National New Play Network Announces Bernardo Cubría as the Recipient of the 2021 Smith Prize for Political Theater

National New Play Network has announced the winner of the 2021 Smith Prize for Political Theater: Bernardo Cubría.

Built from deep community engagement and drawing from a wide range of theatrical inspirations, the currently untitled project follows a Black family who have lived in LA's Watts neighborhood for generations and a Latinx family who are new to the neighborhood. The play chronicles the effects of rapid gentrification on the Black family and tells the Latinx family's struggle to find community. Prevented from bonding by deep-seated racism and ignorance, the play will ultimately unpack the racist system built by the White ruling class to maintain its power.

The piece will be "inspired by Our Town... but will sound more like August Wilson and Tanya Saracho than Thorton Wilder," said Cubría, and will be created "for these communities and with these communities from the ground up."

Mr. Cubría will partner with Watts Village Theatre Company (WVTC), WVTC's Co-Artistic Director Bruce A. Lemon, Jr., and Ammunition Theater Company on this innovative project.

Cubria is the 16th recipient of the Smith Prize for Political Theater, established in 2006 by Timothy Jay Smith and a group of socially conscious donors to encourage emerging playwrights to tackle the pressing issues of our times.

ABOUT BERNARDO CUBRÍA

Bernardo Cubría is a Mexican playwright based in Los Angeles. His play The Giant Void in my Soul was nominated for Best Playwright at the 2018 Ovation Awards, Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards, and The Stage Raw Awards. His play Neighbors: A Fair Trade Agreement received its world premiere at INTAR in NYC in the fall of 2017. It was a Semi-Finalist for the O'Neill in 2017. The Judgment of Fools has received three critically acclaimed production in NYC, LA, and Houston, TX. His play The Redhead is Coming was a part of F*ckfest at The Brick in NYC in 2015. He also hosts the popular theatre podcast Off and On: A New York Theatre Podcast.

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