LOS NUTCRACKERS to Return to BAAD! For 20th Year at The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance

BAAD! The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance will present Los Nutcrackers: A Christmas Carajo, written by Charles Rice-González and directed by Chris Rivera. This year marks the play's 20th year at BAAD!, and the first time that Rivera helms the work. The play interweaves two holiday classics, The Nutcracker and A Christmas Carol To create a queer, Latinx play about a couple who go on a psychedelic trip through their lives one Christmas Eve. In-person performances are on December 2, 7, 8, 9, 15, and 16 at 8 pm, with an additional matinee performance on December 9th at 3 pm. All in-person performances are at BAAD!, 2474 Westchester Avenue in the Westchester Square section of the Bronx. Tickets are $25 for in-person performances and $15 for virtual performances that will be simultaneously broadcast only on December 8 and 16 at 8 pm (ET).  To purchase tickets, visit www.LosNutz.BAADBronx.org. BAAD! can be reached via the #6 train to Westchester Square or Zerega Avenue. Call 718-918-2110 for more information.

The play features a talented and vibrant cast of Latinx actors. In addition to Chris Rivera, Joe Perez returns to the production for his second time since 2021. New cast members include Danny Borba, Sijean González, Richard Rivera and Ansi Rodríguez.

Charles Rice-González has written several plays including Pink Jesus, The Artist and I Just Love Andy Gibb published in Blacktino Queer Performance: A Critical Anthology (Duke Press) and produced at Pregones Theater. His lauded debut novel, Chulito, is about a 16-year-old, Latino tough boy coming out in the South Bronx, and he co-edited the anthology From Macho to Mariposa: New Gay Latino Fiction. He has published over two dozen works and has won several awards including the 2014 Emerging Writers Award from the Lambda Literary Foundation, the 2022 PEN America Writing as Activism Fellowship, and a 2022 MacDowell Fellowship where he was named a James Baldwin fellow. He received an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College.

With a background at the Tony award-winning Alley Theatre in Texas, Chris Rivera excels as a director, internationally produced playwright, award-winning actor, and educator at the New York Film Academy. In New York he has directed Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, and Dog Sees God for What Dreams May Company and Queens Shakespeare. Rivera also directed Chasing Heroes for Two Cherry productions, and his own original plays Our Own Odyssey and Back to You with FUERZAfest. His production company, Turn to Flesh Productions, has produced several one-act plays for The Secret Theater, the Midtown International Festival, and Manhattan Repertory, and recently a few film projects. Rivera appeared in Los Nutcrackers in 2021 and will also perform in this year's production.

About BAAD!:

The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD!) is a nationally recognized arts organization co-founded in 1998 by award-winning dancer/choreographer Arthur Avilés and writer/activist Charles Rice-Gonzalez. Through its arts programming, BAAD! presents cutting-edge works in dance and all creative disciplines that bring a queer perspective to the socio-political/cultural dialogue of The Bronx and New York City to empower women, people of color and the LGBTQ+ community. BAAD! is home to Arthur Aviles Typical Theatre and the AATT Academy. In 2013, BAAD! moved from Hunts Point to Westchester Square and in December 2023 marks 25 years of being BAAD!

BAAD! receives support from The Ford Foundation, The Howard Gilman Foundation, The Mellon Foundation, The NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, The SHS Foundation, The Mertz Gilmore Foundation, The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, The Mosaic Fund, The Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, The New York State Council on the Arts, The Jerome Foundation, The Robbins Foundation, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, The John and Jody Arnhold Foundation and private donations. TransVisionaries, Courageous Conversations and Los Nutcrackers are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the New York City Council.

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