The Sol Project Announces National Expansion And New Partnerships

The Sol Project, the new theater initiative dedicated to amplifying Latinx voices and building a kaleidoscopic body of work for the new American theater, is proud to announce the expansion of its mission with its first national partnership.

EL HURACÁN by Charise Castro Smith (Feathers and Teeth) will receive its world premiere production at the Tony Award-winning Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, in collaboration with The Sol Project. Directed by Laurie Woolery (founding member of The Sol Project & Director of Public Works for The Public Theater, As You Like It), the production kicks off Yale Rep's 2018-19 season. Performances begin on Friday, September 28, with opening night set for Thursday, October 4. The final performance is slated for Saturday, October 20, 2018.

Playwright Charise Castro Smith said, "The Sol Project has been such a wonderful advocate for this play since the very beginning and I'm thrilled to have them as partners for the world premiere at Yale Rep."

"I vividly recall the thrill of discovering Charise Castro Smith's singular gifts as a playwright at Yale Cabaret, and I'm delighted that Yale Rep will introduce her to a much wider local and national audience with the world premiere of her exquisite new play, EL HURACÁN," said James Bundy, Yale Rep's Artistic Director. "I'm also grateful for the unique opportunity to work with The Sol Project, a collaboration that enhances our relationships to leading theatre makers and wider audiences."

This production marks The Sol Project's fourth collaboration with a leading theater to raise the visibility of Latinx playwrights in New York City and beyond and the first national partnership for the initiative. Previous collaborations include the world premiere of Hilary Bettis' ALLIGATOR with New Georges, the New York premiere of Martín Zimmerman's SEVEN SPOTS ON THE SUN with Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and most recently, the New York premiere of Luis Alfaro's OEDIPUS EL REY with The Public Theater. These companies continue their work with The Sol Project to build and support a racially diverse theater ecology.

Jacob G. Padrón, Founder and Artistic Director of The Sol Project adds, "When the initiative launched, our hope was to eventually expand our reach by building a network of national partners who could join us in amplifying Latinx voices and supporting the next generation of gifted storytellers. Charise is one of those storytellers and we are honored Yale Rep stands with us in our growing movement of inclusion and equity. Charise and I first met as graduate students at Yale School of Drama, so it feels especially moving to return to our former artistic home to bring this beautiful new play to life. With our new partner, the pioneering New York Theatre Workshop, The Sol Project continues its commitment of providing visible platforms for Latinx playwrights and building an important canon for the new American theater."

The Sol Project is also proud to announce the addition of a new partner, New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW). NYTW joins the growing roster of leading theaters committed to the mission of The Sol Project. Partner theater companies have committed to producing a play by a Latinx playwright in collaboration with The Sol Project, commissioning a Latinx playwright for future production and meeting with as many artists of color as possible to deepen the pipeline of talent upon which they can draw for future projects.

James C. Nicola, Artistic Director of New York Theatre Workshop, stated: "New York Theatre Workshop gives great importance to collaborations with community partners, and a collaboration with The Sol Project is a very exciting new opportunity. We look forward to engaging on a number of exciting ideas."

An epic hurricane threatens Miami. A mother and daughter ready themselves for the storm as Abuela takes shelter in a world of memory, music, and magic. A powerful tale of family and forgiveness, EL HURACÁN reveals what can be rebuilt in the aftermath of life's most devastating tempests and what can never be replaced.

Playwright Charise Castro Smith has enjoyed a long partnership with The Sol Project, which has been instrumental in the development of EL HURACÁN. Smith and Padrón, along with founding member of The Sol Project, Adriana Gaviria and Resident Dramaturg, Stephanie Ybarra, are all alumni of Yale School of Drama.

