christopher oscar pena: Three Plays - how to make an American Son; the strangers; a cautionary tail

"Transcending 20th-century notions of race and culture, Pena''s work succeeds in simultaneously touching our hearts, stimulating our minds, and examining our society." (David Henry Hwang) christopher oscar pena is a Latinx American playwright and screenwriter whose works frequently focus on stories that deal with bicultural identities, sexuality, and growing up in the modern world. In this first collected works, three of his plays are brought together for the first time and introduced by director Mark Armstrong. Together they offer a progressive and formally inventive collection of work to inspire theatre makers, actors and students alike. how to make an American son : A moving coming-of-age comedy about the complexities of privilege, citizenship, sexual identity, and the most complex relationship of all: family. A "Model Immigrant" and business mogul, Honduran-born Mando''s cleaning empire is bracing for a downturn at the exact same moment when he must rein in his over-privileged American son Orlando. In the wake of a personal crisis, Orlando suddenly finds himself responsible for the fate of a treasured worker and the future of his father''s entire enterprise. The Strangers : Cris returns to a place he once used to know, only to find a world he no longer recognizes. As he connects with a new stranger tasked to show him around town, an unexpected spark challenges all of Cris'' preconceived notions. a cautionary tail : A play of impossible choices - set in a world of magical characters. First generation Chinese-Americans growing up in New York City, siblings Vivienne and Luke confront their confused tangle of family, their diverse array of friends, and their rampant sexuality. In our digital age, how can they navigate the traditional expectations of their mother with their American culture of individuality?>

About the author

christopher oscar peña is a story-teller originally from California, now residing in New York and LA.

In 2019 he co-directed the world premiere of Sean Daniels adaptation of Jack Kerouac's "lost novel" The Haunted Life at Merrimack Rep. The production marked the first time the Kerouac Estate had ever sanctioned an official theatrical adaptation of Kerouac's work. Most recently, as a playwright, the Clarence Brown Theatre commissioned and produced the world premiere of his play The Strangers. In New York, the Flea Theatre produced the world premiere of his play a cautionary tail.

His work has been developed by Playwrights Horizons, the Goodman Theater, Public Theater, Two River Theater, INTAR, Ontological Hysteric Incubator, Playwrights Realm, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Old Vic, Orchard Project, Naked Angels, and New York Theatre Workshop, among many others. This upcoming season, his play how to make an American Son will have its world premiere in a co-production between Arizona Theatre Company and Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre in New York.

A two-time Sundance Institute Theater Fellow, he has also held fellowships with the Lark Play Development Center, was a recipient of the Latino Playwrights Award, an Emerging Artist Fellow at New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Realm Writing Fellow, and was a part of the US/UK Exchange (Old Vic New Voices).

Recently named an Artistic Associate at Arizona Theatre Company, he's a proud member of New Dramatists, was named one of "The 1st Annual Future Broadway Power List" by Backstage, and has been published by No Passport Press and Smith and Krauss. This year, with visionary director James Darrah and Pulitzer Prize winning composer Ellen Reid, he created and showran the Boston Lyric Opera's first ever digital opera series Desert In, by bringing together some of the countries best writers, composers and directors, to premiere in 2021. He is continuing his partnership with Darrah by creating a piece for the Los Angeles Chamber Opera this year.

In television, he was a writer on the Golden Globe nominated debut season of the CW show Jane the Virgin, and the critically acclaimed HBO show Insecure (also recurred on screen as the character Gary), as well as the Starz show Sweetbitter, and Motherland: Fort Salem on Freeform. He is currently developing an original series for Netflix.

Product details

• Authors: christopher oscar pena, Christopher Oscar Peña
• Assisted by: Mark Armstrong (Editor)
• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 16.05.2024
• EAN: 9781350427105
• ISBN: 978-1-350-42710-5
• No. of pages: 456
• Dimensions: 146 mm x 216 mm x 30 mm
• Series: Methuen Drama Play Collections
• Subjects: Fiction > Poetry, drama; DRAMA / General, Modern and contemporary plays (c 1900 onwards), Plays, Playscripts