ÉL Y ELLA to Receive Developmental Workshop at Drama Club Camp

Continuing its development of new musicals, Drama Club will host an intensive developmental workshop this summer at Drama Club Camp (Mount Vernon, Maine) for El y Ella, a new musical exploring the nuances of the immigrant experience. The workshop will bring together a cohort of artists led by the creative duo Jaime Lozano (Roja) and Florencia Cuenca (Real Women Have Curves).

This intensive workshop is a lead-up to a FREE public performance of El y Ella, at Lincoln Center's David Rubenstein Atrium, this Fall. Joining the project for this residency is the visionary director Adrian Alexander Alea, who will lead the staging and narrative architecture during the workshop. The project is a strategic partnership between Drama Club and Straighten Your Crown's Development Initiative, marking a significant investment in the future of Latine storytelling on the commercial stage.

Inspired by the true story of two Mexican artists who fall in love and move to New York on a whim, this rom-com musical explores both the exhilaration and the sacrifices of building a life through art while honoring their roots and raising their Mexican-American son. At the intersection of a love story and an immigrant journey, El y Ella blends mariachi, cumbia, ranchera, corrido, and norteña traditions in a vibrant Spanglish score, performed by four multi-instrumentalists.

"At Drama Club, we're committed to giving extraordinary artists the time, space, and support they need to create work at the highest level," said Shannon Morrison, Founding Artistic Director of Drama Club. "El y Ella is exactly the kind of musical we want to champion—deeply personal, joyfully entertaining, culturally specific, and universally relatable. By bringing Jaime, Florencia, Adrian, and the entire company together in an immersive environment, we're empowering them to accomplish in weeks what might otherwise take months, ensuring the musical reaches New York at its strongest and most commercially compelling." 

El y Ella has been developed with support from The Johnny Mercer Writers Grove at Goodspeed Musicals, the 2026 Guild Hall William P. Rayner Artist-in-Residence program, The Ground Floor at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in Berkeley, CA, and Rhinebeck Writers Retreat.

Unlike the fragmented "starts and stops" of traditional city development, this workshop utilizes the Drama Club Commercial Takeover model. The entire El y Ella team will occupy the 65-acre campus for a period of deep work, eliminating midtown friction and logistical distractions to focus entirely on the heart of the show. Joining the writers are musicians Yahir Montes, Hugo Moreno, and George Sáenz, and a creative team completed by choreographer William Carlos Angulo (The Muny's South Pacific), Mexican music producer and Lozano's long-time collaborator Demián Cantú, and cinematographer Julian Alvarez.

Biographies

Jaime Lozano is a Mexican multi-hyphenate musical theatre storyteller and activist considered by Lin-Manuel Miranda as the “next big thing” on Broadway. American Theatre Wing's Jonathan Larson Grant 2022. The Guild Hall William P. Rayner Artist-in-Residence 2026. Rhinebeck Writers Retreat 2025, 2026. Berkeley Rep's The Ground Floor Summer Residency Lab 2026. TheatreWorks Silicon Valley New Works Festival 2026. Goodspeed Opera House's Johnny Mercer Grove Writers 2025. Uncharted Concert Series Artist Residency at Greenwich House Music School 2025. Pipeline Arts Foundation winner 2025. Dramatists Guild Fellow 2024-2025. Lincoln Center Resident Artist 2023. Joe's Pub Working Group 2020-2022. The Civilians R&D Group 2020-2021. JACK Resident Artist 2021. Selected works: El Otro Oz -formerly The Yellow Brick Road- (TheaterWorksUSA and The Atlantic Theatre Company, Winner of The Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best Family Musical 2023-24), Carmen La Cubana (European Tour), Children of Salt (NYMF 2016 “Best of Fest” Production), A Never-Ending Line (Comédie Nation in Paris, France & Off-Broadway), Desaparecidas (JACK). Broadway: Real Women Have Curves (dance arrangements). Albums: “A Never-Ending Line,” “Jaime Lozano & The Familia: Songs by an Immigrant,” released by Broadway Records. “Songs by an Immigrant Vol. 2,”  “Songs by an Immigrant Vol. 3” released by Concord Theatricals Recordings. Film: “In The Heights” (orchestrations), “Tick, Tick… Boom!” (cameo in Broadway composers scene). His project “Jaime Lozano & The Familia” has performed sold-out concerts at venues such as Joe's Pub, 54 Below, The Green Room 42, Two River Theater, Sony Hall, and as part of the prestigious Lincoln Center's American Songbook Series. Currently working on Frida, The Musical, ROJA (NAMT 2025), Desaparecidas, El y Ella. With his wife, Florencia Cuenca, he co-founded The Familia, an organization created to foster community and artistic opportunities for Latine and Immigrant artists. BFA: Music & Composition, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León; MFA: NYU/Tisch, Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program (Full Tuition Scholarship); part of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. Proud member of the Dramatists Guild of America, AFM Local 802, BMI, and GRAMMY and Latin GRAMMY voting member. 

