About the playwrights of the 2011 HOLAfestival

OSCAR A. COLÓN's plays include Short End of the Bridge, Soldiers of the 117th, Welcome to Margaret’s World, Siempre en Mi Corazón, Reina, Alice Down the Hole, Becoming Bernarda (a prequel), La Reina’s Last Album, Fornicating With The Devil, The Last of Bernarda (a sequel), Listenings: A Morning with María Irene Fornes, El Señor Presidente and his Biographer and The Mad Journey of Wilhemina Davis. He was commissioned by INTAR to translate and adapt René Marqués’ María o el alba. In addition, he wrote the book and lyrics for the musicals Don Benito, L’Extraordinaire and Coquí. His play Siempre en Mi Corazón was published by Mentor/Penguin, as part of the anthology Nuestro New York. The Last of Bernarda was published by El Archivo Nacional del Ateneo Puertorriqueño. He is a member of SAG, AFTRA and The Dramatists Guild.

LINA GALLEGOS is a native Texan. She received her B.A. summa cum laude and her M.A. from the University of Houston and started her career in education. She moved to Los Angeles in 1989 where she taught while developing her career as an actress and writer. She has acted in theatre (including Anna in the Tropics, The House of Bernarda Alba, Hamlet), in television (including “The Shield,” “The Guardian,” “Reyes y Rey”), and in film (including Coyotes, Seventeen and Under, Peace of Heart). She has just had the pleasure of working with Houses on the Moon Theatre Company on the powerful docudrama De Novo. As a writer, her plays Maggie’s Madness, Latino Lunacy, Damn Joe, Yellow Tulips, Is It Hot In Here Or Is It Me? and her musical Paloma (currently being developed as a film) all had world premieres in Hollywood. In 2008 she moved east and started a new life there. In 2009 she wrote a comedy, Wild in Wichita, and submitted it to MetLife Foundation’s Nuestras Voces national playwriting contest and was overjoyed at first to be a finalist and later to be the winner. The Spanish translation (Locuras en Wíchita) premiered in June 2011 at the Repertorio Español and is still running. Carmen’s Pearl, a true labor of love, was inspired by the women in her family and her new goal is to have it produced in New York City. She is thrilled that it is a part of HOLAfestival. “Thank you so much José Esquea, for embracing my play and giving me this opportunity to introduce it to New York audiences.”

A.B. LUGO is an actor, writer, director and producer. As a playwright, his works include Banjee, Branches, Geneva, Stardumb, Ramble, Cater Waiters, The Valley is Green, Manchild Machismo and Field of Blood. As an actor, he has appeared in numerous plays, films and TV shows. As a poet, he has performed all over the NYC metropolitan area, North Carolina and in Puerto Rico. His work has been published in the literary journals 99% More Free, Roots and Culture (published by Columbia University), The Smokin’ Word (Issue 5), Suspect Thoughts: A Journal of Subversive Writing (Issue 19), and, most recently in the poetry anthology Me No Habla With Acento (edited by Emanuel Xavier) published by El Museo Del Barrio and Rebel Satori Press. TSTQ

TERE MARTÍNEZ is a Puerto Rican playwright and educator who lives in New York City. Her theatrical adaptation of Esmeralda Santiago’s When I Was Puerto Rican has toured both the U.S. and Puerto Rico for the past 15 years. In 2008, she presented the piece as part of Festival Latino at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Her two one-act plays, For Mi Chichí and My Last Night with Rubén Blades, were produced by Pregones Theater in New York in 2001, and since then have toured the country. For Mi Chichí was also produced by Teatro del Pueblo, in St. Paul, Minnesota. In 2002, two plays, Departure and Return, received workshop productions at Pregones. In 2004, a staged reading of Agria…tierra…dulce was produced by IATI Theater in New York. The play was published by the Ateneo Puertorriqueño in 2005. Also in 2005, she was commissioned to write the piece …and there’s always the stars…, a play about mental disorders affecting teenagers today. In 2007, Hostos Repertory Company produced Borinquen Lives in El Barrio, her play about three generations of Puerto Ricans living in the U.S. The play was subsequently chosen to be part of TeatroStageFest 2008, toured with City Parks Theater, and in 2009 was produced by the Puerto Rican Travelling Theatre. Also in 2009, she was commissioned by SHARE to write an educational dramatic print series for Latina women on the importance of early breast-cancer detection. In 2010, IATI Theater commissioned I Want You By My Side, which is now touring New York and tri-state area high schools and colleges. Currently, she is developing an educational theater project, entitled The Antonia Pantoja Project, which will be presented this fall at Hostos Rep. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America.

MEL NIEVES was born and raised in New York City. Graduate of the William Esper Studios and a member of the LAByrinth Theatre Company since 1993. As an actor his work includes Pulitzer Prize finalist Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue at Luna Stage; SANGRE, a contemporary retelling of Federico García Lorca’s Blood Wedding written by Mando Alvarado as part of City Parks Foundation SummerStage. As a playwright his work has been presented by the Downtown Urban Theatre Festival (2005-2008), Repertorio Español (2006-2007), LAByrinth Theatre Company’s Summer Intensive Workshops at The Saratoga Performing Arts Center (2001-2003) & Bennington College (2005-2008) and Bard College (2009-2011). His plays include Tours Of Duty (co-winner, best short play 2005 Downtown Urban theatre Festival), directed by fellow LAByrinth Company member Padraic Lillis; Midnight Mass (2006 Metlife Foundation Nuestras Voces National Playwrights award); W.A.C. Iraq (2008 world premiere, Santa Ana, California, presented by Breath of Fire Latina Theatre Ensemble); Night Train (2008 LAByrinth Barn Series Festival at The Public Theater), directed by fellow LAByrinth Theatre Company member Félix Solís, By The Dawn’s Early Light: Los Embrujados & Midnight Mass, presented by The Apple Core Theatre Company on Theatre Row. For more info, go to www.MelNieves.com.

ANTHONY RUIZ was born in Manhattan and in the last five years he lived in Brooklyn. During that time, not being on his native soil, he did not write. [FACT: Dracula needs to rest in the native soil of his homeland, to survive.] In January 2011, he moved back to Manhattan and the writing began. Yolandanomics is his first play on his native soil since moving back. Other projects that he has written while on the island include Bottoms Up!, a comedy about space aliens from a planet a little to the left of Uranus; Breakdown, a comedy about starving actors (is there any other kind?); TEOTWAWKI, a short film about the end of the world (it’s also a comedy with a great ending). Soon he plans to start filming Smile, a short comedy starring his (plug coming up) wife, Susanna Guzmán (2011 HOLA Award winner for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor). His next play will be How I Became an International Spy, a true story based on his own life experiences! When asked, “What is Yolandanomics about?,” he recounts this story: J.P. Morgan, the famous banker, was strolling down a crowded street in New York with a friend when he was jostled by a pickpocket. “Watch out,” warned his friend, “That fella’s trying to steal your silk handkerchief.” “So what,” said Morgan with a shrug, “We all started small.”

HOLAfestival
Abrazo Interno Gallery
Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center
107 Suffolk Street, Second Floor
(between Rivington and Delancey streets), NYC

AN OFFICIAL EVENT OF THE
2011 NYC LATIN MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT WEEK
(OCTOBER 3-9, 2011).

FREE ADMISSION, BUT RESERVATIONS RECOMMENDED
ALL READINGS AT 7:30pm
FOR MORE INFO OR TO RSVP, CALL (212) 253-1015