As a Chicana playwright whose dramatic productions began in the early 1970s, Denise Chávez continues in her early plays the tradition of Luis Valdez's 1960 Farmworkers' Theater, El Teatro Campesino: theater written by Chicanos and produced for the Chicano community. Like the experimental and improvisational actos performed by the El Teatro Campesino, Chávez's early dramatic productions frequently focus upon social and economic issues in society and bring to the stage bilingual speech, Chicano humor, and street theater techniques. Her more recent dramatic productions reveal, however, a further development of themes that are inherent in the Chicano experience, a deeper and more universal reflection upon the sense of self and society, and a wider experimentation with dramatic styles and settings.

Chávez also pursues the writing of poetry and fiction, bringing to these genres her extensive training and theater experience as an actress and dramatist...