Cast Set for World Premiere of #GRACED by Vanessa Garcia

Zoetic Stage and the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County will present the world premiere of #GRACED by Vanessa Garcia, in collaboration with Abre Camino Collective. #GRACED runs from May 4-21, 2023 and is part of the Arsht Center's Theater Up Close series presented by PNC Bank.

Tickets to #GRACED are $55 and $60*. Tickets may be purchased at the Adrienne Arsht Center box office by calling (305) 949-6722, or online at arshtcenter.org.

Catherine is searching for something authentic as she embarks on a "Lewis-and-Clark-esque" trip across America sponsored by Monteverde Moonshine with her new lover and colleague, Lewis. Along the way, they pick up a wayward nun named Rosalie who has just gone through deep loss, meet a queer homeschooled teenager named Blake and rummage through the layers of migration and gender inequity that make up America. As Catherine travels, she comes to more questions than answers about "the real America," her own identity and what authenticity even means anymore.

#GRACED was developed with Thinking Cap Theatre, WP Theater, South Florida Theater League, and the Playwright Development program of Miami Dade Cultural Affairs. Thanks to a grant from BOLD Ventures, development toward the production culminated in NYC in December 2022 at WP Theater.

"America (prior to the 2016 election) and my life felt like it was both going through a breaking point that could either tear it up for good or lead to a new light," says playwright Vanessa Garcia. "Even the Nobel Prize Committee was leery of what American art had to offer," she continued. "What the world sees as America isn't the real America, or rather, only just a part of it," she concluded.

"Vanessa Garcia is a playwright of this moment and tomorrow. She is unafraid of colliding worlds & styles to create something abundantly fresh, vivid and intrinsically her own. #Graced is a beautiful example of Garcia's muscular approach in creating a play dynamic in reach, funny in approach and deeply relatable in result. Zoetic Stage is very honored to present Vanessa's world premiere of #Graced to the community of South Florida," says Stuart Meltzer, Founding Artistic Director of Zoetic Stage.

#GRACED features an all-local cast and stars Melissa Almaguer as Catherine; Christopher Anthony Ferrer as Lewis; Dalia Alemán as Rosalie; Sabrín Diehl as Blake; Kristian Bikic as Gianni; and Lucy Lopez as Abby, Marty, Lulu Lemon. For complete cast bios, click here.

ABOUT THE WRITER AND CO-DIRECTORS

Vanessa Garcia (Writer/Producer) is a Cuban-American multidisciplinary writer -- screenwriter, playwright, novelist, and journalist/essayist -- who has written and worked for Sesame Street, Caillou, We Are Family, and Dora the Explorer. She's the author of the novel, White Light, which won an International Latino Book Award and was one of NPRs best books of 2015. Her first Picture Book for children, What the Bread Says, launched October 2022. Theatrically, her work has been produced around the world. She's the author of The Amparo Experience, an immersive hit that People en Español called "Miami's Hottest Ticket." Other plays include: Sweet Goats & Blueberry Señoritas, which she co-wrote with Richard Blanco, and #Graced. As well as her radio play, Ich Bin Ein Berliner, about the fall of the Berlin Wall and what it meant to her. Her journalism, essays and thought pieces have appeared in The LA Times, The Guardian, The Washington Post, National Review, ESPN, The Hill, Catapult, Narrativel.ly, and numerous other publications. www.vanessagarcia.org

Victoria Collado

(Co-Director/Producer) is a Cuban-American director creating exciting and adventurous storytelling experiences on-stage, on-screen, and in your ears! Named Best Director of 2020 by the Miami New Times, Collado is well-known for her direction of the hit immersive theatre piece, The Amparo Experience written by Vanessa Garcia, which had a sold out 8-month run and named "Miami's Hottest Ticket" by People en Español. She also directed the Inaugural Anthem Award-winning digital piece Black Feminist Video Game written by Darrel Alejandro Holnes. Most recently in her film, Victoria directed the Social Media version of The Amparo Experience (@theamparoexperience) which was an honoree of the Webby Awards in 2021 and is currently working on multiple documentaries; one of which is based on the life of legendary actor, Ruben Rabasa. Victoria has directed for Repertorio Español, GableStage, WP Theatre, The Civilians, Miami New Drama, MCC Youth Company, Sheen Center, IATI theatre, Microteatro Miami, Columbia University and others. Her production El Burlador de Sevilla received various nominations from the ACE awards, and won for Outstanding Ensemble. She was a Van Lier Directing Fellow with Repertorio Español, part of the Directing Corps in the Williamstown Theatre Festival, and a recipient of the SDCF Observership. She was also a fellow a fellow of the WP Theater's 2018-2020 Lab. Victoria was the assistant director to Tony Taccone in the Tony-Award Nominated Latin History For Morons on Broadway by John Leguizamo. www.victoriacollado.com

Sarah Hughes

(Co-Director) is a New York-based director of new plays, radical adaptations, and devised work focusing on highly collaborative, genre-expanding, innately theatrical projects. Recent work includes the site-specific premiere of Galatea by MJ Kaufman in Brooklyn Bridge Park and the audioplay His Chest Is Only Skeleton by Julia Izumi for Playwrights Horizons. Sarah is an Affiliated Artist of New Georges and Target Margin Theater, was a longtime member of NYC ensemble company Elevator Repair Service, and teaches at Purchase College, Dartmouth College, and NYU. As Director of Artistic Programming at Theatre Row, she created and led the Kitchen Sink Residency for new work development. 2023 SDC Barbara Whitman Award Finalist, 2022 Mercury Store Directing Resident, 2019-2020 NNPN/O'Neill National Directors Fellow, 2018-2020 WP Theater Directing Lab Member, 2018 Clubbed Thumb Directing Fellow. Upcoming: A Woman Among Women by Julia May Jonas (The Bushwick Starr/New Georges), Lemons by Sarah Todes (Neon Caviar). www.sarahcameronhughes.com