LOS ANGELES: Hero Theatre and Hero Multimedia’s new-works initiative, Nuestro Planeta, announced Paloma Sierra as its newest commissioned artist. The 10-year project focuses on educating Latinx audiences regarding environmental justice within the Americas, and fostering relationships between communities and the Earth. Spanning both film and stage, the first batch of commissions features Colombia and Puerto Rico.
A writer, translator, educator, and curator, Paloma Sierra previously worked with Project Y, Theatre Now New York, Poetic Theater Productions, and Nuyorican Poets Cafe. Her screenplay Open Frame is a finalist for the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Screenwriting Grant 2021.
Sierra joins Diana Burbano, a Colombian immigrant and current U.S. resident, previously announced as Nuestro Planeta’s first commissioned artist. Burbano is an actor, playwright, and a teaching artist at South Coast Repertory and Breath of Fire Latina Theatre Ensemble. Her previous credits include Artists Repertory Theatre, Center Theatre Group, and Livermore Shakespeare Festival. She is currently the Dramatists Guild representative for Southern California.
Hero Theatre founder and Puerto Rican artist Elisa Bocanegra will direct both forthcoming segments. Bocanegra previously won the TCG Leadership U Grant for her work with Hero Theatre, and has been featured in the Los Angeles Times and American Theatre Magazine. Her stage directing credits include Troy, Festival Irene: A Tribute to Playwright Maria Irene Fornés, and The Floating Island Plays by Eduardo Machado. In January 2021, she was announced as part of the inaugural NEXUS Cohort at New York Stage and Film.
