Manifest Destiny takes a page from Hamlet and its central dilemma: “What do you do when your father’s ghost appears and demands that you avenge him?”

Part documentary theater, part memory play, Manifest Destiny tells the story of Michael Townley (real) and Miguel (fiction). Townley was a CIA agent working with Pinochet’s secret police in Santiago. He married a Chilean writer, and while she was hosting salons for her contemporaries, Townley was torturing political prisoners in their basement. He was tried for the murder of the Chilean ambassador in Washington DC before quietly vanishing into the witness protection program. Miguel is a Chilean immigrant living in New York City, whose father was killed by Townley. The ghost of Miguel’s father appears to him, just after Miguel runs into Townley at the bodega. What follows is a surreal revenge crusade where Miguel encounters both real and fantastical characters and finds himself in harrowing, yet darkly comical situations.

Manuel Ortiz (playwright and director) uses Townley’s real story as a jumping-off point to explore Latin American - US relations with a contemporary lens and a decidedly acidic tone. Manifest Destiny is the second installment of Ortiz’s American Trilogy. The full production will open in March 2025 at Teatro LATEA.

The fundraising campaign has started! You can contribute on the Teatro LATEA website by clicking here: Manifest Destiny donations.