Ensemble Member, Francisco Solorzano

Ensemble Member, Francisco Solorzano reunites with Advisory Board Member, Israel Horovitz in collaboration with LAByrinth Theater Company.

This week, Francisco will be seen opposite Ensemble Member Tala Ashe, Lynn Cohen as well as Jeremy Sisto and other exciting artists for LAByrinth Theater Company's Barn Reading Series featuring short plays by Israel Horovitz.

NEW SHORTS by Israel Horovitz

Directed by Israel Horovitz and Scott Illingworth

Dec 16 & 18 at 8pm

Israel Horovitz's New Shorts include Just The Way You Are (an intervention from hell),Inconsolable (on suicide), The Vote In Orange (on the night France elected a Fascist candidate for the presidency), Beirut Rocks (on the radicalization of an American Arab), What Strong Fences Make (on the radicalization of an Israeli Jew).

Featuring Scout Cook, Jeremy Sisto, Francisco Solorzano

Tickets for all readings in the Barn Series are FREE to the public. No reservations necessary. Free tickets will be distributed an hour before curtain on a first come, first served basis.

LABpass Members can make advance reservations as a benefit of their membership. If you are a LABpass member, please call 212.513.1080 to make your reservation. For information on becoming a member, click here.

All readings will take place at:
THE CHERRY PIT
155 Bank Street
NY, NY 1004

Happy Holidays from the Ensemble...

We hope you are all enjoying this Holiday Season and wish you lots of warmth, love and happiness. We also hope you can join us for a Holiday Party on December 17th, 6:30pm at Central Bar in NYC (109 East 9th Street between 3rd & 4th Avenue).

Happy Holidays,

Will Allen, Tala Ashe, Lucy Boyle, Jeremy Brena, Susanne Bruno, Gabriel Buentello, Anna Chlumsky, Lynn Cohen, Mark G. Cisneros, Alona Dadiani, Stonie Darling, Danelle Eliav, Charles Everett, Gabe Fazio, Cristina Fernandez, Lydia Gladstone, John Gazzale, Stephen Gracia, Daniel Graff, Nicole Haran, John Harlacher, Patrizia Hernandez, Joanna Leigh Jacobsen, Lanna Joffrey, Kenneth King, Adian Koehler, Jessica Langer, Kendra Leigh Landon, Luke Landric Leonard, Thomas James Lombardo, Michael LoPorto, Ruben Luque, Victoria Malvagno, Dedra McCord-Ware, Roderick Nash, Luca Pierucci, Amanda Plant, Lorraine Rodriguez, Gil Ron, Pamela Seiderman, Francisco Solorzano, Anika Solveig, Joseph Sousa, Mark von Sternberg, Jennie West, Christopher Whalen, Jason Zimbler.

Ensemble Member Lanna Joffrey

Check out Ensemble Member Lanna Joffrey working with The Public...

THE MOBILE UNIT

The Public’s Shakespeare Initiative presents THE MOBILE UNIT, offering Free Shakespeare To Audiences With Limited or No Access To the Arts.

Inagural Production
MEASURE FOR MEASURE
Produced in Association With Acclaimed Minneapolis Company TEN THOUSAND THINGS THEATER|
Two week tour will play correctional facilities, homeless shelters, centers for youth-at-risk, senior centers before performing at Judson Memorial Church, December 6-11

CLICK HERE to buy tickets to MEASURE FOR MEASURE at Judson Memorial Church.

At the same time The Public Theater is in previews for Daniel Sullivan’s acclaimed production of The Merchant of Venice on Broadway, The Public Theater announced it would expand its Shakespeare Initiative to include a new platform for the production of Shakespeare’s works: THE MOBILE UNIT.

