LPC & Pregones/PRTT Announce Greater Good Commission Recipients

Darrel Alejandro Holnes, Latinx Playwrights Circle, and Pregones/PRTT have announced that the playwrights selected for this year's Greater Good Commission and Festival are Dominic Colón, Lily Gonzales, Tavi Juárez, Phanésia Pharel, and Andrew Rincón.

Founded by playwright Darrel Alejandro Holnes, the Greater Good's mission is to help sustain Latinx playwrights and to support their contributions to American Theater. Last year, the commission produced works by 5 Afro/Black Latina playwrights - Christin Eve Cato, Julissa Contreras, Candice D'Meza, shenny de los angeles, and Rachel Lynett. "This second round keeps us in line with our mission to foster work from the most marginalized within the Latinx community. This commission is not only a step forward for these five commissioned playwrights, but one for the Latinx, American, and LGBTQTIA+ theater community nationwide," Holnes said in a statement.

The plays will be presented at the 2021 Greater Good Theater Festival at a COVID-19 protocol-compliant screening at 730 PM, October 22nd at Puerto Rican Traveling Theater (PRTT) and at a digital screening on October 23rd on the Latinx Playwrights Circle (LPC) and Pregones Theater/PRTT websites. The plays will also be accessible via digital archives. The festival supports the playwrights with a small production budget, administrative support, casting services, and video recording and editing for the virtual festival. More information about the Commission and Festival is available on the Latinx Playwrights Circle website.

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHTS

Dominic Colón is an award-winning actor & writer, from The Bronx, New York. His play PROSPECT AVE OR THE MISEDUCATION OF JUNI RODRIGUEZ premiered as part of THE MTA RADIO PLAYS at Rattlestick Theater. Dominic's play THE WAR I KNOW, has been developed by the Latinx Playwrights Circle, and LAByrinth Theater Company as part of the 2021 Barn Series. His directing credits include: THE WAR I KNOW (LAByrinth Theater Company), Eduardo Machado's MARQUITAS (Rattlestick Theater/Pride Plays) & Episodes 4-6 of THE MTA RADIO Plays at Rattlestick Theater. Dominic's half hour television pilot PAPI, made the inaugural Latinx TV List, a curated list of the ten most promising pilots created by Latinx Writers, received a blind pilot deal from HULU. Dominic was recently selected to be a part of the inaugural cohort of the Sundance Uprise Grant. He is repped by CAA & Artists First.

Lily Gonzales is a playwright from Texas, based in NYC. Their work has been developed or read at The John F. Kennedy Center, Teatro Vivo, Repertorio Español, Stages, San Diego Rep, AlterTheater Ensemble, and The Workshop Theater. Their play (trans)formada was runner-up for three Kennedy Center awards, as well as a finalist for the Miranda Family 'Voces Latinx' Competition, and Bay Area Playwrights Festival. B.A: UT Austin, Theater & Dance / English.

Tavi ("tay-vee") Juárez is an award-winning queer Chicana playwright and performer based in New York City. Raised in the Deep South, this Cancer-Sun likes to write Southern and Latinx queer stories from a joyful perspective. She is alumni of the Alabama School of Fine Arts, the University of Montevallo, and the Circle in the Square Theatre School. In 2021, she accepted an invitation to join the Board of Directors for the International Centre for Women Playwrights (ICWP) where she now facilitates the Script Feedback Group. Her theatrical work has been produced at Dixon Place Theatre, Theatre for the New City, WOW Cafe Theatre, and the Village Playwrights in New York City.

Phanésia Pharel writes from a Caribbean feminist perspective on the divine metaphysical dilemma of colored girlhood. Through Afro-futurism her plays span revolutions, islands and combat gendered violence. She explores futures built on love by centering women's pleasure, safety and joy. During her time at Barnard College of Columbia University she won four literary prizes. Other honors include City Theatre National Short Playwriting Finalist, Jane Chambers Finalist, O'neill Semi-Finalist, Blank Stage "Future of Playwriting" Semi-Finalist, Bay Area Playwrights Festival Semi-Finalist. Commissions include City Theatre Miami and Thrown Stone Theatre. Residencies include New York Stage and Film, Echo Theater Company of Los Angeles and the Playwrights Center Core Apprenticeship. Publishing: Concord Theatricals, Smith and Kraus Best Plays of 2020, Reset Coalition 2020 Anthology and the City Theatre Anthology. Phanésia is a proud member of the Dramatist Guild of America.

Andrew Rincón is a Queer Colombian-American playwright and screenwriter. His plays have been developed with Rising Circle Theatre Collective, Amios, the Austin Latino New Play Festival, The Amoralists Theatre Company, Pork Filled Productions (Seattle), Out Front Productions (Atlanta) and The 24 Hour Plays. He was a member of INKtank Lab for Playwrights of Color (2017) and the 2017 Fornés Playwriting Workshop (Chicago). He is the winner of the 2018 Chesley/Bumbalo Grant for writers of Gay and Lesbian Theatre and the New Light New Voices Award (2019). He is a company member of Unit 52 at INTAR, a Dramatist Guild Foundation Fellow (19-20) and a MacDowell Fellow (Winter 2020), and Visiting Artist in Residence in Playwriting at Skidmore College (21-22).

ABOUT THE PRODUCERS

The Latinx Playwrights Circle started as a "pop up" Playwright Circle organized by Chicago playwrights Nancy García Loza and Isaac Gomez in October 2017. From there, the group has been spearheaded and organized by playwrights Guadalís Del Carmen (Ars Nova Resident Artist) and Oscar A. L. Cabrera (The Public Emerging Writers Group) with Janio Marrero serving as the newly appointed Executive Director. Their mission is to create a network of Latinx playwrights and nurture, uplift, and develop new plays in New York City. The group is mentored by J. Julian Christopher, Migdalia Cruz, Carmen Rivera, and Cándido Tirado.

Pregones was founded in 1979 when a group of artists led by Rosalba Rolón set out to create new works in the style of Caribbean and Latin American "colectivos" or performing ensembles. Soon established as a Bronx resident company with a home season, Pregones remains in the vanguard of an arts renaissance radiating throughout and beyond The Bronx. Spurred by stage and film icon Miriam Colón, PRTT was founded in 1967 as one of the first bilingual theater companies in all of the U.S. It is credited for nurturing the development of hundreds of Latino artists, legitimating cultural connections throughout the Spanish-speaking world, and pioneering models for community engagement. Following the merger in 2014, their New York City season plays a decisive role in empowering underrepresented artists and audiences to claim their rightful place at the front of the American theater.

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