Milagro's festival of new plays celebrates the diversity of Latino voices — The Oregonian

Playwriting Workshop

Friday September 21, 1 – 4 PM
Writing for Justice with Diana Burbano
FREE. Open to all, space is limited.
Reserve a spot.

Led by this year's guest dramaturg, playwight Diana Burbano, this workshop focuses on writing plays and monologues from personal stories that expand to comment on larger social/political issues. This workshop will encourage the writing of issue based plays, balanced by a sense of empathy and humor.

INGENIO Milagro 2018 Playwrights and the Plays

Adrienne Dawes

Adrienne Dawes is a mixed race AfroLatina playwright originally from Austin, TX. Her full length plays include: Denim Doves (2016), Am I White (2014, B. Iden Payne Award for Outstanding Script; David Mark Cohen New Play Award; Kilroys honorable mention), and You Are Pretty (2004, Stanley and Evelyn Lipkin Prize for Playwriting). Adrienne is a member of the Dramatists Guild, ScriptWorks, and a company member of Salvage Vanguard Theater. She is currently based in Tulsa, OK as part of the first writing cohort of the Tulsa Artist Fellowship, supported by the George Kaiser Family Foundation. adriennedawes.com (photo credit: Adam Murphy)

Casta
Translator: Jesus I. Valles

Casta (working title) is inspired by a series of casta paintings by Miguel Cabrera, a mixed-race painter from Oaxaca. Casta paintings were a unique form of portraiture that grew in popularity over the 18th century in Nueva España that depicted different racial mixtures arranged according to a hierarchy defined by Spanish elites. When a lowly apprentice is commissioned to paint a casta series for a wealthy patron, he tries to conform his work to a set hierarchy but finds the images revolt, illuminating a complex portrait of fluid Latinx identities.

Casta is supported in part by the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Southwest Airlines, and the Surdna Foundation through a grant from the NALAC Fund for the Arts Grant Program.

Nelson Diaz-Marcano

Nelson Diaz-Marcano is a Puerto Rican playwright based in New York City. Recently, his play The Diplomat won Outstanding Play at The Fresh Fruit Festival and was published by Original Works Publishing. He studied under the mentorship of Jonathan Levy when he attended Stony Brook University. Some of his recent credits include: World Classic (Ingenio Milagro 2018), Revolt (Vision Latino Theatre Company), El Yunque in English (Fresh Fruit Festival 2018), Rabiosa (Samuel French OOB Festival), The Diplomats (Fresh Fruit Festival 2017, DUAF 2018), Radical (Downtown Urban Arts Festival - Winner Best Play 2016), Promised Lands (Stable Cable Lab Co’s), and Prison Song (Downtown Urban Arts Festival 2013). Nelson's mission is to create work where different cultures are represented, and to raise awareness of their history. ndmstrikes.com

World Classic
As a family prepares to watch the final game of the World Baseball Classic between the Puerto Rican and the United States national teams, a past tragedy rear its ugly head and threatens to tear apart their bond. Exploring both the connection and identity issues created by clashing generations of immigrants, this play is a study on what it is to feel like a foreigner in your own country and what each generation calls home.

Mercedes Floresislas

Mercedes Floresislas received her MFA from UCR. She’s a License Clinical Social Worker and the proud mother of a Deaf son. She writes Deaf drama to create opportunities for Deaf actors and to spread awareness of Deaf related issues while highlighting American Sign Language. Floresislas’ first play, Tamales De Puerco, debuted in 2008 at CASA 0101 introducing Deaf Latino characters in American Theater. Floresislas’ first MFA play, Los Moreno, is the recipient of the 2016 Kennedy Center American Theater Festival Latinidad Award and selected reading for Teatro Vivo, Nuestras Voces and one of the 50 Playwrights Project Best Unproduced Latinx plays 2017. CJ, a Trilingual Play is the recipient of the KCATF 2018 Jean Kennedy Second Place Award. Floresislas is a native of Mexico.

CJ, a Trilingual Play
Carolina Juarez, CJ, is a fifteen year old forced to live with her estranged aunt and Deaf grandmother when her mom overdoses again. She has been disconnected from her Latino heritage and is not interested in getting to know her family including her grandmother who is Deaf and has dementia. During a teenage tantrum, she destroys her grandmother’s childhood toy and the family’s comadre conjures up a recipe to intervene as her personal Nahual. Two Aztec deities appear to her to give her a chance to change her life before is too late.

Brian Otaño

Brian Otaño grew up in Brooklyn, NY, where he worked as a playwright and a scenic artist at the Metropolitan Opera for nine years before moving to LA. Most recently, he co-wrote You Across From Me, the 2018 Humana Festival PTC show. Other plays include Tara, Zero Feet Away, and The Dooley Street Trilogy. His work has been performed, developed and workshopped with NYTW, Roundabout Theatre Company, Page 73, Ars Nova, Atlantic Theater Company, New Dramatists, INTAR, LAByrinth, LARK Play Development Center, The Amoralists, The Attic Theater Company, Judson Memorial Church and SPACE on Ryder Farm. Residencies/Fellowships: NHMC TV Writers Fellowship, Page 73’s Interstate 73 Writers Group, New York Theater Workshop 2050 Fellowship, New Dramatists Van Lier Fellowship, ArsNova’s Playgroup. Education: BFA, Dramatic Writing (SUNY Purchase).

Tara
An investigation into a teacher accused of sexual abuse lands at the door of 30-year-old Ricky Ramos, who is named as the teacher’s first victim. The details of the investigation unfold, challenging Ricky’s skewed perspective of his role in the relationship and casting a damning light on a culture mired in silence and homophobia. When Ricky lures his teacher to his family vacation home in Puerto Rico with hopes of finding some answers and clarity, Ricky’s mother and daughter learn the truth about Ricky’s relationship. A tense, bloody confrontation ensues, compelling the family to contend with their past, while looking ahead to a future that might have a glimmer of hope.

About INGENIO Milagro

Beginning with a national call for submissions, four unproduced plays by Latino/a playwrights are selected to take part in INGENIO. Each play is assigned a director and cast, and after a week of rehearsals the plays will be presented in concert-style readings to an audience followed by moderated feedback conversations.

As in the first year, a key feature of INGENIO is the participation of an established Latino/a theatre artist to serve as host and mentor during the September play festival and feedback sessions. This year's host mentor, Diana Burbano, will be in residence at Milagro for the week leading up to INGENIO, working with and mentoring the playwrights and participating in rehearsals with directors and casts. Diana will also teach a Writing for Justice workshop, free and open to all in the community.

New in 2018, Milagro will collaborate with Northwest Theatre Workshop (NWTW) to offer workshops to the INGENIO playwrights. Ciji Guerin, Producing Artistic Director of NWTW, will lead two workshops, which are designed to offer new tools to further develop their work.

INGENIO Milagro 2018 Selection Committee: Roy Antonio Arauz, Diana Burbano, Georgina Escobar, Francisco García, Daniel Jáquez, and Maya Malán-González.

Ingenio /ēn 'he nē oh/: Spanish for wit, ingenuity; the inventive and creative capacity to create; a sugar cane refinery.