Designed to bring the highest caliber professional productions of Shakespeare, free of charge, to audiences with little or no access to major New York City arts institutions, THE MOBILE UNIT will tour MEASURE FOR MEASURE, directed by Michelle Hensley, to correctional facilities, homeless shelters, facilities for battered and abused women, drug rehab facilities, senior centers, centers for youth-at-risk, and other social service organizations that support the disadvantaged, underserved, and marginalized.

Following the two week tour in November, MEASURE FOR MEASURE will play the historic Judson Memorial Church on Washington Square in Greenwich Village from December 6 through December 11. All tickets are $15.

The Public Theater will produce MEASURE FOR MEASURE in association with the nationally acclaimed Minneapolis theater company Ten Thousand Things Theater, of which Michelle Hensley is the founder and artistic director. For 20 years, Ten Thousand Things has brought productions of Shakespeare and other works to underserved audiences and institutions throughout the Twin Cities, and has become a nationwide model for such work.

THE MOBILE UNIT’S inaugural tour will take place November 22 through December 4 at the following venues:

• Arthur Kill Correctional Facility, Staten Island, a medium-security New York State men’s prison (November 23)
• Susan’s Place, Bronx, a shelter for battered and homeless women (November 26)
• Bayview Correctional Facility, Manhattan, a medium-security New York State women’s prison (November 30)
• Jamaica Service Program for Older Adults (JSPOA), Queens, a center for the elderly (December 1)
• Fortune Society, Queens, a provider of services for recently released convicts (December 2)
• Central High School / Boys & Girls Club of Newark, Newark, NJ, a major inner-city high school and a service organization for youth-at-risk (December 3)

The cast features Rob Campbell, Carson Elrod, Meg Gibson, Shalita Grant, William Jackson Harper, Jackie Sanders Hayes, Ruy Iskandar, Lanna Joffrey and Nicole Lewis.

MEASURE FOR MEASURE tells the story of a Duke who goes undercover to investigate the behavior of a deputy and to observe the lives of the assorted citizenry, from prostitutes and bawds to high level judges and administrators. The play is a look at the vexing difficulties that attend the fair administration of justice. Ten Thousand Things first performed MEASURE FOR MEASURE in the Twin Cities 12 years ago and found that its low-income audiences, most of whom must daily endure the judgments and injustice of others, deeply connected with Shakespeare’s tale.

Lanna Joffrey Jason Grote’s 1001 (Denver Center, dir. Ethan McSweeny) Denver Post Ovation Award, Nine Parts of Desire (Lyric Stage & Kitchen Theatre, dir. Carmel O'Reilly) IRNE Award Best Solo Performance, Lanna's documentary play, Valiant (dir. Tamilla Woodard) NY Fringe Festival Performance Award & NY Innovative Theatre nomination, Sad and Merry Madness (The Public, Barry Edelstein), The House of Spirits (Denver Center, Jose Zayas), Metamorphoses (Capital Repertory, Maggie Mancinelli-Carter), Damascus (Northern Stage, Brooke Ciardelli), The Fever Chart (Underground Railway Theater, Elena Araoz) The Snow Queen (Urban Stages, Daniella Topol), Mac Wellaman’s Cellophane (The Flea, Jim Simpson), Like I Say (The Flea, Len Jenkin), Saviana Stanescu’s Waxing West (Goldberg Festival, Jonathan Silverstein), Israel Horovitz's Security & A Mother's Love (Barefoot Theatre Company, Eric Nightengale & Pam Seiderman), Marko The Prince (Immigrants Theatre Project, Marcy Arlin) and Dancing at Lughnasa (Cider Mill Playhouse, Wendy Dann). Film/TV: Security, Delocated, Breathtaking, Someday Soon and The New Americans. Writing: She has collaborated with Karen Finley on Lanna’s solo piece, “Rain” (The Flea) and with Creative Destruction Theatre Company for their evening of Mashups and B-Sides (Nelson Eusebio, The Tank). She also regularly performs her spoken word at Nuyorican Poets Café, TerraNova Collective’s Subterranean and other NYC venues and events.

upcoming news and events...

hello everyone!

