American Theatre Company in Chicago is bringing Jose Rivera's Cloud Tectonics to an exotic venue: the La Gruta Theatre in the Centro Cultural Helenico in Mexico City, Mexico. The show is slated to run Wednesday nights, April 29-Oct. 13.

The play, which has been translated from English to Spanish, deals with the problems a Puerto Rican American faces when he does not speak his parents' language. The production is being funded by an award from the U.S.-Mexico Fund for Culture, which was received by ATC co-founder and show director, William Payne.

Payne a professor at the University of Minnesota - Duluth, has left his teaching duties for the spring semester to work on rehearsals in Mexico. Payne went to Mexico last fall and hired an entire cast and crew from Mexico City, America, Cuba and Puerto Rico. Payne has also directed Marisol by Rivera for ATC, and recently finished staging A Stone Carver.

This is the first time Rivera, a native Puerto Rican, is bringing a show to Mexico. It is also the first time ATC has brought a show abroad. Rivera has had other shows produced at the New York Shakespeare Festival, and the La Jolla Playhouse.

The cast for Cloud Tectonics includes Arturo Reyes Marques, Ricardo de la Rosa and Natalia Traven. -- By Angelica Roderick