Montera, the Other Side of the Coin

I wrote Montera based on an inspiring story by 3 amazing women whom I had the honor of meeting in Madrid.  These 3 women; Dina, Pilar and Irene are like no other women out there:  they have husbands, ex-husbands—in some cases—kids, grandkids, families and careers.  Their job is not your average conventional job.  But that being the case, they try to hold themselves with the same professionalism as a doctor, a mailman or a CEO of a company.  These 3 women are sexual workers and Montera is the street where their profession began.

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Las rutas de Julia de Burgos by Oscar Montero

I started working on Las rutas de Julia de Burgos while teaching a class about poets in New York.   Students reacted strongly to Burgos’s poems, which is always good news for a teacher, and they understood her personal story: her search for love, its loss, her commitment to the independence of Puerto Rico, her struggles to survive in New York in the 1940’s, her lonely death on a street corner.   Reading Julia’s poetry and talking about the events of her life helped to define something I wanted the students to understand:  the tensions between creative work and survival, economic and emotional survival in a tough world.

Designing Días Estupendos (Wonderful Days) by Blanca Añón

IATI Theater Stage

Designing Días Estupendos was from the first moment challenging and exciting.  It is my first Spanish play as a Spanish scenic designer based in NYC.  A big part of the research process took place in my memories.  I am connected to the daily reality that is described in each single scene, summers in Spain.

Writing Wonderful Days Helped Awaken Me (Alfredo Sanzol)

I wrote Días Estupendos (Wonderful Days) to pay tribute to my grandfather, who always considered every single thing to be wonderful.  Therefore, I entitled this play Wonderful Days.  Besides it takes place in the summer, which was indeed when I got to spend the most time with my grandfather.

Tigua Paint Inspired by New Version of an Andean Myth

As some of you know, A Girl without Wings was inspired by a centuries-old Andean myth about a condor who falls in love with a shepherd girl. While traveling with DAT in Ecuador, playwright Jason Williamson learned about the tale through dozens of the region’s famous Tigua paintings (colorful landscapes depicting pastoral life in the Andes) in which the mystical condor is pictured carrying a girl on his back through the skies; snuggling with her in high mountain caves; or responding hurriedly to her smoke signals.

A Girl Without Wings by Jason Williamson

When I was commissioned by Dramatic Adventure Theatre to write a play inspired by our work in Ecuador, I knew I’d be up for a challenge.  In fact, I couldn’t help but question the whole idea of my writing such a thing.   Who was I to comment on a place and people who were not my own? I mean, I’d spent several months traveling throughout the country—directing, teaching, and participating in various service projects, but still, I’m an American who inevitably writes from a distinctly American perspective.  Was there any way to escape being a tourist in the theatrical world that I, myself, was about to create?

Theater From the Inside Out by Haydn Díaz

“CTP3 (Collaborative Theater Project, 3^rd Year) is IATI Theater’s testament to the creation of theater of the most avant-garde natures; by putting the creation process on its head and decimating the usual hierarchy in which most plays are created, CTP3 creates a play that IS crafted from the inside out.

Light of Night by Cecilia Copeland

I don’t usually watch TV, but in the winter of 2009 I watched a marathon of cable documentaries that came out about girls being kidnapped. It was hour after hour over several days. It seemed like countless women had been through a similar ordeal. Many young women in the US from Texas to California were featured along with the emerging details of the Fritzl case in Austria. I found myself obsessed to the point where I had to ask myself why I was so engrossed. The answer struck me in a flash. It finally brought back to light the unusual occurrence from my own past and forced me to begin the process of reconciling how it made me into the person I am today.