Gringas
Gringas
by mercedes isaza clunie
Gringas is a magical-realism coming of age story about 7 first and second-generation Latina immigrants who have lost their ability to speak Spanish. In attempts to reconnect with their Latin-American roots, their mothers force them to attend a Spanish-only summer camp in Muskoka, Ontario. Within the confines of shared bunks, the teens confront their disappearing youth, through dreams, dance, and cigarettes, and tackle the intricacies of the looming shadow of their ‘gringa-ness’.
HISTORY
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Mercedes Isaza Clunie won the 2024 Tom Hendry RBC Emerging Playwright Award for her play Gringas.
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Aluna Theatre invited Gringas and First Born Theatre for a staged reading of the play for the RUTAS Festival 2024.
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Under the direction of Zoe Marín, Gringas’ won Patron’s Pick for the sold out Toronto Fringe production in 2024.
It was the second runner up for Toronto Fringe’s New Play Award 2024.
The play was mentioned in Toronto Star's Best Productions of 2024 and received glowing reviews from Critics.
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Gringas was awarded Hamilton Fringe’s New Play Award and the festival’s Critic’s Pick Award in 2024.
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In 2023, Gringas was the runner up for Major Matt Mason’s Wildfire Playwriting Award. In June of 2024, the play was brought to Calgary’s Ignite Festival for a reading and short workshop.
IN THE PRESS
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Toronto STAR - Best theatre shows of 2024
Joshua Chong, December 2024.
“Fringe plays like Mercedes Isaza Clunie’s Gringas don’t come around very often. You’d be lucky to find even one in any given season. Exquisitely written, staged and acted, it’s a new work that could easily be picked up by any professional theatre company in Toronto right now and mounted for a full run. I certainly hope that’s the outcome for this brilliant coming-of-age tale”
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My Entertainment World
Kelly Bedard, July 2024.
“Funny, thoughtful, and executed with precision and passion, this ensemble work about a group of young Latinas sent to a Muskoka camp to work on their Spanish is one of the Fringe’s strongest new plays.”
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NEXT MAGAZINE
Andrea Perez, July 2024.
“Isaza Clunie empathetically explores a multitude of perspectives, the story is paced beautifully and her sentences are dripping with poetics. It feels like a tribute to the Latin American tradition of magic realism, easily incorporating folklore and dreamscapes”
ORIGINAL CAST & CREW
Playwright: Mercedes Isaza Clunie.
Director: Zoe Marín.
Cast: Alejandra Angobaldo, isi bhakhomen, Mercedes Isaza Clunie, Katarina Fiallos, Gloria Freire, Julianna Olave, Rachel Quintanilla.
Stage Manager: Hayley Crowder.
Choreographer: Blythe Russell.
Designers: Millie Cameron (Set), Maeve Weishar (Lighting), Rebecca Fadoju (Costume), Ashley Naomi (Sound).
Intimacy Director: Karley Jagusic.
Social Media Manager: Trinity Lloyd.
