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The Women of Padilla

By Tony Meneses
Directed by Ken Rus Schmoll

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Through the power of food, faith, laughter, and each other, the women of Padilla find a way to carry on life at home while their husbands are away at war. Inspired by the heightened lyricism of the renowned playwright and poet Federico García Lorca, this beautiful new play shows us there is always a way— even through the hardest of times— to set our love free.
Lucha

WATCH

Official Trailer

CRITICAL ACCLAIM

A theatrical gem” & “extraordinary

BROADWAY WORLD

Spellbinding and genuinely moving

TALKIN’ BROADWAY

Heart-stopping,” “succinctly composed,” and “artfully staged

ASBURY PARK PRESS

MEET THE ARTISTS

THE CAST

Karina Arroyave

Karina Arroyave is best known for her role as ‘Jamey Farrell’ in the FOX TV show 24 and also appeared in 2005’s Best Picture winner Crash. Other film/TV credits include Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, Bull, Mysteries of Laura, Blue Bloods, 187, Flawless, Falling Down, Lean on Me, NYPD Blue, As the World Turns (1988–1994), Law & Order, All My Children, The Practice, Judging Amy, Chicago Hope, Touched by an Angel, and Without a Trace. Theater credits include Stephen Adly Guirgis’ Between Riverside and Crazy at Pittsburgh Public Theater, Quiara Alegria Hudes’ Water by the Spoonful  at Arden Theatre, Stephen Adly Guirgis’ Motherfucker with the Hat and Adam Bock’s Swimming in the Shallows at Kitchen Theatre, Tony Glazer’s Stain on Theater Row, José Rivera’s School of the Americas at The Public Theater, Eduardo Machado’s Once Removed at both Long Wharf and Merrimack Rep, and José Rivera’s Marisol at Louisville’s Humana Festival. She made her Broadway debut as ‘Frederica’ in Jane Bowles’ In the Summer House at the Vivian Beaumont. Recent films include The Karma Club, Lost Cat Corona, Holy Rollers, Adam, Adrift in Manhattan, and the Academy Award-qualifying short film Family on Board.

Helen Cespedes

Helen Cespedes (she/her) is a New York-based actor, writer, and teacher. Acting credits include Broadway: The Cripple of Inishmaan. Off-Broadway: Fefu and Her Friends and Timon of Athens(TFANA), Paul Swan is Dead and Gone (Civilians), The School For Scandal (Red Bull) as well as numerous regional credits. Film/TV: Law & Order; The Knick; Search Party; The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel; O Horizon (upcoming). Podcasts: Isolated Incidents and Twits in Love. Helen trained at The Juilliard School where she received the John Houseman Prize.

Jacqueline Correa

Jacqueline Correa has appeared regionally in Macbeth (Arkansas Rep), Hamlet (The Guthrie/The Acting Company), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (The Guthrie/The Acting Company), Confluence (The Guthrie Theater), On the Verge (CATF), American Tet (CATF), Macbeth (Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival). Other stage credits include: Peter Pan directed by Mark Lamos, The Cradle Song directed by Jonathan Bank, Three Sisters, Tartuffe, Heartbreak House, Much Ado About Nothing, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, and Shakespeare’s Women. Jacqueline has appeared in the film The Dog Days and holds an MFA from the Professional Theatre Training Program at the University of Delaware. A very special “thank you” to her family, friends and M, whose love and support makes it all possible. Esto es para mi nana y mi mamá.

Daniella De Jesús

Daniella De Jesús is an actor, playwright, and poet from Bushwick, Brooklyn. Television: Orange Is the New Black (Netflix), Blue Bloods (CBS). Film: Ash, Coco. NY Theater: Take Me Home (Incubator Arts Project) and The Thief Cometh (United Solo Festival), an original one-woman show, written by Daniella. Her poetry can be found in Young, Colored & Angry, Vagabond City Literary Journal, Chiflada Magazine, and the upcoming film Coco. She is a graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in Drama.

Paloma Guzmán

Paloma Guzmán Off-Broadway: Boys’ Life at Second Stage. New York: The Red Umbrella (Drama League), Restoration Comedy, Arok of Java (EPBB). Television credits include: The Good Wife, Person of Interest, Law & Order: SVU, Shades of Blue, Atlanta, The Detour, Pretty Little Liars. Film credits include: Confessions of a Shopaholic, Certainty, And So It Goes (dir. Rob Reiner). Upcoming: Broad City on Comedy Central and “Dive” campaign for Cartier. Training: Carnegie Mellon.

