THE SECOND ANNUAL
Greater Good Commission & Festival
LGBTQIA+ LATINX PLAYWRIGHTS HAVE THEIR SAY
Founded by playwright Darrel Alejandro Holnes, the Greater Good Commission offers $500 mini grants to Latinx playwrights to write short plays, innovative in form, that reflect the times. The commission’s second round will focus on LGBTQIA+ Latinx- identifying playwrights.
The year’s commissioned plays will be presented at the second annual Greater Good Theater Festival produced by the Latinx Playwrights Circle (LPC) and Pregones Theater/PRTT. The festival will be streamed online in the fall and the plays will later live in digital archives.
ANNOUNCING THE ‘22 WINNERS
Andrew Rincón
is a Queer Colombian-American playwright and screenwriter. His plays have been developed with Rising Circle Theatre Collective, Amios, the Austin Latino New Play Festival, The Amoralists Theatre Company, Pork Filled Productions (Seattle), Out Front Productions (Atlanta) and The 24 Hour Plays. He was a member of INKtank Lab for Playwrights of Color (2017) and the 2017 Fornés Playwriting Workshop (Chicago). He is the winner of the 2018 Chesley/Bumbalo Grant for writers of Gay and Lesbian Theatre and the New Light New Voices Award (2019). He is a company member of Unit 52 at INTAR, a Dramatist Guild Foundation Fellow (19-20) and a MacDowell Fellow (Winter 2020), and Visiting Artist in Residence in Playwriting at Skidmore College (21-22).
“GUAU”
BY ANDREW RINCÓN
Oscar is just out of a relationship and looking to finally let his "puta" side out and take Truvada. However, with no insurance to pay for the drug, he’s out of luck. That is until Oscar hears about an underground dealer selling a different kind of pill to prevent HIV called “Guau,” unapproved by the FDA. Oscar goes to the dealer and spins his world into an explosion of Queer Puta Magic that shows Oscar what he’s really been searching for all along.
Lily Gonzales
is a playwright from Texas, based in NYC. Their work has been developed or read at The John F. Kennedy Center, Teatro Vivo, Repertorio Español, Stages, San Diego Rep, AlterTheater Ensemble, and The Workshop Theater. Their play (trans)formada was runner-up for three Kennedy Center awards, as well as a finalist for the Miranda Family ‘Voces Latinx’ Competition, and Bay Area Playwrights Festival. B.A: UT Austin, Theater & Dance / English.
no me dejas
BY LILY GONZALES
After twenty years, Perla's, the last lesbian bar in San Antonio, is closing down. Three queers, across generations, try to figure out what's next for their city and themselves as the bar has its very last call.
Phanésia Pharel
writes from a Caribbean feminist perspective on the divine metaphysical dilemma of colored girlhood. Through Afro-futurism her plays span revolutions, islands and combat gendered violence. She explores futures built on love by centering women's pleasure, safety and joy.
During her time at Barnard College of Columbia University she won four literary prizes. Other honors include City Theatre National Short Playwriting Finalist, Jane Chambers Finalist, O’neill Semi-Finalist, Blank Stage “Future of Playwriting” Semi-Finalist, Bay Area Playwrights Festival Semi-Finalist. Commissions include City Theatre Miami and Thrown Stone Theatre. Residencies include New York Stage and Film, Echo Theater Company of Los Angeles and the Playwrights Center Core Apprenticeship. Publishing: Concord Theatricals, Smith and Kraus Best Plays of 2020, Reset Coalition 2020 Anthology and the City Theatre Anthology.
Phanésia is a proud member of the Dramatist Guild of America.
Domestication, PLEASE
BY PHANÉSIA PHAREL
After years of feeling nothing, Tamara, a well-established Miami cam girl, is electric in love. Her lover wants her to leave the cam life once and for all, but when a rant of hers is leaked online, her façade is shattered, her escape is upended, and her love hangs in the balance.
