Repertorio Espanol Announces Winners of Nuestras Voces Playwriting Competition
Repertorio Espanol has announced the five plays that have been selected as the 2002 winners of the Third Annual Metlife Foundation National Playwriting Competition – Nuestras Voces (Our Voices).
The awards ceremony will be held on Tuesday, February 4, at 6:30pm, to be followed by a staged reading of the first place winner, Quemar Las Naves (Burning Ships) by Miguel Falquez. The play tells the story of a Colombian immigrant family facing the challenges of Americanization in Jackson Heights. Falquez receives a $3000 cash prize for his work, and the play will have a full production as part of Repertorio Espanol’s 2003 rotating repertory.
The second place winner is Tight Embrace by Jorge Ignacio Cortinas; the playwright will receive a prize of $2000 and there will be a reading of the play on March 4 at 7pm. Tight Embrace concerns the issues faced by a woman held hostage in a Latin American safe-house.
The third place winner is Nancy Nevarez’s Puerto Rico, I Will Always Love You, a work that focuses on the sexual assault of three women during the 2000 Puerto Rican Day Parade. Nevarez will receive a $1000 prize and the play will be given a reading on March 11 at 7pm.
The competition’s runners-up were Dinner With Jobita and La Chacha, about a white woman and her black servant bonding while preparing food for their visiting family, and Desi Moreno-Penson’s Beige, in which a Nuyorican journalist searches for her true identity while caught between two conflicting sets of ideals. The authors will each receive $500 and the plays will have readings on March 18 and March 25, respectively, both at 7pm.
The awards ceremony and readings will take place at the Gramercy Arts Theatre, 138 East 27th Street. The readings are free to the general public and will all be in English except Quemar Las Naves, for which a translation will be provided. For reservations, contact the Repertorio Espanol box office at 212-889-2850; for more information about the Repertorio Espanol, visit the website www.repertorio.org.
