Full Length Plays / Teleplays / Features / One Acts
sing it to the air, sing it to the ground, spill the wine, take that pearl
A socio’political play featuring and inspired by the music of the band WAR.
Set to WAR’s songs of community, peace, and protest, "sing it to the air…" explores the lives of those no longer willing to be treated as minority, while music brings them together in hope.
*Developed, in part, through New Dramatists
* Finalist, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference
Richie never slept, was always up, moving around at night
A Mexican family is caught in an almost ritualistic cycle of revisiting their past as they attempt to understand why their youngest son took a drastic turn in his life. Inspired by the upbringing of Richard Ramirez, also known as The Night Stalker, this play forces us to confront how we are all implicated in the unfathomable events we would rather blame away. (2F, 3M, 90 minutes)
originally written & developed, in part, through Circle X Theatre Company’s Evolving Playwrights Group, and Playwrights’ Center Core Writers Program and Ruth Easton New Play Series.
a home what howls (or the house what was ravine)
A coyote howling. A home in disarray. A young woman alone. Soledad Vargas is in the city, fighting for her family’s right to live on their land. When hope starts to dwindle, how far will she go, and what will she be forced to leave behind? A modern myth drawn from the real life struggles of displaced communities around the globe, a home what howls... is a lyrically-rendered quest of youth activism standing against forces of injustice. (3F, 2M - 100 minutes)
*Selected to Yale Drama Series' Inaugural Short List & Ojai Playwrights Conference
*Nominated for the Venturous Fellowship as part of Playwrights' Center
*Finalist, National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center
*Featured Finalist for American Blues Theatre's Blue Ink Award, Premiere Stages finalist, Bay Area Playwrights finalist
*Developed, in part, through Moving Arts' MADLab, Ojai Playwrights Conference, and The Road Theatre Company's Under Construction Playwright Group
that drive thru monterey
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. (3F, 2M - 90 minutes)
*Originally written and developed through The Lark's Winter Writers Retreat
*Selected to Ojai Playwrights Conference Foundry Project, Kitchen Dog's New Works Festival, Two Rivers Crossing Borders Festival, Stages Sin Muros Festival
*Awarded 1st Place, Repertorio Espanol's Miranda Family Nuestra Voces Latinx Playwriting Competition
*Finalist, National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center
*Finalist, 44th Annual Bay Area Playwrights Festival at Playwrights Foundation.
the broken'hearts of a corrupted white house
The story of Dorothy Hunt, a woman sidelined by history, who stood up to The White House in 1972 and fought for families cast aside by their President. She was early in her perception that those in power were pushing the boundaries of what a President was allowed to do and how far a government was willing to push their will. (1W, 4 M - 2 hours)
*Developed, in part, through The Lark, Echo Theater Company's Playwrights Lab and New Dramatists' Creativity Fund Workshop.
the shooters of an american president
On November 22nd, 1963, just after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, two shooters from Dealey Plaza meet in an undisclosed location while waiting for their handlers to give further instruction. An exploration of how we citizens both vilify and pedestal our leaders; how easily our belief or aversion of our leaders can turn to radicalism. (2M - 90 minutes)
*Originally developed and written through New Dramatists' Play Time Development Program; additionally developed through Echo Theater's Playwrights' Lab.
three girls never learnt the way home
Three high school girls are bused into a neighboring affluent town as part of a controversial school integration program. However, a mysterious encounter sends a panic through both towns. The first play in a new cycle about the unbalanced education system in the United States. (4F - 100 minutes)
*Selected by Taylor Mac for Cherry Lane's Mentor Project
*Developed, in part, through Dorset Theatre Festival, High Desert Play Development at New Mexico University, The Lark, Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Black Swan Lab, Portland Center Stage JAW Festival, Primary Stages' Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group, Wildwind Performance Lab.
"i am a drop'dead gorgeous, fabulous, stylish, exotic'ass gem amongst thousands of rocks"
by elliot rodger
A re'framing of the school shooting in Isla Vista, just outside the University of California at Santa Barbara. (2F, 2M - 2 hours)
*Developed in part by Primary Stages' Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group, SPACE on Ryder Farm with Ensemble Studio Theatre, and The Lark
the living'life of the daughter mira
In a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, the premature baby Mira looks to her Labor/Delivery nurse as a mother figure while she tries to survive her challenging first weeks. Elsewhere in the hospital, her teenage mother and uncompromising family clash over who is fit to even raise a child. Meanwhile, Mira’s father struggles to keep a promise made to his daughter nine months earlier on a mysterious beach, in an aging Chevy Blue Cassanova van. (3W, 2M - 2 hours)
*Developed in part by the Lark Play Development Center, Luna Stage (West Orange, NJ) and Primary Stages' Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group
*Awarded National Latino Playwriting Award by Arizona Theatre Company
*Named one of the Best Unproduced Latin@ Plays 2017 by the 50 Playwrights Project
The OLMOS FAMILY Play
An extended Mexican-American family in Los Angeles over Christmas; invisible children screaming from a flickering hospital; and two mothers dead'set on protecting their sons split apart the family, no matter what the cost. (3W, 3M - 2 hours)
*Developed in part by Primary Stages' Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group
*Received the 2015 Repertorio Espanol Met Life Nuestra Voces 2nd Place Award.
so go the ghosts of méxico, a brave woman in mexico
The first of a three-play cycle exploring the U.S./Mexico drug wars. The first play is inspired by the "Bravest Woman in Mexico," follows a twenty-two year old woman who volunteers to replace a beheaded police chief when nobody else would accept the position; which sets a chain of reactions in her husband, the Narcos, and perhaps the entire country of Mexico. (1W, 4M - 2 hours)
*Received the 2012 Princess Grace Award in Playwriting.
