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The Downfall of Rafael Trujillo
Jose "Cheo" Olivares as Rafael Trujillo and Francis Mateo as Paco Escribano. Photo by Cesarin Mateo
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Francis Mateo as Paco Escribano. Photo by Cesarin Mateo
Photo by Edna Lee Figueroa
Teatro Círculo, one of New York City’s leading Spanish-language theatre companies, known for its creative staging of classical and contemporary works, presents from April 25th to May 11th the return back by popular demand of La caída de Rafael Trujillo (The Downfall of Rafael Trujillo) written by award-winning playwright Carmen Rivera, and the direction of award-winning director Cándido Tirado, in its Spring Season and as part of Teatro Fest NYC 2025 of the Alliance of Teatros Latinos NY.
The formidable cast includes José Cheo Oliveras in the lead role of Trujillo, Adriana Sananes (as Doña María, wife of General Trujillo), Bill Blechingberg (as Diplomat), Erick González (as Balaguer), Iván Goris (as Jonny Abbes), Johary Ramos (as ensemble/various roles), Diana Pou (as the lover of General Trujillo) and Francis Mateo (as Paco Escribano). Production design is by Israel Franco-Müller, lighting design by Omayra Garriga Casiano, costume design by Eliana Michelle Yost, makeup design by Kareliz Michelle de Jesús, and the assistant director and stage manager is Caridad del Valle.
La caída de Rafael Trujillo spans over 5 dedicated years of intensive scholarship, primary research, first-person interviews, as well as source material from CUNY’s acclaimed Institute for Dominican Studies by the playwright Carmen Rivera, an NYU alumnus whose graduate studies focused on Latin American dictatorships. “This is a play about blindness and light. Think about what your characters can’t see, what they choose not to see and when the truth comes to light.” Director Cándido Tirado tells the cast during rehearsals.
The Downfall of Rafael Trujillo sets up a series of events, internal uprisings, betrayal, international pressures and political intrigue, as well as the personal failures that led to the downfall of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina. “This play reflects on how so many Latin American people as well as continental Spaniards have survived the trauma and violence of dictatorships, it speaks of the remarkable resiliency of these communities and how they have committed to move forward in the spirit of democracy despite the enormous challenges they faced in their respective societies,” explains Rivera.
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Francis Mateo as Paco Escribano. Photos by Cesarin Mateo
Campo: A Stage Reading
Reading of a new play written and directed by award-winning playwright Marco Antonio Rodriguez (presented en Español) by People's Theater Project.
Campo is the final work in a trilogy (Ashes of Light and Barceló on the Rocks being the other two connecting works) and takes place during the Dominican Civil War of 1965. The story follows one provincial family, who, under the ironfist rule of a traditionalist and spiritualist matriarch who insists they avoid any involvement in the war, discover a wounded Dominican American soldier, fighting on the American side, in their backyard. Campo examines Dominican politics and society during the short lived Civil War as seen through the lens of an intimate relationship between a family and a confused young man fighting on the other side. Through a highly disorienting war and a tremendous clash of cultures, this dramedy explores the search for identity, freedom, and depicts a place and time where change is the only constant.
Featuring: Yohanna Florentino, Arisleyda Lombert, Francis Mateo, Altagracia Nova, Mario Peguero, Cindy Peralta, Diana Pou, Fernando Then
The Curtain's Romeo and Juliet,
A New Adaption Set in the Jazz Age
New Jersey's Shakespeare@ relaunches as The Curtain with the production, directed and adapted by Sean Hagerty.
BTS of Thia Stephan as Lady Capulet and Francis Mateo as Paris
Lunch Bunch by PlayCo
LOVE TO LOVE YOU BABY:
LA HISTORIA DE DOLORES VERANO
(Below) OPEN BxRx Friday | Love to Love You Baby: La Historia de Dolores Verano (Interview on BronxNet)
Rhina speaks to the cast of the new play, Love To Love You Baby: La Historia De Dolores Verano, a theatrical production shedding light on domestic violence while finding solace in the music of Donna Summer.
