Cocina Latina

By Joey Florez

Ana Laura Santiago

Michael Avila Bárbara Mojica

Director Dramaturg

Stage Manager

Cast Role

Idelisse Collazo

Cesar Díaz

Previ Aguirre

Néstor Daniel Almanza

Julián Gámez – Arizola

Verónica Pomata

Elda Acevedo Estefanía

Bárbara Mojica

Laura

Hugo

Ricardo

Oscar

Marcus

Morgan

Sally

Stage Directions

April 28th

“Growing Up With Big Hair” by:

Diana Mucci

Playwright: Born and raised in Chicago's Southside, Diana is an Afro-Latina author, playwright, producer, performer and educator. She has written, published and/or produced short stories, children's books, plays and indie films. In 2005, Diana’s first play, I'm a Female. . . Seeking a Male, co-produced by PROP THTR and New Horizons Entertainment in Chicago, earned accolades from local press, including the Chicago Sun-Times. Diana revised the play, now entitled Come 'n Go, and co-produced a successful premiere in 2018 in conjunction with her production company, Back of the Yards Entertainment and Aleatoric Theatre. In 2020, New World Theatre selected Diana’s monologue, “SPIT”, for their production of 8:46 – A Time to Listen, featuring the work of Black playwrights. In 2021, Diana's 10 min play, “Breaking News” was produced along with the works of other Latinx playwrights by Back of the Yards Entertainment in their first Latinx Playwright’s Festival. Generation Women invited Diana to perform her “Breaking News” monologue in June 2021 at the Caveat Theater in New York City. Diana's credits also include co-producing the indie film, Bloom which premiered at the Chicago Latino Film Festival, won best drama at the Palm Springs Festival, and earned a Women in Film grant. She just completed her new play, Growing up with Big Hair based on the true story of her experience growing up in an all-White neighborhood. She is a member of The Dramatist Guild of America, the Amigos del Rep Council, Chicago Dramatists, and the Playwright’s Collective with A New World of Theater.

Play Summary: Growing up with Big Hair is a play based on the true story of a young girl’s journey growing up Latina in the middle of an absolute Black & White world. From the time she moves into an all-White Chicago neighborhood, Anna finds herself wrestling with her hair as she wrestles with her identity. With a little laughter and a lot of Dippity-Do, she struggles to find her place in-between. When she discovers her family’s secret on her 18th birthday, she is finally confronted with the truth of who she really is.

Growing Up With Big Hair

By Diana Mucci

Oscar Franco

Director

Dramaturg

Jelisa Jay Robinson

Kenedi Delgado

Cast

Si Mon’ Emmett

Bárbara Mojica

Orlando Gonzalez

Adriana Adame

Jorge Galan

Terrell McAfee

Kenedi Delgado

Stage Manager

Role

Anna / Narrator

Mami Dad

Grandma / Lizette

Danny / Ken Clerk / Receptionist

Stage Directions

April 29th

“el bailador”

by: Mateo Hernandez

Playwright: Mateo Hernandez (he/they) is a queer, Latinx theatre maker, applied theatre practitioner,pedagogue, and scholar currently residing on the ancestral lands of the Tonkawa, Lipan-Apache, Karankawa, Comanche, and Coahuiltecan people, also known as central Texas. They are an MFA candidate in Drama & Theatre for Youth & Communities at The University of Texas at Austin where their research interests include queering pedagogies and performance through transgender epistemologies and queer feminist abolitionist practices in art making. As a playwright, his play “spayce boys” has been chosen for the 2020 Ingenio New Play Festival (Milagro Theatre, Teatro Vivo, Cara Mia Theatre) and the 2021 New Plays for Young Audiences: BIPOC Initiative (NYU Steinhardt). Their creative writing revolves around issues of gender and sexuality within Latinx/Chicanx culture. Mateo is also a company member with FYI (For Youth Inquiry) a performance company in Chicago, IL making participatory theatre around issues of reproductive justice.

Play Summary: el bailador is a play for all audiences that centers a young Chicanx boy named Pablo who loves to dance but only does so in the privacy of his room. Afraid of what his family might think, Pablo forms a personal relationship with every physical space in his family’s apartment. When Pablo, his brother and his parents must move into his grandma’s house along with his uncle and cousin, his anxiety is exacerbated by his family being around every corner in the new house. Pablo has nowhere to explore his self-expression and grief of his recent grandpa’s passing but is finding new musical inspirations through the Tejano music that fills his grandma’s house. But he is quickly asked to confront his anxieties and trepidation when a family quince hosts the baile at his grandma’s house.

Juan Leyva