Cheryl Graeff) look on.

Charin Alvarez is Juana and Miguel Nunez plays Efren

Adray (Cheryl Graeff) is forced to dance to songs played by a strolling Mariachi (Marvin Quijada) while held hostage in Tijuana

Adray (Cheryl Graeff) is held hostage in a Tijuana alley by Juana (Charin Alvarez)

Jonah (Bryn Packard) is confronted by several sketchy characters (Miguel Quijada and Cruz Gonzalez Cadel) while visiting Tijuana.