Seeking Common Ground: Latinx and Latin American Theatre and Performance

Honorable Mention from the 2022 International Latino Book Awards for Best Nonfiction - Multi-Author A curated collection of new Latinx and Latin American plays, monologues, interviews, and critical essays that asks the question: what is the common ground between Latinx and Latin American artists? Featuring a mix of plays and scholarly essays, this work originally emerged from the Latino Theater Company's Encuentro de las Américas festival, produced in partnership with the Latinx Theatre Commons (LTC) at the Los Angeles Theatre Center in 2017. The collection chronicles not only the theatrical productions of the festival, but also features a transnational exploration of U.S. Latinx and Latin American theatre-making. Alongside plays by Evelina Fernández, Alex Alpharaoh, J.Ed Araiza and Carlos Celdrán this anthology also includes a mix of monologues, snapshots, profiles and interviews that together provide a dynamic account of these intersections within U.S. Latinx and Latin American Theater. A unique collection it serves not only as a testament to the diversity of Latinx artists, but also to the strength of the Latinx Theater movement and its ever-growing networks across the Hemispheric Americas. Full playtexts include: Dementia by Evelina Fernández WET: A DACAmented Journey by Alex Alpharoah Miss Julia adapted by J.Ed Araiza 10 Million by Carlos Celdrán

Trevor Boffone is a Lecturer in the Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program at the University of Houston. His work using Dubsmash and TikTok with his students has been featured on Good Morning America, ABC News, Inside Edition, and Access Hollywood, among numerous national and local media platforms. He is the author of Renegades: Digital Dance Cultures from Dubsmash to TikTok. He is the co-editor of Encuentro: Latinx Performance for the New American Theater; Nerds, Goths, Geeks, and Freaks: Outsiders in Chicanx and Latinx Young Adult Literature; and Shakespeare and Latinidad. Teresa Marrero is Professor of Latinx and Latin American Theater in the Department of Spanish at the University of North Texas. She is a theatre critic for the North Texas online arts journal, www.theaterjones.com, and a member of the American Theatre Critics Association. Her scholarly publications include: Encuentro: Latinx Performance for the New American Theater (Northwestern University Press, 2019), "Latinx Sci-Fi Theater: Speculating Possible Futures." Theater (Yale School of Drama 2019), "Where Earth Meets the Sky: Decolonizing Latinxfuturistic Theater." TheatreForum (San Diego, University of California, 2019). Her creative works include the publication of her Spanish-language play La Familia in Teatro Latino: Nuevas Obras de los Estados Unidos, (Colorado Springs, La Casita Grande (2019). Her English-language play Second-Conversations with Irene, Remembering Long Enough was selected as part of The Undermain Theatre's 2020 (now postponed to 2021) Whither Goest Thou America? A Festival of New American Play Readings. Chantal Rodriguez is Associate Dean of Yale School of Drama and an Assistant Professor Adjunct in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism. She is co-editor of What's Next for Latinx? Theater Magazine, Volume 49.1 (Duke University Press, 2019) and Encuentro: Latinx Performance for the New American Theater (Northwestern University Press, 2019). She is the author of The Latino Theatre Initiative/Center Theatre Group Papers (UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Press, 2011) and a member of the Latinx Theatre Commons Advisory Committee, and the National Advisory Board for the 50 Playwrights Project.

1. Foreword by Diane Rodriguez 2. An interlude with Jose Luis Valenzuela by Trevor Boffone, Teresa Marrero, and Chantal Rodriguez 3. Introduction by Trevor Boffone, Teresa Marrero, and Chantal Rodriguez Section One: Traversing Boundaries of Gender and Sexuality 4.Dementia by Evelina Fernández (full play script), Introduction by Chantal Rodriguez 5. Las mariposas saltan al vacio by José Milián, Snapshot by Patricia Herrera 6. Quemar las Naves: el viaje de Emma by Rocío Carrillo, Profile and Interview by Teresa Marrero Section Two: Staging Transnational Realities of Race, Ethnicity, and Class 7. Ropa Intima by Lynn Nottage, Profile and Interview by Gina Sandi-Diaz 8. Miss Julia adapted by J.Ed Araiza (full play script), Introduction by Carla Della Gatta 9. El Apagón adapted by Rosalba Rolón, Profile and Interview by Chantal Rodriguez Section Three: The State, Politics, and Lived Experience 10. Deferred Action by David Lozano and Lee Trull, Snapshot by Teresa Marrero 11. Culture Clash: An American Odyssey by Culture Clash (monologue), Snapshot by Noe Montez 12. 10 Million by Carlos Celdrán (full play script), Introduction by Lillian Manzor 13. La razón blindada by Arístides Vargas, Snapshot by Grace Dávila-López 14. WET: A DACAmented Journey by Alex Alpharaoh (full play text), Snapshot by Trevor Boffone Section Four: Music and Autobiographical Performance 15. Conjunto Blues by Nicolas Valdez (monologue), Snapshot by Marci McMahon 16. Broken Tailbone by Carmen Aguirre, Profile and Interview by Trevor Boffone 17. Latin Standards by Marga Gomez (monologue), Snapshot by Isaac Gomez 18. Conclusion by Trevor Boffone, Teresa Marrero, and Chantal Rodriguez 19. Afterword by Carlos Morton