Crossing Borders (Cruzando Fronteras) Festival
Crossing Borders (Cruzando Fronteras) is an annual community celebration that offers music and togetherness with a spotlight on new plays by Latine theater artists. This year’s festival is curated by José Zayas and features four new plays to be read in our Joan and Robert Rechnitz Theater.
This festival is free and open to the public.
COMMUNITY KICK OFF
Thursday, Aug 1 / 2024 @ 5:00 – 7:00 PM
Live music provided by Mariachi Suárez from New Jersey on the Plaza with food, fun and feasting!
that drive thru monterey
by Matthew Paul Olmos
Directed by Tiffany Nichole Greene
Is Monterey living her life in 1971, pursuing a nursing degree and discovering a tender first romance? Or is it all something that she’s remembering? Inspired by the playwright’s mother, that drive thru monterey is a touching and fresh memory play that blurs the line between what will be and what was.
MEET THE ARTIST
Matthew Paul Olmos
matthew paul olmos is a Mexican-American playwright who focuses on the creation of space for marginalized, underrepresented communities and gives them poetics and theatricality. While his work is always personal, it is aimed at reaching across socio’political boundaries, showing the ridiculous of how separate we are, and illuminating hope for future generations.
He is a three-time Sundance Institute Fellowship/Residency recipient, inaugural Dramatists Guild Foundation Catalyst Fellow, Echo Theater Company Resident Playwright, lifetime Ensemble Studio Theatre member & Sloan Commission recipient, Playwrights’ Center Core Writer and two-time Venturous Playwright Fellowship nominee. Previous Actors’ Theatre of Louisville Humana Festival Commission, Arizona Theatre Company’s National Latine Playwriting Awardee, Baryshnikov Arts Center Resident Artist, Brooklyn Arts Exchange Resident Artist, Center Theatre Group LA Playwright, Drama League nominee, Geffen Playhouse Writers Room, Ingram New Works at Nashville Repertory, two-time INTAR H.P.R.L., a proud Kilroys nominator, New York Theatre Workshop Fellow, Oregon Shakespeare Festival Black Swan Lab, two-time Ojai Playwrights Conference, inaugural Primary Stages Creative Development Grantee and Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group, Princess Grace Awardee in Playwriting, Repertorio Español Miranda Family Nuestra Voces Playwriting Awardee.
He spent two years as a Mabou Mines/SUITE Resident Artist being mentored by Ruth Maleczech, was chosen/mentored by Taylor Mac for Cherry Lane’s Mentor Project, and was La MaMa e.t.c.’s Ellen Stewart Emerging Playwright Awardee as selected by Sam Shepard. He recently world premiered his newest play in Steppenwolf’s 23’24 season. His work has been presented nationally and internationally, taught in university, and is published by Concord Theatricals/Samuel French and NoPassport Press. www.matthewpaulolmos.com.
MEET THE CAST
Monterey
Sofia Figueroa
Sofia Figueroa
Maximiliano
Hiram Delgado
Hiram Delgado
HIRAM DELGADO is an actor from Carolina, Puerto Rico. He made his Broadway debut in the Tony-winning revival of Take Me Out at Second Stage and the Schoenfeld Theatre. Off-Broadway: Agnes (59E59). Regional: Williamstown Theatre Festival. TV: New Amsterdam (NBC); Prodigal Son (FOX); The Code (CBS); Madam Secretary (CBS). Film: Ties; Homesick; The Vessel. Member of Society Theatre Company. Education: MFA, NYU Graduate Acting. www.hiramdelgado.com
Lydia
Heather Velazquez
Heather Velazquez