Callback Series: The Persistence for Social Justice
After a year marked by the traumas of COVID and of racial and social reckonings, these new one-act plays boldly and unapologetically explore social justice issues from a Latinx perspective, including domestic violence, racism, and anti-immigration laws: issues our community face with each day.
“Umbilicales” by Maité Iracheta – a futuristic take of the immigrant situation and the environmental crisis in a post-human society.
“Distanciados” by Myrangely Méndez – a nine-year-old child seeks help from his English tutor after months of isolation caused by the COVID pandemic. Although the tutor quickly realizes that his student is the victim of child abuse, he does not realize the consequences of his inaction.
“Algo rojo que parece sangre” by Sebastián Cruz – afraid of being accused of a crime, two police officers in Colombia try to get rid of a red stain they discovered at their station. As they attempt to clean it, the stain spreads into the shirt of one of the officers implicating him in a corruption scandal.
“Imagen-Nación” by Scotty Sweet – a glimpse at the real story of Juan and Manuel, two children separated from their parents at the Mexican border by the US government.
Originally developed in Teatro Círculo’s Master Class Series: The Urgency of Playwriting workshop, these four short plays will be presented in the same bill.
MISSING THEM - A Live Online Theater Event
Adapted and developed by Reza Salazar and Anjali Tsui in collaboration with THE CITY’s MISSING THEM project.
Missing Them is a live theater event that builds on a collaborative journalism project to name every New Yorker lost to COVID-19 and tell a story about them. In this new play, adapted and developed by Reza Salazar and Anjali Tsui, in collaboration with THE CITY’s award-winning MISSING THEM project we remember and celebrate the people who made New York the city we love, but are no longer with us.
For more info, please visit:
https://theworkingtheater.org/events/missing-them/
MISSING THEM, A Memorial to Lives Lost in the Pandemic, to be Presented by Working Theater
Shakespeare@ Home’s Radio Play - JULIUS CAESAR
All Episodes available!
Presented in four weekly episodes, Julius Caesar is one of Shakespeare’s best known and most oft-quoted plays, chronicling the political and moral crisis of Brutus and his fellow conspirators as they plot to murder Caesar to prevent a dictatorship. First performed in 1599, this timeless play examines the razor-thin line between power and corruption, duty and ambition, and the perils of a state divided.
To stream, please visit the website
The New Works Virtual Festival is an online fundraiser for the Actors Fund presenting 20 new works performed by all-star casts. A global, divergent collection of works will be featured from a diverse array of writers, selected from about 700 submissions.
Hope Villanueva’s “The QOL Mandate” tells the story of a post COVID-19 America in which all young men are forced to undergo vasectomies for population control and one Mexican-American single mother who secretly defies the procedure for her teenage son. The play explores what it is to be Latinx in America.
To watch, please visit:
Written by Playwright Barbara Bennion, the story shares the real-life, harrowing experiences of five Latino migrants crossing the border from Mexico, Central America, and South America. The play is being presented in an abbreviated version by Hollywood & New York City actors Teresa Yenque, Jose Yenque, Barbara Bonilla, Francis Mateo, and Patrick Michael Valley.
To watch, please visit:
For more information:
https://artsbt.org/flowers-behind-the-mountainr-709/
To support Arts For A Better Tomorrow:
In the course of Bernard L. Madoff’s 150-year sentence for stock fraud, he is visited by the ghostly presence of the most famous--until now--fraudster of them all, Carlo (“Charles”) Ponzi. Bernie is looking for some justification of his crimes from his hero, and Carlo is probably the only man he trusts. They have much in common, much to discuss.
To watch, please visit:
Horatio in HAMLET for Shakespeare@
in Jersey City's Grace Church
BWW Review: Jersey City's Grace Church turns into Elsinore for HAMLET by Shakespeare@
by Matthew Michaels Mar. 30, 2019
Shakespeare@ kicks off their inaugural run in Jersey City with a sharp production of HAMLET. William Shakespeare's Danish tragedy of revenge and mental insanity transforms the space of Grace Church Van Vorst, a New Jersey Episcopal church on the National Registry of Historic Places.