We are looking forward to bringing you more news on our Website updates, Featured Ensemble Member, Upcoming Education Classes, Director's Lab progress, Spring Gala, West Coast projects and Artists Interviews during our current, 12th Anniversary Season - so stay tuned!!!

In the Meantime: HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

Keep following us on facebook to hear all about the exciting work our Ensemble Members are currently in the midst of - within and outside Barefoot Theatre Company.

best,

Administrative Team

Barefoot Theatre Company

Ensemble Member Therese Plaehn

Ensemble Member, Therese Plaehn featured at The Gallery Players in Brian Friel's Dancing At Lughnasa: December 4-19, 2010.

The Cast

Susan Ferrara*, Kelsey Formost, Zac Hoogendyk*, Amanda McCallum*,Therese Plaehn*, Jasper Soffer, Richard Vernon*, Leigh Williams* - *appears courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association

This extraordinary play is the story of five unmarried sisters eking out their lives in a small village in Ireland in 1936. We meet them at the time of the festival of Lughnasa, which celebrates the pagan god of the harvest with drunken revelry and dancing. Their spare existence is interrupted by brief, colorful bursts of music from the radio, their only link to the romance and hope of the world at large. The action of the play is told through the memory of the illegitimate son of one of the sisters as he remembers the five women who raised him, his mother and four maiden aunts. Widely regarded as Brian Friel’s masterpiece, this haunting play is Friel’s tribute to the spirit and valor of the past. Winner of the 1992 Tony Award for Best Play, the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Broadway Play and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play.

Buy tickets now.

“The most elegant and rueful memory play since The Glass Menagerie.” TimeOut

“…this play does exactly what theater was born to do, carrying both its characters and audience aloft on those waves of distant music and ecstatic release that, in defiance of all language and logic, let us dance and dream just before night must fall.” New York Times

Performance Schedule:
Saturday, December 4 at 8:00 PM – Opening night
Sunday, December 5 at 3:00 PM – matinee
Thursday, December 9 at 8:00 PM
Friday, December 10 at 8:00 PM
Saturday, December 11 at 2:00 PM – matinee
Saturday, December 11 at 8:00 PM
Sunday, December 12 at 3:00 PM – matinee
Thursday, December 16 at 8:00 PM
Friday, December 17 at 8:00 PM
Saturday, December 18 at 2:00 PM – matinee
Saturday, December 18 at 8:00 PM
Sunday, December 19 at 3:00 PM – final performance

Ensemble Member Stephen Gracia

Ensemble Member, Stephen Gracia's outside projects at the moment includes this broad comedy Mockumentary about reality tv:

http://www.realitybitesbackbook.com/about-reality-bites-back/reality-rehab-with-dr-jenn/#meettheproductionteam

Ensemble Members, Kendra Leigh Landon and Michael LoPorto also contribute to the project. Click on link for a look at the effects of Reality TV on society...and storytelling on the web!

Ensemble Member, Jeremy Brena

IIf you happen to be in or around Hudson, NY over the Thanksgiving Holidays, come to the Stageworks/Hudson and check out a reading Ensemble Member, Jeremy Brena will be in produced by HRC. Poster is attached and details are listed below. Have a Happy Thanksgiving.....

HRC was recently a collaborator and participating company in our 70/70 Horovitz Project with their presentation of Israel Horovitz's Fighting Over Beverly.

Jeremy Brena was most recently seen in numerous roles in our 2nd Annual bareNaked Reading Series this past month at The Cherry Lane Theatre.

