Sin Muros: A Latinx Theater Festival

6:00 p.m.
El Estreno (The Opening)
Albert and Ethel Herzstein Lobby

Free to attend!

The Premio Puente (Bridge Award) will be awarded to an individual or organization who has demonstrated great skill, talent, drive and care in serving the Latinx art community in the Houston area. Recipients are honored with a one of a kind award created just for them by renowned artist Joseph Blanchard. The evening will also feature a special guest performance by Sara Elisa Villa and Her Band.

7:30 p.m.
Escobar’s Hippo by Franky D. Gonzalez
Rochelle and Max Levit Stage

Individual tickets available here for $5. Festival pass to all live readings for $10.

A Colombian town along the Magdalena River plunges into chaos after a flatulent, destructive, easily offended, and adventurous hippo comes to town and wreaks havoc. The crisis worsens when people begin transforming into hippos themselves causing, not only chaos, but the beginnings of a revolution where humans are trampled by these new Hipposapiens. As this shifting of civilization unfolds, three friends try to figure out how to deal with the transforming population and solve the connection between the hippos and a notorious drug lord.

9:00 p.m.
Q&A with Escobar’s Hippo playwright Franky D. Gonzalez

6:00 p.m.
Live performance by Sara Elisa Villa and Her Band
Albert and Ethel Herzstein Lobby

Free to attend!

7:00 p.m.
Aniana del Mar Jumps In by Jasminne Mendez and Rosarito Rodríguez-González
Rochelle and Max Levit Stage

Individual tickets available here for $5. Festival pass to all live readings for $10.

Thirteen-year-old Aniana del Mar belongs in the water like a dolphin belongs to the sea. But she and Papi keep her swim practices and meets hidden from Mami, who has never recovered from losing someone she loves to the water years ago. That is, until the day Ani’s stiffness and swollen joints mean she can no longer get out of bed, and Ani and Papi are forced to reveal the truth. Mami forbids her from returning to the water, but when Ani is diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis, her physical therapist suggests that swimming along with medication will help Ani manage her disease. With the support of her best friend, Maria Teresa, and the guidance of her godmother, Madrina, Ani finds the strength to go for what she wants even if it means disappointing the ones she loves. Aniana Del Mar Jumps In is theatre for young audiences play about chronic illness and disability, bodily autonomy, the secrets between mothers and daughters, the harm we do to the ones we love the most—and all the triumphs, big and small, that keep us afloat.

8:30 p.m.
Q&A with Aniana del Mar Jumps In playwrights Jasminne Mendez and Rosarito Rodríguez-González

9:00 a.m.–11:00 a.m.
Educator’s Workshop with Nina Garcia
Embracing Individual Culture Islands: A Drama Therapist’s Approach to Empowering Vibrantly Diverse Classrooms
The Meadows Boardroom

RSVP here to reserve your place in this workshop.

This experiential workshop invites educators to explore the idea of “individual culture islands” as a way to empower vibrantly diverse classrooms. The two-hour workshop, led by drama therapist, former high school teacher, and fine arts department chair Nina Garcia, focuses on playfully engaging participants’ thoughts, feelings and behaviors around individual culture, with both personal and professional examples to explore. Participants will be introduced to empowerment tools such as the empowerment spectrum; differentiating between powered and empowered dynamics; and using individual culture islands to empower students, staff and the school system at large.

About Nina
Drama Therapist and Licensed Professional Counselor Nina Garcia empowers people to move beyond trauma and own their truth without invalidating themselves or others. In both one-to-one and group sessions, Nina helps people stop masking parts of who they are for other people’s comfort and start showing up as their most vibrant self. When not seeing clients in her private practice, Nina hosts the podcast “Empowered Human with Nina Garcia” and engages in sober-community initiatives as a proud Houstonian. Learn more about Nina on Instagram @DramaTherapistNina.

11:00 a.m.–7:45 p.m.
Arts Market
Albert and Ethel Herzstein Lobby
The Edmundson Gallery
Brown Foundation Lawn

Free to attend!

Local vendors, artisans, food trucks, and non-profit organizations from the Greater Houston community will be present throughout the day. Come visit with TEATRX, Texas Salsa Congress, Kindred Stories, Barrio Antiguo Designs and more!

11:00 a.m.
Escobar’s Hippo by Franky D. Gonzalez
Rochelle and Max Levit Stage

Individual tickets available here for $5. Festival pass to all live readings for $10.

A Colombian town along the Magdalena River plunges into chaos after a flatulent, destructive, easily offended, and adventurous hippo comes to town and wreaks havoc. The crisis worsens when people begin transforming into hippos themselves causing not only chaos, but the beginnings of a revolution where humans are trampled by these new Hipposapiens. As this shifting of civilization unfolds, three friends try to figure out how to deal with the transforming population and solve the connection between the hippos and a notorious drug lord.

