An actress walks into an empty theatre and picks up a script– a script full of survivors and ghosts, women and men who have witnessed the murder and brutalization of thousands of women every year in Juarez, Mexico. Their stories must be told, but the question of how the stories get told—and who has the right to do the telling—is at the heart of this critically-acclaimed play by Isaac Gomez. Now based in Chicago (see bio below), Gomez won The David Mark Cohen New Play Award from the Austin Critics’ Table in 2013 for his first play, The Women of Juarez. The actress herself is the dazzling Karen Rodriguez, returning to The VORTEX after four years in the Chicago area originating roles at regional theatres including The Goodman and Steppenwolf.

Isaac Gomez and Karen Rodriguez are in residence at The VORTEX over the next month developing The Way She Spoke: A Docu-Mythologia with VORTEX Associate Artistic Director Rudy Ramirez. They are debuting a new draft of the work which premiered in Chicago at the Greenhouse Theater Center last year.