Crossing Borders (Cruzando Fronteras) Festival
Dates and ticketsCrossing 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, Jul 31 / 2025 @ 5:00 PM
Live music provided by on the Plaza with food, fun and feasting!
The Myth of the Two Marcos
by Tony Meneses
Directed by José Zayas
When Marco meets Marco in 1997 Albuquerque, an unlikely friendship begins between two boys with the same name but vastly different personalities and outlooks on life. When they discover a mutual love of comic books, the local comic shop becomes a sanctuary for both teens as they’re introduced to an Aztec superhero who becomes their guide through a time long forgotten.
MEET THE ARTIST
Tony Meneses
Miss America Pretty
by Iraisa Ann Reilly
Directed by José Zayas
Who wants to be Miss America when you could have the whole Universe? Cristina is an Atlantic City casino worker living in the shadow of generations of pageant queens. With a scholarship and a better future for her family hanging in the balance, Cristina has one glamorous chance to prove that she deserves the crown. Steeped in memory and surrealism, Miss America Pretty examines conformity, grief, and how far we’ll go to reinvent ourselves for the sake of systems that exclude us.
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.
Disaster Preparedness
by Eliana Pipes
Directed by Taylor Reynolds
Mitigation. Preparedness. Response. Recovery. Mama and Honey like to be ready for anything. When Mama comes face to face with the Ghost of her own mother and Honey begins to think about moving on, the two women start to question their strategies. Exploring motherhood and caretaking, the third play in Pipes’ New America Cycle reminds us that there are some disasters we’ll never see coming.
MEET THE ARTIST
Eliana Pipes
ELIANA PIPES (PLAYWRIGHT) is a writer based in her hometown of Los Angeles. Her plays include Bite Me (World Premiere Off-Broadway WP Theater & Colt Coeur, published by Concord Samuel French); DREAM HOU$E (World Premiere co-production Alliance Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, and Baltimore Center Stage, published by Concord Samuel French); Hoops (World Premiere commission Milwaukee Chamber Theater, also produced with Company One Theater and Boston Playwright’s Theater). Awards include the Academy Gold Fellowship through AMPAS, Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellowship, Alliance Kendeda Prize, Leah Ryan Prize, KCACTF Harold and Mimi Steinberg Prize and Ken Ludwig Prize, Arizona Theater Center National Latine Playwrights Award, UCSD Gaffney Playwriting Prize. Her work has been developed or presented at the New York Theatre Workshop Dartmouth Residency, Playwright’s Realm Scratchpad Series, South Coast Repertory Pacific Playwright’s Festival, NNPN National New Play Showcase, Old Globe Powers New Voices Festival and more. In television, she’s written on seasons one and two of the upcoming spinoff “SPARTACUS: House of Ashur” with Starz/Lionsgate. She’s a board member for the nonprofit YoungStorytellers, and a 4th grade alum of their Script to Stage Program. BA English Literature Columbia University, MFA Playwriting Boston University. www.elianapipes.com.
Vidas Privadas
by Christina Pumariega
Directed by Eddie Torres
Celia loves Clayton. America loves Cesar. Divorcees Celia and Cesar (still) love each other. But when they all honeymoon in adjacent hotel rooms in Ibiza, the café hits the fan. Hearts and tempers flare rocketing from old world to the new, from passion to politics in a no-holds barred immigrant debate where Cesar and Celia ask if change is actually possible. A fresh, funny, Cuban reinvention of Noël Coward’s Private Lives.
MEET THE ARTIST
Christina Pumariega
Christina Pumariega acts and writes. Often simultaneously. This spring she performed in the world premiere of her play ¡VOS! at Two River Theater. ¡VOS! was developed at the Ojai Playwrights Conference and received the Edgerton Foundation New Play Award. This summer she develops VIDAS PRIVADAS, her adaptation of Noël Coward’s PRIVATE LIVES, at New York Stage & Film and TRT. She attends Hedgebrook this fall and is a 25/26 member of Center Theater Group’s LA Writers’ Workshop. Other plays include LABOR (Leah Ryan honorable mention), JOAN DARK (DCPA Summit), HARBOR GIRLS and HER MATH PLAY (EST/Sloan Grant). She is currently under commission by MTC/Sloan, DCPA and TRT. TV writing credits include Disney+ and NBC. Acting on and Off-Broadway and in television and film, Pumariega has cross examined Coach Taylor, made out with the Fly and set a Cuban pharmacy ablaze in a corset. MFA, NYU Graduate Acting Program. christinapumariega.com
Dates and tickets
Community Kick-Off Celebration
The Myth of the Two Marcos
Stories from the Heart
Miss America Pretty
Disaster Preparedness
Xol Azul Band Performance
Vidas Privadas