The ALNPF, in collaboration with ScriptWorks, unites playwrights and audience members in conversation surrounding new works of Latino theatre. After each performance, the playwright participates in a talkback session with the audience. The ALNPF features four new plays by playwrights from throughout the U.S., including a play for young audiences. Tickets are “pay what you wish” at the theatre!

Come see the Festival Kickoff Celebration on Thursday, April 19 at 7:00 PM, and meet all the playwrights featured this year, before the first staged reading of the weekend!

Atacama by Augusto Federico Amador
Directed by Mary Alice Carnes
Thursday, April 19, 8:00 PM

Thirty years after the dirty war waged by the General Pinochet regime on the Chilean people. Two strangers search the Atacama Desert for their buried loved ones and discover there are darker truths awaiting them underneath the hard sands of the Atacama.

American (Tele)visions by Victor I. Cazares
Directed by Alexis A. Arredondo
Friday, April 20, 8:00 PM

The Canales family just can’t catch a break: The dad gets impaled with the TV antenna, the mom and Stanley the truck driver have run off with half their doublewide mobile home, the brother is dead and is reanimated by his gay Vietnamese lover, and Erica…Erica is a kids’ TV dinner tray with lots of sodium and dreams. You know, just your typical undocumented Mexican family living in the shadow of the first Wal-Mart in the history of the American Universe. Now please someone get them an HBO show. Elevator Pitch: “Estos Somos Nosotros” meets Super Mario NES. Contains adult language.

Dulce by Ramon Esquivel (A Play for Young Audiences)
Directed by Khristián Méndez Aguirre
Saturday, April 21, 3:00 PM

A boy named Memo learns that Abuelita, his beloved grandmother, has died. Unsure of how to feel, Memo decides to find Abuelita’s hidden stash of candy. But his mother Luisa and older sister Ceci are too caught up in their own grief to help, so Memo turns to an unexpected ally in his search for the dulce: Abuelita herself! Memo journeys with Abuelita through her memories as a child in Mexico and a young immigrant in the USA, and he discovers that the true treasure Abuelita left for him is familia. A play for young audiences (ages 8+) and families, Dulce draws on both magical realism and slapstick comedy to tell a story about cultural identity, intergenerational ties, and learning how to say goodbye.

Hielo by Dania Ramos
Directed by Carl Gonzales
Saturday, April 21, 8:00 PM

It is spring 2017 in Cayey, Puerto Rico. When Lucia’s hours at the local superstore are cut back, she decides it’s time to follow her dream of starting a homemade flavored-ice business. She enlists the help of her book-smart teenaged daughter, Alondra, and her resourceful best friend, Yamilet, but things heat up when the neighborhood piragüero feels that his livelihood is threatened. Lucia must consider what’s best for her neighborhood, her daughter, and herself.