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We are proud to announce the seventh San Diego Latinx New Play Festival will take place at La Jolla Playhouse, October 4 – 6, 2024.
The Latinx New Play Festival expands the presence of Latinx stories and artists on the American stage, and spotlights the broad range of today’s Latinx experience. Four scripts will be selected to be rehearsed and developed at the Playhouse, culminating in a live public reading at the festival.
The festival will be free for everyone to attend, and will include a schedule of in-person readings of new works, panel discussions and other events.
Produced by Dr. Maria Patrice Amon, the Playhouse’s 2024/25 Artist-in-Residence, in partnership with La Jolla Playhouse, the Latinx New Play Festival was originally launched in 2016 by San Diego Repertory Theatre. La Jolla Playhouse is delighted to be able to provide this vibrant, important arts event a new home in San Diego.
The submission period for the 2024 Latinx New Play Festival was from January to April 2024. Sign up for our newsletter to be the first to know when submissions for the 2025 Latinx New Play Festival open.
The 2024 Latinx New Play Festival has been made possible in part by Prebys Foundation.
Dates
Oct 4 – 6, 2024
Venue
Play Development Center, La Jolla Playhouse
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If you have already reserved tickets and can no longer attend, please let us know as soon as possible so we can give your tickets to another theatre-goer. Contact Patron Services at (858) 550-1010 or [email protected].
Friday, Oct 4
6pm: Artistic and Literary Panel
7pm: I never asked for a gofundme, by Jayne Deely
10pm: Opening Reception
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Saturday, Oct 5 (Matinee)
2pm: Local Project Presentation
3pm: MOTHER OF GOD, by Ricardo Pérez González
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Saturday, Oct 5 (Evening)
7pm: The Man in the Maze, by Oliver Mayer
10pm: Reception
This event has reached capacity. We recommend signing up for the waitlist or our newsletter to be the first to know if availability opens up.
Sunday, Oct 6
1pm: Scholar Panel
2pm: El Puente/The Bridge, by Sandra Ruiz
5pm: Closing Reception
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I never asked for a gofundme
By Jayne Deely
Directed by Juliana Frey-Méndez
Dramaturgy by Cambria Herrera
Millie has come back home to Mobile, AL for a prestigious fellowship she couldn’t pass up, bringing her Puerto Rican east coast born and raised partner, Avery, who is recovering from top surgery, with her. When quasi-aunt to Millie and righteous woman of God Teresa overhears Millie talking to a pharmacist and assumes Avery has breast cancer, she decides to save the day, even if she doesn’t agree with their ‘lifestyle.’ Cue casseroles, care packages, and checkbooks – a gofundme to SAVE AVERY! I never asked for a gofundme is a new queer comedy about gender, family, and religion that asks what it means to be worthy of care.
MOTHER OF GOD
By Ricardo Pérez González
Directed by Juliette Carrillo
Raising a teenage Jesus is hard enough, but when Holy Mary Mother of God decides to divorce the big G himself, all hell breaks loose. Literally. With the help of her fellow divinities Yemaya (the Yoruba goddess of the oceans) and Lilith (the woman created before Adam), María launches a custody battle that will shake the throne of heaven itself. A darkly comedic family drama, MOTHER OF GOD is the story of three women who defy the heavens to reclaim their power. But in the end, will María be able to wield that power without becoming a tyrant herself?
The Man in the Maze
By Oliver Mayer
Directed by Patrice Amon
It’s 1519, Hernán Cortés has landed in the Yucatán Peninsula, and what he needs most is a translator he can trust. Gonzo, a fellow Spaniard shipwrecked a decade earlier, who has made a life with the Maya, would be the perfect interpreter. But has he become more Mayan than Spanish? Can he be trusted to interpret the language of Conquest? Does he have a different idea for an intermixing of culture, race, and spirit – minus the sword? A play based on the precise historical moment when the American identity was truly up in the air.
El Puente/The Bridge
By Sandra Ruiz
Directed by Vanessa Duron
Denise returns to her family home unannounced for the 25th birthday of her little brother, Carlos. Her family is less than thrilled to see her even though they haven’t seen her in over a year. While she’s been away, she missed a ton of family chisme, yet she’s been the center of their gossip. Dad just wants to enjoy some fútbol on TV without interruption. Mom and her older sister, Angelica, are hoping for a calm, quiet day. The family sits together to watch a Sunday morning soccer game while they each try to find their own peace.
I never asked for a gofundme
Jayne Deely (they/them) 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 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 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).
MOTHER OF GOD
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 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.
The Man in the Maze
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.
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
El Puente/The Bridge
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 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.
Why is it called the “Latinx” New Play Festival?
The Latinx New Play Festival, now in its seventh year, is named to be inclusive and encompass people of Latin American descent regardless of their gender identity. This inclusivity is important to us at La Jolla Playhouse, and to the Latinx founder and director of this festival, Dr. Maria Patrice Amon. We are aware that that while Latinx is gaining popularity, not everyone within the community embraces this term, and individual preferences vary. Ultimately, it’s our aim to be as inclusive as possible to all, and to respect all individuals’ preferences and identities. We encourage you to read more about our organizational values at this link.
Photo credit: The company of The Jersey Devil is a Papi Chulo at the 2023 Latinx New Play Festival.
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