2015–2016 Season
WORLD PREMIERE OF A
NEW PLAY BY JOSÉ RIVERA
Another Word
For Beauty
Music by Héctor Buitrago
Directed by Steve Cosson
January 16 – February 21, 2016
Goodman Theatre
Chicago, IL
Each year the female inmates at a Bogotá,
Colombia prison compete in a beauty pageant
intended by their jailers to motivate and
rehabilitate them. While the pageant’s parade of
glamorous gowns, exotic headdresses and
rhythmic dances provides a distraction from
daily suffering, its real impact on each woman is
more than skin deep. Taking inspiration from
interviews conducted with the contestants and
other inmates, Rivera’s play is a haunting and
soulful examination of women trapped within a
prison’s walls and the possibility of
transcendence even in the most dire of
circumstances.
Another Word for Beauty began with a monthlong investigation at El Buen Pastor women’s
prison in Bogotá, which included theater and
writing workshops for the inmates led by Rivera
and the creative team.
Another Word For Beauty was originally
commissioned and developed by Goodman
Theatre and The Civilians.
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