2023
West Side Story
Teatro San Diego
Directed by Michelle Alves & Amanda Rivera Torres
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Chronicles of Kalki
Moxie Theatre
Directed by Desireé Clarke
This comic-book-infused girl-gang thriller chronicles the adventures and mysterious disappearance of Kalki, a young woman who may or may not be the final avatar of Vishnu. Has Kalki come to rid the world of demons and evil or just to make high school a hell of a lot more interesting?
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Monsters of the American Cinema by Christian St. Croix
Diversionary Theatre
Directed by Desireé Clarke
When Remy, a black man, finds himself not only the owner of his late husband’s drive-in, but also the guardian of his straight, white teenage son, the two forge a relationship around the classic horror movies they regularly screen for the public. However, the grief they harbor over their shared loss threatens to fracture their bond just when they need each other the most. Written by San Diego’s most exciting emerging playwright, this haunting, funny, and loving story about race, sexuality, and family reveals the monsters and saviors we discover in each other.
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https://www.diversionary.org/monsters-of-the-american-cinema
The High Table by Temi Wilkey
Diversionary Theatre
Directed by Niyi Coker Jr.
Tara and Leah are planning their perfect wedding: The dresses are chosen, the venue is booked, and the invitations are mailed. But when Tara’s Nigerian parents refuse to attend, it’s not just the RSVP list that is thrown into question. Meanwhile, suspended in the stars, three of Tara’s ancestors are jolted from their rest to decide whether or not to bless her wedding. A hilarious and heartfelt story of lineage and love is played out between the heavens and earth in this debut play from British playwright Temi Wilkey.
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El Huracán by Charise Castro Smith
Cygnet Theatre
Directed by Daniel Jáquez
An epic hurricane threatens Miami. A mother and daughter ready themselves for the storm as Abuela takes shelter in a world of memory, music, and magic.
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2022
1222 Oceanfront: A Black Family Christmas
New Village Arts
Directed by Jacole Kitchen
Featuring soulful riffs, rousing spirituals, an eclectic and lovable cast of characters, and a heaping helping of seasonal cheer, 1222 Oceanfront is a celebration of Black culture, family, and understanding…with a dash of Christmas drama. It reminds us that the holiday spirit is powerful, bringing us together in love, song, and joy.
Sense of Love
by Sheryl Mallory-Johnson
Common Ground Theatre
Directed by Yolanda Franklin
Patricia (Pat) Colby is newly divorced and determined to succeed without a man. Steve Thurman, a recently widowed college professor, is content with being a single dad and living a solitary life. Haunted and numbed by their painful past, both Steve and Pat could ruin their second chance at love. Entertaining, thought provoking, and poignant, Sense of Love delivers a timeless contemporary love story not to be missed.
Antigone Presented By The Girls of St. Catherine's
by Madhuri Shekar
CSU San Marcos
Directed by Jason Heil
1990s. No #metoo. What’s a girl to do? Students at a Catholic girls’ high school are presenting a Greek play about ethical choices. Then, their director forces them to make an ethical choice.
DayDreamer: A New Musical
TuYo Theatre
Directed by Melanie Queponds
Primavera is a land of mystical mishaps and magical mayhem, where serenades are as strong as swords and dreams can break the very fabric of reality. “Noche”, awakened from her Multi-Millenium mimis, schemes to steal the Sun and stars from the sky. With an endless night looming over the horizon, Candelaria, a child terrified of shadows, must overcome the overwhelming to bring light back to a broken world.
An adventure of sky-shattering proportions awaits in a New Fantasy Musical inspired by Latino Culture and Shonen Anime!
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/daydreamer-a-new-musical-staged-reading-tickets-384855090937
Immersive Theatre and Social Justice (CSU Summer Arts)
June 27 -July 10
Work with renowned guest artists in a variety of theatre performance styles including audio theatre, intimate solo audience experience, and online immersive theatre. Students will create an original immersive theatre piece based on the classical drama Snow in Midsummer.
