The Wayward Artist Announces World Premiere of FELIZ- AN AMERICAN PLAY

Season four at The Wayward Artist will kick off 2021 exploring the idea of identity. To launch the season, the Wayward Artist is holding strong to its mission to "produce works unknown" with the second world premiere in their four years of existence. In partnership with Michael-Miguel Productions and funded by a Santa Ana Arts Grant, the Wayward Artist presents "Feliz - An American Play" by Michael J. Mejia. Directed by LAbased director and teaching artist, Rosa Lisbeth Navarrete, the play follows a Mexican American family in Bakersfield, California filled with secrets of addiction, desire and identity. Within the world of Latinx magical realism, the family must finally face the truths they are all avoiding. "Feliz - An American Play" premieres on April 17, 2021 at 7 p.m. with a drive-in experience screened by The Frida Cinema.

Playwright Michael J. Mejia is a queer, Chicano playwright from Delano, California and one half of Michael-Miguel Productions. He holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from Tisch School of the Arts. He also lives and works in Los Angeles in TV development for World of Wonder and remote-teaches playwriting at CSU Bakersfield. "Feliz - An American Play" was a finalist for Latino Theatre Commons 2018 New Latinx Works Festival in Chicago. His play, "The Book of Andy," received an artist grant from the city of Tacoma, WA, for a digital production with UW Tacoma, Tacoma Arts Live and Dukesbay Productions in February 2021. His play, "Cut," will be featured in Cal State Fullerton's Theatre Spring 2021 season.

Rosa Lisbeth Navarrete is a writer, actor and director working in Southern California. Born in Perú and raised in Los Angeles, Navarrete says she is "the outcome of hard-working immigrant parents who taught [her] to live life without fear." Past directing credits include Deep Blue Productions' "This Is Our Youth" by Kenneth Lonnergan at The Complex in Los Angeles, a reading of "Gargoyles" by Diana Burbano as part of Project La Femme's Page to the Stage Festival at the Curtis Theatre. She has directed multiple short plays for Chicanas, Cholas, y Chisme and Teatro Frida Kahlo 10-Minute Play Festival. She was an awardwinning semi-finalist at The Short+Sweet Hollywood Theater Festival in 2019 with Elvia Susana Rubalcava's short play, "Apa's Girl." Rosa collaborates on projects with Angela's Pulse in New York City, and serves on the board of Casa 0101 Theater in Los Angeles.

The cast of "Feliz - An American Play" includes Moises Rodriguez as Augusto, Sheresade Poblet as Amanda, Miguel Torres Cruz as Joe, Jennifer Aguilar as Vicki, Isaac Ybarra as Eric, Roberta H. Martínez as Consuela, and Chayan Tavakoly as Sam.

The Frida Cinema is a non-profit art house theater dedicated to enriching, connecting, and educating communities through the art of cinema. The Frida presents dozens of films a month that are carefully curated to offer a wide range of genres from foreign and avant-garde to LGBTQ+ and documentaries. Though the COVID-19 pandemic has closed the doors to the theater, the Frida Cinema team has created Streaming Cinema, a series of outdoor drive-in events that offers a socially distant and safe viewing experience. The Wayward Artist is proud to partner with The Frida Cinema to host the premier of "Feliz - An American Play."

After grounding the inaugural season in faith and exploring the meaning of family in season two, The Wayward Artist reflects on its first two seasons and year of inward evaluation in 2020, and explores the identity of the company as well as the intricacies of human identity in season four. Through stories of diversity, culture, adolescence, existential searching, and social media, season three stands by and pushes the boundaries of the company's mission.

Grand Central Arts Center in downtown Santa Ana, California is currently the home of the Wayward Artist. Although proud of their home in DTSA, in order to continue working to keep artists and audience members safe, all Wayward Artist productions will be produced online or in a socially distant venue. For more information about "Feliz - An American Play", please visit https://www.thewaywardartist.org/.

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