Yale Repertory Theatre, the internationally celebrated professional theatre in residence at Yale School of Drama, has championed new work since 1966, producing well over 100 premieres-including two Pulitzer Prize winners and four other nominated finalists-by emerging and established playwrights. Seventeen Yale Rep productions have advanced to Broadway, garnering more than 40 Tony Award nominations and ten Tony Awards. Yale Rep is also the recipient of the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. Established in 2008, Yale's Binger Center for New Theatre has distinguished itself as one of the nation's most robust and innovative new play programs. To date, the Binger Center has supported the work of more than 50 commissioned artists and underwritten the world premieres and subsequent productions of 30 new plays and musicals at Yale Rep and theatres across the country-including next season's El Huracán by Charise Castro Smith, The Prisoner by Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne, and Cadillac Crew by Tori Sampson. yalerep.org

New York Theatre Workshop, now in its fourth decade of incubating important new works of theatre, continues to honor its mission to explore perspectives on our collective history and respond to the events and institutions that shape all our lives. Each season, from its home in New York's East Village, NYTW presents five new productions, over 80 readings and numerous workshop productions for over 45,000 audience members. NYTW supports artists in all stages of their careers by maintaining a series of workshop programs, including work-in-progress readings, summer residencies and artist fellowships. Since its founding, NYTW has produced over 150 new, fully staged works, including Jonathan Larson's Rent; Tony Kushner's Slavs! and Homebody/Kabul; Doug Wright's Quills; Claudia Shear's Blown Sideways Through Life and Dirty Blonde; Paul Rudnick's The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told and Valhalla; Martha Clarke's Vienna: Lusthaus; Will Power's The Seven and Fetch Clay, Make Man; Caryl Churchill's Mad Forest, Far Away, A Number and Love and Information; Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen's Aftermath; Rick Elice's Peter and the Starcatcher; Glen Hansard, Markéta Irglová and Enda Walsh's Once; David Bowie and Enda Walsh's Lazarus; Dael Orlandersmith's The Gimmick and Forever; Anaïs Mitchell's Hadestown; sand eight acclaimed productions directed by Ivo van Hove. NYTW's productions have received a Pulitzer Prize, seventeen Tony Awards and assorted Obie, Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Awards. nytw.org

The Sol Project is a national theater initiative dedicated to producing the work of Latinx playwrights in New York City and beyond. Founded by Artistic Director, Jacob G. Padrón and driven by an artistic collective, The Sol Project works in partnership with leading theaters around the country to amplify Latinx voices and build artistic homes for artists of color. Through the writers we champion, Sol aims to create a bold, powerful, and kaleidoscopic body of work for the new American theater. The Sol Project launched in December 2016 with the world premiere of Alligator by Hilary Bettis in collaboration with New Georges, followed by the New York premieres of Seven Spots on the Sun by Martín Zimmerman (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater) and Oedipus El Rey by Luis Alfaro (The Public Theater). The founding artistic collective is: Claudia Acosta, Elena Araoz, Adriana Gaviria, David Mendizábal, Kyoung Park, and Laurie Woolery. Brian Herrera is the Resident Scholar. Stephanie Ybarra is the Resident Dramaturg. Our partners include: Atlantic Theater Company, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Cara Mía Theatre Company, LAByrinth Theater Company, MCC Theater, New Georges, New York Theatre Workshop, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Playwrights Horizons, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, The Playwrights Realm, The Public Theater, WP Theater and Yale Repertory Theatre. Our honorary board includes: Raúl Castillo (HBO's Looking), Junot Díaz (Pulitzer Prize-winning author), Priscilla Lopez (Tony Award-winning actress), Sandra Marquez (Steppenwolf ensemble member), Edward James Olmos (Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning actor), John Ortiz (co-star, Silver Linings Playbook), Tony Plana (ABC's Ugly Betty), Chita Rivera (Presidential Medal of Freedom), Diane Rodriguez (OBIE-winning actress, member of National Arts Council) Rosalba Rolón (Artistic Director of Pregones/PRTT) and Daphne Rubin-Vega (Tony nominated-actress, original company of Rent).

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