7:30 PM: Hotel Puerto Vallarta, a legitimate work of dramatic theatre by David Davila

A Q&A will directly follow the reading, featuring the playwright.

Tickets are available here for $5.

The Hotel Puerto Valarta (with one “L”) is the second most popular drag resort in sunny Puerto Vallarta—which ain’t saying much considering there’s only two. Though it hasn’t been remodeled by the fab five or any other interior designer since the early nineties, some would call its shabbiness chic. Still, others would call an Uber to take them to a nicer hotel. That won’t stop local drag has-been turned hotel manager, Connie Guisada from dreaming of one day being able to restore it to its former glory! So imagine how Connie and the other queens react when they find out their boss, Barbra Coa, has plans to sell to developers and leave them all unemployed. Can Connie prevent the sale of the Hotel Puerto Valarta (with one “L”) by end of business day or will she be turning tricks with the half-naked hustlers out on Playa de los Muertos?

7:00 PM: 619 Hendricks by Josie Nericcio

A Q&A will directly follow the reading, featuring the playwright.

Tickets are available here for $5.

Two brothers fight about the fate of their childhood home. Nesto wants to sell right away, Richie wants to wait, and each have their own reasons for what they want and need from the house.

9:00 AM – 11:00 AM: Dramatizing Your Curriculum: Interactive Activities for On Your Feet Learning: An Educator’s Workshop led by Marissa Castillo, co-founder of TEATRX

In this free, interactive workshop using the text Aniana Del Mar Jumps In by Jasminne Mendez, teachers will learn how to integrate theater games and imaginative activities into the classroom. These activities will bring the curriculum to life using the student body, voice, and imagination. Students will strengthen their understanding of sequencing, identify conflict and resolution, and make deeper inferences. This workshop can be beneficial for educators who teach reading, writing, history, social studies, and science.

RSVP here to reserve your place in this workshop.

11:00 AM – 8:00 PM: Arts Market

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, Defunkt Magazine, artist Michaella Cerenio, The Houston Artist Speaks Through The Grids, Barrio Antiguo Designs, and more.

SPECIAL OFFER! You can purchase a Festival Pass to see all three readings on 5/27 for $10.

11:00 AM: Hotel Puerto Vallarta, a legitimate work of dramatic theatre by David Davila

Individual tickets are available here for $5.

The Hotel Puerto Valarta (with one “L”) is the second most popular drag resort in sunny Puerto Vallarta—which ain’t saying much considering there’s only two. Though it hasn’t been remodeled by the fab five or any other interior designer since the early nineties, some would call its shabbiness chic. Still, others would call an Uber to take them to a nicer hotel. That won’t stop local drag has-been turned hotel manager, Connie Guisada from dreaming of one day being able to restore it to its former glory! So imagine how Connie and the other queens react when they find out their boss, Barbra Coa, has plans to sell to developers and leave them all unemployed. Can Connie prevent the sale of the Hotel Puerto Valarta (with one “L”) by end of business day or will she be turning tricks with the half-naked hustlers out on Playa de los Muertos?

2:00 PM: 619 Hendricks by Josie Nericcio

Individual tickets are available here for $5.

Two brothers fight about the fate of their childhood home. Nesto wants to sell right away, Richie wants to wait, and each have their own reasons for what they want and need from the house.

7:00 PM: parts per million & prophets by Ricardo Dávila

Individual tickets are available here for $5.

After a provocative biology project lands her on suspension, Silvia’s eco-anxiety follows her through the halls of La Monte High School, cracking through her adolescence and opening up a channel to something older and much deeper, someone who’s been waiting for her to wake up … and then there’s the crocodile.

11:00 AM – 1:00 PM: Writing for the More-Than-Human World: A Community Playwriting Workshop with Ricardo Dávila

This two-hour workshop will focus on storytelling through the lens of the more-than-human world. As we wade through this ecologically precarious age, the degradation of ecosystems, and the mass extinction of thousands of species, our stories have the capacity to reshape human perspectives on those living beings who suffer most from our blatant disregard for the earth’s natural balance: forests, rivers, animals, glaciers, clouds, ocean currents – and maybe in doing so, alter the course of history. Participants will examine the ways in which the more-than-human world is often portrayed in the stories we tell, and explore new ways of bringing life, dignity, and honor to our more-than-human comrades.

RSVP here to reserve your spot in this workshop.

2:00 PM: a river, its mouths by Jesús I. Valles

To increase accessibility, this free virtual reading will be livestreamed on Stages’ YouTube channel and available to watch through June 2023.

Struggling with severe depression, You return to your hometown in Texas, right by the river that raised You, right on the border with Mexico. It’s the summer of 2019 and the Rio Bravo keeps claiming migrants’ lives during their perilous crossings. However, the people in your hometown are much more interested in talking about “The Rio Grande mermaid,” a creature rumored to haunt the river, clawing its way out of the sand, out of the water, into the air, into your head, haunting the mouths of family, friends, and strangers. Something in the water calls to You. “Come,” the river says, “Come to me.”

