You’ve probably seen the titan spirit behind GALA Hispanic Theatre during a show night. She’s the ginger-haired woman strutting down the halls and across the stage—usually in a sparkling dress and heels. Rebecca Medrano has been running one of the U.S.’s few Spanish- and Latin-focused theaters for nearly five decades.

As big changes have unfolded at the Columbia Heights theater over the past two years—largely following the death of her husband and GALA’s co-founder, Hugo Medrano, in May 2023—Medrano has been there, keeping everything on track. The Medranos’ 1976 conception of GALA, short for Grupo de Artistas LatinoAmericanos, was especially radical at the time: a space to cultivate a localized sense of community for Hispanic and Latine culture in D.C. when stories by and about those communities often went untold in the U.S.

City Paper sat down with Medrano to discuss the upcoming fall theater season and reflect on GALA’s legacy over the past five decades. 

The D.C. area looked very different in 1976. Many of the stories that fell into the Hispanic diaspora were shaped by high-charged political exile in Latin America. How did these stories shape GALA’s mission at the time and how have things changed? 

It was definitely in response to the arrival of so many political exiles from South America, all of those people were coming to the United States and their point of entry was Washington, D.C. They were looking for a place to be able to continue to create freely and to live their lives without fear of political repression. And they were very educated people … And as a result, the work we were producing was very politically cutting-edge. You couldn’t produce this in Latin America, but you could in D.C. 

The wave of immigration changed, and later you had more Central American migrants fleeing civil wars, looking for better lives and better jobs. We incorporated more music … The real European theater tradition, as people know it in Latin America, was very big in Argentina, Chile, Brazil, but not so much in Central America, because they went through such long civil wars that it destroyed most of the theater. But they had incredible visual artists and music, and did more musicals. 

We used to start shows at 7 p.m., and would go on until 9 p.m. Then we cleared the theater out and we did the same show in Spanish, sometimes with the same actors, sometimes with a different cast. But you can imagine the nightmare of people coming to the wrong play and hearing the wrong language. So it was a lot of work for us and a lot more expensive. Then we decided to do simultaneous translations, but it was also confusing to market shows that way … Finally I think it was Bob Mondello, who worked at City Paper, [who] convinced us that we should use subtitles … that’s worked ever since. 

Much of this work dates back to your own upbringing in the arts. Tell us more about this.

As a kid, I lived in Spain and became fluent in Spanish. [I] fell in love with flamenco and the culture before coming back to the United States. I attended high school in Mexico, and then spent a few years in Argentina, where I met Hugo, and we started coming up with ideas for the theater. 

Getting to experience these cultures made me much more of a Latina. You saw the richness of other people’s cultures and saw how insulated the U.S. was by comparison. It made me realize we really need to do something that authentically reflects this culture and use it to enrich our own lives and experiences. 

What shows are you looking forward to this fall?

I’m looking forward to The Cradle Will Rock because it is an innovative telling of the historic story of the fight for justice by labor unions, which is timely as unions are being threatened again today. IN Series’ The Cradle Will Rock plays on Oct. 5, 6, 12, and 13 at Edlavitch JCC, 1529 16th St. NW. $35–$72.

I also admire Woolly Mammoth’s brave and forward-looking work and The Comeuppance grabbles with the theme of multiracial youth in a changing and unknown world. (The latest play from DMV native Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is set in Prince George’s County and received 4 out of 5 stars from WCP theater critic Rebecca Ritzel.) The Comeuppance runs through Oct. 6 at Woolly Mammoth, 641 D St. NW. $56–$83.

Finally, Romeo and Juliet at Folger features two of GALA’s company actors, Luz Nicolas as the nurse and Francisca Tapia as [Lady] Capulet. I am excited to see them in this new production and also to see how the production mixes Spanish and English. Romeo and Juliet opens Oct. 1 and runs through Nov. 10 at Folger Theatre, 201 East Capitol St. SE. $20–$84.

Check out more of our 2024 Fall Arts Guide here.