Greater Good Theater Festival 2021

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Friday, October 22, 2021, at 7:30pm

LGBTQIA+ Latinx Playwrights Have Their Say

2nd Annual Greater Good Commission & Festival

Darrel Alejandro Holnes, Latinx Playwrights Circle, and Pregones/PRTT are proud to announce the 2nd Annual Greater Good Commission and Festival, featuring works by Dominic Colón, lily gonzales, Tavi Juárez, Phanésia Pharel, and Andrew Rincón.

“The Greater Good lifts Latinx theater artists at a time when the entire world is thirsty for stories from the global majority. A year of pandemic and social agitation only steeled the resolve of its creators to make this festival a standout occasion for creative inquiry, affirmation, and accomplishment. We are especially excited to welcome this year’s playwrights, actors, and directors to a premiere in-person screening of new works designed to be shared on film,” says Jorge B. Merced, Associate Artistic Director.

Founded by playwright Darrel Alejandro Holnes, the Greater Good Commission offers mini-grants to Latinx playwrights to write short plays, innovative in form, that reflect the times. The Commission’s mission is to help sustain Latinx playwrights and to support their contributions to American theater. The second installment in 2021 shines a light on five LGBTQIA+, Latinx-identifying playwrights.

“This second round keeps us in line with our mission to foster work from the most marginalized within the Latinx community. This commission is not only a step forward for these five commissioned playwrights, but one for the Latinx, American, and LGBTQTIA+ theater community nationwide,” said Holnes.

Following the premiere in-person screening on October 22nd at PRTT, in the heart of Manhattan’s theater district, the Festival will stream online for a limited time.

“We must continue to be bold and loud in our work and this second iteration of The Greater Good is no different from the first in how it creates space for our communities to be their unapologetic selves,” added Guadalís del Carmen, Co-Artistic Director of Latinx Playwrights Circle.

You can learn more about the Greater Good on the Latinx Playwrights Circle website: Click Here

2021 Greater Good Plays:

Where’s Our Angels? by Dominic Colón

On the evening of March 11, 2020, the night before Broadway shut down, fiancés, E.G. and Alex, have just gotten home from seeing, “the most important play of our generation.” After having extremely different reactions to the play, a visit from their doorman inspires a debate that brings into light issues that have been plaguing their relationship and ultimately tests whether or not they can remain together.

no me dejas by lily gonzales

After twenty years, Perla’s, the last lesbian bar in San Antonio, is closing down. Three queers, across generations, try to figure out what’s next for their city and themselves as the bar has its very last call.

Zoom Wedding by Tavi Juárez

It’s Marisol and Isela’s wedding day! They set up a Zoom Room for online guests to “attend” the big day, but when the couple’s internet connection breaks up during the backyard ceremony chaos erupts online.

Domestication, PLEASE by Phanésia Pharel

After years of feeling nothing, Tamara, a well-established Miami cam girl, is electric in love. Her lover wants her to leave the cam life once and for all, but when a rant of hers is leaked online, her façade is shattered, her escape is upended, and her love hangs in the balance.

“GUAU” by Andrew Rincón

Oscar is just out of a relationship and looking to finally let his “puta” side out and take Truvada. However, with no insurance to pay for the drug, he’s out of luck. That is until Oscar hears about an underground dealer selling a different kind of pill to prevent HIV called “Guau,” unapproved by the FDA. Oscar goes to the dealer and spins his world into an explosion of Queer Puta Magic that shows Oscar what he’s really been searching for all along.

RSVP for October 22nd at 7:30pm

In-person premiere screening at PRTT (304 W 47th Street, Manhattan, NYC)

This event is Free and open to the general public. Key to NYC vaccination mandate and face mask safety protocols will be observed. Capacity is limited. Please use the online reservation form at the top of this page.

On-line access

If you are not able to join us in person on Friday, October 22, the plays will be available on our YouTube channel, beginning Saturday, October 23 at noon. CLICK HERE and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

More About The Artists – Click To Open

Dominic Colón is an award-winning actor & writer, from The Bronx, New York. His play PROSPECT AVE OR THE MISEDUCATION OF JUNI RODRIGUEZ premiered as part of THE MTA RADIO PLAYS at Rattlestick Theater. Dominic’s play THE WAR I KNOW, has been developed by the Latinx Playwrights Circle, and LAByrinth Theater Company as part of the 2021 Barn Series. His directing credits include: THE WAR I KNOW (LAByrinth Theater Company), Eduardo Machado’s MARQUITAS (Rattlestick Theater/Pride Plays) & Episodes 4-6 of THE MTA RADIO Plays at Rattlestick Theater. Dominic’s half hour television pilot PAPI, made the inaugural Latinx TV List, a curated list of the ten most promising pilots created by Latinx Writers, received a blind pilot deal from HULU. Dominic was recently selected to be a part of the inaugural cohort of the Sundance Uprise Grant. He is repped by CAA & Artists First.

lily gonzales is a playwright from Texas, based in NYC. Their work has been developed or read at The John F. Kennedy Center, Teatro Vivo, Repertorio Español, Stages, San Diego Rep, AlterTheater Ensemble, and The Workshop Theater. Their play (trans)formada was runner-up for three Kennedy Center awards, as well as a finalist for the Miranda Family ‘Voces Latinx’ Competition, and Bay Area Playwrights Festival. B.A: UT Austin, Theater & Dance / English.

