Radio Play: Kisses Through the Glass (Besos a Través del Cristal)

RENÉ MILLÁN (he/him/his) (TREVOR) appeared on Broadway in The Wild Party, music and lyrics by Michael John LaChiusa and directed by George C. Wolfe. In seven seasons as a core acting company member of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival notable roles include Angelo in Measure for Measure,the Bastard in King John, Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet, Palo in Gibraltar, the Tiger in Tracy’s Tiger, andJuán José in American Night: The Ballad of Juán José, a role he also performed at the La Jolla Playhouse, Kirk Douglas Theatre in Los Angeles and the Yale Repertory Theatre. In 2012, René received a Beinecke Fellowship to teach Suzuki Method and acting to the students of the Yale School of Drama. Other credits include José María Heredia in Niagara: A Pan American Story by Guillermo Verdecchiafor Propeller Arts Projects in Toronto, Wahab/Nihad in Scorched at Syracuse Stage, Radu in Mad Forest at the Open Fist Theatre in Los Angeles, Rene Flores in the world premiere of Lydia at the Denver Center Theatre Company, Leonardo in Blood Wedding at The Guthrie Theater and Kansas City Rep., Great the magician in Orange Lemon Egg Canary at the Actor’s Theatre of Louisville’s Humana Festival, Arturo in By the Waters of Babylon at the Tennessee Women’s Theatre Project, Al in El Paso Blue at Off-Broadway Summer Play Festival NYC, Nino in Electricidád at the Mark Taper Forum, Magalidi in Evita for Studio Tenn. Film credits include the title role of Clay produced by Broken English Productions, In America directed by Jim Sheridan, In the Weeds, Reparations,Race with the Devil, Closer,Keep Your Distance. TV credits include Quick Draw on Hulu, 24, CSI: Miami, Chappelle’s Show, The Cue, Third Watch, Days of Our Lives. René received an MFA in Acting from the University of Washington, Seattle.

FLORENCIA LOZANO (she/her/hers) is an actor, writer and performance artist. Theatre includes: SHUTTLE, SPINDLE, NEEDLE (CLUBBED THUMB), RINSE, REPEAT (SIGNATURE), DEVIL OF CHOICE (LABYRINTH) AND SHE WOULD STAND LIKE THIS (MOVEMENT THEATRE CO), WINNERS (EST), RED DOG HOWLS (NYTW)“Lady Macduff” (SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARK), Placebo (PLAYWRIGHTS HORIZONS), PRIVILEGE (SECOND STAGE), LAST EASTER (MCC), “Where’s My Money?” (MTC/LAB), Dirty Story (LAB). TV includes: Bull, The Baker and the Beauty, Gossip Girl, Blue Bloods, Ugly Betty, Law and Order:SVU&CI, The Mysteries of Laura, Madame Secretary, Kevin Can Wait, The Blacklist and Enemy Within. “Lucia Rivera” on KEEP BREATHING “Claudia Messina” in NARCOS (both on NETFLIX) and “Tea Delgado” on ABC’s One Life to Live. Films include: LIFE AFTER YOU (which she also co-wrote and produced. Available on all streaming platforms), AMY MAKES THREE, FARAWAY EYES, THE MINISTERS, PERFECT STRANGER, and VERONIKA DECIDES TO DIE. Upcoming: CRYBABY BRIDGE. Florencia is a member of the LAByrinth Theater Company and LAB’s literary manager. Her play: underneathmybed was produced at the Rattlestick Playwrights’ Theatre and won HOLA’s (Hispanic Organization of Latino Actors) Best New Play Award in 2010. Her play BUSTED was produced by Rising Phoenix at CINO nights and her new play PAPILUCHO is currently in development. Florencia got her MFA at NYU’s Graduate Acting Program and her BA at Brown University where she studied Comparative Literature. Her parents are immigrants from Argentina.

NILO CRUZ (he/him) (PLAYWRIGHT), a Cuban-American, gained national prominence in 2003 when he won the Pulitzer Prize for drama for his play Anna in the Tropics, a Depression-era tale about migrant Cubans working in a Tampa, Fla., cigar factory, for which he also received a Steinberg Award and Tony Award nomination. He has become known for his ability to successfully weave strains of magic realism and other literary traditions into his works.

His plays include A Park in Our House; Two Sisters and a Piano; A Bicycle Country; Hortensia and the Museum of Dreams; Lorca in a Green Dress; Hurricane; Sotto Voce; Bathing in Moonlight and Hotel Desiderium.  His work has been seen at numerous theaters around the country and around the world in Canada, England, France, Australia, Germany, Belarus, Russia, Costa Rica, Colombia, Japan and Spain.

As a lyricist, he is a frequent collaborator with composer Gabriela Lena Frank. He has written the libretti for The Conquest requiem and The Last Dream of Frida and Diego, which just premiered in San Diego. Cruz also adapted Ann Patchett’s 2001 novel Bel Canto for the Lyric Opera of Chicago, with Peruvian composer Jimmy López and recently premiered the Dreamers oratorio by López at Cal Performance in Berkeley, Calif.  His musical endeavors inspired his play Exquisite Agony, about a grieving opera singer, who had performed in countless operas, but now engages in a transgressive endeavor to find fragments of her late husband, who was a composer killed in a car accident.

In the world of film, he co-wrote the screenplay Castro’s Daughter with Oscar winner Bobby Moresco and adapted his play Anna in the Tropics for Mankind Entertainment.