2:00 p.m.
Aniana del Mar Jumps In by Jasminne Mendez and Rosarito Rodríguez-González
Rochelle and Max Levit Stage

Individual tickets available here for $5. Festival pass to all live readings for $10.

Thirtee- year-old Aniana del Mar belongs in the water like a dolphin belongs to the sea. But she and Papi keep her swim practices and meets hidden from Mami, who has never recovered from losing someone she loves to the water years ago. That is, until the day Ani’s stiffness and swollen joints mean she can no longer get out of bed, and Ani and Papi are forced to reveal the truth. Mami forbids her from returning to the water, but when Ani is diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis, her physical therapist suggests that swimming along with medication will help Ani manage her disease. With the support of her best friend, Maria Teresa, and the guidance of her godmother, Madrina, Ani finds the strength to go for what she wants even if it means disappointing the ones she loves. Aniana Del Mar Jumps In is theatre for young audiences play about chronic illness and disability, bodily autonomy, the secrets between mothers and daughters, the harm we do to the ones we love the most—and all the triumphs, big and small, that keep us afloat.

4:00 p.m.
Live performance by Segundo Barrio Children’s Chorus
Albert and Ethel Herzstein Lobby

Free to attend!

7:00 p.m.
that drive thru monterey by matthew paul olmos
Rochelle and Max Levit Stage

Individual tickets available here for $5. Festival pass to all live readings for $10.

Inspired by the life of the playwright’s mother. The story of a Mexican-American woman in 1971 Los Angeles as she experiences a first, nerdy love. Throughout the courtship, she experiences mysterious premonitions of what lies ahead in her life and how the ever-present machismo will ultimately bring her heartbreak as it gets passed down from fathers to sons; generation to generation.

11:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m.
Community Writer’s Workshop with Diego Lanao
Finding Your Voice within Your Story
Hosted by Tintero Projects
The Meadows Boardroom

RSVP here to reserve your place in this workshop.

Everyone has lived an eventful life, but rarely do we see it from our own lens. This public, free workshop provides perspective on the emotional and engaging moments that can be found within your story—and those with which an audience can relate.

2:00 p.m.
that drive thru monterey by matthew paul olmos
Rochelle and Max Levit Stage

Individual tickets available here for $5. Festival pass to all live readings for $10.

Inspired by the life of the playwright’s mother. The story of a Mexican-American woman in 1971 Los Angeles as she experiences a first, nerdy love. Throughout the courtship, she experiences mysterious premonitions of what lies ahead in her life and how the ever-present machismo will ultimately bring her heartbreak as it gets passed down from fathers to sons; generation to generation.

2:00 p.m.
Waitin’ for Gato by Diego Lanao
Virtual

Three distinct Latino men attempt to enter a South Bronx nightclub to watch the legendary reggaeton artist Serio Loco perform live. However, the hostess and guardian of the nightclub refuses to let them in… unless they find Gato and convince him to come inside the club.

This free virtual reading will be broadcast live on Stages’ YouTube channel and remain accessible through June 2024 to be enjoyed all over the world.

Watch Waitin’ for Gato live on YouTube

4:00 p.m.
Q&A with that drive thru monterey playwright matthew paul olmos

4:30 p.m.–6:00 p.m.: El Reposo – The Closing Ceremony
Albert and Ethel Herzstein Lobby

2022 Premio Puente winner, Ruby Rivera, and the Texas Salsa Congress will lead our community in bidding farewell to the festival with dance.

A Colombian town along the Magdalena River plunges into chaos after a flatulent, destructive, easily offended, and adventurous hippo comes to town and wreaks havoc. The crisis worsens when people begin transforming into hippos themselves causing not only chaos, but the beginnings of a revolution where humans are trampled by these new Hipposapiens. As this shifting of civilization unfolds, three friends try to figure out how to deal with the transforming population and solve the connection between the hippos and a notorious drug lord.