Tavi Juárez is an award-winning queer Chicana playwright and performer based in New York City. Raised in the Deep South, this Cancer-Sun likes to write Southern and Latinx queer stories from a joyful perspective. She is an alumni of the Alabama School of Fine Arts, the University of Montevallo, and the Circle in the Square Theatre School. In 2021, she accepted an invitation to join the Board of Directors for the International Centre for Women Playwrights (ICWP) where she now facilitates the Script Feedback Group. Her theatrical work has been produced at Dixon Place Theatre, Theatre for the New City, WOW Cafe Theatre, and the Village Playwrights in New York City.

Phanésia Pharel writes from a Caribbean feminist perspective on the divine metaphysical dilemma of colored girlhood. Through Afro-futurism her plays span revolutions, islands and combat gendered violence. She explores futures built on love by centering women’s pleasure, safety and joy. During her time at Barnard College of Columbia University she won four literary prizes. Other honors include City Theatre National Short Playwriting Finalist, Jane Chambers Finalist, O’neill Semi-Finalist, Blank Stage “Future of Playwriting” Semi-Finalist, Bay Area Playwrights Festival Semi-Finalist. Commissions include City Theatre Miami and Thrown Stone Theatre. Residencies include New York Stage and Film, Echo Theater Company of Los Angeles and the Playwrights Center Core Apprenticeship. Publishing: Concord Theatricals, Smith and Kraus Best Plays of 2020, Reset Coalition 2020 Anthology and the City Theatre Anthology. Phanésia is a proud member of the Dramatist Guild of America.

Andrew Rincón is a Queer Colombian-American playwright and screenwriter. His plays have been developed with Rising Circle Theatre Collective, Amios, the Austin Latino New Play Festival, The Amoralists Theatre Company, Pork Filled Productions (Seattle), Out Front Productions (Atlanta) and The 24 Hour Plays. He was a member of INKtank Lab for Playwrights of Color (2017) and the 2017 Fornés Playwriting Workshop (Chicago). He is the winner of the 2018 Chesley/Bumbalo Grant for writers of Gay and Lesbian Theatre and the New Light New Voices Award (2019). He is a company member of Unit 52 at INTAR, a Dramatist Guild Foundation Fellow (19-20) and a MacDowell Fellow (Winter 2020), and Visiting Artist in Residence in Playwriting at Skidmore College (21-22).

More About The Partners – Click To Open

Latinx Playwrights Circle started as a “pop up” organized by Chicago writers Nancy García Loza and Isaac Gomez in October 2017. From there, the group has been spearheaded and organized by playwrights Guadalís Del Carmen (Ars Nova Resident Artist) and Oscar A. L. Cabrera (The Public Emerging Writers Group) with Janio Marrero serving as Executive Director. LPC’s mission is to build a network of LatinX Playwrights nationwide in order to promote, develop and elevate their work while making their plays accessible to theater makers looking to find the next generation of American Storytellers. The group is mentored by esteemed playwrights Migdalia Cruz, Carmen Rivera, and Cándido Tirado. www.latinxplaywrights.com

Guadalís Del Carmen is an avid playwright, performer and… Dominican. During the pandemic she learned to cook oxtail, then wrote about it. She’s an Ars Nova Resident Artist, Co-Artistic Director of the Latinx Playwrights Circle, Artistic Associate of Black Lives Black Words, and a proud Chicagoan. Her play Bees and Honey would’ve had it’s Off Broadway premiere had it not been for La Rona. Her list of plays can be found on New Play Exchange. You can currently find Guadalís staring out the window, “thinking of a master plan…”, while sipping a cup of Earl Grey tea latte. Insta @guadalisdc

Darrel Alejandro Holnes is a Panamanian-American writer, performer, and educator. His writing has been published in English, Spanish, and French in literary journals, anthologies, and other books worldwide and online. He also writes for the stage. Most of his writing centers on love, family, race, immigration, and joy. He creates, teaches, and connects in New York City, NY. www.darrelholnes.com

Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater is a multigenerational performing ensemble, multidiscipline arts presenter, and owner/steward of bilingual arts facilities in The Bronx and Manhattan. Our mission is to champion a Puerto Rican/Latinx cultural legacy of universal value through creation and performance of original plays and musicals, exchange and partnership with other artists of merit, and engagement of diverse audiences. Pregones was founded in 1979 when a group of artists led by Rosalba Rolón set out to create and tour new works in the style of Caribbean and Latin American colectivos or performing ensembles. Established as a Bronx resident company five years later, Pregones remains in the vanguard of an arts renaissance radiating throughout and beyond The Bronx today. Spurred by stage and film icon Miriam Colón, PRTT was founded in 1967 as one of the first bilingual theater companies in all the U.S. It is credited for nurturing the development of hundreds of Latinx theater artists, legitimating creative connections throughout the Spanish-speaking world, and pioneering models for genuine and lasting community engagement. Following merger in 2014, our New York season plays a decisive role in empowering underrepresented artists and audiences to claim a place at the front of the American theater. Rosalba Rolón, Artistic Director. Alvan Colón Lespier and Jorge B. Merced, Associate Artistic Directors. www.pregonesprtt.org.

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Event Details

Location
PRTT in Manhattan
Date & Time
October 22, 2021 @ 7:30pm
Collaborators
PLAYWRIGHTS:
Dominic Colón
lily gonzales
Tavi Juárez
Phanésia Pharel
Andrew Rincón

Produced by
Latinx Playwrights Circle
Darrel Alejandro Holnes
Pregones/PRTT