In February, the Pa’lante Theater Company held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the opening of its new black box theater space in downtown Waterbury. Those doors are officially closing eight months later on October 31.
“We’re not closing as a group. We’re just closing the physical doors,” said Rafael Feliciano-Roman, the founder and executive director of the Pa’lante Theater Company and its parent organization, the Afro-Caribbean Cultural Center.
Several theaters across Connecticut lost federal funding in early May due to cuts from the Trump administration. The Pa’lante Theater was one of them with a loss of $65,000, according to Feliciano-Roman.
Fundraising efforts over the summer couldn’t cover that gap, Feliciano-Roman said. But that wasn’t the only contributing factor.
Feliciano-Roman said structural damage to the location from heavy flooding presented another challenge. The company also saw staffing challenges. The theater company has gone down from 10 staff members to four, Feliciano-Roman said.
“With the combination of all those things, we just made an assessment, and we said, we tried a GoFundMe very publicly, to try to raise some funds, the stars didn't align, and that's okay,” Feliciano-Roman said.
The closing of the physical space isn’t stopping Feliciano-Roman and the Pa’lante team from creating room in the world of theater for Afro-Latine stories. Instead, they’re staying true to one of Feliciano-Roman’s original inspirations for Pa’lante: the New York-based Puerto Rican Traveling Theater Company.
“Let's go back to a theater and a center without walls, and get rid of all that overhead. Let's get rid of all that cost of rent and utilities y todo esa cosa [and all that stuff],” Feliciano-Roman said. “Let's just see this as a blessing. Let's see this as an opportunity to shed ourselves of a physical burden of space.”
That’s how Pa’lante started back in 2023 when it showcased “Calling Puerto Rico” as a traveling theater company for its inaugural season. Feliciano-Roman said that’s what they’ll go back to.
“We're going to take 2026 to regroup. So in 2027 we can come up with a small season of about three shows,” Feliciano-Roman said. “We’re cooking up as a little team some really cool stuff in 2026. We were thinking of doing a 24-hour one act theater festival night or a workshop festival for any new playwrights who want to do workshop readings of their scripts.”
Pa’lante siempre, moving forward always
Fior Rodriguez starred in Pa’lante’s inaugural show in 2023 and has since been an eager actress ready to join the Pa’lante crew on stage at a moment’s notice. Rodriguez said it was devastating to hear that the black box space was closing.
“It is discouraging in the moment, for sure, especially as an artist who has now been robbed of her little home in Waterbury,” Rodriguez said, “but I remain optimistic. I have faith that Pa’lante will find a way, and we'll make a comeback.”
Given the closure of the black box space and the fiscal challenges the arts are facing nationwide due to funding cuts, Rodriguez said it’s now on audiences to support local art.
“Everyone wants the support of a village, but no one wants to be a villager,” Rodriguez said. “You gotta put in the effort if you want to see a community thrive.”
Feliciano-Roman couldn’t agree more.
“It's important and vital that people do support the arts in whatever way they can and specifically Black and brown art and culture and theater shows,” Feliciano-Roman said, “because then that shows these venues in this market that it’s vitally important, and I don't just mean Pa’lante. I mean all of them.”
If that support pulls through, Feliciano-Roman said he hopes to one day see his dream of having a Pa’lante black box theater in every major city in Connecticut realized.
“We had a glimpse of that here in Waterbury. I saw it and got a taste of it.” Feliciano-Roman said. “I still want that for our community, and I still want that for our people, and I think we need that.”
Learn more
The best way to stay up to date on the Pa’lante Theater and its events, Feliciano-Roman said, is to follow the company on social media, such as Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.