Course Director: Maria Patrice Amon
Guest Artists: Sonia Desai, Carmon Amon, Eliza Vedar, Katie Turner
Hoopla! by Cheryl L. West
La Jolla Playhouse: POP Tour
Directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg
The fifth grade talent show is approaching, and everyone is abuzz at Baldwin Elementary. Winston wants to win the talent show with his cheerleading routine to prove to others that he’s more than the unfriendly “Fishboy” nickname they call him. Introverted artist Gina wants nothing to do with the talent show, and she knows that the overzealous (and generally unpleasant) twin sensations, Randy and Brandy, are probably going to win it all anyway. But with the persistence of Elliott, the school’s new kid and resident rebel, these unlikely friends form Hoopla, a dazzling hula hooping trio, and help each other navigate through the pressures of being a kid.
Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks
CSU San Marcos Theatre Arts
Directed by Shaun Heard
The story of two brothers, Lincoln and Booth, who, abandoned by their parents, have had to depend upon each other for survival since they were teenagers. Now in their late 20’s, the brothers struggle to make a new life, one that will lead them out of poverty. Lincoln, a master of the con game three-card monte, has abandoned a life of crime for a more respectable job impersonating Abraham Lincoln at an arcade. Booth, on the other hand, earns his living as a petty thief, one who wishes to emulate his older brother’s success by learning how to “throw the cards.”
Throughout the play, the brothers compete against each other, vying for control. At any given moment, one may wield power over the other, only to relinquish it in the next. Hence, Topdog/Underdog reveals a topsy-turvy world in which Lincoln and Booth live, a chaotic world that is as dangerous as it is illusory.
The Skin of Our Teeth by Thorton Wilder
USD/The Old Globe Shiley Graduate Theate Program
Directed by Matt Morrow
Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy depicts an Everyman family as it narrowly escapes one end-of-the-world disaster after another, from the Ice Age to flood to war.
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On Her Shoulders We Stand
TuYo Theatre
Written and Directed by Patrice Amon
On Her Shoulders We Stand is a multi-sensory, immersive experience that brings audiences into a forgotten memory using the power of names to understand the role of Latinas in World War II. This 40 minute theatrical experience takes small groups of between 1 and 4 people through seven staged rooms to experience a performance focused on hidden community stories. Audience members collect mementos of their experience along the way and interact in tactile activities to deepen their experience and understanding of this piece.
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2021
The Thanksgiving Play
CSU San Marcos Theatre Arts
Directed by Michael Garcia
Good intentions collide with absurd assumptions in Larissa FastHorse’s wickedly funny satire, as a troupe of terminally “woke” teaching artists scrambles to create a pageant that somehow manages to celebrate both Turkey Day and Native American Heritage Month.
Miku, and the Gods by Julia Izumi
San Diego State University Theatre, Television, & Film
Directed by Peter Cirino
Miku wants to be a god. Ephraim wants to be an Olympian. Grandma wants to remember. And Shara wants people to just include him in the conversation, you know? But what do the gods want? What do beings who have everything in the world want? Miku and the Gods is an epic and small adventure that braids friendship, death, and power beyond what one could ever desire.
Way of the Witch: A New Musical (Staged Reading)
Book&Lyrics by Mario Vega. Music&Lyrics by Eliza Vedar
CSU San Marcos Theatre Arts
Directed by Paloma Carrillo
Dawn is starting her first semester at Notas Pacific California State University of California, but her anxiety along with a series of magical mishaps start to prevent her from enjoying her college experience. With the help of her Tita, Dawn must confront ghosts, witches and the most evil being of all, education as an institution. Grab some lumpia and drop some college credits for a brand new musical comedy!
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The Hatmaker's Wife by Lauren Yee
CSU San Marcos Theatre Arts
Directed by Jason Heil
In this charming comedy from Lauren Yee (CAMBODIAN ROCK BAND, THE GREAT LEAP, HOOKMAN), Hetchman the Hatmaker has lost his Hat and his Wife. He really misses the hat. This modern fable asks questions about love and family.
Despierta!
Book/Lyrics by Mario Vega. Music By Eliza Vedar (and Cynthia Phan)
Lime Arts Productions 20x20 Fringe
Directed by Grace Dolezal-Ng
Despierta! follows two Mexican-American families in San Diego as they deal with the pains of their past, the problems in their present and the anxieties of their future. Soccer games, trolley rides, and the unbreakable bonds of family are brought to life with music and laughter in a two-act original musical.