Keren Lugo

Keren LugoTheater credits: Scenes from Court Life (Yale Rep), Privacy (Public Theater), Our Town, Henry V (Chautauqua Theater Festival), DC-7: The Roberto Clemente Story (GALA Hispanic Theater). Puerto Rico: Volpone (Francisco Arriví Theater), The Balcony, Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It, Widows (UPR Theater). Keren was born and raised in Puerto Rico and holds an MFA from NYU’s Graduate Acting Program. Some NYU credits include Caucasian Chalk Circle; Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike; and After the Fall.

Elizabeth Ramos

Elizabeth Ramos made her Two River debut in The Women of Padilla. Off-Broadway: The Surgeon and her Daughters (Cherry Lane Theatre, dir. Adrienne Campbell-Holt); The Idea of Me (Cherry Lane Theatre, dir. Jose Zayas); and A Month in the Country (Classic Stage Company, dir. Erica Schmidt). Regional: Fade (TheaterWorks, dir. Jerry Ruíz); Deferred Action (Dallas Theater Center, dir. David Lozano); Sleep Rock Thy Brain (Actors Theatre of Louisville, dir. Amy Attaway). Previous credits include Romeo and JulietOdilia; and Sonnets for an Old Century. Training: Actors Theatre of Louisville Apprenticeship and California State University, Fullerton. Liz would like to thank Two River Theater for letting her be a part of such an extraordinary family. And to her husband, her bridge…Kenji.

Jeanine Serralles

Jeanine Serralles Selected NY credits include: Don’t You F***ing Say a Word (59E59); Gloria (Vineyard – Drama Desk nomination, Lucille Lortel nomination, Featured Actress), Verité (LCT3); Dying for It (Atlantic); The Muscles in Our Toes (Labyrinth Theater); The Jammer (Atlantic); Paris Commune (The Civilians); The Maids (Red Bull Theater); Maple and Vine(Playwrights Horizons); Stunning (LCT3); The Black Eyed (New York Theatre Workshop, Drama League nomination), Hold Please (Drama Desk nomination – Featured Actress). Selected regional credits include: Gloria (Goodman); These Paper Bullets (Yale Rep, Connecticut Critics Circle nomination – Outstanding Actress in a Play); Tartuffe (Westport Country Playhouse, Connecticut Critics Circle Award – Featured Actress). Film & TV: Cubby (upcoming); Approaching a Breakthrough (upcoming); Hot Summer Nights (upcoming); Inside Llewyn Davis; The Abolitionists; No Pay, Nudity; Two Lovers; Across the Universe; The Path;  Person of Interest; The Good Wife. MFA: Yale School of Drama.

THE CREATIVES

Playwright

Tony Meneses
Tony Meneses

Tony Meneses (Playwright) (he/him) was born in Guadalajara, Mexico and raised in Albuquerque and Dallas. His plays include Guadalupe in the Guest Room, twenty50, The Hombres, and El Borracho. He is an alum of the Soho Rep. Writer/Director Lab, Ars Nova Play Group, Sundance Institute Playwrights Retreat at Ucross Foundation, The Playwrights Realm Writing Fellowship, and Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Youngblood; his work has been previously developed at the Lark Playwrights’ Week, Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor, The Denver Center’s Colorado New Play Summit, The Old Globe’s Powers New Voices Festival, and South Coast Repertory’s Pacific Playwrights Festival and New SCRipt Series. He is a two-time recipient of The Kennedy Center Latinx Playwriting Award, is published by Dramatists Play Service and Theatrical Rights Worldwide, and has been previously commissioned by Denver Center, Two River Theater, South Coast Rep, and The Juilliard School. He is currently under commission from The Old Globe. Education: The University of Texas at Austin, Iowa Playwrights Workshop, Juilliard.

