Ricardo Gamboa is tired. The playwright and Chicago native, who identifies as nonbinary and uses the gender-neutral pronoun “they,” has been running around in a frenzy lately. Starring and producing in a play that they wrote would cause most artists to collapse in a frenzy of panic, but the playwright tries to keep a calm and collected demeanor. After all, this is nothing new for Gamboa, who has been creating politically-minded artwork designed to uplift their community for a long time, such as the 2017 web series “Brujos” (Warlocks) and the play “Meet Juan(ito).”
Their newest theatrical endeavor— which currently has them so tired— is “The Wizards,” a paranormal muder mystery debuting at the APO Cultural Center on Oct. 14. Gamboa is in the lead as Amado, a Chicago native, who moves back from New York to the South Side of the Windy City, more specifically the neighborhood of Pilsen, with their significant other (played by Gamboa’s real life partner, Sean James William Parris). There, the pair encounter the ghosts of four teenage boys, and in search of answers and justice, embark on a journey of discovery of the stories and people at the heart of Pilsen.
“People are already starting to buy tickets,” Gamboa said in a recent phone interview, the excitement in their voice hard to miss. This kind of anticipation for the show is not something the playwright expected. Historically, queer, Black, and Brown Latino stories have not been uplifted in the Chicago theater scene. “There’s actually no Chicago theater. It’s transplant theater. It’s white theater,” Gamboa said, explaining that one of Chicago’s most famous theater venues, the Steppenwolf, was originally started by three white suburbanites. “So really it’s the embodiment of gentrification in the cultural theatrical form. Even within Chicago’s Latino theater, so much of what gets recognized is the work that is legible to white audiences and the white power structure.”
Gamboa is not buying into that vision for Chicago’s performing arts scene. They’re done waiting for the stories of minorities to be written by someone else, in some distant future. “Part of why I started writing in general was because of not being able to find roles that fit me right,” they said. “Not just as a Latino, but also as a queer nonbinary person. As a Brown person from a working class community that’s not a gang member or an immigrant.”
Yet, the main motivator behind “The Wizards” was not to eliminate stereotypes in entertainment, according to Gamboa, but to use witchcraft as a storytelling device to explore the political truths of today. When they wrote and produced the show at the Goodman Theater, one of Chicago’s oldest non-profit theater organizations, for their Playwrights’ Unit in 2018, it received an astounding amount of positive reception — but an offer for a full season run at the venue, which traditionally caters to a liberal and white audience, never came.
“I’m not Lin-Manuel Miranda, and I don’t want to be,” Gamboa said, referencing the New York playwright famous for his Broadway smash hit “Hamilton.” (Miranda, who has Puerto Rican roots, has also been accused by activists on the island of endorsing policies detrimental to its people.) While Gamboa is no stranger to commercial success — they work as a screenwriter in Los Angeles to pay the bills — their passion is with community-centered projects. Gamboa said their play was both set and premiering in Pilsen, because they wanted to create work that celebrated and uplifted their native neighborhood and its culture.
For decades, Pilsen has been home to a large portion of Chicago’s Mexican-American community. In recent years, however, locals are being driven out by higher rents and an influx of wealthier, often white, residents. In the past 20 years, the Latino population has decreased by over 25 percent, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. “It’s been the Mexican immigrant Mecca here for decades,” Gamboa said. “It’s a neighborhood where I’ve lived since I was 21. It’s where three generations of my family have all come from.” To them, premiering their play in the neighborhood is a sign of defiance — that locals are not intending to go anywhere.
In “The Wizards,” this message takes a paranormal twist, as four ghosts — formerly members of a Motown cover band — are still hanging around Pilsen decades after they were alive. The musical inspiration comes from Gamboa’s childhood memories, many of which are set to the soundtrack of his uncles drunkenly singing along to Motown. “At first, I just thought it was my family, and then I realized that so many Mexican-American families in Chicago and throughout the United States really gravitated towards Motown and loved it,” Gamboa said. The music, which is rooted in the Black community, is not purely there for entertainment, but opens the play up to exploration of racial dynamics. “I think it really speaks to examining and interrogating the status of the Mexican American experience in the U.S. and [Mexican Americans] cultural, social, and political position as a liminal position, especially in a country that focuses on a racial binary between a black and white racial binary.”
While it’s hard to stay optimistic in view of the big issues that persistently plague America and are addressed by the play, such as racism and economic inequality, Gamboa is convinced that “The Wizards” can affect change one viewer at a time by reaching the community portrayed in and bringing people together. “There’s still racism after the Black Power movement. There’s still sexism after the feminist movement,” they said. “What they do change is the people that participate in them.”Gamboa hopes especially younger audience members will feel inspired by the play and empowered to make their own media and push the needle forward toward more radical forms of storytelling. “I think the big thing is to stop looking up,” they said. “We’re always looking up and we never look to the side and celebrate the people that are next to us. Rather than supporting the artists on your screen, support the artists on your street. That’s where change starts happening. Help amplify that.” Gamboa is hopeful that “The Wizards” will reach those who are portrayed in the play, and that it will bring them together. Maybe then they can finally rest for a bit.