Latinx New Play Festival 2024 Program

Jayne Deely (they/them), Playwright
Jayne Deely is a queer Puerto Rican playwright and performer from Queens, NY, writing about gray area, lingering Catholicism, and basketball. Jayne’s work has been developed with Fresh Ground Pepper, KCACTF at the Kennedy Center, American Stage, the New Harmony Writers’ Conference, Renaissance Theatreworks, and Coe College, among others. They are a 2024 O’Neill Playwrights’ Conference finalist, two-time NPC semifinalist, two-time BAPF semifinalist, two-time winner of the Latinx Playwriting Award with KCACTF, and a Terrence McNally New Play Incubator Semi-Finalist, 2024. MFA Playwriting, Indiana University. Jayne is a proud women’s basketball fan and member of AEA, SAG-AFTRA, and the Dramatists’ Guild.

Juliana Frey-Méndez, Director
Juliana Frey-Méndez is an Iowa-born Cuban American who makes theater to ignite the imagination. She is thrilled to be back at the LNPF! She has directed and devised new work in bars, historic homes, naval training camps, and more: La Hija del Pirata (The Flagship Brewery); Calafia at Liberty (La Jolla Playhouse’s WOW Festival); Far From Canterbury (Winner of Best Musical, FringeNYC); Club Silencio (Cuban Cultural Center of New York). San Diego Credits: Duchess! Duchess! Duchess! and Backwaters (Wagner New Play Festival); Elektra and Letters from Cuba (UCSD); The Humans (Assistant Director, San Diego REP). As the inaugural Artist in Residence at Duke University’s Department of Theatre Studies, she directed Fuller, a hybrid theatrical experience. Selected Midwest credits include: María Irene Fornés’ Fefu and Her Friends and the American Premiere of Jordi Mand’s Brontë: The World Without (Riverside Theatre). She holds a BA in Theatre for Social Change from Cornell University & an M.F.A. in Theatre Directing from UCSD. She is a proud member of the SDC, Latinx Theatre Commons Steering Committee, and Fornés Institute. Next up in San Diego, Juliana will be directing Sandra Delgado’s La Havana Madrid at New Village Arts Spring 2025. www.julianafreymendez.com

Cambria Herrera, Dramaturg
Cambria Herrera is a Xicanx theatre maker and educator based in San Diego, CA and Portland, OR. All of their work rises from their core inspiration: queer and female artists of color from the past and present. They have a passion for using theatre to empower young people in building empathy for themselves and the world around them. At UCSD they completed an M.F.A. in directing and created The Stars Through the Smog Showcase for a collective of diverse undergraduate students to incubate original works on themes of identity and reclamation. They co-founded and facilitated The AGE Theatre Collective and mentorship program in Portland, Oregon to empower the resiliency of female and non-binary theatre artists of color. Recent credits include Allelo at Art Produce (Lead Devisor), When My Body Talks at Diversionary Theatre (Devising team member), Our Dear Dead Drug Lord at Crave Theatre (Director), Blu at UCSD (Director), (Un)Documents at Diversionary Theatre (Touring Production Director), Fandango for Butterflies (And Coyotes) at La Jolla Playhouse (Associate Director), In The Red and Brown Water at UCSD (Director) and a queer adaptation of Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare at UCSD (Director).

Ricardo Pérez González, Playwright
Ricardo Pérez González is a queer-ass Puerto Rican writer with mofongo on his lips and salsa on his hips. He was recently a staff writer for the Netflix show Designated Survivor starring Kiefer Sutherland and is developing a Boricua gymnast sci-fi mystery with Neal Baer and Mark Stern at Echoverse. His first play, the story of the WWI Christmas Truce In Fields Where They Lay (dir. Brad Raimondo) was hailed by the NY Times as “gripping” and “moving drama.” Shortly thereafter, Sundance selected Ricardo for their Inaugural Writer’s Intensive and his Alan Turing Biopic, The Tender Peel, won him an Alfred P. Sloan Grant. He is an alumnus of the Emerging Writers Group at the Public Theater, the Sundance Theatre Lab, The Sundance Episodic Lab, and Sundance’s Episodic Pitch Parlor, and has taught dramatic writing at NYU and Harvard.

