Founder & Faculty Member
 

Christin is an award-winning playwright, published author, dramaturg, poet, educator, lyricist/songwriter, and performer from the Bronx, with roots in New York City, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica. Recent NYC productions include O.K.! (INTAR Theatre); the Obie Award-Winning play Sancocho (WP Theater, Sol project & Latinx Playwrights Circle); and The Diamond (The People’s Theatre). Her work has also been developed and produced regionally at La Jolla Playhouse, Visión Latino Theatre Company, The Playwrights Center, The Road Theatre Company, Folger Theatre, Teatro Vivo, and the Silverton Theatre Mine. She is a founding UNIT 52 member at INTAR Theatre, ensemble member and former Resident Dramaturg at Pregones/PRTT, affiliated writer and instructor at the Playwrights Center,  an associated artist with The Sol Project and Latinx Playwrights Circle, and a featured playwright in the WP Theatre Lab (‘22-’24). Cato’s honors include the ReImagine New Plays in TYA grant, finalist and prize winner of the Miranda Family Voces Latinx Competition, HOLA nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Playwriting, and the Negocios Now: 40 Under 40 award for Latine excellence. Education: MFA, Playwriting (Indiana University); BA, Poli Sci & Philosophy (Fordham University); Degree in Vocal Music (LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and the Performing Arts).

Faculty Member & Education Consultant 

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Raquel Almazan: interdisciplinary artist, facilitator and activist. (M.F.A. – Playwriting, Columbia University). Their work has been featured Off-Broadway, throughout the United States and internationally in Greece, Italy, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, Canada and Sweden; including several of her plays within the (Latin is America play cycle), bi-lingual plays in dedication to Latin American countries.

Recipient of the Map Fund, Doris Duke Recovery Grant, NYFA NYC Women’s Fund, NYSCA Grant x2 and National Association of Latino Arts and Culture Grant, The Howard Gilman Foundation Grant, Kennedy Center’s Latinidad Award, Kate Neal Kinley Playwriting Fellowship and the LGBTQ Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation Playwriting Prize. 

Select Lecturer and Guest Lecturer credits include: Augsburg University through The Playwrights Center, UC Berkeley, Harvard University, The New School and Marymount Manhattan College. They are currently faculty with NYU- New York University-Playwrights Horizons Theatre School.

Almazan is the Co-President of the Board of Directors of Indie Space and Executive Artistic Director of La Lucha Arts, collaborating with organizations, social movements, and impacted intergenerational communities.

 www.raquelalmazan.com 

Faculty Member

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Matt Barbot is a writer from Brooklyn, NY. He is the recipient of the Miami New Drama x Black List Play Commission Award. His play El Coquí Espectacular and the Bottle of Doom has been produced at Two River Theater in 2018 and at Long Wharf Theatre in 2025. His play the beautiful land i seek (la linda tierra que busco yo) premiered Off Broadway at Pregones/PRTT in December, and was nominated for Spain's Premios Talía in the "Best New York Production by Hispanic Artists" award. The Venetians was a winner of Roundabout Theatre Company's 2019 Columbia @ Roundabout New Play Series, and was previously a finalist for Atlanta Shakespeare's inaugural Muse of Fire Festival. Recently, the short play "A List of Some Shit I've Killed" was published as part of the Red Bull Theater's anthology Red Bull Shorts Volume III. Matt's first play for young audiences, Stoo’s Famous Martian American Gumbo, was commissioned by Peppercorn Theatre and was produced there in Summer 2019, and again in 2021 as part of Hangar Theatre’s KIDDSTUFF series. Matt received his MFA from Columbia University, and was recently a New York Theatre Workshop 2050 Fellow, a member of The Civilians' R&D Group, and part of the Lark Playwriting Group @ Second Stage.

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Faculty Member

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Julissa Contreras speaks truth to power, elevating necessary dialogue through connective experiences and storytelling that create pathways for meaningful change. A writer, playwright, poet, performer, podcaster, creative director, educator, and social impact strategist, Julissa focuses on storytelling as a technology for societal shifts. Julissa is the creator + host of the Ladies Who Bronche Podcast, cofounder of StoryQuo, and creator of the YouTube hit “Shit Spanish Girls Say.” Her off-Broadway debut, Vámonos at INTAR theater (Spring 2023) boasted 3 extensions and record-breaking firsts within the NYC theater community. In the past 15 years, Julissa’s work has been produced and commissioned across a number of festivals, workshops, and residencies throughout the country.

