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about the play.
Ay! Ay! Ay! & the Westside Stories: A Puerto Rican Play is based on the life of Broadway actor-writer-director-educator-activist Julio Agustin Matos, Jr. It’s a one-man show about Julio—but he’s not in it.
This meta-musical solo show stars three male and one female-identifying actor (yes, we get the irony), each embodying divergent facets of the conceiver’s career in the white-understood American Theatre and academia. Clashes, gnashes, humor, and regrets persist as the men navigate the woman-guided dilemma of “Should we or shouldn’t we [do this Puerto Rican play]?". They confront their futures, past choices and current reputations – even their Latinidad.
The Characters:
JULIO, 20s. Puerto Rican male. An earnest actor prodigy. He has had a blessed career thus far. The quiet type, he works hard to make others happy--it's the road to success--but there's a fire in his heart of gold that he keeps un-ignited.
AGUSTIN, 30s. Puerto Rican male. A Broadway mainstay. He is sick of watching his heritage be misrepresented onstage but has, himself, played every non-white character type they've written. And he's loud about all of it.
MATOS, 40s. Non Puerto Rican Latiné male. An artist scholar. He went into teaching because his generation didn't see roles for men like him. Uses teaching to get his power back, but wields it whether or not it's welcome. He's always talking.
JAM JR., Ageless. Gender fluid female presenting Hispanic or Afro Latina. She is the world. She is a mirror. She is food. She is injustice. She is revolution. She is girls. She is men. She is tomorrow. She is yesterday. She is life. She is the power of a black woman.
meet the creatives.
click on photo for bios
development history.
Colorado
RECENT:
Colorado New Music Festival
Backstory Theatre
August 2023
New York City
El Sol of el Barrio, NYC
Maria Torres, Producer
Alexander Casasnovas, Dir.
February 2022
New York City
RECENT:
Miranda Family Fund
Latiné Musical Theatre Lab's 4xLatiné Downtown
August 2023
New York City
Text/lyric development reading starring Reynaldo Piniella, Danyel Fulton, David Anzuelo and Joel Oramas
February 2022
New York City
Movement Exploration Lab w/dancer-actor Amy Romero and composer Andre Danek
January 2023
New York City
American Theatre Group's Playlab BIPOC & Queer Writer's Group
Fall 2021