2:00 PM: parts per million & prophets by Ricardo Dávila

A Q&A will directly follow the reading, featuring the playwright.

Tickets are available here for $5.

After a provocative biology project lands her on suspension, Silvia’s eco-anxiety follows her through the halls of La Monte High School, cracking through her adolescence and opening up a channel to something older and much deeper, someone who’s been waiting for her to wake up … and then there’s the crocodile.

4:30 PM – 6:00 PM: El Reposo – The Closing Ceremony

Free to attend!

Last year’s Premio Puente winner, Ruby Rivera, and the Texas Salsa Congress will lead our community in bidding farewell to the Festival with dance.

Two brothers fight about the fate of their childhood home. Nesto wants to sell right away, Richie wants to wait, and each have their own reasons for what they want and need from the house.

Originally from Laredo, Texas, Josie Nericcio lives in Los Angeles and works in the entertainment industry. She has participated in writing programs at NBC, Fox, The Producers Guild, The National Hispanic Media Coalition Writers Workshop and written for Nickelodeon’s “Hey Arnold!” Her poems have been published in “Huizache: The Magazine of Latino Literature.” Josie’s play Carlotta Learns to Whistle won the 2019 Short+Sweet Hollywood Latino Best of Fest award, and was performed in the 2021 TEATRX La Vida Es Cortos Festival. Her play El Árbol won Alleyway Theater’s 2020 Maxim Mazumdar New Play Competition one-act category, and her one-act play Easter Sunday at the Juárez Flower Shop had a virtual reading in the 2021 Sin Muros festival. Josie’s book of poems, Rio Grande Anthology, was turned into a series of video monologues which can be found here on YouTube.

After a provocative biology project lands her on suspension, Silvia’s eco-anxiety follows her through the halls of La Monte High School, cracking through her adolescence and opening up a channel to something older and much deeper, someone who’s been waiting for her to wake up … and then there’s the crocodile.

Ricardo Dávila was born in Florida to Puerto Rican parents, raised by the backyards of Chile, Brasil, and Argentina, trained in New York (NYU, BFA), matured in Connecticut (Yale, MFA), reborn in New York (National Alliance of Acting Teachers certification), and now journeying through Texas (upcoming: The Odyssey, Alley Theatre). As an actor Ricardo has worked in independent film (the land of owls), TV (Dietland, AMC), and theatre (High School Play, Alley Theatre). As a writer, they spent a month in upstate NY as a creative resident (SPACE on Ryder Farm) and have since been developing their writing. The stories they tell are not theirs, but rather given to them by the forces of intuition, spirit, and the natural world. Most of their writing is ecological, in the sense of hoping to mend the fractured relationship between human and more than human.

The Hotel Puerto Valarta (with one “L”) is the second most popular drag resort in sunny Puerto Vallarta—which ain’t saying much considering there’s only two. Though it hasn’t been remodeled by the fab five or any other interior designer since the early nineties, some would call its shabbiness chic. Still, others would call an Uber to take them to a nicer hotel. That won’t stop local drag has-been turned hotel manager, Connie Guisada from dreaming of one day being able to restore it to its former glory! So imagine how Connie and the other queens react when they find out their boss, Barbra Coa, has plans to sell to developers and leave them all unemployed. Can Connie prevent the sale of the Hotel Puerto Valarta (with one “L”) by end of business day or will she be turning tricks with the half-naked hustlers out on Playa de los Muertos?

David Davila is an award winning playwright and comedian from the border of South Texas; where the wall has stood since George W’s administration. The winner of the 2022 National New Play Network Smith Prize for political theatre and the 2021 New American Voices National Playwriting award, his work stands at the intersection of queer-culture and mestizaje ranging from plays and musicals, to poetry and stand-up comedy. An alumnus of The Second City Training Center Chicago and the Primary Stages ESPA Playwriting School in Manhattan, he is currently a playwriting MFA fellow at Indiana University. His theatre works include MANUEL VERSUS THE STATUE OF LIBERTY (NYMF, O’Neill finalist, Princeton University, Gallery Players), AZTEC PIRATES, A LATINX FANTASIA ON NATIONAL THEMES, PART ONE: THE INSIGNIFICANCE OF LIFE ON MARS (San Diego Rep, Brooklyn Cultural Arts Center), PART TWO: THE INEQUITY OF SACRIFICE (Latinx Playwrights Circle, PlayGround Experiment), HOTEL PUERTO VALLARTA, A LEGITIMATE WORK OF DRAMATIC THEATRE (Egg & Spoon, San Diego Rep, Variations Theatre), PROMESA: A MARIACHI MUSICAL (Musical Theatre Factory), ANIMAL HUSBANDRY (NYC Fringe 2019, Feast, BarnArts), VOX POP (Musical Theatre Factory, 54 Below), #52SONGS (Beechman), TALES FROM HWY 281 (Intar), ADAN Y JULIO Y LA FRONTERA 2003 (O’Neill semi-finalist, Viva Theatre), THE MESQUITE TREE: AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY (Theatro Audaz), THE PIÑATA (Indiana University), and more. In 2022 his streamer MOST LIKELY TO premiered at the New York Latino Film Festival and had several additional screenings at festivals around the country. www.daviddavila.net @davidodavila

