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                          ***Winner of the New American Voices National Playwriting Award***

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AZTEC PIRATES, A LATINX FANTASIA ON NATIONAL THEMES  PARTS ONE AND TWO

Across borders and allegiances this two part play takes you on a harrowing and disturbing adventure that examines life for Latinx people caught between embracing their roots and conforming to the mob mentality of a Trump-era USA.

Aztec Pirates is a study of the American Vendido; the controversial trope assigned to LatinX people who betray their own race. In the chaotic times of a Trump led America it is shocking to many of us to find that many of our family members support a leader who has villainized us as a people and uses us as a scapegoat to gain financial and political power. Many of us have found ourselves caught between our beliefs, our families, and our identities wondering where we stand in America’s future - and that is the central theme that encompasses this play. Furthermore as the American melting pot continues to turn our multitude of cultures into a uniculture we find ourselves grasping with the heavy thought that had Spaniards not colonized the Native American peoples we would not exist. We are both the conquered and the conqueror and in knowing that, do we all become Vendidos?

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THE INSIGNIFICANCE OF LIFE ON MARS

Part One

Johnny Montenegro is an ICE agent trying to put back the pieces of his life after an ugly incident in the field got him suspended from duty. While arresting a man he had already deported two years earlier, he was called a traitor to his race and he beat the accuser half to death, but he couldn’t shake the idea that had been planted within him: was he a traitor to his race? Equipped with only his commands Johnny embarks on an odyssey as he searches for the truth about his country, his culture, and his memory. However with every answer that he finds, there is something inside of him that becomes less clear. His quest to clear his conscience leads him from strip bars to courtrooms to hospitals to morgues, as he seeks the validation he needs to continue living complicitly.

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THE INEQUITY OF SACRIFICE

Part Two

Three years after the deadly actions of ICE agent Johnny Montenegro changed their lives forever, Elida wants closure, Carmen wants absolution, and Michelle wants justice. But as they try to move on from the traumatic events of that night, looming mysteries and visions of prophetic Aztec Warriors force them into a journey that will entangle their lives further.

Across borders and allegiances this two part play takes you on a harrowing and disturbing adventure that examines life for Latinx people caught between embracing their roots and conforming to the mob mentality of a Trump-era USA. 

AZTEC PIRATES PRODUCTION SHOTS

A workshop production of Aztec Pirates Part One, the Insignificance of Life on Mars, was presented by Lone Star Media at the Chain Theatre in Manhattan in December 2023. Directed by Sofia Ubilla and starring Ollie Corchado, Alexandra Castro, Lillian Andrea De León, Jorge Sánchez Díaz, Carmen Lamar Gonzalez, Maria Isabella Rojas, Marlon Xavier, and Kayla Zanakis. The creative team also includes Assistant Director Fabiola Arias, Sound Designer Amelia Way, Lighting Designer Isaac Castillo, Stage Manager Jose Noél. 
 

Photos by Krystal Conyé. 

PICTURES FROM VARIOUS WORKSHOPS
OF AZTEC PIRATES PART 1

PICTURES FROM VARIOUS WORKSHOPS
OF AZTEC PIRATES PART 2

Pictures from developmental readings of Aztec Pirates part two.

DEVELOPMENTAL HISTORY

  • Lone Star Theatre Co, 2017 (10 min version)

  • The PlayGround Experiment: Pt 1 (2018 & 2022), Pt 2 (2020)

  • Feast Performance Series 2018 (Pt 1)

  • Broadviews on Broadway Summer Fresh Festival 2018 (Pt 1)

  • All-Star Theatre South Texas 2019 (Pt 1)

  • San Diego Rep 2019 (Pt 1)

  • Frank Silvera Writers Workshop at the BK Cultural Arts Center: Pt 1 (2019), Pt 2 (2020)

  • NYC LatinX Playwrights Circle at Primary Stages 2020 (Pt 2)

  • Alexandra Castro Productions LLC 2020 (Pt 1 & Pt 2)

  • Landing Theater Company, Houston 2021 (Pt 1)

  • Playwright's Realm 2021 (Pt 2)

  • Bloomington Playwrights Project 2022 (10 min version)

  • Lone Star Media, Workshop Production 2023 (Pt 1)

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IF THEY COME FOR ME IN THE MORNING
THEY WILL COME FOR YOU AT NIGHT

a ten minute play

Aztec Pirates started as a ten minute play titled "If they Come for Me in the Morning, they will Come for You at Night," which was written for the Crossing Borders one-act play festival produced by Lone Star Theatre Company in 2017. It received a staged reading in that festival, and the ten-minute version became the opening scene of the multi-part fantasia. Then, in 2022, the ten-minute version received a full production as part of the VIDA one-act play festival at Bloomington Playwrights Project in Bloomington, IN.

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