ArtPlus Production Makes Its Debut with the Peruvian Play En el Borde

In a city where international talent competes for limited stage space, ArtPlus has positioned itself not merely as a training platform, but as a producing force. This season, the company marks a defining milestone with its first full New York production: the premiere of En el Borde, presented as part of the 18th season of the Micro Theater Festival at Teatro SEA in collaboration with Teatro LATEA. Performances take place at The Clemente Center.

At the center of the initiative is Jenny Prada, founder of ArtPlus, who leads the production through its curatorial vision and overall project development. Prada, a cultural strategy consultant based in New York and a curator and panelist at BroadwayCon, has developed ArtPlus as a platform that connects International Artists with professional opportunities in the performing arts industry. Her work has focused on mentoring emerging performers while creating structures that allow them to move from training into professional production environments.

En el Borde represents a natural extension of that model. Rather than functioning as an isolated project, the production emerges from ArtPlus’s broader process of identifying, mentoring, and positioning artists for competitive stages such as New York. In this case, the performers themselves are alumni of the ArtPlus ecosystem.

Written by the Peruvian playwright Mariana de Althaus and directed by Jorge Bazalar, En el Borde unfolds in Spanish over twenty concentrated minutes. The structure follows the Micro Theater Festival’s rotating format—multiple productions staged in succession across the evening—yet this work resists spectacle in favor of precision.

The play centers on two young adults who meet at the edge of a ravine, each confronting a private reckoning. He is a frustrated poet; she, a rock singer nursing a fractured heart. Whether the encounter alters their course is left unresolved. The central theme of the festival—“Donde te lleve el corazón”—finds in this piece a restrained, contemporary expression. The work examines distance, longing, and the fragile negotiations that occur when two lives intersect at their most vulnerable point.

At the center of the production are Alessandra Rivera and Mario Mazzotti — the show’s only performers and its principal figures on stage. Both Peruvian, Rivera and Mazzotti carry the work entirely, navigating its emotional shifts without supporting cast or secondary roles. The structure leaves no distance between performer and audience: every pause, hesitation, and turn rests squarely on their command. Their shared cultural background informs the cadence and emotional landscape of the piece, grounding it in a distinctly Peruvian artistic sensibility while remaining accessible to a broad New York audience.

Rivera, a scholarship graduate of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA), has built a performance portfolio across musical theatre and cabaret in New York, with appearances at venues including Don’t Tell Mama and The Reverie Room. She is also a member of the Latin dance company Rumbamena, featured nationally on Univisión. Performing this role in Spanish, she has noted, deepens her connection to her cultural foundation while presenting it within an international context.

Mazzotti, also a graduate of AMDA on a full scholarship, is a tenor with falsetto and training in improvisation and stage combat. His recent New York credits include performances at The Green Room 42 and a role in Far Away by Caryl Churchill at Stairwell Theatre in Brooklyn. His work moves between English-language drama and Spanish-language performance, reflecting a range that extends beyond a single theatrical tradition.

The production’s creative team also includes Peruvian designer Rodrigo Panta, who developed the graphic identity for the project. Panta collaborates closely with ArtPlus on the visual language of its productions, contributing to the consistent design line that accompanies the company’s artistic initiatives.

For ArtPlus, En el Borde represents more than a premiere. It reflects a production model built on continuity—mentorship, professional preparation, and the creation of tangible platforms where artists can present their work at a professional level.