Franky D. Gonzalez is a Latino playwright and TV writer based in Dallas. Nationally, his work has appeared with The Lark, the Sundance Institute, the Ojai Playwrights Conference, Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s Ground Floor, NNPN, the Latinx Playwrights Circle, the Texas State University’s Black and Latino Playwrights Celebration, The Sol Project (SolFest 2022), Urbanite Theatre, the Great Plains Theatre Conference, the Goodman Theatre (Live @ Five Series), UC Santa Barbara, The New Harmony Project, Read more at Stageshouston.com/SinMuros Bishop Arts Theatre Center, Repertorio Español, LAByrinth Theater Company, Ars Nova (ANT Fest 2021), Dallas Theater Center, the William Inge Theatre Festival, Austin Latinx New Play Festival, Stages Repertory Theatre’s Sin Muros Latinx Theatre Festival, the Latino Theatre Company’s RE:Encuentro 2021: National Virtual Latina/o/x Theatre Festival, the Latinx Theatre Commons 2022 Comedy Carnaval, Seven Devils New Play Foundry, the HBMG Foundation, Tofte Lake Center, Ignition Arts, Play4Keeps Podcast, the Antaeus Playwrights Lab, Clamour Theatre Company, Ammunition Theater Company, Greenway Court Theatre, the Cloud Factory, The Mid-America Theatre Conference, The Midwest Dramatists Conference, and the One-Minute Play Festival. Franky was a recipient of the Charles Rowan Beye New Play Commission, an MTC/Sloan Commission, the Risk Theatre Modern Tragedy Prize, co-recipient of the MetLife Nuestras Voces Latino Playwriting Award, won the Crossroads Project Diverse Voices Playwriting Initiative Award, the Judith Royer Award for Excellence in Playwriting. Most recently Franky was named the 4 Seasons Resident Playwright, a Sony Pictures Television Diverse Writers Program Fellow, the Bishop Arts Theatre Center Playwright-in-Residence, and a Core Writer with the Playwrights Center.

Thirteen-year-old Aniana del Mar belongs in the water like a dolphin belongs to the sea. But she and Papi keep her swim practices and meets hidden from Mami, who has never recovered from losing someone she loves to the water years ago. That is, until the day Ani’s stiffness and swollen joints mean she can no longer get out of bed, and Ani and Papi are forced to reveal the truth. Mami forbids her from returning to the water, but when Ani is diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis, her physical therapist suggests that swimming along with medication will help Ani manage her disease. With the support of her best friend, Maria Teresa, and the guidance of her godmother, Madrina, Ani finds the strength to go for what she wants even if it means disappointing the ones she loves. Aniana Del Mar Jumps In is theatre for young audiences play about chronic illness and disability, bodily autonomy, the secrets between mothers and daughters, the harm we do to the ones we love the most—and all the triumphs, big and small, that keep us afloat.

Jasminne Mendez is a Dominican-American award winning author, poet, playwright, translator, director and actress. Mendez is the author of multiple books for children and adults. Her plays include the one-act Chronic Brevity which received a staged reading at The Globe Theatre’s New Playwrights Festival in Odessa, TX and her play in verse City Without Altar which was selected as part of Stages 2019 Sin Muros Latinx Theatre Festival, received a National New Playwrights Network Bridge Program grant in 2021 and had its world premier at Milagro Theatre, Portland, OR in 2022. She has performed in venues across Houston including Stages, the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, Talento Bilingue de Houston and others. She has also translated a libretto for the Houston Grand Opera. She is an MFA graduate of the creative writing program at the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University and a University of Houston alumni. Based in Houston, she is co-founder of the Latinx literary arts organization Tintero Projects and co-host of Inkwell, a poetry and writing podcast series.

Rosarito Rodríguez-González was born and reared in Bayamón, Puerto Rico. She is Associate Professor of Theatre and Theatre Area Coordinator at Texas Southern University working towards a PhD in Hispanic Literature from University of Houston, an MFA in Media and Performing Arts from Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia, and a BFA in Theatre Education from University of Puerto Rico in Río Piedras. Rosarito’s research focuses on children and young adult literature with Afro-Latina protagonists written by Caribbean women in the United States

She is a member of Actor’s Equity Association and Texas Educational Theatre Association. Her stage credits include, Stages: Panto Alicia in Wonderland (Mom/Red Queen), Sin Muros: parts per million and prophets (Lupe). Main Street Theatre: 26 Miles (Beatriz), The House of the Spirits (Tránsito). TEATRX: La Ley de la Vida (Lilia), Volé (Nuria). TBH Center: Cuentos y Leyendas (Pitirre/Uru), Bocón (Cecilia/Viejita). Somos Niños: La Cinderella (Doña Luna). Somos Todos: Educando a Papá (Anita), Te prometo que no volverá a pasar (Michelle).Her directing credits at TSU include The Wiz, Proof, West Side Story, The Colored Museum, and Gulliver’s Travels, among others. She is the proud mother of Javier and Annelle.

Inspired by the life of my mother. The story of a Mexican-American woman in 1971 Los Angeles as she experiences a first, nerdy love. Throughout the courtship, she experiences mysterious premonitions of what lies ahead in her life and how the ever present machismo will ultimately bring her heartbreak as it gets passed down from fathers to sons; generation to generation.

matthew paul olmos is a Mexican-American playwright who focuses on the creation of space for marginalized, underrepresented communities and gives them poetics and theatricality. While his work is always personal, it is aimed at reaching across socio’political boundaries, showing the ridiculous of how separate we are, and illuminating hope for future generations.