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Other notable references:

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https://substack.com/@jewleesah​​​

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Faculty Member & Education Curator  

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Nelson Diaz-Marcano is a Puerto Rican NYC-based theater maker, advocate, and community leader whose mission is to create work that challenges and builds community. He currently serves as the Literary Director for the Latinx Playwright Circle where he has helped develop over 150 plays in the past three years. His plays have been developed by the Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Road Theatre Company, Pipeline Theatre Company, Clubbed Thumb, The Lark, Vision Latino Theater Company, The Orchard Project, The William Inge Theatre Festival, Classical Theatre of Harlem, and The Parsnip Ship among others. Recent credits include: Las Borinqueñas (EST) World Classic (Bishop Theatre Arts Center,) Y Tu Abuela, Where is She? Part 1 (CLATA) When the Earth Moves, We Dance (Clubbed Thumb, Teatro Vivo) The Diplomats (Random Acts Chicago,) Paper Towels (INTAR,) Misfit, America (Hunter Theatre Company,) I Saw Jesus in Toa Baja (Conch Shell Productions) and Revolt! (Vision Latino Theatre Company.)

Faculty Member & Operations Consultant 

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​Karl is a Puerto Rican actor, director, and author originally from Milwaukee, WI. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin and First Wave Hip Hop Theater Ensemble, he continues his exploration of verse and heightened language in theater as a part of The BARS Workshop at The Public Theater in New York, where writers/performers develop new verse for the stage. His poetry has been featured at festivals such as Brave New Voices, Collegiate Union Poetry Slam Invitational, Hip Hop Theater Festival of NYC (currently HI-ARTS), the Contacting the World Theatre Festival in Manchester, England, Dance Theater of Harlem and The Public Theater. His poetry can also be read on Apogee, The Acentos Review, The Breakwater Review, The Florida Review, RHINO Poetry, Kweli Journal, The Westchester Review, The Brooklyn Review, The Madison Review and The Break Beat Poets Vol4 : Latinext (2020). As an emcee, he has shared the stage with Anderson Paak, Mac Miller, Chance The Rapper, Ludacris, Wale and Kendrick Lamar to name a few. Karl is also a proud Urban Word NYC Poet Mentor and a member of the Actor’s Equity Association. Karl is the author of Catch a Glow, available now on Finishing Line Press. Karl lives in Brooklyn, NY. ​​

Faculty Member 

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​Alejandra is a Puerto Rican published and award-winning playwright, actress, and director based in NYC. Winner of The Miranda Family Voces Latinx National
Playwriting Competition (2020). Her published work includes her book En la azotea, 10 piezas cortas de teatro (Ed. Callejón 2016), Times of Fire (Vice Versa Magazine, 2020), and others. Recent playwriting credits: Cuarto Adentro (National Tour commissioned by The Hispanic Federation); Burned (Forum Theater Play, commissioned by Pregones/PRTT; Off-Broadway: Malas Mañas (Repertorio Español, 2023); Embrace: Micro-theater (Pregones/PRTT, 2022); Mara tres veces… (Official selection of The Institute of Puerto Rican Culture Theater Festival, 2020). Co-founder and Artistic Director of former theater company Teatro la azotea, Inc., pioneers in bringing the concept of Micro-Theater to Puerto Rico. Ramos holds a B.A in Dance and Theater, from the University of Puerto Rico (Magna Cum Laude), and a M.A. in Scenic Arts from the University of Murcia, Spain. She has shared her expertise through teaching playwriting courses and workshops at various, institutions including the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus (2017- 2018), Guttman Community College, CUNY (2019) among others. Additionally, she has been a Guest Speaker at Will & Merry University in Virginia (2023), and Emory University in Atlanta (2021-2024). She’s part of the Latinx Playwriting Circle and serves as Artistic Associate of Pregones/PRTT.

Faculty Member 

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​​Elisabet Velasquez is a Boricua writer from Brooklyn, now living in Jersey City. Her debut young adult novel in verse When We Make It received the Kirkus best YA Fiction Award, YALSA Best fiction for Young Adults award. It went on to be a 2021 Goodreads Readers Choice Nominee, a 2022 Gotham Prize Finalist, and was named a New York Times Young Adult Books To Watch For.  Her work has been published by The Academy Of American Poets, MoMa, Longreads Refinery 29, Tidal and more. Her book has been added to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Latino General Motors Learning Lounge Library. When she is not writing she is living the life she hopes to write about.