The Sol Project Announces Three New Commissioned Works as Part of PLAY AT HOME

The Sol Project, the national theater initiative dedicated to amplifying Latinx voices and building a body of work for the new American theater, has announced three newly commissioned short plays: Soñar es luchar by Virginia Grise (blu), the human is sad; let's start a band by juliany taveras (SYZYGY, OR THE CEASING OF THE SUN), and Magic Garden by Candido Tirado (Fish Men). Commissioned by The Sol Project for Play at Home, a new national play initiative launched this past April, the plays are available now for audiences to download, read and perform at home for free at playathome.org.

The Sol Project's Associate Artistic Director David Mendizabal shared, "We're honored to join the Play At Home initiative and support the work of three incredible Latinx artists working at the intersection of art, activism, identity and social justice. These plays center joy, resistance and connection which are so needed as part of the greater movement towards equity, justice and healing."

The Sol Project joins 23 other theatres across the country offering direct support to artists in need during the COVID-19 health crisis. Each theatre has commissioned playwrights to write ten-minute plays under the assumption that these will be read alone or aloud with loved ones, but never produced, allowing these playwrights to dream big and write joyful plays that may contain elements that could not be reproduced for the stage. Since its inception, 24 partner theatres have commissioned 100 playwrights through Play at Home, ensuring that $50,000 has gone directly to artists in need.

The Sol Project's commissioned works include:

Soñar es luchar

Written by Virginia Grise

A lucid dream. About a broken heart, wild fires, urban rebellions and the longing to fly. Set in a cotton field in South Texas.

From panzas to prisons, from street theatre to large-scale multimedia performances, from princess to chafa - Virginia Grise writes plays that are set in bars without windows, barrio rooftops, and lesbian bedrooms. Her published work includes Your Healing is Killing Me (Plays Inverse Press), blu (Yale University Press), The Panza Monologues co-written with Irma Mayorga (University of Texas Press) and an edited volume of Zapatista communiqués titled Conversations with Don Durito (Autonomedia Press). Virginia is a recipient of the Yale Drama Award, Whiting Writers' Award, the Princess Grace Award in Theatre Directing, and the Playwrights' Center's Jerome Fellowship. She is an alum of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab & the Women's Project Theatre Lab.

In addition to plays, she has created a body of work that is interdisciplinary and includes multimedia performance, dance theater, performance installations, guerilla theater, site specific interventions, and community gatherings. As a curator, artist and activist she has facilitated organizing efforts amongst women, immigrant, Chicano, working class and queer youth. Virginia has taught writing for performance at the university level, as a public school teacher, in community centers, women's prisons and in the juvenile correction system. She holds an MFA in Writing for Performance from the California Institute of the Arts. www.virginiagrise.com.

the human is sad; let's start a band

Written by juliany taveras

in a sunny apartment on lenape land, the days are getting longer, but the human is getting sadder. the plants, however, are thriving-& they want to share the wealth. as the sun rises overhead, six (or more!) voices come together to reflect on what they're witnessing & generate a little joy.

juliany taveras is a dominican-american writer, theatre-maker, & arts educator from Brooklyn. they love writing plays-among them Desarrollo (The Lark's Playwrights' Week, Corkscrew Theater Festival), the anatomy of light (Kilroys' List, 50 Playwrights Project List), and YAELIS (Crashbox Theater Company)-as well as capturing poems & photographs. juliany is grateful to collaborate with NYC youth as an absurdly enthusiastic teaching artist, while continuing to develop their own work about/for bodies in diaspora. www.julianytaveras.com.

Magic Garden

Written by Cándido Tirado

Ramon has created a perfect farm (world) in his Brooklyn walk up apartment. Farm animals and fruit trees and the Sun welcome him every morning in this magical world. But when quarantine ends will his imaginary characters survive?

Cándido Tirado is the author of numerous plays including Fish Men, which was originally produced by Chicago's Goodman Theatre (in collaboration with Teatro Vista) where it received four Jeff Award nominations and won the Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award and New York Foundation for the Arts Award for playwriting as well as being nominated for the Steinberg ATCA Award. Celia: The Life and Music of Celia Cruz - co-written with Carmen Rivera - (New World Stages/NYC; Athenaeum/Chicago; Bellas Artes/Santurce, Puerto Rico); Momma's Boyz (Teatro Vista/Chicago, Spanish Repertory/New York, Ateneo/Puerto Rico, "NYFA" Fellowship, chosen Chicago Top Ten plays in 2011 by the Huffington Post); The Barber Shop (Spanish Repertory); King Without A Castle (Puerto Rican Traveling Theater (P.R.T.T.)/Sundance Institute Theater Lab./"NYFA" Fellowship); First Class, Checking Out (P.R.T.T.); Some People Have All The Luck (National Theater of Dominican Republic); Salsa Nights (Latino Experimental Fantastic Theater); The Kid Next Door ("NYFA" Fellowship).

Other Plays: Two Diamonds, When Nature Calls, Abuelo, The Missing Colors of the Rainbow, Hey There Black Cat, And the Pursuit of Happiness, La Cancion (Spanish Repertory commission), and Palladium and House of Souls, both co-written.

He was also a staff writer for the hit web series East WillyB. Co-founder of Educational Plays Productions with his wife Carmen Rivera, which tours public schools with socially relevant plays for youth. www.candidotirado.com.