Heather Velazquez (Boli) hails from Miami, Fl where she graduated from New World School of the Arts with a BFA in Acting and the Performing Arts. She was nominated for 2018 San Diego Critics Circle Craig Noel Award for her Outstanding featured performance as Boli in American Mariachi (The Old Globe). She makes her Two River Debut reprising Boli, a role she originated at Denver Center for The Performing Arts. Off-Broadway: Pipeline (Lincoln Center Theater), Pinkolandia (INTAR Theatre). New York/Regional Theatre: Celia and Fidel (Arena Stage); Another Word for Beauty (Goodman Theatre); The Good Book, So Go the Ghost of Mexico Part II (Sundance Theatre Labs); Worship, Rosario and The Gypsies (Theatre for the New City), Nobody Rides a Locomotive (No Mo’). Ms. Velazquez took part in the US/Mexico exchange program at The Lark for the production Mía (All Mine) and was accepted into the Labyrinth Theatre Fellowship program in 2014. TV: “Pipeline” (Live From Lincoln Center), “Blue Bloods.” Instagram @heathervelazquez
Lupe
Annie Henk
Annie Henk
Annie Henk is an actor, voice-over artist, and casting consultant. As an actor, she appeared at Two River in Pinkolandia. Other acting credits include regional productions of Ritu Comes Home (InterAct Theatre Company, Philadelphia); Enfrascada (Renaissance Theaterworks, Milwaukee); Adriana Sevahn’s one-woman show Taking Flight, Gladys in The Cook (Stages Repertory Theatre, Houston). NYC: Pinkolandia and other plays at INTAR, Working Theater’s La Ruta, Purple Rep, Red Fern, ReEntry with American Records, Clubbed Thumb, Mabou Mines, Nibras, Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Resonance Ensemble, Foundry Theatre, New Georges, Collaboration Town, and 52nd Street Project. Film/Web: That’s News to Me, That’s What She Said, White, East WillyB, Entre Nos. Narration: Starbound, The Madonnas of Echo Park, Sunstroke, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, and others. Member: AEA, SAG-AFTRA, proud LARKee. As a consultant, she has collaborated with casting on various projects with theaters such as Clubbed Thumb, Working Theater, and People’s Light & Theatre, and she cast the Lark’s US/Mexico Program from 2013-2015.
Lazaro
JJ Perez
JJ Perez
Stage Directions
Hannah Benitez
Hannah Benitez
Saturday Mourning Cartoons
by Iraisa Ann Reilly
Directed by José Zayas
Surrounded by sofas and lingering grief, nurse Jessica struggles to help her mother Marta care for her ailing grandmother in early 2020. Over the course of a year’s worth of holidays, this family finds their way back together through Batman cartoons, Snapple facts, loads of furniture priced to move, and a lot of love.
MEET THE ARTIST
Iraisa Ann Reilly
Iraisa Ann Reilly is a writer, actor and educator who is half-Cuban, half-Irish and whole New Jersey. She writes bilingual plays that reflect the communities and spiritual realities that she calls home. Select full-length plays include Good Cuban Girls (Teatro del Sol, at The Arden Theatre), The Jersey Devil is a Papi Chulo (Winner, Latinx New Play Festival at La Jolla Playhouse 2023, Sol Fest 2022, Yale Drama Series Shortlist 2022, Finalist Leah Ryan Prize, KCACTF) Saturday Mourning Cartoons (Winner, Bay Area Playwright’s Festival 2022, Arkansas New Play Festival 2023, Finalist Goldberg Playwriting Prize 2022, Semifinalist Blue Ink Award 2023, Semifinalist Premiere Stages) and Miss America Pretty (Latinx Playwright’s Circle Mentorship with Migdalia Cruz, Semifinalist Blue Ink Playwriting Award 2024). She is currently under commission with the Arden Theatre Company in Philadelphia and ArtHouse Productions in Jersey City, NJ. Her plays have been developed by Theatre Exile, The New Harmony Project, The Chain Theatre, The Workshop Theatre, ARTHouse INKubator, and the Latinx Playwright’s Circle. Thanks to a Lucille Lortel Micro-grant she is currently writing a one-woman show entitled January 6th: A Celebration. A Bodega Princess remembers tradition not Insurrection. As an actor she has worked regionally and off-Broadway and is an adjunct professor of Dramatic Writing at NYU. Iraisa Ann holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU and a BA in Theatre and English from the University of Notre Dame. iraisaannreilly.com.
