For our Season 3 finale, David and Joey chat with playwright Mara Vélez Meléndez about making her Off-Broadway debut as Sol 7, decolonizing gender, and the queerness of the multiverse.

Mara Vélez Meléndez (she/her) is a playwright born and raised in Puerto Rico. Her Off-Broadway debut will take place in 2022 with Notes on Killing Seven Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Board Members, produced by Soho Rep in partnership with The Sol Project. She also adapted the upcoming Spotify/Gimlet podcast, Case 63. Mara was a 2020-2021 Playwrights Realm Writing Fellow and is currently a member of Ars Nova’s PlayGroup.

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This episode was mixed and edited by Iris Zacarías (she/they)

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In this episode, David and Joey chat with Dominic Colón, the inaugural recipient of Donja R. Love and National Queer Theater’s Write it Out! (WIO!) Prize, about the power artists have to shape and shift culture, the importance of prioritizing self-preservation, and the impact of people living with HIV telling their own stories.

Dominic Colón is an award-winning writer and actor from the Bronx. Recent plays include Prospect Ave. or The Miseducation of Juni Rodriguez (Rattlestick Theater). His play The War I Know has been developed by the Latinx Playwrights Circle, LAByrinth Theater Company (2021 Barn Series), and SOLFEST (2021). His short play Where Are Our Angels? was a recipient of the 2021 Latinx Playwrights Circle & Pregones/PRTT Greater Good Commission. 

Selected directing credits include: The War I Know (LAByrinth), Eduardo Machado’s Marquitas (Rattlestick Theater/Pride Plays), and Episodes 4-6 of The MTA Radio Plays at Rattlestick Theater. Colón’s half-hour television pilot Papi made the inaugural Latinx TV List, a curated list of the 10 most promising pilots created by Latinx writers. He was recently selected to be a part of the inaugural cohort of the Sundance Uprise Grant and is currently a staff writer on the upcoming Netflix series Pink Marine.

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This episode was mixed and edited by Iris Zacarías (she/they)

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On this episode, David and Joey chat with the newly appointed Co-Artistic Directors of Teatro Vista in Chicago, Lorena Diaz and Wendy Mateo, about shared leadership, how joy can be your currency, and their incredible 20+ year relationship.

Lorena Diaz, a "Made in Chicago" hybrid of Peruvian Indigenous descent and American Latino swagger, has bounced between Chicago's theater and comedy scenes for 15 years. She is familiar to Teatro Vista audiences for portraying Carolina in the company's acclaimed 2018 world premiere The Madres by Stephanie Alison Walker. She subsequently co-directed Teatro Vista's 2019 premiere of Walker's sequel, The Abuelas. Her many other collaborations include work with Jo Cattell and Steppenwolf 1700 (Tumbao, a live radio play), iO Chicago (People in the City), Mike Oquendo Productions, Goodman, Playground Theatre and The Second City. She is most commonly known for her work over six seasons as the snarky Nurse Doris on Dick Wolf's Chicago Med, Fire and PD franchise.

Wendy Mateo is a Chicago-based comedian, actor, writer, director and filmmaker. Mateo has been seen throughout the city's stages including Lookingglass Theatre, where she is an artistic associate, Steppenwolf 1700, and Playground Theater. Her directing credits include the 2018 play Not for Sale 2.0 by Guadalis Del Carmen at UrbanTheater Company. On TV she performs in shows like NBC's Chicago PD, as guest star Chicago Med, and as "Ronnie" in Station Eleven on HBO. Aside from her focus on expanding representation in media, Mateo is also an equity, diversity, and inclusion consultant and facilitator with the Nova Collective and her own consulting company, Ina Consulting.

Connect with Lorena (she/her)

https://www.instagram.com/itslorenadiaz/?hl=en 

Connect with Wendy (she/her)

https://www.wendymateo.com/

https://www.instagram.com/itswendymateo/?hl=en 

Follow Teatro Vista

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Connect with David (he/they)

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Follow The Sol Project

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This episode was mixed and edited by Iris Zacarías (she/they)

https://www.iriszdesigns.com/

https://www.instagram.com/irismarcelina/