This article is part of our coverage of TCG’s 2026 National Conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico. For more information and to register for the conference, head here.
As TCG prepares for its annual conference in Puerto Rico this June, we spoke with Isel Rodríguez, one of Puerto Rico’s most active theatre, film, and television artists, about the institutions, venues, and daily realities shaping the local theatre ecosystem. A performer with Teatro Breve, Puerto Rico’s long-running comedy ensemble and production company, as well as a director and former professor at the University of Puerto Rico, Rodríguez brings the perspective of someone who has made, taught, produced, and sustained theatre across Puerto Rico for over 20 years.
BRIGITTE VIELLIEU-DAVIS: What makes Puerto Rico’s theatre scene distinct from theatre in the United States?
ISEL RODRÍGUEZ: One major difference is labor structure. There are no unions here for theatre artists. There have been attempts to include Puerto Rico in U.S. union structures, and there have also been efforts to create local ones, but those models have not taken hold. The working conditions, pay scales, and production realities here simply do not line up neatly with those in the United States.
That shapes everything. The bridges between institutions and independent artists do exist, but they rely heavily on relationships, initiative, and the artists’ own labor. A typical day for me can mean going to three different rehearsals for three different shows in three different spaces. That gives you a sense of how much the scene runs on trust, flexibility, and people being willing to do many things at once.
Universities and the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, or ICP, have at different moments helped bring in visiting artists and companies from Latin America and the United States, creating workshops, performances, and exchange. But funding cuts have weakened institutions that once had greater capacity to support artists and sustain that kind of long-term dialogue.
At the same time, one of the beautiful things about the scale of the scene here is that people work with the same collaborators over and over again. It can feel like one big ensemble. Artists move between film during the day and theatre at night, while also teaching or wearing other hats. There is not the same professional audition culture artists might expect in the States. Instead, there is a close-knit field built on continuity, trust, and the kind of shorthand that comes from making work together again and again.
And the audience culture is real. For a city of roughly 2 million people, San Juan (metro area) has a notably strong theatregoing public. A play may only run for one weekend, but that weekend is often sold out. And an ensemble with a following, like Teatro Breve, can keep a production running for six to eight weeks.
If a visiting theatre artist had just one day to begin understanding Puerto Rico’s theatre scene, where should they go first?
If I had to point a visiting artist toward a few places that reveal the scene most clearly, I would name Teatro Shorty Castro, Centro de Bellas Artes, the ICP, and the Drama Department at the University of Puerto Rico in Río Piedras. Together, they show you a lot about how theatre works here: the self-generated energy of artists, the scale of the commercial scene, the role of public cultural institutions, and the importance of the university.
Teatro Shorty Castro, home to Teatro Breve, shows the self-generated energy of Puerto Rican theatre. There is really nothing quite like Teatro Breve in the States. Think Saturday Night Live, but live, year-round, and powered by a permanent, paid ensemble with a fiercely loyal audience. People come back to see shows more than once. Artists here often build and sustain their own platforms.
Centro de Bellas Artes, also in Santurce, is one of the most complete performing arts complexes in Puerto Rico. It has hosted major touring productions as well as locally produced commercial work, and it reflects the larger-scale, more commercial side of the field.
The Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña (ICP) has historically played a central role in promoting local theatre, music, and the visual arts. It is connected to spaces such as Teatro Victoria Espinosa and Teatro Francisco Arriví, and for many artists it has offered one path to visibility through competitions and festivals, even as years of shrinking public funding have limited what it can do.
Then there is the University of Puerto Rico’s Drama Department, which connects artists to students, productions, archives, and training. It remains one of the strongest bridges between education and professional practice in Puerto Rico.
Taken together, these spaces reveal a scene that is both institutionally rooted and artist-driven, shaped by public history, commercial ingenuity, and a great deal of personal initiative.
What role do universities play beyond training?
The University of Puerto Rico has historically been central to the development of theatre artists in Puerto Rico and beyond. Its drama department offers the most complete academic training in Puerto Rico, with faculty who are active both in scholarship and in professional practice. Many graduates go on to work in theatre in Puerto Rico, elsewhere in the United States, and internationally, or continue into graduate study abroad.