His play Don’t Eat The Mangoes, developed at Sundance and winner of a Glickman Award for Best Play, premiered in 2020 at The Magic in SF under the direction of David Mendizábal. On the Grounds of Belonging, his play about racially segregated gay bars in 1950s Houston, Texas, was part of Public Studio at the Public and premiered this season at Long Wharf. It’s the first in a trilogy that follows a pair of lovers, one black and one white, from the 1950s to the present day. The final play in the trilogy, The More They Stay, was recently part of a reading series at Astoria Performing Arts Center and the second in the trilogy has been commissioned by Long Wharf.

Writing credits include the drag ball musical Neon Baby (book writer/co-lyricist, Pregones 2013), Inside Out (commissioned by Pregones to address anti-gay bullying), Ashé, his Puerto Rican style two brothers myth (UP Theater, 2013; Repertorio, 2016; Labyrinth, 2017), his transgender family drama La casa de Ocaso (Asunción Playwriting Competition, 2010), his BDSM drama R.A.C.K., and his short film Losses and Gains about gay male body image. Works in progress include his comedic play about cultural scapegoating, Name & Blame, Inc., and his play about the cutthroat world of women in academia, The Judgement of Athena.

Upcoming projects include a holiday remount of In Fields Where They Lay, and continued work on The Belonging Trilogy. MFA NYU Tisch. www.ricardoperezgonzalez.com

Juliette Carrillo (she/ella), Director
Juliette Carrillo has directed critically acclaimed premiere and revival productions in theaters across the country, including Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Mark Taper Forum; South Coast Repertory; Yale Repertory; Denver Theater Center; Arena Stage and Seattle Repertory. Her Canadian world premiere, Carmen Aguirre’s Anywhere But Here, was produced in Vancouver, B.C., produced by The Electric Company. As a member of the Cornerstone Theater ensemble, she has developed work for and with various communities such as the East Salinas farmworking community, the addiction and recovery community, the Hindu community and seniors and their caregivers. As a huge supporter of new work, she has directed over 50 workshops of new plays and was the director of the Hispanic Playwrights Project at South Coast Repertory for seven years. She is a recipient of several awards, including the prestigious National Endowment of the Arts/Theatre Communications Group Directing Fellowship and the Princess Grace Award. She was selected by Sundance Theater Institute to participate in the Sundance/Luma Foundation Theater Directors’ Retreat in Arles, France. Also a playwright, Juliette’s plays include Plumas Negras, Ghost Town, Pedro Play and Tailbone. She is a Yale School of Drama graduate, on faculty at University of California, Irvine and a proud originating member of Latinx Theater Commons.

Jade Power-Sotomayor (she/her), Dramaturg
Dr. Jade Power-Sotomayor (she/her) is a Cali-Rican educator, scholar and performer who works as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at UC San Diego. She researches and writes about Latinx/Latine theatre and performance, Dance Studies, nightlife, epistemologies of the body, feminist of color critique, bilingualism, race and language, and intercultural performance in the Caribbean diaspora. Her publications have been recognized with multiple awards across various organizations. She is also a dramaturg and co-directs and performs with the San Diego-based group Bomba Liberté.

Oliver Mayer, Playwright
Oliver Mayer is a playwright, poet and librettist, the author of more than 30 plays, from his ground-breaking boxing play Blade to the Heat and its long-awaited sequel Members Only, to new plays Ghost Waltz, after its recent world premiere in Los Angeles now about to start a Mexican tour in Mazatlan in early 2025, Yerma in Vitro, to be developed at the LAByrinth Intensive 2024, The Dragon Tree, and Letters from the Black Sea, and Like as the Hart. Other produced plays include Blood Match and Yerma in the Desert, inspired by the plays of Federico Garcia Lorca; Fortune is a Woman, The Wallowa Project, Dias y Flores, Dark Matters, Conjunto, Young Valiant, Joy of the Desolate, The Sinner from Toledo, Laws of Sympathy and Ragged Time. Mayer also wrote the libretto for the opera 3 Paderewskis, which received its world premiere at The Kennedy Center, as well as the libretti for America Tropical and musicals Amour Fou and Blue House. He writes essays regularly for Zocalo Public Square and has written a book of poetry entitled Body Languages. He also wrote the children’s books Big Dog on Campus Learns to be a Trojan, and its follow-ups Big Dog on Campus Goes to the Library and Big Dog on Campus Goes on Patrol. Oliver is a tenured professor of dramatic writing at USC’s School of Dramatic Arts, where he has received several university honors, including the USC Associates Award for Excellence in Teaching, Phi Kappa Phi Faculty Recognition Award, and a Mellon Mentoring Award for mentoring undergraduates. His writing has received various awards, including The American Prize for new opera.

