If the writing is honest, it cannot be separated from the man who wrote it.
Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams
Play Synopsis
La Potencia
An aging light middleweight, Roberta “La Potencia” Montoya after a devastating knock-out at the hands of a faster and much younger, Terri “Sweet & Sour” Jones must come to terms with the realization that she has come to the end of the road of the only kind of life skill she’s ever known, but her long-time manager, Joe Pacheco might have other plans for her future; to squeeze out one more fight for one last big payday to pay off a life threatening debt.
Saint Lawrence Station
A group of childhood friends do their best to navigate the maze of their day to day adult working class life, through love and loss, maintaining a household, a roof over their heads, food on the table, raising children and staying employed while living with the crippling fears of being just a paycheck or two away from finding themselves out on the streets and never getting the opportunity to fulfill their hopes and dreams of a better life not just for themselves, but for their family.
Prospect Avenue
After five years away from his home, his family, his young son, the life he knew, incarcerated for a crime he did commit, Rudis Soto returns to his old neighborhood a different man, one trying to reconnect to the family he left behind in pain and loss, but in order for him to do that he must first confront the one person he fears the most, himself.
Frederick Douglass and The Fallen Angels
"If there is no struggle there is no progress.", but what if that struggle is the only life that you've ever known. What if progress in your eyes means simply getting to see the next day's morning Sun? For a group of working-class inner-city families and desperate dreamers just trying to hold on till morning is a way of life along with the fading hopes to do better for not only themselves, but for their children. Welcome to the community life of the Frederick Douglass Housing projects.
The Spirit, the Body & the Blood
When his mother dies, Ramon returns to his old neighborhood to reconnect with the estranged wife and teenage son he abandoned years ago. He’s ready to pick things up where they left off, but his family has moved on – and they have no intention of repeating the past. An intergenerational story about the possibilities of reconciliation, unconditional forgiveness and a past that refuses to be left behind.
Full Moon inside a Red Sky
Two strangers with wounded hearts find themselves underneath a full moon with a red sky and discover that love is only a fallen snowflake away.
By the Dawn’s Early Light (Los Embrujados & Midnight Mass)
Two one acts by Mel Nieves that commemorate the tenth anniversary of the September 11th attacks and their impact on three Latino families in New York City.
Midnight Mass
Follows a group of New Yorkers connected by 9/11: a war veteran whose trauma may cost him his family; his brother, who must leave his pregnant fiancée to go on his first tour of duty; a nurse whose husband perished in the Towers; and a veteran firefighter desperate to reclaim the courage he knew as a First Responder. In the wake of tragedy, Midnight Mass reveals the profound struggle to regain hope and faith.
Los Embrujados (The Haunted Ones)
A nervous waiter at the Windows on the World restaurant studies with his gregarious older brother for his impending U.S. Citizenship test. As his girlfriend waits to tell him something very special, it's a time of possibilities on this bright, clear September morning, and as he prepares for his new life, 'Los Embrujados' looks at what it means to be an American.
AfterLoss
A man struggles with the loss of his beloved wife and whether another morning without her is worth seeing.
Karen & Tomas (I Touch Myself)
They smashed into each other's lives like a head-on collision on the interstate, both desperately seeking to close fresh wounds. Now in their final six hours together Karen and Tomas cut open, dissect and finally heal those very same wounds that turned them into lovers, but not they would soon discover a couple.
Night Train
At the crossroads of the world, on a dark rainy night, a boy and a girl will meet, take a ride into the wee small hours and perhaps forever change the course of their tomorrows.
Undertow
An estranged couple are reunited at a family wake, finding themselves reminiscing on a rooftop, reigniting a long-lost flicker, that at least for one of them brings the hope of a possible heart saving flame.
Solo Man Watusi
The ball is about to drop ringing in another new year filled with new beginnings, fresh starts and excitement for the unknown future, but for two old friends it’s just another knife digging into cupid’s heart, just another reminder of their what-could-have-been and never was existence. A reminder of the little boy inside themselves that keep ripping up the life of the man they want to be.
W.A.C. Iraq
From a makeshift Army call center in Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn to the far away desert city of Fallujah, Iraq. Mothers, Daughters, Sisters, and Soldiers, their voices filled with loss, confusion, loneliness, hurt, anger and hope, try to make sense of the ever-changing landscape around them during a questionable time of an never ending war and a world where for some, home is nothing more than a disappearing distant memory they are desperately trying to hold on to in order to survive while for others on the front lines between life and death the idea of home and family is nothing more than a blur.