*A New York Times Critics Pick.
*Now published by Samuel French, to purchase: click here
so go the ghosts of méxico, the rise of azul
Two warring drug cartels in which the reins of power shift,the method of delivery is ever'changing, and loyalty exists nowhere; this second play in a 3-play cycle about the U.S./Mexico drug wars explores the ridiculous machismo of narco culture as shown through a cast of all women. (5W - 90 minutes)
*Developed in part by Sundance Institute's Theater Lab and New York Theatre Workshop, and New Dramatists through the Bucket List Initiative, a program supported by a grant from Venturous Theater Fund of Tides Foundation.
*Developed as part of Baryshnikov Arts Center's 2015 Artist in Residence Program.
so go the ghosts of méxico, a daughter sings the poet song
The final installment in a three-play cycle, inspired by poet Javier Sicilia. A mother from México searches for her missing daughter, who may have gotten caught up in the drug trade between our two countries. However, her daughter's story may not be what it seems, especially after a mysterious woman of American Intelligence begins to control their narrative. (2 W, 2 M - 90 minutes)
*Developed in part by New York Theatre Workshop and New Dramatists through the Bucket List Initiative, a program supported by a grant from Venturous Theater Fund of Tides Foundation. Dramatists' Sundance Institute's Theater Lab and New York Theatre Workshop's Emerging Artists of Color Fellowship.
i put the fear of méxico in'em
An American couple on holiday in Tijuana stumble off the beaten path, and are accosted by a Mexican couple in an alley. (2W, 2M - 2 hours)
"What ensues is a complex encounter that challenges notions of boundary, safety, identity and what you would do for your family. It's a dissection of difference, of connection, of the borders and barriers we use to distance ourselves, and those dangerous moments when we cross over those borders and barriers."
-Philip Himberg, Artistic Director Sundance Theatre Program
*Received the 2009 Sundance Institute Time Warner Storytelling Fellowship Award.
*Received the 2012 Repertorio Espanol Met Life Nuestra Voces 3rd Place Award.
*Published by NoPassport Press and Samuel French
the nature of captivity
In part one, a put'upon family is run from their home by a settlement of people. In part two, a settlement of people get a surprise guest while simply trying to run a put'upon family from their home. Inspired by the Dog Catcher Riots. (2W, 2M - 2 hours)
*Published by Samuel French, to purchase click here
*Awarded the "Top Prize of the Americas" by the BBC
*Developed as part of Mabou Mines/Suite Resident Artist Program (2009-10 & 2010-11)
nobody rides a locomotive no'mo
Through bottles of booze and the nearby rumblings of a passing freight train, a daughter gets lost through the cracks of her broken Los Angeles home. (2W, 1M - 90 minutes)
*Developed as part of Rising Circle Collective's The Refinery program.
Teleplays
The Kid, Billy - original pilot
A near-future retelling of Billy the Kid, where we watch the young outlaw grow from a bright and clever boy to an abandoned and troubled adolescent and inevitably to a notorious killer; however the Kid looks not only at the infamous outlaw’s trajectory, but the continual socio-political disproportions between the elite and the poor which cause history to always repeat itself. (hour drama)
Colonia - original pilot
magical’realistic drama that revolves around the evolution of a refugee camp in the imagined town of Colonia, outside of El Paso; where Narco-Refugee Asylum cases often wait years for trial. Inspired by the real life story of “The Bravest Woman In México”. (hour drama)
This Town - spec for "Entourage"
After Vince's downward spiral at the close of season 7, his boys attempt to bring their childhood friend back from the death of gossip jokes and loss of respect from his arrest. Eric managees to line up an opportunity for Vince to present at the Academy Awards, and while the boys get their leader ready for the ball, Vince isn't sure if he'll be allowed back in. (1/2 hour comedy)
What Now - spec for "Enlightened"
Amy Jellicoe must come to grips with that change does not come so easy after the novelty of her exposing Abbadon Industries leads to unemployment and a search for a new beginning and attempts to reconnect with those she crossed. (1/2 hour comedic drama)
Features
That Drive Thru Monterey
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. (Feature)
A Father By The Sea
A A spirit is released at the Carmel Mission, which unveils the horrors of the enslaved Native Americans who were forced to build the Missions of California. Meanwhile, a young Mexican-American girl, Mira, has a strange connection of Junipero Serra, the "Father of California" who founded the Missions. Originally developed with Andrew Lauren Productions.
One Acts
Alone In Our Sex
A Two lovers discover that their sexual pasts are literally never gone from their bedroom. (1W, 1M)
*featured in F*ckIt Club's Spring Fling
the bus that got cut over its eye
A Several passengers on a long'distanced bus are taken on an existential journey by a drunken stranger. (2W, 2M)
*Samuel French Festival Finalist.
coke
A >A young woman visits her boyfriend's ridiculously judgmental family where she finds out exactly how they feel about both him, and her drink of choice. (4W)
*featured in terraNOVA's Benefit
too many martinis to tell
A A father tries to keep his two daughters close to his side while dealing with the sudden death of their mother. (2W, 1M)
the vampire lesson
A A husband and wife find themselves in a absurd game of vengeance as the wife tries and tries again to exit the marriage. (1W, 1M)
wild follows the queen
A A mother and son wake up on September 11th to find that his father may be trapped under the towers at the World Trade Center. (2W, 1M)
*featured in Samuel French's Short Play Festival
wonders of the human body
A A put'upon wife begins to educate herself in the face of her comedically oppresive husband. (1W, 1M)