Struggling with severe depression, You return to your hometown in Texas, right by the river that raised You, right on the border with Mexico. It’s the summer of 2019 and the Rio Bravo keeps claiming migrants’ lives during their perilous crossings. However, the people in your hometown are much more interested in talking about “The Rio Grande mermaid,” a creature rumored to haunt the river, clawing its way out of the sand, out of the water, into the air, into your head, haunting the mouths of family, friends, and strangers. Something in the water calls to You. “Come,” the river says, “Come to me.”

Jesús I. Valles is a queer Mexican immigrant, educator, writer-performer from Cd. Juarez/El Paso. Jesús is a 2021 CantoMundo fellow at the Palm Beach Poetry Festival, a 2021 Lambda Literary fellow, a 2019 Walter E. Dakin Playwriting Fellow of the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, a recipient of the 2019 Letras Latinas Scholarship from the Community of Writers’ Poetry Workshop, and a 2019 poetry fellow at Idyllwild Arts Writers Week. Jesús is also a 2018 Undocupoets Fellow, a 2018 Tin House Scholar, a fellow of The 2018 Poetry Incubator, and the runner-up in the 2017 Button Poetry Chapbook Contest. Their work has been published in Shade Literary, The Texas Review, The New Republic, Palabritas, The Acentos Review, Quarterly West, The Mississippi Review, Palette, The Adroit Journal, BOAAT, The McNeese Review, and PANK. Their poetry has also been featured on NPR’s Code Switch, The Slowdown, The BreakBeat Poets’ LatiNext Anthology, the Best New Poets 2020 anthology, and the anthology, Somewhere We Are Human. As an actor, they are the recipient of four B. Iden Payne Awards, including Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama (2018), and Outstanding Original Script (2018) and they were nominated for the Mark David Cohen New Play Award for their play, (Un)Documents. Their playwriting work has received awards and support from OUTSider festival, Teatro Vivo, The VORTEX, The Kennedy Center, New York Theatre Workshop, The Latino Theatre Co. at the LATC, and The Flea. Jesús is currently an MFA playwriting student at Brown University.

Originally from Houston Texas, Ruby Rivera was raised in the humble setting of Houston’s Northside community. Born of Puerto Rican and Guatemalan descent, she was the first one in her family to get accepted and attend a four year university. Ruby attended and graduated from The University of Texas at Austin. Upon completion, Ruby worked for The University of Texas at Austin in both the financial aid and admissions offices, respectively. Ruby’s time in this setting helped shape her personal commitment to increasing minority enrollment at colleges and universities. It was this particular position that landed her a job back in Houston, Texas at the end of 1999. It was then that Ruby attended her first salsa club in Houston. Ruby immersed herself in the Houston salsa community in order to increase her ability and create her own style. She was quickly noticed and asked in May, 2001 to join the first dance company in Houston, Guaguanco Dance Company. As a member of Guaguanco she learned to choreograph, perform, but most importantly she learned the art of instruction. In 2002, Ruby took a risk and co-founded her own dance company, Rhumba Y Bongo. It was through this dance company that Ruby was able to expand her creativity and work with a diverse group of dancers. Rhumba Y Bongo Dance Company better known as R&B would eventually break the mold of traditional salsa routines by incorporating hip hop, modern, and break dancing and fuse it with salsa and mambo. R&B has been able to perform in multiple events throughout Houston and across Texas. In addition, R&B has been able to travel outside of Texas as invitees and performers in the Chicago, Puerto Rico, and New York Congresses. As an instructor, her patience and passion for teaching has led her to be one of Houston’s top instructors. Ruby has had the privilege to instruct at such Houston events as LULAC Scholarship Fundraiser, and The National Hispanic Forum, along with schools in the Houston Independent School District intermixed with a variety of Houston Social clubs. It is Ruby’s desire to share with individuals the beautiful gift of dancing as it was once given to her. In 2005, Ruby took all her knowledge and connections and became the first female host/organizer for a Salsa Congress, a conference assembly for dancers from across many regions where participants learn skills in dance workshops and performances over a series of days. Rivera has made Houston home to the Texas Salsa Congress for 15 years. To date, Ruby is the only female organizer in the Salsa community. When not curating and organizing the Texas Salsa Congress, Ruby serves as Manager of College Counseling for the Houston Independent School District, overseeing all HISD Secondary College Career Counseling with a focus on undocumented students, POC and arts student populations. Ruby hopes to inspire others to continue to teach and learn from the art of salsa. Ruby hopes to eventually work with younger age groups to help them not only learn salsa but influence them to attend and obtain a higher education.