Latiné Musical Theatre Lab and California State University Present Workshops of THE BOYS AND THE NUNS!

The Latiné Musical Theatre Lab, a home for developing and advocating for new works of latiné-written musical theatre, and the theatre department at California State University Fullerton have announced the development of Sandra Delgado and Michael McBride's new musical, "The Boys and The Nuns." The partnership is supported through robust funding provided by CSU Hispanic-Serving Institution Community Grants, and will include a reading of the show from April 24th through May 6th, 2023, and a workshop in Fall 2023 on the campus of California State University Fullerton.

"The Boys and the Nuns" is a new musical with book by Sandra Delgado, and music and lyrics by Michael McBride. In 1986, a group of LGBTQ activists from Chicago's "Boystown" are weary-they have been fighting City Hall to pass the "Gay Rights Ordinance" since 1972. Enter a group of Catholic Sisters who band together with the activists while embroiled in their own fight for equal rights within the church. And in the middle, Pablo, a musician, is searching for his place in the world. Inspired by true events, The Boys and the Nuns is an examination of identity, belonging and faith woven together with music of the 80s, from Spanish language power ballads to synthy new wave to Chicago's home grown house music.

Cal State Fullerton's Theatre Department was generously awarded $122,417 which will be used towards partnering with Latiné Musical Theatre Lab on a year-long development process of the show. The California State University HSI (Hispanic-Serving Institution) Community Grants were announced as part of the CSU-wide initiative of the Global HSI Equity Innovation Hub (EIH) through financial support from Apple. Recipients of the grants were selected based on their proposals to accelerate educational equity and innovation.

"We're thrilled to partner with the theatre department at Cal State Fullerton to develop Sandra and Michael's exciting new musical", states the Lab's Founder and Executive Director, Ryan Morales Green. "By partnering with institutions and grantors like this, we're able to make a huge impact in the lives and careers of our storytellers as we continue on our mission to create space in the musical theatre industry for Latiné-written musicals."

"We have the potential to truly impact how we as institutions meet the needs of tomorrow's industries," said Erika D. Beck, president of California State University, Northridge, where the
Global HSI Equity Innovation Hub is based. "Today's investment in innovative programming,
with a special lens focused on educational equity for minoritized and underserved groups at HSIs - Latinx, Black, APIDA (Asian Pacific Islander Desi American) and indigenous
communities, ensures that we enable the potential of our students across our richly diverse community and elevate opportunities for all students to be leaders in their fields. With a bold call comes a bold vision, and I am proud to work with my CSU colleagues in leading the nation in this work," Beck said.

"Since taking my position at CSUF - a federally designated 'Hispanic Serving Institution' - I have been actively searching for opportunities to live up to that appellation. How does the Musical Theatre area, specifically, serve the Hispanic community?" asked Josh Grisetti, the Head of the Musical Theatre BFA Program at CSUF and primary grant writer. "This HSI Community Grant from CSUN and Apple was the perfect solution, and I'm thrilled to have found such strong creative partnership with the Latiné Musical Theatre Lab to make this project a reality. The world desperately needs new stories, new perspectives, and new voices to raise onto the 21st Century American stage. Rather than wait for Broadway to produce such new content, we're going to help build it from the ground up."

The first phase of the development of "The Boys and the Nuns" includes a 29-hour style reading of the current script and score, directed by Jonny Martinez, on the campus of California State University Fullerton from April 24th through May 5th, with a presentation on May 6th. The second part of the collaboration is a full workshop of the show at California State Fullerton in Fall 2023.

The Latiné Musical Theatre Lab is an organization that develops and advocates for new Latiné-written works of musical theatre in order to radically change who gets to tell musical stories on stages across the country. Our mission is to champion Latin musical theatre on a wide scale and increase equity for Latin artists in a field that hasn't made space for them (while the Latiné population in the United States quickly approaches 20%, Latin artist representation on New York stages continues to sit around 3%.) Founded in November 2021 by Founder and Producing Artistic Director, Ryan Morales Green, the Lab has helped in the development of over 30 new musicals in its first year and half, all at no cost to its writers.

To learn more about the Lab, its mission, or to make a tax-deductible donation to help the Lab run its free programs for Latin writers, please visit www.latinemtlab.org.

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