The department also maintains relationships with Latino theatres in the United States, including companies such as Pregones/PRTT and Repertorio Español in New York. And it houses a major archive in the Seminario José Emilio González, with scripts, posters, photographs, videos, and other materials documenting theatre history in Puerto Rico.
So universities are not just training grounds. They are places where artists encounter history, make new work, build professional relationships, and begin to imagine themselves as part of a much larger theatrical conversation. UPR is also where many artists meet lifelong collaborators. That has certainly been true for me, and for many others.
Self-producing is a major reality in Puerto Rico. What does that actually look like?
In Puerto Rico, self-producing usually means the artists are doing almost everything. They are finding the money, securing rehearsal and performance space, paying copyright fees, building audiences, and managing marketing. Social media plays a major role, but so do local television appearances, podcasts, news programs, and word of mouth.
Because the industry is small, recognition matters. A familiar title, a well-known actor, or a proven company can help a production attract an audience more quickly than an unknown group or a new script. Dedicated producers do exist, but many artists still work across multiple roles.
Here, artists do not compartmentalize or specialize in the same way they often do in the United States. The system feels closer to how theatre works in parts of Latin America, where one person may write the play, act in it, help with lights or costumes, manage the space, and still be involved in production. That flexibility can be creatively powerful, but it also reflects the practical reality of survival.
And yet there is an inventiveness to that model too. Puerto Rican theatre artists are often deeply versatile. The boundaries among performer, maker, teacher, producer, and administrator are porous. That can be exhausting, yes, but it also produces artists with range, resilience, and a strong sense of collective responsibility.
It is also important to say that theatre in Puerto Rico is not made for tourists. Most of it is in Spanish. Even when U.S. plays are staged here, they are usually translated and culturally adapted for local audiences. That local grounding is part of what makes the scene distinct, and part of what gives it its intimacy and force. But it also opens a door to what could be possible in terms of expanding audiences.
What are the most meaningful ways the American theatre community can support Puerto Rican theatre right now?
Go see local work, even if you do not understand every word. Check the carteleras to see what is playing at spaces like Teatro Victoria Espinosa, Teatro Francisco Arriví, Centro de Bellas Artes, Teatro Shorty Castro, Teatro Braulio Castillo in Bayamón, and the University of Puerto Rico in Río Piedras. Ask local colleagues what they recommend and how long a run will last. Often a show only gets two weekends.
It would also be meaningful to create stronger pathways for Puerto Rican work to travel to the United States. Subtitles and supertitles are common in opera, but still far less common in theatre, even though the technology is already there and not especially complicated. At a moment when producing and presenting work in Spanish, or in any language other than English, feels especially important, subtitled live theatre could open Puerto Rican productions to broader audiences both here and in the United States.
Now is the time when theatre companies and producers are presented with a clear artistic and political choice: to present work in its original language at a time when so many voices are being pressured, marginalized, or pushed toward silence. Supporting Puerto Rican artists does not only mean inviting them into existing structures; it can also mean making space for the language, context, and cultural specificity of the work itself.
One concrete way to support Puerto Rican artists and art: Fund and produce subtitled live theatre in both Puerto Rico and in the United States. Right now there is not really a tourism pipeline around supporting our theatre. Expanding captioning could help change that, while also allowing audiences elsewhere to encounter the richness of the work being made in Puerto Rico.
I would love to see a panel or workshop on this at the TCG conference in June. It feels like a practical and exciting conversation to have now, one that touches not only on access but also on circulation, partnership, and the future life of live performance across languages. Support can mean attendance, funding, and collaboration. It can also mean creating the conditions for Puerto Rican work to travel, to be experienced more widely, and to reach new audiences while remaining fully itself.
Brigitte Viellieu-Davis is an educator, writer, and theatre artist based in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She serves as co-ambassador for Puerto Rico with the Dramatists Guild of America, helping build community and visibility for Puerto Rican theatre creators. She is currently a professor of English at Universidad del Sagrado Corazón in San Juan.
