Denise Yvette Serna

PRESS AND Reviews

“Consistently creative, inventive and admirably avoidant of the predictable” - Chicago Tribune

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “A superior musical has taken the Chicago stage by storm!” - Around The Town Chicago

“…directed with fire and precision by Denise Yvette Serna and filled with exuberant performances…” - Chicago Reader

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "It’s an arresting vision, and one that makes Medusa’s final decision – to accept her fate at Perseus’ hand – to feel as if it is made with absolute agency. As feminist retellings go, that’s a successful achievement." The Reviews Hub

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "Medusa also represents an opportunity to proactively incorporate aspects of accessibility that can often go overlooked in more institutionalized arts organizations." Chicago Reader

Boulder Weekly - Dream team - Curious Theatre Company continues its 25th season with the regional premiere of ‘Alma’

The Denver Gazette - ‘Alma': Getting to the heart of immigration issue

Newcity Stage - Players 2023: Who Really Performs for Chicago Right Now in Theater

Daily Herald - 2021-2022 Joseph Jefferson Equity Award winners

Chicago Tribune - In the new musical ‘Somewhere Over the Border’ by Teatro Vista, the ‘Wizard of Oz’ story gets a new kind of magic

Chicago Reader - The incredible journey

New City Stage - The Dreams That You Dare to Dream: A Review of “Somewhere Over the Border” at Teatro Vista

Chicago On Stage - The Yellow Brick Road to the USA: Teatro Vista’s brilliant new musical shows the sacrifices many immigrants must make to fulfill their dreams

Chicago Sun Times - An ‘Oz’-inspired journey is a real life-changer in ‘Somewhere Over the Border’

Around the town Chicago - A superior musical has taken the Chicago stage by storm

Chicago Theater News - Rivendell Theatre Ensemble volunteers support The Night Ministry in conjunction with ‘Spay’

New York Times (Critic’s Pick) - Seriously Satirizing 231 Years of Flotus in ‘45 Plays’

WTTW - Neo-Futurist Theater Stages the Lives of the First Ladies, From Martha to Melania

The Dueling Critics - Kerry Reid and Jonathan Abarbanel, join WDCB’s Gary Zidek to discuss HOW DO WE NAVIGATE SPACE?

Newcity Stage - Filling Our Containers: Denise Yvette Serna Devises a Show About Chicago Life In Lockdown for Strawdog Theatre

Rockford Register Star - Making room: How a Rockford theater is reinventing itself with eye on equity, inclusion

Chicago Sun Times (Highly Recommended) - In ‘45 Plays,’ Neo-Futurists just say no to mainstream views of the first ladies

Chicago Reader - 45 Plays for America’s First Ladies puts the wives (and nieces) in the spotlight

Chicago Tribune (Recommended) - 45 Plays for America’s First Ladies’ by the Neo-Futurists is about an impossible role in an unofficial job

Chicago Reader (Highly Recommended) - Ladies and Martians

Picture this Post (Highly Recommended) - Neo-Futurists present 45 PLAYS FOR AMERICA’S FIRST LADIES Review—Poignant Storytelling

Chicago Theatre Triatholon - Myth, Monsters and Medusa

Chicago Reader - Pop Magic connects Medusa with MeToo 

Feature in the Windy City Times - Intersectional team creates change in 'The Revolutionists’

Third Coast Review - Liberté, Égalité, Sororité: Four Badass Women Fight for Art and Freedom in Strawdog’s The Revolutionists

2018 Honoree - 19th annual Windy City Times 30 Under 30 Awards

Voyage Chicago - Meet Denise Serna of Pop Magic Productions

Scapi Magazine - The Making of a Home: Curators Olivia Lilley and Denise Yvette Serna Launch Salon Series

Scapi Magazine - Art Inspiring Art: The Artistic Connection Between Denise Yvette Serna and Dr. Betsy DeCourcy-Wernette

The Chicago Inclusion Project - Top 10 Theatre Moments of 2017

Silos, Scarcity, and Specificity: Holding Space for Complexity After PILLOWTALK

Sixty Inches From Center - Beyond Representation: The Syndicate’s First Read Festival Shows up for Trans* and Non-Binary Artists

Scapi Magazine - When Theater Goes Overseas: A Conversation with Denise Yvette Serna/Global Hive Laboratories

HowlRound Theatre Commons - ConeXión and Aesthetic Resistance at the 2018 Latinx Theatre Commons Carnaval

Scapi Magazine - DIY quotes from DIY Folx Series: DIY Definitions, Wacky Wednesday: Thrice the Spice, Selling Out

Scapi Magazine - Community Organizing in Support of Immigrants: A Conversation with Laura Mendoza and Denise Yvette Serna

Podcasts and other media

WHAT ABOUT CHICAGO
05.10-16.19 - What About Chicago? - your weekly show exploring live art, music, entertainment and culture with hosts Ben Moroney and Rahim Salaam transmitting from Earphoria: Chicago.

SCAPI RADIO
02.19.18 - Exploring oppressive white colonization, historical revisionism of Mayan culture, building art from the space between mythology and accurate historical context, Homeset and creating a space for artists to experiment. 
03.29.18 - Discussing the reading of Just Like Us with Laura Mendoza from The Resurrection Project to talk about what DACA means for its recipients, personalizing social work and theater by including the community affected in planning and administrating, using the political as artistic material.
08.17.18 - Global Hive Laboratories, building an international rehearsal room, expanding a concept through multimedia to provide audiences multiple points of access.

SPIEL CHICAGO
12.10.17 - Artist as Producer: A special panel episode of Spiel Chicago. With guests Savannah Reich, Denise Yvette Serna, Olivia Lilley and Katherine Lamb, each bringing a unique perspective on DIY theatre, theatre institutions, sustainability and how to get started putting your own work into the world. @SpielChicago