HRC
ST Proudly presents VACUUM
Saturday 27 NOVEMBER 2010 8 PM
Performed in residence at Stageworks/Hudson just steps from Hudson's Amtrak

Check www.stageworkshudson.org for map and directions. Reservation: 518 799 3230 Space is limited

Following the performance there will be a reception to meet the playwright, actors, and the director. This event is made possible (in part) with public funds from the Decentralization Program of the New York State Council on the Arts, administered through the Twin Counties Cultural Fund in Columbia County by the Columbia County Council on the Arts
directed by BARBARA WALDINGER; by ARLENE HUTTON; featuring KUBBI, EDDIE ALLEN, JEREMY BRENA, KAREN CASE COOK, LUCY MCMICHAEL, MAUREEN VAN TREASE

A brilliant but debt-ridden scientist must decide whether to sell his latest discovery to a cosmetics company, assuring
him of a very comfortable future, or to spend years seeking FDA approval for its eventual use as a cure that will
save millions of people.

a note from Producing Artistic Director...

Hello Barefoot Theatre Company friends and family,

on behalf of the entire Ensemble, I wish you all and your families a Happy Thanksgiving and much love during the Holiday Season!!!

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all of the love and support you have all shown our ensemble of artists and associates. We promise to continue bringing you some of the most exciting and provocative theater New York City has to offer.

Stay tuned for more Backstage Passes, In-House pre-production developments, readings, Director's Lab, Playwright's Lab, Featured Ensemble Member, Artist Interviews, West Coast developments, Workshop Series presentations and more!

Our motto spoken by Irvine Welsh: "what sparks me up about theatre and, indeed, all collaborative art: if you put enough talented enthusiasts together in one room, anything is achievable."

Love,

Francisco Solorzano

Producing Artistic Director

final bareNaked Reading this Monday...

This coming Monday, November 22nd @ 7pm marks our final event at The Cherry Lane Theatre for the fall...join us for our final bareNaked Reading Series installment this month followed by a celebration to remember featuring FREE DRINKS, LIVE MUSIC and AWESOME ARTISTS!!!!

Honor Thy Mother

by Kyle Bradstreet

Directed by

Stephen Brackett

Featuring

Roderick Nash*+, Francisco Solorzano*+, Christopher Whalen*+ and Jeremy Brena*+ reading stage directions.

Post Show - Live Music: Jennie West*+

*AEA Member

+Barefoot Theatre Company Ensemble Member.

KYLE BRADSTREET

Kyle Bradstreet is the author of the plays From Prague (2010 staged reading, A.R.T., Cambridge, MA) and Alcohol. (2008, The Players Theatre Loft, NY), as well as the one acts A Story From Abeyance (2007, Shortened Attention Span Halloween Festival, voted Best Play), The Café (2007, Shortened Attention Span Festival) The Edge (The Players Theatre Loft, published by The Good Ear Review, May 2010) and Patrick’s Story (Payan Theatre, NY). As a screenwriter, Kyle has written for The Philanthropist (NBC), Manhunt (HBO miniseries, forthcoming) and Borgia (Canal+/Lagardère, forthcoming), on which he is currently a story editor. Kyle co-authored the stage piece “Art & Soul: A Celebration of the American Spirit,” which was performed at the United States Library of Congress’ Coolidge Auditorium on April 29^th, 2010. His fiction has been published in Blood Lotus, Third Wednesday, The Coachella Review and Two Hawks Quarterly, and he has guest lectured at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and SUNY College at Buffalo. Kyle is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America and the Writers Guild of America, East.

7pm @ The Cherry Lane Theatre (The Studio Theatre)

38 Commerce Street (7th Ave & Hudson.

Q&A with playwright, director and cast followed by FREE DRINKS and LIVE MUSIC. No reservations needed. $5 SUGGESTED DONATION.

ADDED PERFORMANCES FEATURING...Samantha Fontana

We begin our final week of Emergency Used Candles by Chiara Montalto tonight and have some great news to share:

1) get your tixs to our Thursday night performance and meet our Creative Team immediately after.

2) 2 performances have been added featuring our Understudy, Samantha Fontana:

F

riday, November 19 @ 8:30pm - SOLD OUT!

Saturday, November 20 @ 8:30pm (FINAL PERFORMANCE) - just a few seats left.

