From Brownsville to Chicago: How Being Impulsive Landed Karen Rodriguez on the Steppenwolf Stage

Karen Rodriguez wasn’t supposed to be an actress. And she certainly wasn’t supposed to star in the world premiere adaptation of Erika L. Sánchez’s award-winning novel, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter. Little did she know that a budding friendship with a college classmate — and aspiring playwright — Isaac Gómez would bloom into a creative endeavor that would lead her from her hometown of Brownsville, Texas to the stage lights of Chicago.

Born in Matamoros, Mexico, Rodriguez’s family moved to the border town of Brownsville when she was eleven years old. Always feeling a bit displaced, she found solace in the theater, honing her storytelling skills while setting her sights for college at the University of Texas in Austin. “For eleven years I was in Matamoros and I was Mexican,” Rodriguez tells MBG, “and then all of a sudden I’m in the U.S. and American. It was a confusing time.”

Any confusion she harbored didn’t show, as the fearless young woman went on to attain a marketing degree from UT Austin. The plan, as she laid out so perfectly to her family and friends, was to continue her studies and get an MBA in International Business and eventually become a lawyer. But her friend, Isaac Gómez, didn’t see it that way. Knowing that she had a talent that couldn’t be contained in Texas, Gómez called Rodriguez up one day with a proposition.

“A few weeks after graduation I got a call from Isaac. He had just accepted an internship from the Goodman in Chicago and was moving there in two weeks. Did I want to come and be his roommate? Without hesitation, I said yes, and the next thing I knew I was packing my bags for Chicago.” Informing her parents of her diverted plans went easier than expected. “I thought it would be a hard conversation, telling my parents about my new plans. But my parents were like, ‘this is why we worked really hard’ so that I had the privilege to make such a decision.”

Five years later, Rodriguez is now a Steppenwolf Theatre ensemble member and starring as Julia, a Chicago high school student who navigates the trials and tribulations of following her dreams of becoming a writer alongside the death of her sister, Olga—who might not have been quite as perfect as she seemed. Based on the book by Erika L. Sánchez, the play was adapted by her old friend Isaac Gómez, who recognized early on that a larger world was waiting to embrace her talents.

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, which runs at Steppenwolf for Young Adults from Feb. 26 to March 21. is already getting quite the buzz as it strikes a chord with so many in the Latinx community. As Sánchez explains to MBG, “Many of us grew up having difficulty with our parents’ culture because it’s very different from our own. It’s hard to understand each other when we grew up in very different worlds. It’s a common story for a lot of Latinas, especially rebellious ones who question gender norms and traditions. It’s a story that is not told enough, and I think that’s why it has resonated with so many people because we are not allowed to have our stories told.”

Indeed, Rodriguez is honored to be part of a show that resonates so profoundly with the Latinx community. She adds that “Sánchez’s work is so unabashed and unapologetic and it’s what I’ve always wanted to do as an artist. We’re not just out here telling stories for fun, we have to believe in some small way that we are changing the world.”

Undoubtedly, Rodriguez is just getting started as an actress and is bound to make her mark in the world, one small step at a time.

For tickets and info about the show, visit Steppenwolf.org

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