SAN ANTONIO — The final show of Teatro Audaz's 2023 season is marked by a milestone first.
After directing nearly 100 productions for the Jay High School theater program, Nora Moreno-Jarrell is making her professional debut with "It's A Wonderful Vida." The satirical, Corpus Christi-set riff on Frank Capra's holiday classic is making its Texas premiere this month at San Antonio College's McCreless Theater.
"I'm all about sharing the voices of the untold," Moreno-Jarrell said. "Even at John Jay, I focus on shows that are untold, that have cultural perspectives that are not in the norm. People know that about me, like, 'Oh, she's gonna tell another Latino story.' That's right, I am."
"It's A Wonderful Vida" tells the story of "an immigrant family trying to assimilate and achieve the American dream that seems as fake as Santa Claus" before "an unexpected visit from Mexico turns their whole world upside down," Teatro Audaz's website states. Moreno-Jarrell says the show has ample melodrama, moments of comic relief and jolts of maturity.
"The play does deal with drugs, sex, alcohol, mortality, but it also has that comic twist to all of it," she adds. "That real-life perspective."
Moreno-Jarrell has previously acted with Teatro Audaz, the relatively young San Antonio theater organization that priorities telling Latinx stories and boosting underrepresented voices. But she's an educator at heart, having taught at Jay for 11 years and going on 24 overall.
Over that time, she says, her dedication to telling stories through a specific cultural lens has been met with a spectrum of audience reaction—including some that isn't entirely accepting.
"But I had to just learn how to grow from that," she said. "And I have. Even I do a play that does not have the culture, I bring the culture into the play."
"It's A Wonderful Vida" closes this weekend with shows on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Buy tickets here.
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