One family provides all the necessary ingredients for "Tortilla Heaven."

     Jade Esteban Estrada plays seven members of a bilingual, multigenerational Tejano family in the play written by his sister, Celeste Angela Estrada, and directed by their brother, David Miguel Estrada. "Tortilla Heaven" will be staged at 7 p.m. today in the Washburn Room of the Memorial Union at Washburn University in a free performance sponsored by the university's Multicultural Affairs Office, the Hispanic American Leadership Organization, and the Kansas Hispanic and Latino American Affairs Commission.

     Among the characters played by Jade Esteban Estrada, who appears regularly on Comedy Central and HBO Latino, are a loving grandmother, a mother dedicated to her career and an 11-year-old boy named Charlie. They are Mexican-Americans, but the play explores assimilation -- how the first generation is more Mexican than American and the third generation more American than Mexican. But the script also examines how cultural heritage is preserved across the generations and how families endure changes.

     One critic described the play as a "My Big Fat Latino Wedding."

     Some of the dialogue is in English while some is in Spanish, but those who know either should easily follow the story.

     "Tortilla Heaven" is a departure for Estrada, whose other one-man shows include "ICONS: The Lesbian and Gay History of the World, Vol. 1" and its sequel, "ICONS: The Lesbian and Gay History of the World, Vol. 2." He played characters ranging from Michelangelo and Ellen DeGeneres in "ICONS" to Alexander the Great and Billie Jean King in "ICONS 2."

    Estrada also is a singer, musician and composer whose Latin dance music has been featured on the award-winning police drama "The Shield" on the FX cable TV network.

     Celeste Angela Estrada won the 2004 Gertrude Stein Literary Award for best play for "Tortilla Heaven," and David Miguel Estrada is a published playwright and has appeared on "Saturday Night Live."