(if interested in reserving a seat for final performance simply send your name and number of seats to barefoottheatre@aol.com).

The reviews are in and here's a glimpse:

"So seamless is the effective direction by Victoria Malvagno, it's almost invisible -- things seem to happen spontaneously... Anyone concerned with the human condition will like this work; anyone who has ever been really close to a family member will love it." BROADWAY AFTER DARK

"Plays don’t need to be two-and-a-half hours long, with a 10-minute intermission to be effective. Sometimes, all you need is a barebones set and a story worth hearing. You’ll find both at Emergency Used Candles." -NY PRESS

"Not a dry eye in the house after viewing EMERGENCY USED CANDLES, and this makes for an extremely satisfying theatre experience. Treat yourself to this 75-minute delight." ELECTRONIC LINK

Q&A with Creative Team of Emergency Used Candles

This coming Thursday, November 18th we present you with a Q&A following the 7pm performance of Emergency Used Candles. Meet writer/performer Chiara Montalto and director Victoria Malvagno as they discuss their process and how this solo piece began with our bareNaked Reading Series...

"Good theater, at its most basic, should simultaneously accomplish two things: entertain and enlighten the audience. And by the time Montalto’s piece of theater had ended, she had more than accomplished both. Plays don’t need to be two-and-a-half hours long, with a 10-minute intermission to be effective. Sometimes, all you need is a barebones set and a story worth hearing. You’ll find both at Emergency Used Candles." NY PRESS

Barefoot Theatre Company - now in its 12th season Off-Broadway - will present the world-premiere of Chiara Montalto's play EMERGENCY USED CANDLES, with previews beginning November 3 and a press opening night set for November 6 at the Studio Theatre (38 Commerce St.) at Cherry Lane Theatre in Manhattan. LIMITED RUN ONLY!!!!

EMERGENCY USED CANDLES is a tale set in Brooklyn about the profound effect a grandfather and his granddaughter have on each other as one's life is ending while the other's is just beginning. Written and performed by Chiara Montalto, EMERGENCY USED CANDLES is based on the playwright's own experience growing up as a caretaker to her grandfather.

EMERGENCY USED CANDLES is directed by Victoria Malvagno. Sound design is by Eric Nightengale, production design is by Tom Lenz, lighting design by Josh Iacovelli, and costume design by Ms. Malvagno.
3 ways to purchase tixs:
1)By Phone: (212) 239-6200 (Telecharge call center)
2)Online: www.telecharge.com
3)Box Office: Tickets can be purchased in person at the box office during hours of operation. I don’t know what the hours will be when you come in but right now it’s Tuesday-Saturday from 5-7pm.
Student and senior tickets can only be purchased in person with a valid ID.

bareNaked Reading Series this Tuesday

This Tuesday, November 16th we continue our bareNaked Reading Series (no sets, no props, just words) at The Cherry Lane Theatre with a new play by Ensemble Member, Lucy Boyle.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2010 @ 7pm

Private Call by Lucy Boyle (abc family's HUGE)

directed by Heidi Hendlesman

featuring:

Anna Chlumsky, Susannah Flood, Dan Graff, Ian White and Daniella Rabbani reading stage directions.

No reservations needed. $10 admission.

6pm at The Cherry Lane Theatre (The Studio Theatre) 38 Commerce Street (7th Ave & Hudson)

LUCY BOYLE Lucy Boyle is a writer and actor. Her plays have had productions/readings at Ensemble Studio Theatre, Women’s Expressive Theater, Bay Street Theatre, Hangar Theatre, Trinity Repertory Company, Manhattan Theatre Source/Estrogenius Festival, and Guild Hall. She was a writer on the ABC Family tv series HUGE, created by Winnie Holzman and Savannah Dooley. She received her MFA in acting from the Brown University/Trinity Rep Consortium in 2006, and studied with Paula Vogel in Brown's graduate playwrights’ workshop during that time as well. She earned her BA in Comparative Literature French/English from Brown. She is a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre's Youngblood Playwrights Collective and was a 2007 Dramatists’ Guild Fellow. In 2009, she won a John Golden Incentive Award from Hunter College for her play The Blue Deep. Barefoot Theatre Company Ensemble Member since 2010.

