HOUSTON: The 50 Playwrights Project (50PP) has released its third annual list of recommended Latinx plays that are currently unproduced. The eight plays on the list are all production-ready and written by Latinx playwrights. 50PP, with a mission to support Latinx playwrights, provides the list as a tool for producers striving to update the narrative of the American theatre to include more Latinx voices.
The plays on the 2019 list are Alma (or #nowall) by Benjamin Benne, Bees and Honey by Guadalís Del Carmen, Bruise & Thorn by J. Julian Christopher, Los Dreamers by Mónica Sánchez, Milton, MI by Paz Pardo, Our Dear Dead Drug Lord by Alexis Scheer, Shoe by Marisela Treviño Orta, and Torera by Monet Hurst-Mendoza.
Alma (or #nowall) by Benjamin Benne is a real-time two-hander about an undocumented parent and U.S. citizen child’s differing visions of the “American Dream.”
Guadalís Del Carmen’s Bees and Honey is about an ambitious young couple whose love is tested when tragedy strikes.
Bruise & Thorn by J. Julian Christopher is an authentic look at a Nuyorican street family, united not by bloodline but rather by the social and economic indicators that naturally selects them for each other.
Mónica Sánchez’s Los Dreamers follows an undocumented law student navigating personal and political borders with her mother, the man serving as her “ticket to citizenship,” and a ghost.
Milton, MI by Paz Pardo, in which a couple relocates from New York City to the titular city of Milton, is a play about threesomes, poetry, and slugs.
Alexis Scheer’s Our Dear Dead Drug Lord follows a gang of teenage girls who fall in love, experiment with drugs, and try to resurrect the spirit of notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar.
In Shoe by Marisela Treviño Orta, a young woman who gave up college to take care of her siblings and mother revisits her dreams about the outside world when she enters a secret online relationship.
Monet Hurst-Mendoza’s Torera explores the collision of legacy, tradition, class, gender, and family secrets through the lens of two childhood friends with dreams of being matadors in Mexico’s bullfighting circuit.
The 50PP List 2019 selection committee was made up of Jazmyn Arroyo, Tatyana-Marie Carlo, Adrian Centeno, Stephanie Diaz, Iyvon Edebiri, Colby Frederick, Nadia Guevara, Tara A. Houston, Chloe Loos, Sarah Marsh Krauter, Rebecca Martinez, Alexandra Meda, Antonio Miniño, Megan Monaghan Rivas, Jade Power Sotomayor, Susan Russell, Michele Shaul, Jen Shook, Gina Sandi-Diaz, Alejandra Venancio, and Michael Weems.