Director

Ken Rus Schmoll
Ken Rus Schmoll

Ken Rus Schmoll directed Madeleine George’s Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England and The Women of Padilla by Tony Meneses at Two River Theater. Recent credits include Annie Baker’s John at the American Conservatory Theater, a workshop of Anne Washburn’s 12-hour play The Octavia at the University of Washington School of Drama, MJ Kaufman’s Sagittarius Ponderosa for the National Asian American Theatre Company, Lucas Hnath’s Hillary and Clinton at the Philadelphia Theatre Company, and Anne Washburn’s Antlia Pneumatica at Playwrights Horizons. He is a usual suspect at New York Theatre Workshop, an affiliated artist with Clubbed Thumb, a co-mentor of the Clubbed Thumb Directing Fellowship, a three-time Sundance Theatre Institute alum, a former co-chair of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, and the recipient of two Obie Awards.

Scenic Designer

Arnulfo Maldonado
Arnulfo Maldonado

Arnulfo Maldonado is a New York City-based set and costume designer. Previously at Two River: The Women of Padilla by Tony Meneses and Madeleine George’s Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England, both with director Ken Rus Schmoll. Notable New York credits include: School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play and Charm (MCC Theater); Bull in a China Shop (Lincoln Theater Center); Twelfth Night (The Public); Kingdom Come (Roundabout); Duat and generations (Soho Rep); Caught (Play Co); Men on Boats, Iowa (Playwrights Horizons); Iphigenia in Aulis (CSC). Regional: Berkeley Rep, Center Stage, Central City Opera, Guthrie Theater, Old Globe, Olney Theatre Center, Opera Theatre of St Louis, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Williamstown Theatre Festival. Tour: Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower (Under the Radar Festival, NYUAD Arts Center, Abu Dhabi US Tour); The Magnetic Fields: 50 Song Memoir (BAM Next Wave/International tour). Mr. Maldonado is a Clubbed Thumb Affiliated Artist, a recipient of a Princess Grace Fabergé Theater Award, and a multiple-Henry Hewes Design nominee. MFA: NYU Tisch. www.arnulfomaldonado.com

Costume Designer

Oana Botez
Oana Botez

Oana Botez is an international set/costume designer for film, theater, opera, and dance. She is a Princess Grace recipient, NEA/TCG Career Development Program recipient, and has received the Barrymore Award, the Drammy Award, and was nominated for the Henry Hewes Design Award. Her designs have raised critical acclaim at BAM Next Wave, Bard SummerScape/Richard B. Fisher Center, Baryshnikov Arts Center, the David H. Koch Theater/Lincoln Center, Big Apple Circus/Lincoln Center, Classic Stage Company. Regionally: Wilma Theater, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Hartford Stage , Long Wharf, Shakespeare Theatre (DC), Berkeley Rep, ArtsEmerson, Broad Stage, MCA (Chicago), ODC, The Walker Arts Center, Peak Performances, ADI, Academy of Music, The Old Globe, Curtis Institute of Music, Cutler Majestic Theater. Internationally, Oana has worked in Romania (Bucharest National Theater, Arad National Theatre), France (Théâtre National de Chaillot, Les Subsistence, Le Quartz) and Turkey (International Festival of Contemporary Theater), Peru, Germany, Italy, Singapore and United Kingdom. She has been teaching costume design at MIT. www.oanabotez.com

Lighting Designer

Yuki Nakase
Yuki Nakase

Yuki Nakase previously at Two River Theater: Thornton Wilder’s The Bridge of San Luis Rey adapted for the stage by David Greenspan and directed by Ken Rus Schmoll, Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest directed by Michael Cumpsty, and Tony Meneses’ The Women of Padilla directed by Ken Rus Schmoll. Recent design credits include Tiny Beautiful Things (Long Wharf Theatre), Hope (Wild Project), Queen of Basel (Colony Theatre), The Hartt School Dance Division Fall Concert (University of Hartford). Next: Triptych: Eyes of One on Another (LA Phil, University Musical Society, Kennedy Center and BAM). She was born in Tokyo, grew up in Kyoto, Japan and currently lives north of NYC in the woods.  B.A. in Dance: JWCPE, M.F.A. in Lighting Design: NYU. For more information, visit http://yukinakase.com

