Pregones / Puerto Rican Traveling Theater (aka Pregones/PRTT) is a multigenerational performing ensemble, multi-discipline arts presenter, and owner/steward of bilingual arts facilities in The Bronx and Manhattan. Our mission is to champion a Puerto Rican/Latinx cultural legacy of universal value through creation and performance of original plays and musicals, exchange and partnership with other artists of merit, and engagement of diverse audiences.
Pregones Theater was founded in 1979 when a group of artists led by Rosalba Rolón set out to create new works in the style of Caribbean and Latin American “colectivos” or performing ensembles. Soon established as a Bronx resident company with a home season, Pregones remains in the vanguard of an arts renaissance radiating throughout and beyond The Bronx today. Spurred by stage and film icon Miriam Colón, Puerto Rican Traveling Theater (PRTT) was founded in 1967 as one of the first bilingual theater companies in all of the U.S. It is credited for nurturing hundreds of Latinx theater artists, legitimating creative connections throughout the Spanish-speaking world, and pioneering lasting models for community engagement. Merged in 2014, Pregones/PRTT continues to empower underrepresented artists and audiences to claim their rightful place at the front of the American theater.
Our theaters took root in the South Bronx and Hell’s Kitchen when both were sites of urban blight. Our enduring presence today is testament to our tenacity, open disposition, and personal embrace of community, history, and belonging. Our many lasting and productive relationships show how the arts can generate and lead positive adhesion. We take pride in championing Puerto Rican/Latinx artists and art making, advocating for investments in Black, Indigenous, and People of Color arts, and growing a diverse audience and donor base. We are one of the very few BIPOC companies in the U.S. to own a theater and the only one operating a second venue inside influential and tourist-rich Broadway/Times Square.