MEET THE CAST
Marta
Annie Henk
Annie Henk
Annie Henk is an actor, voice-over artist, and casting consultant. As an actor, she appeared at Two River in Pinkolandia. Other acting credits include regional productions of Ritu Comes Home (InterAct Theatre Company, Philadelphia); Enfrascada (Renaissance Theaterworks, Milwaukee); Adriana Sevahn’s one-woman show Taking Flight, Gladys in The Cook (Stages Repertory Theatre, Houston). NYC: Pinkolandia and other plays at INTAR, Working Theater’s La Ruta, Purple Rep, Red Fern, ReEntry with American Records, Clubbed Thumb, Mabou Mines, Nibras, Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Resonance Ensemble, Foundry Theatre, New Georges, Collaboration Town, and 52nd Street Project. Film/Web: That’s News to Me, That’s What She Said, White, East WillyB, Entre Nos. Narration: Starbound, The Madonnas of Echo Park, Sunstroke, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, and others. Member: AEA, SAG-AFTRA, proud LARKee. As a consultant, she has collaborated with casting on various projects with theaters such as Clubbed Thumb, Working Theater, and People’s Light & Theatre, and she cast the Lark’s US/Mexico Program from 2013-2015.
Jessica
Ashley Marie Ortiz
Ashley Marie Ortiz
Benny
Hiram Delgado
Hiram Delgado
HIRAM DELGADO is an actor from Carolina, Puerto Rico. He made his Broadway debut in the Tony-winning revival of Take Me Out at Second Stage and the Schoenfeld Theatre. Off-Broadway: Agnes (59E59). Regional: Williamstown Theatre Festival. TV: New Amsterdam (NBC); Prodigal Son (FOX); The Code (CBS); Madam Secretary (CBS). Film: Ties; Homesick; The Vessel. Member of Society Theatre Company. Education: MFA, NYU Graduate Acting. www.hiramdelgado.com
Marty
Reynaldo Piniella
Reynaldo Piniella
Reynaldo Piniella (he/him/his) is an actor, writer, educator, and activist from East New York, Brooklyn. He’s been seen Off-Broadway in The Death of the Last Black Man…, Venus (Signature Theatre), The Skin of Our Teeth (Theater for a New Audience), Lockdown (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater), The Space Between the Letters (The Public Theater/UTR), Terminus (NYTW Next Door). Regional work includes Baltimore Center Stage, Syracuse Stage, Sundance Theatre Lab in Morocco, the O’Neill and the Cleveland Play House. TV credits include Blue Bloods, Sneaky Pete, Flesh & Bone, Greenleaf, The Carrie Diaries, Law & Order: SVU, NYC 22, Us & Them, Louie, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Film credits include Madeline’s Madeline, Shadows, One Percent More Humid, and Broken City. He has received fellowships from TCG, NALAC, Weeksville Heritage Center, and the All Stars Project, commissions from Baltimore Center Stage and Single Carrot Theater and residencies from The Public Theater’s Shakespeare Initiative and HB Studio. His play Real Life RPG has been produced by San Diego Repertory Theatre, Pioneer Theater Guild and Shakesqueer Theater Company. His Black Doves won the Thomas Barbour award for Playwriting. Follow him @ReynaldoRey. www.reynaldopiniella.com
Yolanda
Socorro Santiago
Socorro Santiago
Socorro Santiago (she/hers/ella) performed in the Broadway production of The Bacchae at Circle in the Square Theatre and has performed Off-Broadway at The Public Theater, NYTW, Ma-Yi Theater, Ars Nova, Roundabout Theatre Company, amongst others. She produced, wrote, and performed in her play Dancing With the Dead at INTAR. Regionally, she has performed at the Sundance Theatre Lab, Long Wharf Theatre, American Conservatory Theater, Huntington Theatre (IRNE nomination), and Two River Theater, where she was last seen in Guadalupe in the Guest Room by Tony Meneses. She was in the touring company of Small Mouth Sounds, directed by Rachel Chavkin. TV/Film credits include Blue Bloods, Prodigal Son, Madame Secretary, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Law and Order: SVU, All My Children (ALMA Award for her work as Isabella Santos), All Good Things, Devil’s Advocate, Vampires vs The Bronx, Widows Dir: Steven McQueen. Ms. Santiago can currently be seen online in Clubbed Thumb’s Streaming of The Woman’s Party.
