About Las Tinas

Las Tinas is Chicago's only live improvised telenovela. Las Tinas was founded in 2017 by Jessi Realzola, twin sisters Jackie and Nicole Perez and Melina Barona. At that time, there were no latina-only improv groups and they wanted to create a form representative of their identities. They created a long-form improv show that combined their shared nostalgic love for telenovelas (spanish-soap operas) which rely heavily on famous over-dramatic tropes and heavy handed plot twists. After "guest starring" for a year, Luis Roberto Castello became Las Tina's 5th player

They performed independently for 2 years on comedy stages throughout Chicago, including Laugh Factory, The Second City, iO Theater and the Annoyance. Their evolving form, including in improvised "palette-cleanser" mid-piece "commerciales" (commercial break) results in highly structured, polished character-focused narrative. Las Tinas workshopped their form with their coach improviser Kyle Slagell, who has been their coach since the beginning.

In June 2019, Las Tinas completed their first run at the McKaw Theater. In August 2019, they performed in Miami's first latinx improv festival Fuacata at Just the Funny theater. Shortly after, they performed in the Chicago Women's Funny Festival in the festival's first ever all-Spanish speaking set. Las Tinas improvised a Facebook live-streamed telenovela for WGN's Morning News to promote the Chicago Women's Funny Festival and their performance slot. Additionally, they were featured in Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Sun-Times and Timeout Chicago.

Las Tinas is currently performing a Valentine's-themed run for the month of February 2020 at iO Theater. This particular run earned Las Tinas features in publications of Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Telemundo Chicago and on Telemundo-Chicago Evening News.



Las Tinas is currently being coached by Kyle Slagell.

Watch Las Tinas