Dominic Colón
is an award-winning actor & writer, from The Bronx, New York. His play PROSPECT AVE OR THE MISEDUCATION OF JUNI RODRIGUEZ premiered as part of THE MTA RADIO PLAYS at Rattlestick Theater. Dominic’s play THE WAR I KNOW, has been developed by the Latinx Playwrights Circle, and LAByrinth Theater Company as part of the 2021 Barn Series. His directing credits include: THE WAR I KNOW (LAByrinth Theater Company), Eduardo Machado’s MARQUITAS (Rattlestick Theater/Pride Plays) & Episodes 4-6 of THE MTA RADIO Plays at Rattlestick Theater. Dominic’s half hour television pilot PAPI, made the inaugural Latinx TV List, a curated list of the ten most promising pilots created by Latinx Writers, received a blind pilot deal from HULU. Dominic was recently selected to be a part of the inaugural cohort of the Sundance Uprise Grant. He is repped by CAA & Artists First.
Where’s Our Angels?
BY DOMINIC COLÓN
On the evening of March 11, 2020, the night before Broadway shut down, fiancés, E.G. and Alex, have just gotten home from seeing, “the most important play of our generation.” After having extremely different reactions to the play, a visit from their doorman inspires a debate that brings into light issues that have been plaguing their relationship and ultimately tests whether or not they can remain together.
Tavi Juárez
is an award-winning queer Chicana playwright and performer based in New York City. Raised in the Deep South, this Cancer-Sun likes to write Southern and Latinx queer stories from a joyful perspective. She is an alumni of the Alabama School of Fine Arts, the University of Montevallo, and the Circle in the Square Theatre School. In 2021, she accepted an invitation to join the Board of Directors for the International Centre for Women Playwrights (ICWP) where she now facilitates the Script Feedback Group. Her theatrical work has been produced at Dixon Place Theatre, Theatre for the New City, WOW Cafe Theatre, and the Village Playwrights in New York City.
Zoom Wedding
BY TAVI JUÁREZ
It’s Marisol and Isela’s wedding day! They set up a Zoom Room for online guests to "attend" the big day, but when the couple’s internet connection breaks up during the backyard ceremony chaos erupts online.
The plays were presented at the 2021 Greater Good Theater Festival on October 23rd by the Latinx Playwrights Circle (LPC) and Pregones Theater/PRTT. The Event was be streamed online, and the plays moved to our digital archives after. The festival supported the playwrights with a small production budget, administrative support, casting services, and video recording and editing for the virtual festival.
Meet our Creators
Darrel Alejandro Holnes
Special Programs Director- “I’m thrilled to partner again with LPC and Pregones/PRTT on this fun initiative. The LGBTQIA+ community has been through so much this past year with unemployment, homelessness, and medical issues at all-time highs due to the pandemic that I’d like to dedicate this second round to queer+ Latinx/e playwrights. It’s important that emerging playwrights have a chance to earn a living from their craft and with theaters only now beginning to re-open many continue to struggle financially; these mini grants will help those selected get on their way to a more sustainable artistic practice and help make US/American theater more inclusive and representative of this nation’s greatest strength, its diversity.”
Guadalís Del Carmen
Co-Artistic Director- “We learned and grew so much from our inaugural launch of the Greater Good. The fruit was in the wonderful playwrights we were able to connect with and continue to support. I’m beyond excited to continue this meaningful work and keep this family growing. We must continue to be bold and loud in our work and this second iteration of The Greater Good is no different from the first in creating space for our communities to be their unapologetic selves.”
Alisha Espinosa
Producer- “The beauty of the Greater Good Commission and Festival is more than its artistic merit. The Latinx community is vast and full of intersectional identities, yet is often reduced to a monolith, a generic story. By celebrating one of these intersections each year, we’re able to bring the richness and depth of our community into focus and to challenge flat narratives about who we are. ¡Estamos aquí!”