In Da Boogie Down
In the South Bronx, three teenagers struggle to survive where not living beyond today is just another heartbreak and gunshot away.
Screenplay Synopsis
Imagine Something Yesterday
Michelle Yamamoto, 30’s, nurse at a local community hospital feeling exhausted from working various double shifts while watching over her ailing mother while at the same moment in time, Robert Claudio, 30’s, a writer struggling over his latest work, a science fiction thriller about a fugitive alien on the run from government authorities. These two strangers will come to have a phantasmagoric and transcendent connection with each other in the form of a shared dream experience of a horrific car crash involving a man named Mike Livingston Kovich, a stranger to Michelle who also happens to appear in her mother’s death bed dream and is in real life, Robert’s best friend and colleague. Sometimes in one’s life certain things are meant to be experienced and left unexplained.
Los Abandonados/The Abandoned
The changing landscape of a working-class neighborhood doesn’t only mean the tearing down of buildings made of brick and cement, but the demolishing of a community built with the blood and flesh of people who once dreamed of a better life.
Instruments Of Darkness
"Give me your blessing. Truth will come to light; Murder cannot be hid long." The Merchant of Venice In the fall of 1962 at the height of the cold war between the United States and the then Soviet Union (now known as the Russian Federation) engage in a international crisis that would come to be known as The Missiles of October. As the world held their collective breath the race to be the first in space was just beginning and two boys on an innocent sojourn into the woods suddenly go missing along with a former air force pilot. All three are never heard from again. Their very existence erased. Sixty years later in New Mexico on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the alleged 1947 Roswell alien crash landing a group of reporters led by Miguel Corrado begin to ask questions and soon discover a hidden truth that no one is supposed to know even exist.
On The Boulevard
Recently deputized U.S. ICE agent, Stella Arroyo, a first generation Mexican-American is getting closer to the American dream that her immigrant parents wanted for her, but to fulfill their wishes she must expose a corrupt system and keep others from obtaining their own American dream.
Impact
For, Elizabeth Bradford, this was just supposed to be another family road trip with her beloved husband and daughter. For, Warren Campbell, this was just another long hours ride back home from another job. The road taken by these two strangers leads them on a unexpected tragic turn of events that will forever change the course of their lives. Life changes are often not of our own choosing.
Los Hermanos Dela Cruz
What happens when a treasured gift is removed from its resting place? It awakens the spirit of the Dela Cruz family. In a convent on the island of Puerto Rico, a young woman prays to go back home to Jackson Heights Queens, where at the same moment, her brother Amelio, the oldest of the Dela Cruz sons, places a bet on his fighter brother, Marco. Unfortunately, a knockout punch alters Amelio’s plans and forces him to desperate measures. Meanwhile, Sergio, the youngest of the Dela Cruz siblings, lies in bed with the woman he loves, Michelle Santiago, who is set to marry, Salvatore Delmonte, the boxer who fights Marco, in less than six hours. Will he find the courage to listen to his heart? Antonio, head of the Dela Cruz family, struggles with the memory of his beloved war hero father, until the moment he is thrust into an unexpected act of heroism himself. And Juanita, his wife, feeling like she’s losing control of her family, lusts for the Puerto Rico of her youth and the memories of her once passionate marriage. Inspired by Luchino Visconti classic post World War II film "Rocco and His Brothers", “Los Hermanos Dela Cruz”, is a story about love, honor, and most importantly, La Familia.
The Night Watch Man
After having his early youthful dreams of pinstripe glory come to a crashing
halt with a career damaging shoulder injury, Miguel Torres, finds himself in the most unlikely of roles, that of night watchman, working the graveyard shift at the First Trinity Cemetery, where both his parents are buried; but with the help of an elderly widower, a single mom raising a nine year old child who thinks he's the fifth Beatle and last, but not least, a raccoon named Roki, Miguel will come to learn that there is an existing life just outside the gates of First Trinity.
Yazmin & Malik
Yazmin Colon, a 24 year old third grade teacher at an inner city public school, who deeply cares for her students education and for their lives outside of the classroom, finds herself entangled in a family's domestic violence situation involving one of her students and the student's mother. She also at the same time finds herself falling in love with Malik Shafer, 22, a working class young man trying to do better with his life after years involved in gang violence. Both Yazmin and Malik are dreamers in a world where dreams quickly can fade into tragedy.
Between a Hotdog and a Hard Place
In the wee small hours of the morning Vincent and Annamarie are dancing to the tune of Jack Daniels and smokes (and I ain’t talkin’ about cigarettes), but the music is about to stop and a shoe is about to drop before the sun rises.