Cruz, who received an M.F.A. from Brown University and an honorary doctorate degree from Whittier College, has thrice previously served as a playwright-in-residence: In 2000, for the McCarter Theatre, in Princeton, N.J., in 2001 for the New Theatre in Coral Gables, Fla., which commissioned Anna in the Tropics, and 2021 at UCLA through a Hearst Foundation Grant.  Cruz has also taught drama at Yale, Brown, the University of Iowa and the University of Miami. He is a member of the New Dramatists.

LIZ DIAMOND (she/her/hers) (DIRECTOR) is the Chair of Directing at Yale School of Drama and Resident Director at Yale Repertory Theatre. Among the many productions she has directed at Yale Rep and nationally are premieres by playwrights Nilo Cruz, Marcus Gardley, Suzan-Lori Parks, Anna Deavere Smith, and Octavio Solis, and productions of classical and modern works by Stravinsky, Shakespeare, Euripides, Sophocles, Shaw, Racine, Molière, Beckett, and Brecht.  Her work has garnered OBIE awards and Connecticut Critics Circle Awards.  Liz recently adapted and directed Maia Kalman’s beloved children’s book, Max Makes a Million for the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, and is honored to serve on the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers Executive Board.

JULIA BATES (she/her) (STAGE MANAGER) is thrilled to have worked on KISSES THROUGH THE GLASS / BESOS A TRAVÉS DEL CRISTAL. Regional credits include: Mr. Burns, Romeo & Juliet, and Cyrano (Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival) Queen of the Night (Dorset Theatre Festival), Manahatta (Yale Repertory Theatre), Once Upon A One More Time (Shakespeare Theatre Company) and A Little Shakespeare: Romeo & Juliet (Two River Theater). Film/TV: 2022 NBA All-Star Weekend, MTV Unplugged: Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett, and the 2021 Golden Globes.

MIRIAM MENDOZA (she/her) (STAGE MANAGER) is an El Paso, Texas native who graduated from UT El Paso with her BFA in Stage Management (2016). Miriam then moved to Southern California where she received her MFA in Stage Management from University of California, Irvine. She continues to work as an educator and stage manager in the greater Los Angeles area and is part of the leadership team of New Swan Shakespeare Festival.

FREDERICK KENNEDY (he/him/his) (COMPOSER AND SOUND DESIGNER) is pleased to be making his debut with Two River Theater. Some recent projects include creating original music and designing sound for productions of Twelfth Night and Seize the King for Classical Theater of Harlem, with choreography by Tiffany Rea-Fisher (NY Times’ Critic Picks); overseeing audio recording and designing sound for Lincoln Center Theatre’s first ever audio play, The Forbidden City; the commission Rest, created for New York’s Ma-Yi Theater company as an online audio experience in response to life under Coronavirus lockdowns; the world premiere of Noah Diaz’s Richard & Jane & Dick & Sally at Baltimore Center Stage; Nambi E. Kelly’s Native Son, produced by the Acting Company at the Duke Theater in New York City; The Veil Widow Conspiracy, with the National Asian American Theater Company; and Suzan-Lori Parks’ Father Comes Home from the Wars, parts 1, 2, and 3, at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. In addition to theatrical design, he has worked for more than two decades as a jazz drummer, appearing on dozens of recordings and touring throughout North America and Europe, as well as to parts of South America, the Caribbean, and the South Pacific. Member United Scenic Artists, Local 829; MFA, Yale School of Drama. www.fredkennedy.org

FAN ZHANG (she/her/hers) (Sound Design)  Off-Broadway: Far Country (Atlantic Theater Company); At the Wedding( Lincoln Center Theatre); Snow in Midsummer(Classic Stage); A Kid Like Rishi ( Origin Theatre);  the Golden Age (59E59); Paris (Atlantic Theatre), Our Dear Dead Drug Lord (Second Stage & WP), Pumpgirl (Irish Rep), Suicide Forest (Ma-Yi&A.R.T), Molly Sweeney(Theatre Row), Behind the Sheet (Ensemble Studio), The Trail of the Catonsville Nine (Transport Group), Three Girls Never Learnt the Way Home (Cherry Lane), Tania In the Gateway Van (The Flea).   Regional: Sanctuary City ( Berkeley Rep; Arena Stage); Much Ado About Nothing( Shakespeare Theater Company); The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington( Steppenwolf); The Great Leap (Portland Center Stage), White Noise (Studio Theatre, D.C), Pipeline( Studio Theatre, D.C. ), Seven Guitars(Yale Rep), Redeem (Cincinnati Ballet), Revolutionist (Pittsburgh City Theatre), Red Maple (Capital Rep) Training: MFA, Yale School of Drama. www.fanzhangsound.com

MAURICIO ESCAMILLA (he/him/they) Mauricio Escamilla, MOWRI, is an Emmy-winning sonic artist, music producer, composer, percussionist and audio engineer based in Brooklyn, New York.

Education: BFA Kinetic Imaging, VCU, Richmond, Virginia. MSc Sound Design, The University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

Notable credits include: The Bandaged Place – Powerhouse and Roundabout Theatre, On the Grounds of Belonging – Long Wharf,

WILD: ACT 1 – Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, SOFT – MCC, iNegro – The New Ohio, we are continuous – Williamstown Theatre Festival.

mescamilla.com