Patrice Amon, Director
Dr. Maria Patrice Amon is a director, producer, scholar and leader. Directing credits include: Hoops (Milwaukee Chamber Theatre), A Skeptic and a Bruja (Urbanite Theatre), Group! The Musical (Passage Theatre), Hoopla! (La Jolla Playhouse POP Tour), Azul (Diversionary Theatre), Mojada (UC San Diego), A Zoom of One’s Own (CSUSM), Ich Bin Ein Berliner (Theatre Lab), DREAM HOU$E (CSUSM/TuYo Theatre), Fade (Moxie Theatre), The Madres (Moxie Theatre), Lydia (Brown Bag Theatre Company). Dramaturg: Manifest Destinitis and Beachtown (San Diego Rep). Patrice was a 2020 National Directing Fellow and an Associate Artistic Director at San Diego Repertory Theatre. She is also a co-founder and co-Artistic Director of TuYo Theatre, a professional Latinx Theatre Company in San Diego, with whom the Playhouse collaborated for On Her Shoulders We Stand at the 2022 WOW Festival. Currently an LTC Steering Committee member and a board member for NNPN, Patrice is an assistant professor at CSUSM. JD: California Western School of Law. Ph.D.: UC Irvine. mariapatriceamon.com

Sandra Ruiz, Playwright
Sandra Ruiz has been a theatre artist in San Diego, California for over 20 years. Born and raised in San Diego, Sandra received her BAs in Theatre and Human Development from the University of California – San Diego. She has worked in the theatre as an actor, director, playwright, costume designer, casting associate and as a teaching artist. As a playwright, Sandra has produced her work in the Actor’s Alliance Festival of San Diego. She also wrote a one woman show, Nice Girls Don’t Dance, which was produced on two occasions at El Centro Cultural de la Raza in Balboa Park. El Puente/ The Bridge was a Finalist for Teatro Chelsea’s A-Típico: A New Latinx Play Festival (Chelsea, MA), was part of LaMicro Theater’s Escena Sur 2024 Festival (NY, NY) and was a Semi-Finalist for The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s 2024 National Playwrights Conference.

Vanessa Duron, Director
Vanessa Duron is the Associate Artistic Director at MOXIE THEATRE. Vanessa is a local director, actor and playwright and has worked with MOXIE Theatre, San Diego Rep, Cygnet, La Jolla Playhouse, San Marcos State University, Mesa College, TuYo Theatre, and Onstage Playhouse. Vanessa’s play Somos Vida was produced in Lima, Peru for Teatro Tara papachy. Vanessa is an advocate for mental health and inclusion in theatre and is honored to be part of The Latinx New Play Festival.

Mabelle Reynoso, Dramaturg
Mabelle Reynoso (she/her) is an award-winning playwright, dramaturg, and educator. Her work has been performed all over the country in theatres, classrooms, community centers, and correctional facilities. Mabelle’s plays are largely informed by her experiences as a teaching artist working with underserved and marginalized populations, including Spanish-speaking immigrants, expectant teens, foster youth, and justice-involved youth and adults. Mabelle is co-host of the podcast Hey Playwright and leads TuYo Theatre’s Pa’ Letras, a workshop for emerging Latinx playwrights. She holds a BFA from New York University and an MFA from the School of Visual Arts. Mabelle is currently pursuing her PhD in Education for Social Justice at the University of San Diego. Her research focuses on the impact of theatre and creative communities in carceral environments. Mabelle was proudly born in Tijuana, Mexico.