Mi Abuela, Queen of Nightmares at Arts On Site

Hi there,

My name is Christine Stoddard and an excerpt of my award-winning play "Mi Abuela, Queen of Nightmares" is coming to Arts On Site, a black box theater on St. Mark's Place in New York City on Oct. 21 and 22, 2022. Act I of this two-act play will be performed at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. each night for a total of four performances. My team needs YOUR help to cover costs not covered by the theatre (e.g. renting a rehearsal studio, renting a moving truck, dry-cleaning all costumes, getting rapid COVID test kits, etc.) Please help make it happen and bring this play to a new audience as it continues to grow!

The Cast & Crew

​Maya: Vanessa Vivas

Mami: Marian Del Valle

Abuela: Fiamma Piacentini (also movement director)

Father: Aaron Gold

Figment #1: Jess Appel (also assistant director)

Figment #2: Laura Aristovulos

Ancestor #1: Ariana Jackman (also Maya understudy)

Ancestor #2: Christine Stoddard (also the playwright/director)

Interns: Sydnie Stern (St. John's University), Bronte Gosper (Columbia University)

Maya, a young Salvadoran-American woman, navigates trauma and family mythology through magic and folklore as she comes of age in Phoenix, Arizona. Her story explores mother-daughter relationships, mixed race identity, being the first-generation child of an immigrant, growing up without a father, and fantasy as a coping mechanism, while featuring movement and dance. And there are owls, jaguars, and cacti—oh, my!

*Trigger warning: This play references sexual assault and suicide.

​Mi Abuela, Queen of Nightmares won a national playwriting competition held by Table Work Press in 2019 and was published in the book Two Plays: True Believer and Mi Abuela, Queen of Nightmares (2020). The play is based upon the 2018 Semiperfect Press chapbook of poems by the same name. It premiered at the Gene Frankel Theatre in New York City in June 2022 and was produced by Quail Bell Press & Productions. Chosen as one of three national finalists in the Fulton Festival of New Works, the play was presented in a staged reading at the Fulton Theatre in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in August 2022.

If you support this GoFundMe, your name will go on the webpage for the run here.

Thank you so much for your time, consideration, and support!

XOXO,

Christine