Cloud 9 by Caryl Churchill
San Diego State University Theatre, Television, & Film
Directed by Jesca Prudencio
Both parody and spoof of the Victorian Empire and its rigid attitudes, especially toward sex. There is Clive, a British functionary; his wife Betty (played by a man); their daughter Victoria (a rag doll); Clive’s friend Harry, an explorer; Mrs. Saunders, who runs about dressed in a riding habit; Clive’s son Edward, who still plays with dolls and is played by a woman; and Joshua, a native servant who knows exactly what is really going on. What really is going on is a marvelous send-up and a non-stop round-robin of sexual liaisons. All this time the natives are restless in the background. The second act shifts to London in 1980. Except for the surviving characters, it is only twenty-five years later, and all those repressed sexual longings have evaporated, along with the Empire.
Eastside FB Story
by Mercedes Floresislas and Patricia Zamorano
Frida Khalo Theatre: 10 Minute Play Festival
Directed by Melanie Queponds
A short musical parody filmed during quarantine. When love happens at first sight, their eyes only see one another and everyone else blurs... and apparently that s#*t only happens in the westside."
A Zoom of One's Own by Maria Patrice Amon & Sonia Desai
CSU San Marcos Theatre Arts
Directed by Maria Patrice Amon
Join Malinche (legendary Nahua interpreter), Charlotte Cushman (cross-dressing US actress), CJ Walker (first female millionaire in the US), Selena (Mexican-American pop singer), and Jhansi Ki Rani (India’s warrior queen) as they explore their various art practices, business ideas, and activism through social media. Sing along with Selena as she shares a new YouTube video about Dreamers; join CJ Walker on Instagram for a free hair care tutorial; smarten up with Charlotte Cushman as she works on a new Buzzfeed article, get your rage on with Malinche on her Twitter tirade, and sharpen your defense skills with Jhansi Ki Rani as she demonstrates with best self-defense moves of 2020 through Facebook live!
2020
The Cucuy Will Find You by Jaymes Sanchez
Amigos Del Rep: Latinx New Play Festival
Directed by Patrice Amon
The Cucuy, in Mexican-American folklore, eats bad children. But what does it mean to be a good child? For a seven-year-old in the back of a 1990 Ford Aerostar, it means shutting up every now and then. For a successful 30-something, like REY/REYNA, who has a fraught family history and lives far away from home, the answer is more complicated. When the Cucuy shows up and disrupts Rey's life and the very fabric of reality, Rey must prove that they are a good child. But even if they succeed, the ordeal might still consume them.
Nana's Theatre Spectacular by Maria Patrice Amon
Moxie Theatre: Zoom Fest
Directed by Maria Patrice Amon
Welcome to Nana’s impromptu puppet show based on the Mexican folk tale about Juan Oso that will fight the boredom and the melancholy of separation.
Way of the Witch (Cancelled due to COVID-19)
Book and Lyrics by Mario Vega. Music by Eliza Vedar
San Diego State University, Teatro Azteca
Directed by Paloma Carrillo
Way of the Witch follows Dawn, an undeclared major at Notas Pacific California State University of California, who learns how to become a witch from her Tita Lucia. Along the way, Dawn encounters a variety of spirits, magical foes, and even a bit of romance. Dawn's courage is put to the test when she becomes entangled in an evil scheme to take away money from her fellow students. Hilarity and magical moments follow in a supernatural musical comedy with a Filipino twist.
Dream Hou$e by Eliana Pipes
TuYo Theatre
Directed by Maria Patrice Amon
DREAM HOU$E follows two Latinx sisters on an HGTV-style show who are selling their family home, hoping to capitalize on the gentrification in their “changing neighborhood.” As they perform for the camera the show slips into the surreal: one sister grapples with turmoil in the family’s ancestral past and the other learns how much she’s willing to sacrifice for the family’s future. A play exploring the cultural cost of progress in America.
