Puerto Rico-themed One Woman Show Plays Limited Engagement in NYC

"Honor & Fidelity: The Ballad of a Borinqueneer," a multi-character solo show written and performed by stage and screen professional Tanya Perez, will be presented during a three week limited engagement in NYC at the Drilling Company Stage, January 7th-22nd.

Honor and Fidelity is a story about a woman’s journey to find her cultural identity by unraveling the history of her family’s past. Set in modern day at the San Juan boarding gate in New York’s JFK airport, the one woman play is a moving story accented with both live music performed by classical guitarist Carlos Cuestas and recorded original music by Perez’s grandfather and Puerto Rican serviceman, “Borinqueneer” Gelin Colon.

“I started doing research into my family’s background,” says Perez, “and found an album that my grandfather produced that was full of all of these Puerto Rican love songs. It was a part of his life I never knew about. I found this whole love story between my grandparents.”

The Borinqueneers—the 65th Infantry Regiment of the United States Army—was an all-volunteer Puerto Rican regiment that participated in World War I, World War II, and the Korean War; whose motto was “Honor and Fidelity.” Perez’ grandfather was a member of the 65th and a POW from the Korean War, or so she thought.

“I found out that he wasn’t actually a POW, he was one of the men who refused to go on a mission where his unit was being used as a suicide team,” recalls Perez. “He was one of about 100 men who refused to go, and was imprisoned in Japan for about six months before the Puerto Rican government demanded that they be released and pardoned.”

The play was originally performed by Perez and directed by Lorca Peress to sold out audiences at both the Downtown Urban Theatre Festival at the historic Cherry Lane Theatre and Teatro La Tea’s ONE Festival in New York City. Lorcas Peress of MultiStages will be joining the team again for the third installment of this New York run. Peress will be coming off the successful production of MultiStage’s new musical drama “Temple of the Souls.”

Honor and Fidelity is filled with humor and pathos about love, devotion to one’s country, and what it means to be Puerto Rican.

For more information about Honor and Fidelity, visit www.honorandfidelityshow.com.

All performances will be at the Drilling Company in Manhattan at 236 West 78th Street.
Further information on the Drilling Company is available at www.drillingcompany.org
Tickets are $12 and can be purchased through www.smarttix.com

Show dates:
Saturday, January 7th at 8:30pm
Sunday, January 8th at 7pm
Thursday, January 12th at 8:30pm
Friday, January 13th at 8:30pm
Thursday, January 19th at 8:30pm
Friday, January 20th at 8:30pm
Saturday, January 21st at 8:30pm

TANYA PEREZ is a working actress whose career has spanned over New York; Los Angeles; and equity stages and film and television screens in between. Some of her credits include: ‘The Judas Tree’ with MultiStages, ‘Sonia Flew’ at CATF and Laguna Playhouse, ‘Anna in the Tropics’ at Seattle Reparatory and the Maltz Jupiter Theater, Staged Readings of ‘Yellow Eyes’ at Hartford Stage, and ’Sam’s Coming’ at New York Theatre Workshop. Her Film and Television credits include ‘Law & Order,’ ‘Mickey Mouse Club,’ ‘Take Out’ by Sean Baker (Independent Spirit Award Nominee, 2009), and Hal Hartley’s ‘The Girl from Monday’ (Sundance) and will be in the new ABC Family show ‘Jane by Design’ this January. Perez’s solo performances have been produced by and performed at Om Yoga, Dixon Place, and chez LaRoe. ‘Honor & Fidelity’ has been featured at the Downtown Urban Theater Festival in the Cherry Lane Theatre, Teatro La Tea’s ONE festival and the 2011 Hollywood Fringe Festival at the ARTworks Mainstage. Her webseries, ‘Itty P & DJ Model T’s Dat’s a RAP!,’was nominated for both Best Comedy and Best Actress in a Comedy at the 2011 ITV/StayTuned TV awards and is available online www.ittypdjmodelt.com.

CARLOS CUESTAS was born in Bogota, Colombia. Cuestas is an active teacher and performer, appearing regularly as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the NYC area, and is currently completing his Master’s Degree in Performance Practice with emphasis in nineteenth century music at CUNY’s Brooklyn College. Born in Bogota, Colombia, Carlos has performed in some of the most important venues of his native city such as the Teatro Colon with the Schola Cantorum from Basil, Auditorio Leon de Greiff, Sala Otto de Greiff, among others. In the United States, Mr. Cuestas has appeared in venues such as Avery Fisher Hall, CAMI Hall, Whitman Hall, and B.A.M. Carlos has collaborated in the stage world, playing in the production “Honor and Fidelity” by Tanya Perez which participated in the Cherry Lane Theater Festival in 2008 (NYC), and in The Missing Piece Theater in Burbank, C.A. He also provided music for Puerto Rico’s celebrated poet Miguel Algarin in the legendary Newyorican Poets Café in 2009. As a teacher, Mr. Cuestas has been a T.A. in the areas of theory, history, and guitar in his Alma Mater, Nyack College.

LORCA PERESS specializes in new works. She is Co-President of the League of Professional Theatre Women, Founder/Artistic Director of the multidisciplinary and multicultural MultiStages, and teaches at NYU Tisch Strasberg Studio and Strasberg Institute. Recent credits: Temple Of The Souls (MultiStages musical drama), Fengar Gael’s Morpho-Genesis (w/ Kathryn Lang, LPTW Fest, New World Stages), And Then I Went Inside (w/Obie Winner Kathleen Chalfant, LPTW Festival, Cherry Lane); Earl Robinson‘s The Lonesome Train (w/Ruby Dee and Sam Waterston, Riverside Church Lincoln Bicentennial); Jamuna Yvette Sirker’s Hell And High Water… (MultiStages). Upcoming: two Bruce Saylor Operas, The Image Maker (world premiere), My Kinsman Major Molineaux (Queens College, May 2012). Grants/Awards: 2 MCAFs from LMCC/ DOCA, Dramatists Guild Fund, La MaMa INKY, et al. Bennington College graduate; SDC

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