6pm at The Cherry Lane Theatre (The Studio Theatre)

38 Commerce Street (7th Ave & Hudson)

Q&A with playwright, director and cast following reading. No reservations needed. $10 admission.

Live Music featuring Gina Pensiero

bareNaked Reading Series Resumes this Monday

This Monday, November 15th we resume our bareNaked Reading Series (no sets, no props, just words) at The Cherry Lane Theatre with a new short play by Mike Reiss (The Simpsons) and a full-length play by Jason Furlani (Leaded at the West End Theatre.

First up we have the short play

Waiting For Waiting For Godot by Mike Reiss

directed by Pamela Seiderman

featuring

Lisa Anderson, Jeremy Brena, Lynn Cohen, Ronald Cohen, Mark G. Cisneros, Charles Everett, John Gazzale, Douglas Taurel, Minna Taylor and Andrew McLarty reading stage directions.

6pm at The Cherry Lane Theatre (The Studio Theatre)

38 Commerce Street (7th Ave & Hudson)

Q&A with playwright, director and cast following reading. No reservations needed. $10 admission.

pictured: The Simpsons version of Mike Reiss.

Mike Reiss

Mike Reiss is has won four Emmys and a Peabody Award during his eighteen years writing for “The Simpsons”. In 2006, Reiss received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Animation Writers Caucus. Reiss co-created the animated series “The Critic” and created Showtime’s hit cartoon “Queer Duck” (about a gay duck). “Queer Duck” was recently named one of “The 100 Greatest Cartoons of All Time” by the BBC. “Queer Duck: the Movie” was released to rave reviews in July 2006. The film won awards in New York, Chicago, Sweden, Germany and Wales. Reiss’s other TV credits include “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show”, “ALF”, and “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson”. “My Life in Ruins”, a film inspired by his travels to 61 countries, was released in 2009. Reiss was also co-wrote ‘The Simpsons Movie” and “Ice Age 3”, with a combined world-wide gross of $1.5 billion. His caveman detective story “Cro-Magnon P.I.” won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America. He has published fourteen children’s books, including the best-seller “How Murray Saved Christmas” and the award-winning “Late for School”. Reiss also composes puzzles for “NPR”, and “Games Magazine”. As a professional speaker, Reiss has lectured at over one

hundred colleges and institutions, on six continents. His topics include “The Simpsons”, comedy and Judaism, and the sorry state of television. Reiss is a former president of “The Harvard Lampoon” and editor of “The National Lampoon”. He has been happily married for twenty-one years. Like most children’s book authors, he has no children.

Following the presentation of Waiting For Waiting For Godot we bring you:

A Long Hard Rain

by Jason Furlani

directed by Nicole Haran

featuring:

Gabe Fazio, Therese Plaehn, Francisco Solorzano, Douglas Taurel, John Ventimiglia, Sally Wingert and Samantha Fontana reading stage directions.

7pm @ The Cherry Lane Theatre (The Studio Theatre)

38 Commerce Street (7th Ave & Hudson.

Q&A with playwright, director and cast followed by FREE DRINKS and LIVE MUSIC. No reservations needed. $10 admission.

