A new play about a woman torn between family expectations and living her own life takes the stage at the Bishop Arts Theatre Center this week.
Curse of the Puerto Ricans, described as “hilarious” and centered on one family’s Christmas celebration, runs through Aug. 28, and the world premiere is Saturday, Aug. 13.
“I wanted a Latinx version of a story we see a lot on the stage,” Buffalo, New York-based playwright Rosa Fernandez says in this YouTube introduction to her play.
The play was a semifinalist for the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference and runner-up in the MetLife Nuestras Voces Playreading Series for Repertorio Españo, according to Broadway World.
Director Marta Torres of Dallas Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation says she “jumped at the opportunity” to direct the play.
“There are so many beautiful themes and moments and drama and laughter and tears in the show that deeply resonates with me as an Afro-Latina, as a Mexi-Rican … raised in Puerto Rico, and as a woman of color,” she says on YouTube.
Fernandez, the playwright, says the nonprofit theater’s founder Teresa Coleman Wash believed in her play.
“I saw my own family in this play when I read the script,” Wash says. “Curse Of The Puerto Ricans is a universal story that I know will have audiences on the edge of their seats. It’s such a fun show.”
Tickets cost $18-$30 and can be purchased online or by calling the box office, 214.948.0716, which is open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday.