A three-time Sundance Institute Fellowship/Residency recipient, inaugural Catalyst Fellow (Dramatists Guild Foundation) Echo Theater Company Resident Playwright, lifetime Ensemble Studio Theatre member and Sloan Commission recipient, New Dramatists Resident Playwright, Playwrights’ Center Core Writer and two-time Venturous Playwright Fellowship nominee. Previous Actors’ Theatre of Louisville Humana Festival Commission, Arizona Theatre Company’s National Latine Playwriting Awardee, Baryshnikov Arts Center Resident Artist, Brooklyn Arts Exchange Resident Artist, Center Theatre Group LA Playwright, Drama League nominee, Geffen Playhouse Writers Room, Ingram New Works at Nashville Repertory, INTAR H.P.R.L., Kilroys nominator, New York Theatre Workshop Fellow, Oregon Shakespeare Festival Black Swan Lab, two-time Ojai Playwrights Conference, inaugural Primary Stages Creative Development Grantee and Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group, Princess Grace Awardee in Playwriting, Repertorio Español Miranda Family Nuestra Voces Playwriting Awardee

matthew spent two years as a Mabou Mines/SUITE Resident Artist being mentored by Ruth Maleczech, was chosen/mentored by Taylor Mac for Cherry Lane’s Mentor Project, and was La MaMa e.t.c.’s Ellen Stewart Emerging Playwright Awardee as selected by Sam Shepard. He will world-premiere his newest play at Steppenwolf in 2023-24 and his work has been presented nationally and internationally, taught in university, and is published by Concord Theatricals/Samuel French and NoPassport Press.

South Bronx, NYC. September. Present Day. Victor is a South American Latino from the Bronx and now lives in Brooklyn. Jhonny is a Central American Afro-Latino from the Bronx and continues to live in the Bronx. Ken is a half-Mexican, half-Caucasian man from Hartford, Connecticut, and lives in Manhattan. The odd trio attempt to enter Club Malo, a popular Latin nightclub, to watch the famous and world-renowned reggaeton artist Serio Loco. However, the door is heavily guarded by the Carribean and Washington Heights-bred hostess (and Jhonny’s long time crush) Mia, who rejects them. The only way the guys will be able to enter the club is if they find Gato and convince him to come into the club. The tension and hostility rises between the trio as they argue amongst themselves over the differences within their Latinx community. As the night continues and Gato is still nowhere to be seen, the guys are forced to attempt to understand one another or suffer Mia’s wrath by denying all of them the chance to watch Serio Loco live.

Watch Waitin’ for Gato live on YouTube, Sunday, May 25, at 2 p.m.

Diego Lanao is a Peruvian American writer who has studied playwriting at HB Studio under Julie McKee and Eduardo Machado. He is a proud member of the Latinx Playwrights Circle (2023 Summer Dramatists Guild Fellow) and The EST/LA’s New West Playwrights Group. His play, Before We Focus on Others, was selected for the A-Tipíco Latinx Play Festival at Teatro Chelsea in Boston and the First Fridays Festival at The Barrow Group Performing Arts in New York. His play, Just One of those Weird Days…, was selected as a finalist for the 2023 Bay Street New Works Play Festival. His work has been developed and featured at: SolFest Latiné Theater Festival, AMT Theater New Work Development Program, Latinx Playwrights Circle Fresh Draft Series and South Texas College Theater. Most recently, his TV episodic pilot, THE RIGHT ONE ALIVE, was selected for the 2023 NHMC Series Script Writers Program and placed on the 2022 Latinx List x The Black List. He was also named a TV writer finalist for the 2022 NBC Writers on the Launch Program and a writer finalist for the 3rd Annual NOSOTROS and NBC Ya Tu Sabes Monologue Showcase. His work focuses on emotional relationships, underdog stories and amplifying diverse voices. He earned a B.A. in Biology with a Joint Minor in Computer Science and Mathematics from NYU.

Artist Mario E. Figueroa, Jr., artistically known as GONZO247, was born and raised in Houston, Texas. He is a self-taught multidisciplinary artist with over 25 years of experience in studio art practice, mural painting, private art commissions, and community involvement. GONZO is the founder of Aerosol Warfare Studios, founder and producer of HUE Mural Festival, and founder of The Graffiti and Street Art Museum of Texas. He has produced an Aerosol Warfare video series, established the Houston Wall of Fame (the city’s first and largest art production of its kind), and has participated in over 300 exhibitions and art projects, including work with top brand campaigns that speak to urban communities. GONZO was artistically inspired by his community and culture in his youth. As a teenager, he discovered his artist identity through the visual language of Hip Hop, graffiti art culture. As an internationally recognized visual arts ambassador, GONZO hosts tours for diverse communities, always advocating for making his hometown of Houston an art destination. GONZO pioneered graffiti and street art culture as a leader of the alternative art movement in Houston and remains active in the Houston hip hop scene through his main activity and artistic expression, graffiti.