JASON FURLANI

A native of Schenectady, NY, Jason Furlani has asserted himself as a ten-year veteran in the New York theatre world, having had successful productions of his work with various companies and on numerous stages in NYC. Most recently, the Blue Collar Theater Company presented Jason’s full-length comedy The Big Vig at the Bank Street Theatre for a month-long run. Prior to that, the Blue Collar Theater Company presented his full-length play LEADED at the West End Theatre, as well as his ten minute play Susan is a Pinhead, which had its debut as part of the Blue Collar “Shorts” Festival. Other companies that have produced Jason’s work include: Zena Group, Real to Reel Productions and The 42^nd Street Workshop, and at present, his full length drama A Long Hard Rain is under consideration by various companies in NYC. Additionally, the film rights to A Long Hard Rain have been optioned by Propeller Productions in L.A. It is currently being adapted for the screen by the playwright. Jason’s newest work, Family Trees, is under consideration for the 2007 O’Neil Playwrights Conference. Along with his work in the theatre, the thirty-six year old writer has penned the script for both of the Families of Freedom fundraising events (a 9/11 charity) hosted in successive order by Chevy Chase and Carol Kane. A proud father and loving husband, Jason splits time between Los Angeles and his home base in Brooklyn, NY, with his wife Emily and daughter Eva.n (pictured)

The Evening will feature LIVE MUSIC by: Pete Sinjin

Jose Rivera's new play featured in our 2nd Annual bareNaked Reading Series

This week begins our 2nd Annual bareNaked Reading Series and we bring you two of the best! On Monday we give you Kristoffer Diaz's new play and on Tuesday we present you with:

Jose Rivera's

Adoration Of The Old Woman.

Directed by Deborah Kampmeier

featuring: Audrey Esparza, Patrizia Hernandez, Socorro Santiago, Francisco Solorzano, Charles Casano and more.

The Cherry Lane Theatre(The Studio Theatre)

38 Commerce Street

7pm / $10 - featuring Live Music by The Umbrella Man; free drinks and a Q&A with cast, director and playwright Jose Rivera. No reservation needed.

JOSE RIVERA

José Rivera’s plays have premiered off-Broadway and been seen at most major theatres in the U.S. and around the world. They include THE HOUSE OF RAMON IGLESIA, THE PROMISE, EACH DAY DIES WITH SLEEP, MARISOL, CLOUD TECTONICS, SUEÑO, THE STREET OF THE SUN, GIANTS HAVE US IN THEIR BOOKS, SONNETS FOR AN OLD CENTURY, BRAINPEOPLE, ADORATION OF THE OLD WOMAN, REFERENCES TO SALVADOR DALI MAKE ME HOT, SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS, MASSACRE (SING TO YOUR CHILDREN), BOLEROS FOR THE DISENCHANTED, PABLO AND ANDREW AT THE ALTAR OF WORDS, HUMAN EMOTIONAL PROCESS, and a new translation of KISS OF THE SPIDERWOMAN. Playwriting honors include two OBIE Awards, a Whiting Foundation Award, a McKnight Fellowship, a Rockefeller Foundation Grant, and a Kennedy Center Grant. On a Fulbright Arts Fellowship he was writer-in-residence at the Royal Court Theatre, London. In 2005 Rivera became the first Puerto Rican nominated for an Academy Award in screenwriting for his first produced screenplay. “The Motorcycle Diaries” (directed by Walter Salles, with Gael Garcia Bernal), was also nominated for a BAFTA Award and a Writers Guild of America Award and Spain’s Goya Award and Argentina’s top screenwriting prize. His film “Trade” was the first film to premiere at the United Nations. Rivera worked on and was fired from “Letters to Juliet.” Currently in production is “On the Road” (Walter Salles, director, Francis Ford Coppola, executive producer, with Kristen Stewart and Viggo Mortenson), “Celestina” will mark Rivera’s feature film directing debut (Esperanza Production). Rivera has served as a creative advisor for the Sundance Screenwriting Lab and has been on the boards of directors of the Sundance Institute, Film Independent, PEN Center West, and Theatre Communications Group. He is a member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre and the LAByrinth Theatre Company and is at work on his first novel, LOVE MAKES THE CITY CRUMBLE. He lives in New York with his wife, actress/producer Sona Tatoyan.