Florencia Cuenca is a Mexican immigrant actress, singer, writer, and director based in New York City.  She entered the artistic world at the age of three, acting alongside her father in stadiums and theaters throughout Mexico and the US. Back in Mexico, she is known for telenovelas such as “De que te quiero te quiero,” “Muchachitas como tú,”  and for being part of the successful Mexican musical Si Nos Dejan, the Mexican premiere of Shrek the Musical, and Selena the Musical. Her first album, “Aquí - The New Standards”, made her tour all around Mexico, Latin America, and New York City, being awarded with the Hot House Jazz Award 2016 for Best New Jazz Artist. She has performed Off-Broadway in shows such as Children of Salt (NYMF 2016 Best of Fest) and A Never-Ending Line (album available at Broadway Records). She was recently seen playing the role of Estela in the world premiere of the musical Real Women Have Curves at A.R.T and on Broadway. As a singer-songwriter, she has performed in prestigious venues such as Lincoln Center, Joe's Pub, 54 Below, MASS MoCA, Little Island, Washington Performing Arts, and others. She is also part of the project “Jaime Lozano & The Familia: Songs by an Immigrant,” recording in two albums and with concerts all around the United States and Mexico, including the prestigious Lincoln Center's American Songbook Series. Director selected credits: Desaparecidas (JACK), A Never-Ending Line (Mexico City), ROJA (NAMT, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley). SDCF Fellow '24. The Johnny Mercer Writers Grove at Goodspeed Musicals 2025. The Guild Hall William P. Rayner Artist-in-Residence 2026. Rhinebeck Writers Retreat 2026. Berkeley Rep's The Ground Floor Summer Residency Lab 2026. Her album "Broadway in Spanglish,” produced by husband and collaborator Jaime Lozano, was released by Concord Theatricals Recordings. She became the first Mexican immigrant to originate a lead role on Broadway with the musical Real Women Have Curves. She is interested in developing projects that celebrate diversity, especially women and the Latine and Hispanic community.

Adrian Alexander Alea is a Latiné director and creative producer storytelling across theater, film, and live events, driven by a deep love of crafting memorable, imaginative experiences for audiences and artists alike. He is a 2026 Drama League Directors Project recipient and Helen Hayes–nominated director for "Las Hermanas Palacios" (GALA Hispanic Theatre), his adaptation of Chekhov's "Three Sisters", set during the 1980s Miami drug wars and part of a trilogy reimagining Chekhov through the Cuban diaspora. A 2026 Guild Hall and Rhinebeck Artist-in-Residence, he is developing "El y Ella" with Jaime Lozano and Florencia Cuenca, a new musical about two Mexican artists building a life and family through art in New York. His films have been official selections at the Sundance Film Festival and Tribeca Festival, and his work has been seen or developed with The Public Theater, INTAR, The New Group, Repertorio Español, Lincoln Center Presents, NBC, Paper Mill Playhouse, New York City Center's ENCORES! and Jennifer Lopez's Las Vegas residency, "All I Have". As an educator, he has been an invited speaker and teaching artist at Yale University, Northwestern University, Columbia University, and Fordham University. He previously served as Producing Director of The New Group. He holds a BA from Columbia University and an MS from Northwestern University. Representation: Lizzy Weingold, WME. 

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