Sound Designer

Jane Shaw
Jane Shaw

Jane Shaw previously designed El Coquí Espectacular and the Bottle of Doom, The Women of Padilla, Lives of Reason, Guadalupe in the Guest Room and Pinkolandia at Two River Theater. New York credits include I Was Most Alive with You (Playwrights Horizons); Actually (MTC, Williamstown Theatre Festival); Measure for Measure (Theatre for a New Audience); Ironbound (Rattlestick/Women’s Project); En el tiempo de las Mariposas (Repertorio Español) and 30 productions with the Mint. Regional credits include The Royale  (Cleveland Play House); Caroline, or Change (Tantrum Theater); Rear Window, Breath and Imagination (Hartford Stage); They Promised Her the Moon (Old Globe) and productions at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Mark Taper Forum, ACT, and with the Shakespeare Theatre Company. Next: Annie Get Your Gun at Bay Street, Into the Breeches at Cleveland Play House. Recognition: Bessie Award, Henry Award, Drama Desk, Premios ACE 2012, two Connecticut Critics Circle Awards, Meet the Composer grant, Theatre Communications Group’s Career Development Program, and nominations for three Lortels, Henry Hewes and Elliot Norton Awards. She was born in Kansas and lives in Brooklyn.

Puppet Designer

James Ortiz
James Ortiz

James Ortiz (Puppet Design and Direction) Ortiz’s recent creation of Milky White for the Broadway revival of Into the Woods and the Dinosaurs for Lincoln Center’s Tony-nominated Skin of Our Teeth have become fan favorites. Recently: Disney’s Hercules. Previous credits include: The Kennedy Center, Paper Mill Playhouse, The Public Theater, Carnegie Melon University, Dallas Theatre Center, Shakespeare Theatre of DC, Ars Nova, and New World Stages. 2022 Drama Desk winner for Skin of our Teeth. 2016 OBIE winner for The Woodsman. American Theatre magazine “Six Theatre Workers you Should Know” in 2020. www.Jamesortiz.co

 

 

 

Puppet Director

Will Gallacher
Will Gallacher

Will Gallacher Film/TV: Winter Rye (winner, Garden State Film Festival, dir. Victoria DeMartin), A Crime to Remember (Investigation Discovery). Theater: The Woodsman, On the Head of a Pin (Strangemen & Co.), Twelfth Night (Libra Theater Co.), Henry V and The School for Husbands (NY Classical Theatre), Associations of Hip (Overturn Theater Ensemble). He comes from Rochester, NY, via SUNY Purchase Conservatory.

Casting

Heidi Griffiths
Heidi Griffiths

Heidi Griffiths has worked for more than 25 years at the Joseph Papp Public Theater in NYC, where she has cast over 200 productions Off-Broadway and at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, including Shakespeare, new plays, and musicals. On Broadway: The Girl From The North Country; The Inheritance; The Iceman Cometh; Sweat; Shuffle Along; The Crucible, Eclipsed; A Delicate Balance; A Raisin in the Sun; Lucky Guy; Chinglish; The Motherf**ker with the Hat; The Merchant of Venice; Hair; Passing Strange; Caroline, or Change; Take Me Out (Tony Award, Best Play 2003); Topdog/Underdog (Pulitzer Prize, 2002); The Wild Party; Bring in ’Da Noise, Bring in ’Da Funk; On the Town; and The Tempest. She also cast the films The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love, MURDER and murder, Saving Face and Ladybird. Radio Golf is her 12th collaboration with Two River Theater.

Kate Murray
Kate Murray

Two River Theater: TheoKing Hedley IIThe Importance of Being EarnestThe Women of Padilla, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Seven GuitarsYour Blues Ain’t Sweet Like Mine, and The School for Wives. Broadway (as Casting Associate): The CrucibleA View from the Bridge, A Delicate Balance, A Raisin in the SunLucky Guy (Casting Assistant). Additional casting credits include work with Arena Stage, Center Theater Group, The Cherry Lane, Bedlam, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, LAByrinth, New Georges, TheaterWorks Hartford, and The Studio TheatreKate is a Casting Director at The Public Theater.

Production Stage Manager

Alison Hassman
Alison Hassman

Alison Hassman Two River: Ropes, Pinkolandia, Crossing Borders Festival. New York: Hamilton, The Nutcracker (New York City Ballet, Lincoln Center), Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Cherry Lane, Westside Theatre, 59E59, the York, 24 Hour Play Company. Regional: McCarter, Theater Horizon, Trinity Rep, Bristol Riverside, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Premiere Stages, Philadelphia Theatre Company. Huge gratitude to Jean and Nicole. As always, for CW and AS.

PHOTOS

Dates and tickets

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