Stage Directions
Heather Velazquez
Heather Velazquez
Heather Velazquez (Boli) hails from Miami, Fl where she graduated from New World School of the Arts with a BFA in Acting and the Performing Arts. She was nominated for 2018 San Diego Critics Circle Craig Noel Award for her Outstanding featured performance as Boli in American Mariachi (The Old Globe). She makes her Two River Debut reprising Boli, a role she originated at Denver Center for The Performing Arts. Off-Broadway: Pipeline (Lincoln Center Theater), Pinkolandia (INTAR Theatre). New York/Regional Theatre: Celia and Fidel (Arena Stage); Another Word for Beauty (Goodman Theatre); The Good Book, So Go the Ghost of Mexico Part II (Sundance Theatre Labs); Worship, Rosario and The Gypsies (Theatre for the New City), Nobody Rides a Locomotive (No Mo’). Ms. Velazquez took part in the US/Mexico exchange program at The Lark for the production Mía (All Mine) and was accepted into the Labyrinth Theatre Fellowship program in 2014. TV: “Pipeline” (Live From Lincoln Center), “Blue Bloods.” Instagram @heathervelazquez
The Ice Bath
by Juan José Alfonso
Directed by Tatiana Pandiani
The locker room is a tough place for an NFL kicker—the guy on the team who scores the most points and gets the least respect. It’s even tougher when the only guy who gets what you’re going through is the person doggedly competing for the one spot on the team. Who’s going to come out on top: Buck, the homegrown hero who was born to play this sport? Or Tomás, a former fútbol player looking for his shot at redemption?
MEET THE ARTIST
Juan José Alfonso
After 20 years as a media executive, Juan Alfonso wrote his first play, An Educated Guess, based on his own experience as an immigrant to the United States. The play was developed at Steppenwolf Theatre and New York Theatre Workshop, was a featured finalist for the American Blues Theater Blue Ink Award, and premiered earlier this year at Definition Theatre in Chicago.
Juan completed his next three plays in residency at the Geffen Playhouse’s Writers’ Room program, including Middle of the World, which opened last fall at Boise Contemporary Theater and completed a five-week run at Rogue Machine Theater in Los Angeles in the spring. All his work feature protagonists who are immigrants to this country.
In his day job, Juan is a television executive. He has worked on over 25 produced shows, including the Emmy-winning American Crime from Academy Award winner John Ridley and Marvel’s Agent Carter; as well as documentaries like The Clemente Effect and L’Arbitre, winner of the United Nations prize at the New York Festivals in 2010. He serves as a producer on the upcoming Man on Fire for Netflix, and recently helped develop Gaslit, starring Julia Roberts and Sean Penn; as well as the horror-comedy Shining Vale, with Courtney Cox and Greg Kinnear.
MEET THE CAST
Tomas
Rey Lucas
Rey Lucas
Buck
Tyler Weaks
Tyler Weaks
Makayla
Renata Eastlick
Renata Eastlick
Stage Directions
Hannah Benitez
Hannah Benitez
The Hispanic/Latino/Latina/Latinx/Latine Vote
by Bernardo Cubría
Directed by José Zayas
Breaking assumptions as she breaks the fourth wall, academic Paola takes a political consulting job for THE political party (the one you’re thinking of, not the bad one, the good one, yeah that one…) to try and win over the Latino vote before the Big Election. The money’s great— as she has fertility treatments to finance, but— maybe all this chaos just isn’t worth the paycheck.
MEET THE ARTIST
Bernardo Cubría
Bernardo Cubria is a Mexican award-winning screenwriter and playwright. As a screenwriter he is developing projects with Carlos López Estrada, Endeavor Content, eOne, Broken English Productions, I Can And I Will Productions, among others. He is currently collaborating closely with Gina Rodriguez penning the feature Like It Used to Be as well as the Untitled Ryan Garcia Project, both of which Gina will star in and produce. As a playwright he has been awarded the Smith Prize for Political Theater and the BETC Generations Award, among others. His play, The Play You Want, premiered at the Road Theatre in Los Angeles in 2022 and was awarded the Generation Award by Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company in 2020. The play was also awarded the Ingenio 2020 Award for new play by a Latinx Playwright by The Milagro Theatre in Portland, Oregon. In 2019 he was nominated for best playwright at The Ovation Awards, Stage Raw Awards, and The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards for his play The Giant Void In My Soul.