2019
Pastorela 2.0 by Mabelle Reynoso
TuYo Theatre
Directed by Peter Cirino
Every year for nearly three decades, the Mercado Nochebuena has put on a traditional pastorela, complete with a script that was allegedly written over a hundred years ago by a groundskeeper from the Convent of San Agustín in Acolman, Mexico. Led by the grocery store's owner, Edgar Nochebuena and his daughter Alice, the Mercado Nochebuena community has faithfully executed the pastorela, making no changes to the script and continuing to use many of the same players that have participated in the show year after year. The show has become a symbol of hope for the community and a signature showpiece for the grocery store. But times are changing. The Mercado Nochebuena is struggling to keep tradition alive while competing with a brave new world where groceries are bought online and communities are forged through social media. The future is not looking good for the store. In what appears to be a Christmas miracle, for the first time ever, the Mercado Nochebuena Pastorela will be broadcast as a live musical event for a major network. This is initially seen as a blessing with all of the visibility and attention the store will get. But as reality sets in, compromises must be made, friendships will be tested, and all parties involved will be forced to question what they value and what they are willing to do to get what they want.
Just Like Us by Karen Zacarías
San Diego State University Theatre, Television, & Film
Directed by Peter Cirino
Based on Helen Thorpe's bestselling book of the same name, this documentary-style play follows four latina girls in Denver-two of whom are documented and two who are not-through young adulthood. Their close-knit friendships are tested when immigration status dictates the girls' opportunities, or lack thereof. When a political firestorm arises, each girls' future becomes increasingly complicated. Just Like Us poses difficult yet essential questions about what makes us American.
Despierta!
Book and Lyrics by Mario Vega. Music by Eliza Vedar (with Cynthia Phan)
San Diego State University, Teatro Azteca
Directed by Paloma Carrillo
Despierta! follows two Mexican-American families in San Diego as they deal with the pains of their past, the problems in their present and the anxieties of their future. Soccer games, trolley rides, and the unbreakable bonds of family are brought to life with music and laughter in a two-act original musical.
UN-
TuYo Theatre
Directed by Peter Cirino
A collection of stories written by Latinx authors across both San Diego and the U.S.. The production weaves together movement, song, film, and poetry to tell stories of how immigrants make it through this country. It reclaims what it means to be American by amplifying the voices of Dreamers, DACA recipients, and the undocumented who’ve been disenfranchised around citizenship. It shows immigrants in times of trouble, in times of triumph, and in their everyday lives. It lifts the shroud around and celebrate the full, human self.
2018
Picasso at the Lapin Agile by Steve Martin
San Diego State University, Skull & Dagger Society
Directed by Dillon Hoban
Comedian Steve Martin’s absurd comedy of historical fiction, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, has Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso meet in a bar in Paris in 1904, the year before Einstein’s theory of relativity and Picasso’s transition into cubism. The two celebrities of science and art spar for their fields, surrounded by a cast of supporting characters from the turn of the century and beyond. The anachronistic, self-referential, and self-aware nature of this short one-act enraptures audiences into thinking about the role both science and art play in our lives, the men (and women) who inspire genius, and the philosophies that shape our world over the modern centuries.
MÁS by Milta Ortiz
San Diego State University Theatre, Television, & Film
Directed by Peter Cirino
A docudrama about the dismantling of the Tucson Unified School District's Mexican American Studies program. MÁS follows the debates around the passage in 2010 of Arizona House Bill 2281, which effectively banned the MAS program. Each character describes their perspective of the fight to keep the MÁS program in Arizona schools.
Araceli of the West: An Original Musical.
Book and Lyrics by Mario Vega. Music by Eliza Vedar
San Diego State University, Teatro Azteca
Directed by Mario Vega
Araceli is the daughter of two of the greatest vigilantes in Mexico. After her mother’s death, Araceli begins intense training to fight injustice. Her “fuerza” is put to the test when the US government attempts to seize her town of San Manuel and "demexicanize" the citizens! 13 original songs in a comedy like nothing you've ever seen! Can Araceli become like the Eagle on the Cactus, save the town and live up to her family legacy?
2017
People (Animated Short Film)
by Lucas Hespenheide
An introspective look at people and the things they're made of.