La Potencia
An aging light middleweight, Roberta “La Potencia” Montoya after a devastating knock-out at the hands of a faster and much younger, Terri “Sweet & Sour” Jones must come to terms with the realization that she has come to the end of the road of the only kind of life skill she’s ever known, but her long-time manager, Joe Pacheco might have other plans for her future; to squeeze out one more fight for one last big payday to pay off a life threatening debt.
Saint Lawrence Station
A group of childhood friends do their best to navigate the maze of their day to day adult working class life, through love and loss, maintaining a household, a roof over their heads, food on the table, raising children and staying employed while living with the crippling fears of being just a paycheck or two away from finding themselves out on the streets and never getting the opportunity to fulfill their hopes and dreams of a better life not just for themselves, but for their family.
Prospect Avenue
After five years away from his home, his family, his young son, the life he knew, incarcerated for a crime he did commit, Rudis Soto returns to his old neighborhood a different man, one trying to reconnect to the family he left behind in pain and loss, but in order for him to do that he must first confront the one person he fears the most, himself.
Frederick Douglass and The Fallen Angels
"If there is no struggle there is no progress.", but what if that struggle is the only life that you've ever known. What if progress in your eyes means simply getting to see the next day's morning Sun? For a group of working-class inner-city families and desperate dreamers just trying to hold on till morning is a way of life along with the fading hopes to do better for not only themselves, but for their children. Welcome to the community life of the Frederick Douglass Housing projects.
The Spirit, the Body & the Blood
When his mother dies, Ramon returns to his old neighborhood to reconnect with the estranged wife and teenage son he abandoned years ago. He’s ready to pick things up where they left off, but his family has moved on – and they have no intention of repeating the past. An intergenerational story about the possibilities of reconciliation, unconditional forgiveness and a past that refuses to be left behind.
Full Moon inside a Red Sky
Two strangers with wounded hearts find themselves underneath a full moon with a red sky and discover that love is only a fallen snowflake away.
By the Dawn’s Early Light (Los Embrujados & Midnight Mass)
Two one acts by Mel Nieves that commemorate the tenth anniversary of the September 11th attacks and their impact on three Latino families in New York City.
Midnight Mass
Follows a group of New Yorkers connected by 9/11: a war veteran whose trauma may cost him his family; his brother, who must leave his pregnant fiancée to go on his first tour of duty; a nurse whose husband perished in the Towers; and a veteran firefighter desperate to reclaim the courage he knew as a First Responder. In the wake of tragedy, Midnight Mass reveals the profound struggle to regain hope and faith.
Los Embrujados (The Haunted Ones)
A nervous waiter at the Windows on the World restaurant studies with his gregarious older brother for his impending U.S. Citizenship test. As his girlfriend waits to tell him something very special, it's a time of possibilities on this bright, clear September morning, and as he prepares for his new life, 'Los Embrujados' looks at what it means to be an American.
AfterLoss
A man struggles with the loss of his beloved wife and whether another morning without her is worth seeing.
Karen & Tomas (I Touch Myself)
They smashed into each other's lives like a head-on collision on the interstate, both desperately seeking to close fresh wounds. Now in their final six hours together Karen and Tomas cut open, dissect and finally heal those very same wounds that turned them into lovers, but not they would soon discover a couple.
Night Train
At the crossroads of the world, on a dark rainy night, a boy and a girl will meet, take a ride into the wee small hours and perhaps forever change the course of their tomorrows.
Undertow
An estranged couple are reunited at a family wake, finding themselves reminiscing on a rooftop, reigniting a long-lost flicker, that at least for one of them brings the hope of a possible heart saving flame.
Solo Man Watusi
The ball is about to drop ringing in another new year filled with new beginnings, fresh starts and excitement for the unknown future, but for two old friends it’s just another knife digging into cupid’s heart, just another reminder of their what-could-have-been and never was existence. A reminder of the little boy inside themselves that keep ripping up the life of the man they want to be.
W.A.C. Iraq
From a makeshift Army call center in Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn to the far away desert city of Fallujah, Iraq. Mothers, Daughters, Sisters, and Soldiers, their voices filled with loss, confusion, loneliness, hurt, anger and hope, try to make sense of the ever-changing landscape around them during a questionable time of an never ending war and a world where for some, home is nothing more than a disappearing distant memory they are desperately trying to hold on to in order to survive while for others on the front lines between life and death the idea of home and family is nothing more than a blur.
In Da Boogie Down
In the South Bronx, three teenagers struggle to survive where not living beyond today is just another heartbreak and gunshot away.
