The winners of the 2022 Miranda Family Voces Latinx Playwriting Competition have been announced by Repertorio Español. The initiative distributes funds to develop and promote Latinx/Latine plays that resonate with and accurately depict the Latinx/Latine experience.
First place was awarded to Yessi Hernández's Las Vidas Rotas, which follows a Venezuelan immigrant fighting for a better future for her and her mother in the United States. Hernández, a Venezuelan writer of Cuban and Spanish descent, is the editor-in-chief of La Guía Cultural in New York.
"As artists, we have the huge responsibility of telling our stories," says Hernández in a statement. "As we share them, we also learn, we connect with others, and we heal. We realize that by expressing what deeply moves us, we have the chance to make a difference. We can inspire, we can create awareness, and we can have justice. I'm profoundly honored and humbled by this life-changing opportunity that Repertorio Español and The Miranda Family are giving to our community. Thank you for building a platform to showcase the valuable and necessary Latinx voices on American stages, and for opening a door to have these conversations that, many times, we can only hold in the extraordinary catharsis of theater."
Second place was awarded to Rachel Lynett's Black Mexican, which deals directly with the discrimination and debate surrounding Afro-Latine identity, and the role of internal bias. Lynett is a queer Afro-Latine playwright, and was the 2021 recipient of the Yale Drama Prize for their play, Apologies to Lorraine Hansberry (You Too August Wilson). Black Mexican previously received the National Latinx Playwriting Award in 2021.
Third place was awarded to Karina Curet's Agua Por Todas Partes, which centers on three siblings as they pack up their late mothers home before handing the keys to the properties new owners. While boxing up their own childhoods, resentments and uncomfortable truths come to the surface, leaving the siblings to process their grief. Curet is a Puerto Rican playwright currently living in New York.
Runners Up for the awards including Miguel Enrique Fiol-Elias's The Chrysalis, and Andrés Correa Guatarasma's Vistiendo Santos.
The 2023 competition has now begun. Playwrights have until December 15 to submit their work for consideration. The competition is inclusive of all playwrights who are at least 18 years of age and residents of the United States or Puerto Rico. A reading series will be held in Spring 2023. For more information, please visit Repertorio.nyc.
