UrbanTheater Company proudly announces the opening play in its 11th season, the Midwest premiere of La Gringa. This Obie Award-winning holiday comedy by Carmen Rivera has been running continuously Off-Broadway since 1996, making it the longest-running Spanish play in Off-Broadway history. For the play’s 20th anniversary, UrbanTheater Company will produce the English-language version. Miranda Gonzalez, a founding member of Chicago’s only all-Latina theater company, Teatro Luna, directs the production. Mikey O Comedy Productions founder Mike Oquendo will co-produce the show. In this Obie Award-winning comedy about a young woman’s search for her identity, María Elena Garcia visits her extended family in Puerto Rico during the Christmas holidays, excited to connect with her homeland. Although this is her first trip to Puerto Rico, she has grown up with an intense love for the island and even majored in Puerto Rican Studies in college. Upon her arrival, however, she realizes that Puerto Rico does not welcome her with open arms. The majority of the Puerto Ricans on the island consider her an American–a gringa—and María considers this a betrayal: If she’s a Puerto Rican in the United States and an American in Puerto Rico, María concludes, then this makes her a nobody everywhere. Her journey to come to terms with who she is leads María into misperceptions and misadventures. But will an unlikely ally help her find her way to the other side? La Gringa will be performed at UrbanTheater Company, 2620 W. Division Street in Chicago from November 11-December 11, 2016, with performances on Thursday, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 3:00 p.m. Previews begin Tuesday, November 11. Tickets are $10-$20 and are available at www.urbantheaterchicago.org.