Screenplay Synopsis
Imagine Something Yesterday
Michelle Yamamoto, 30’s, nurse at a local community hospital feeling exhausted from working various double shifts while watching over her ailing mother while at the same moment in time, Robert Claudio, 30’s, a writer struggling over his latest work, a science fiction thriller about a fugitive alien on the run from government authorities. These two strangers will come to have a phantasmagoric and transcendent connection with each other in the form of a shared dream experience of a horrific car crash involving a man named Mike Livingston Kovich, a stranger to Michelle who also happens to appear in her mother’s death bed dream and is in real life, Robert’s best friend and colleague. Sometimes in one’s life certain things are meant to be experienced and left unexplained.
Los Abandonados/The Abandoned
The changing landscape of a working-class neighborhood doesn’t only mean the tearing down of buildings made of brick and cement, but the demolishing of a community built with the blood and flesh of people who once dreamed of a better life.
Instruments Of Darkness
"Give me your blessing. Truth will come to light; Murder cannot be hid long." The Merchant of Venice In the fall of 1962 at the height of the cold war between the United States and the then Soviet Union (now known as the Russian Federation) engage in a international crisis that would come to be known as The Missiles of October. As the world held their collective breath the race to be the first in space was just beginning and two boys on an innocent sojourn into the woods suddenly go missing along with a former air force pilot. All three are never heard from again. Their very existence erased. Sixty years later in New Mexico on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the alleged 1947 Roswell alien crash landing a group of reporters led by Miguel Corrado begin to ask questions and soon discover a hidden truth that no one is supposed to know even exist.
On The Boulevard
Recently deputized U.S. ICE agent, Stella Arroyo, a first generation Mexican-American is getting closer to the American dream that her immigrant parents wanted for her, but to fulfill their wishes she must expose a corrupt system and keep others from obtaining their own American dream.
Impact
For, Elizabeth Bradford, this was just supposed to be another family road trip with her beloved husband and daughter. For, Warren Campbell, this was just another long hours ride back home from another job. The road taken by these two strangers leads them on a unexpected tragic turn of events that will forever change the course of their lives. Life changes are often not of our own choosing.
Los Hermanos Dela Cruz
What happens when a treasured gift is removed from its resting place? It awakens the spirit of the Dela Cruz family. In a convent on the island of Puerto Rico, a young woman prays to go back home to Jackson Heights Queens, where at the same moment, her brother Amelio, the oldest of the Dela Cruz sons, places a bet on his fighter brother, Marco. Unfortunately, a knockout punch alters Amelio’s plans and forces him to desperate measures. Meanwhile, Sergio, the youngest of the Dela Cruz siblings, lies in bed with the woman he loves, Michelle Santiago, who is set to marry, Salvatore Delmonte, the boxer who fights Marco, in less than six hours. Will he find the courage to listen to his heart? Antonio, head of the Dela Cruz family, struggles with the memory of his beloved war hero father, until the moment he is thrust into an unexpected act of heroism himself. And Juanita, his wife, feeling like she’s losing control of her family, lusts for the Puerto Rico of her youth and the memories of her once passionate marriage. Inspired by Luchino Visconti classic post World War II film "Rocco and His Brothers", “Los Hermanos Dela Cruz”, is a story about love, honor, and most importantly, La Familia.
The Night Watch Man
After having his early youthful dreams of pinstripe glory come to a crashing
halt with a career damaging shoulder injury, Miguel Torres, finds himself in the most unlikely of roles, that of night watchman, working the graveyard shift at the First Trinity Cemetery, where both his parents are buried; but with the help of an elderly widower, a single mom raising a nine year old child who thinks he's the fifth Beatle and last, but not least, a raccoon named Roki, Miguel will come to learn that there is an existing life just outside the gates of First Trinity.
Yazmin & Malik
Yazmin Colon, a 24 year old third grade teacher at an inner city public school, who deeply cares for her students education and for their lives outside of the classroom, finds herself entangled in a family's domestic violence situation involving one of her students and the student's mother. She also at the same time finds herself falling in love with Malik Shafer, 22, a working class young man trying to do better with his life after years involved in gang violence. Both Yazmin and Malik are dreamers in a world where dreams quickly can fade into tragedy.
Between a Hotdog and a Hard Place
In the wee small hours of the morning Vincent and Annamarie are dancing to the tune of Jack Daniels and smokes (and I ain’t talkin’ about cigarettes), but the music is about to stop and a shoe is about to drop before the sun rises.
