What’s the first thing you think of when you hear the word “telenovela?”
Passion? Never-ending plot twists? “Jane the Virgin?”
Las Tinas Improv, a Chicago-based improv team, creates telenovelas on stage. But Las Tinas’ novellas are not your abuela’s telenovelas. They’ll create a live novella with nuanced plots in their upcoming show, “Happy Valen-TINAS Day” at the iO Theater.
The team consists of Melina Barona, Jessi Realzola, Luis Roberto Castelló and twin sisters, Jackie and Nicole Perez.
Some classic scenes in telenovelas feature women attacking other women for a man, marriage between a woman and a man, a conniving villain, the rich and poor falling in love, shouting, cheating, secret relatives, murder, fake deaths and fainting.
“We turn the tropes on their heads sometimes, too, because the telenovelas that you watch with your abuelita sometimes make you cringe,” says Barona.
Las Tinas includes everything a televised novella features including striking character asides, dramatic sound effects and commerciales (commercial breaks).
“Happy Valen-TINAS Day” is fully improvised, within the form the team spent six months creating, with the help of their coach Kyle Slagell, who is married to cast member Nicole Perez.
“You don’t dictate what you’re going to say or do,” says Castelló. “You don’t know what’s going to happen but you at least have some parameters that help you guide the show.”
“Happy Valen-TINAS Day” begins with the cast asking the audience for a word in English they’ve always wanted to know in Spanish. Las Tinas then creates a telenovela based on the suggested word.
The show heavily relies on audience participation, with Las Tinas interacting with audience members. But if audience participation isn’t your vibe, fear not because the cast has created what they’ve dubbed consent stars. Each audience member will receive a crafted star that will let Las Tinas know if they’d like to be a part of the show or not.
The only thing that is pre-planned in their set are the commercial breaks. When there is a climatic moment, the cast breaks for a quick commercial, inspired by another audience suggestion. During their dress rehearsal, Las Tinas improvised a commercial based on a mustache comb and featured Barona embodying Sofía Vergara.
“It’s a nice way to break up the set and when watching your novella, you do have commercial breaks,” says Realzola.
The team name is a play on words: Latina, Las Tinas.
Las Tinas have been together for three years and first started through discussions Jackie Perez and Realzola had as they met through the comedy scene.
“At that time, there weren’t any all-Latina improv groups in Chicago,” says Realzola. “We talked about … having our own stake at what we feel the representation of a Latina should be because there is a certain stereotype … of what the average Latina should be.
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“Everybody’s different, we all come in all shapes, colors, sizes and there’s no right way to be a Latina.”
Las Tinas said they wanted to do something representative of their identities and found that novellas were their common thread.
They started talking about the different telenovelas they watched with their families. “And we’re like, ‘Oh my God! We should do a telenovela inspired improv group, where we do exaggerated characters just like the telenovelas,'” recalls Realzola.
When performing, Las Tinas said that they’re all big character players and love portraying these over-the-top characters.
As a team, Las Tinas stressed how important it is to be a part of a team where you feel safe. The group performed with Barona, Realzola, and Jackie and Nicole Perez for two years and officially added Castelló last year, who said joining the group was a dream come true.
Las Tinas don’t want you to let a Valentine’s Day themed show prevent you from attending “Happy Valen-TINAS Day.”
“This is meant for anyone to come to be our valentine. Come as you are and we’re going to interact with you, or if you turn your star over, we’ll leave you alone. We’re going to bring the love to you. It’s all about the love,” says Barona.
“Happy Valen-TINAS Day” will also feature a food and cocktail special, Pink Tina-Ritas ($8) and a heart-shaped sope ($7 vegetarian, $9 with chicken).
All performances will take place at iO Theater, 1501 N. Kingsbury St. More information at www.ioimprov.com