NATIONWIDE: Latinx Playwrights Circle has announced the digital line-up for the company’s digital 2020-21 season, including a new commission created to help sustain Latinx playwrights and support their contributions to American theatre. The inaugural round of the Greater Good Commission will focus on Afro/Black-Latinx identifying playwrights.

“The commission is my gift to the American theatre community,” said LPC special projects director, playwright, and activist Darrel Alejandro Holnes, who founded the commission, in a statement. “By giving these artists support we are enriching the community and diversifying the theater landscape with the work by five incredibly talented Afro/Black-Latina playwrights. The gift is to the artists, but it is truly for all theater lovers to enjoy.”

This year’s selection committee chose the following plays and playwrights as the inaugural Greater Good Commissions: The Anarchists of Nueva Yol, by Christin Eve Cato; Entre Dos, by Julissa Contreras; Alien Abduction and Answer the Bloodline, by Candice D’Meza; Las Mujeres de Hierro, by Shenny De Los Angeles; and Echo Me, by Rachel Lynett. Their work will be presented as part of the digital 2020 Greater Good Theater Festival, produced by LPC and Pregones Theater/PRTT, on Oct. 15.

The company has also announced the plays and playwrights who will be involved in this year’s Intensive Mentorship Digital Series. The series will feature a panel discussions followed by a live reading of the play with the goal of incubating the audience with specific questions around the themes of the play. This year’s participants are: Hostel Play (Nov. 30), by Andres Osorio; The Lonely (Dec. 3), by Andrew Rincón; Legends of Texas (Sept. 21), by Nilsa Reyna; and Derecho (Sept. 24), by Noelle Viñas.

“Our aim is to create more visibility for Latinx artists to help take control of conversations and rooms our voices would be of value in,” said co-artistic director Oscar A. L. Cabrera in a statement. “It was our hope to extend from the writers’ room to the stage, and the three years of hard work from the ground up has finally come to pass as we present our four Intensive Playwrights works live in digital format.”