Horatio, still from the play Hamlet from Shakespeare At.
Photo by Will O’Hare.
Theatre Review: La Cancion Represents Latin Culture At Harlem Stage
"The splashes of Reggaeton, Salsa, and even Bachata make you appreciate that Latinos are a people moved body and soul. Moreover, Vico C’s music is phenomenal. He truly captured the urban nature of modern Latin Music, but throws homage to its classic roots, particularly, through the role of Francis Mateo’s Rafael.
Mateo’s Rafael, next to Rafa, is the character that most grows from beginning to the end of La Canción. In one hour and forty minutes, he transforms from cold and distant to as warm and loving as Rafa, which makes sense once you see the show. This is a non-spoiler review. Yet, I do hope you give yourself the chance to see La Canción. Beyond being a positive and loving homage to Latin Culture, it is also a show about believing in yourself, even when your family or the world cannot see your vision.
Dreaming is an intimate, private experience, but the journey to make it reality is shared. Thus, as you watch Rafa share his dreams into fruition, you admire and learn from his capacity to always say yes to himself even when the world says no; something the Latin community understands very well. For More Information on La Canción And Repertorio Español ."
EN EL NOMBRE DE SALOME Wins Four HOLA Awards
The Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors (HOLA), the nation's longest running active arts advocacy organization for Latino actors, has announced its latest class of HOLA Award recipients for 2017, the awards ceremony's 18th year.
The Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors (HOLA) is an arts service/advocacy organization dedicated to expanding the presence of Hispanic artists in entertainment and media through the cultivation, education and recognition of emerging artists.
HOLA strives for an accurate, informed and non-stereotyped portrayal of the full spectrum of Latino culture and heritage in the entertainment and media industries.
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN PLAYWRITING/SOBRESALIENTE REALIZACIÓN EN DRAMATURGIA
Marco Antonio Rodríguez, En el nombre de Salomé (Repertorio Español)
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY AN ENSEMBLE CAST/MEJOR ELENCO
Maité Bonilla, Zulema Clares, Dalia Davi, Darlenis Durán,
Hannia Guillén, Jesús E. Martínez, Francis Mateo, Diana Pou,
Johary Ramos, Jerry Soto, Fermín Suárez, En el nombre de Salomé
(Repertorio Español)
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE ACTOR/MEJOR ACTRIZ
Zulema Clares, En el nombre de Salomé (Repertorio Español)
GILBERTO ZALDÍVAR HOLA AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING PLAY/MEJOR PRODUCCIÓN
En el nombre de Salomé (Repertorio Español)
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE
Poster by Sean Devare
Review
From October 31st to November 17th, I will be playing a serie of short plays written by Richard Vetere at New Perspective Theater.
For more info, please visit: http://www.newperspectivestheatre.org
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Richard Vetere explains the world... 10 minutes at a time!
Dead Reckoning:
Sixth Annual Women's Work Original Short Play Festival
From August 13th to August 17, I was part of New Perspective Theater's short play festival, Dead Reckoning that included Pop Life. Set in the early evening of the great blackout of 2003, Pop Life by Holly M. Eaton, directed by Joyia Bradley, brings four co-workers serendipitously together in the same bar on their journey home—where they find themselves in a space transformed by the lack of power--thus making anything possible!
Episode 54: special guest.
Recently, I joined the brilliant folks at Pop Tech Jam for a podcast reading of Star Wars by William Shakespeare. We are on around minute 20. Click on the cassette:
Backstracks
Last year, I had the honor to be invited to BACKSTRACKS produced by the very talented Jocelyn Gonzales. To listen to the podcast, just click:
Some pics from Love's Labour's Lost
Photos by Allison Stock
Love's Labour's Lost (June, 2013)
Review
Poster by Sean Devare