Our Mission
Empowering local Latin@ artists to create, produce and promote professional theater in English, Spanish, bilingual and Spanglish. Providing a voice for Latino and Latina artists as well as communities by sharing culturally and socially relevant stories through our innovative programming, workshops, and initiatives.

Our Philosophy
Founded in 2010, eSe Teatro honors self-definition and inclusion, striving to represent everyone within our Latinidad and beyond. Our affiliated artists range from immigrants to U.S. born, Spanish-speaking and non Spanish-speaking, representing cultures and heritages from all over The Americas and Caribbean.

Our Work
​Exploring language, shared history, and cultural roots, through adaptations of classics as well as new works and script development.
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Our Name
The name "eSe Teatro" is significant, as "ese" means "that" in Spanish, as well as being the popular Chicano expression of familiarity in peer groups (wus up ese?). "Ese" is also the name of the letter “S,” as in Spanish and Seattle.

eSe teatro has actively participated in the Latinx Theatre Commons (LTC) events and endorses its mission. LTC is a national movement that uses a commons-based approach to transform the narrative of the American theatre, to amplify the visibility of Latinx performance making, and to champion equity through advocacy, art making, convening, and scholarship. The LTC is a flagship program of HowlRound.

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the eSe Team

Meg Savlov ​

Founding Member and Resident Musical Director
Meg comes from a theatrical family and started training in music and theater arts at an early age. . She has worked as actress, writer, and co-producer in various bi-lingual ensembles and flamenco groups in Santa Fe, San Francisco, and Seattle. Locally, Meg has worked with the Group Theater, ACT, Puget Sound Revels, eSe Teatro, and Miracle Theater in Portland.

Monica Cortés Viharo, PhD

Company Member and Ensemble
Monica Cortés Viharo is an actor (SAG/AFTRA), teacher, scholar, dramaturge, and public speaking consultant, who earned her PhD in Drama at the University of Washington(UW). She holds a BA in Theater and Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley, trained at American Conservatory Theater and California Shakespeare Theatre, and was a working actor in the San Francisco Bay Area for 20+ years. She made her Seattle debut in eSe's 2016 production of Mud/Barro and has been a company member ever since. Monica has taught performance studies, acting, ethnic studies, public speaking, theater history, and gender studies at UW, the University of Puget Sound, Cascadia College, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Julieta Vitullo, PhD
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​Resident Dramaturge, Playwright
Julieta is a bilingual writer and playwright born and raised in Argentina. She holds an MA in English and a PhD in Latin American literature from Rutgers, and taught culture and language for two decades. Her writing has been published in the U.S., England, Ireland, Argentina, Brazil and Spain. She’s the author of a book on the fictions of the Malvinas/Falklands War, and the protagonist and co-script writer of the 2012 award winning documentary film La forma exacta de las islas. Having done all of her creative writing in Spanish and learned English in her adult life, it was only in 2017 that she started writing creatively in English. Her fiction and memoir pieces have since appeared in Into the Void, The Normal School, The Fabulist and Hawaii Pacific Review, and were twice nominated to a Pushcart Prize. She's an alumna of the Tin House Summer Writing Workshop and of Parley. Six of her plays have been presented to audiences in and around Seattle.
www.julietavitullo.com

Maria Tania Bandes B. Weingarden, Ph.D.

Company Member and Resident Director
María Tania is a faculty member of Theatre at University of Washington/Tacoma. Her previous teaching experience includes CSU, Bakersfield and Wayne State University.  She's a theatre historian whose research centers around Latinx theatre, Queer Theatre, and the intersectionality of both.  Her book, Echoes of Revolution: Nicaragua, documents the revolutionary theatre of Nicaragua and explores the effects of revolution on theatrical expression. Creatively, she's is a director whose credits run the gamut in regards to content and style.  Recent works include Mojada, an all-female production of 1776, If/Then, and a gender bending production of The Importance of Being Earnest.

Marissa Sandoval
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Company Member and Artistic Administrator
Marissa's work as an artistic administrator for eSe Teatro began in 2017 during eSe's mainstage production of Mud/Barro.  She comes to the group with experience in operations, administrative organization, and budgetary planning.  A Colorado native, Marissa earned her BS degree in Healthcare Administration from Colorado State University. She is a Health Care Services Manager at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Washington.​​

Rose Cano, Co-Founder and Artistic Director Emerita

The cast and playwright of Fermín's Great Book of Dreams, UHeights, 2021.

​The Journey of the Saint, ACT Theatre, 2018. Opening night.