MEET THE CAST
Paola
Alexandra Silber
Alexandra Silber
Kaj
Jon Bass
Jon Bass
Rebecca
Leslie Fray
Leslie Fray
Bernard
Joshua Echebiri
Joshua Echebiri
Nicola
Ariella Kvashny
Ariella Kvashny
The Hispanic/Latino/Latina/Latinx/Latine Actor
Gerry Rodriguez
Gerry Rodriguez
Stage Directions
Annie Henk
Annie Henk
Annie Henk is an actor, voice-over artist, and casting consultant. As an actor, she appeared at Two River in Pinkolandia. Other acting credits include regional productions of Ritu Comes Home (InterAct Theatre Company, Philadelphia); Enfrascada (Renaissance Theaterworks, Milwaukee); Adriana Sevahn’s one-woman show Taking Flight, Gladys in The Cook (Stages Repertory Theatre, Houston). NYC: Pinkolandia and other plays at INTAR, Working Theater’s La Ruta, Purple Rep, Red Fern, ReEntry with American Records, Clubbed Thumb, Mabou Mines, Nibras, Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Resonance Ensemble, Foundry Theatre, New Georges, Collaboration Town, and 52nd Street Project. Film/Web: That’s News to Me, That’s What She Said, White, East WillyB, Entre Nos. Narration: Starbound, The Madonnas of Echo Park, Sunstroke, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, and others. Member: AEA, SAG-AFTRA, proud LARKee. As a consultant, she has collaborated with casting on various projects with theaters such as Clubbed Thumb, Working Theater, and People’s Light & Theatre, and she cast the Lark’s US/Mexico Program from 2013-2015.
CROSSING BORDERS PARTNERS
Project Write Now
Project Write Now is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit transforming individuals, organizations, and communities through writing. Since 2014, we’ve been committed to building a vibrant writing community for youth and adults. We provide a wide range of fee-based classes, editorial services, and literary events. At the heart of our mission, our community outreach programs empower youth and adults to develop essential writing and communication skills—fostering resilience, encouraging personal growth, and supporting academic or professional success.
coLAB Arts
coLAB Arts engages artists, social advocates, and communities to create transformative new work. coLAB Arts facilitates creative conversation through innovative programs and artist infrastructure, connects artists with community partners and mentors, and executes productions that challenge perceptions and inspire action.
VOICES OF HOPE STORYTELLERS
Nathalia Garcia
Nathalia Garcia is a first-generation Brazilian-American studying English education at Georgian Court University to become a high school English teacher. When not lost in a novel, she takes several classes at Project Write Now and assists at a few of the after-school programs. Born in the spring, she used to often pick pretty flowers and, overcome with their loveliness, would pop them into her mouth and eat them! She seeks connection through poetry and what she likes to call haunted prose. These days, Nathalia can be found either on a river enjoying blooming lilies or at her home in Long Branch where she resides with a loving partner, their two cats, and 100+ houseplants.
Bethaney Clarke
Bethaney Clarke is a creative, inquisitive mind with an irredeemably human heart. She treasures a seven-year-old tattered journal that she first used to write in during her time as a teen intern-student at Project Write Now. Now, Bethaney is a teaching assistant at PWN, inviting young adults into the writing world that she was once immersed in as a student. On perfect days, Bethaney writes, frequents little free libraries in search of fun, literary finds to collect, and muses over Hamilton: The Musical (original cast.) Most days, though, she is a working student pursuing an associate in English from Brookdale Community College and talks about books on her YouTube channel @TheUnwantonLife. She hopes to be an author.
Oliver Tiro-Linares
Alexandra Santiago
Alexandra Santiago is a rising senior at Asbury Park High School. She is enrolled in the Dream Academy, which gives her the opportunity to take classes at Brookdale Community College and graduate with both her high school diploma and Associate Degree. She is a member of the National Honor Society and a teammate on her school’s volleyball team. Alexandra is a poet and was recently published in Project Write Now’s online literary journal, Bridge Ink. Besides writing, she loves sleeping in.
COMMUNITY PARTNERS
