Puerto Rican Playwrights

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Puerto Rican Playwrights

Puerto Rican playwrights

Notable Nuyorican and Puerto Rican Playwrights

Books about Puerto Rican Playwrights/Theatre

  • Recent Puerto Rican Theater: Five Plays from New Yor
  • Pragmatic Liberation and the Politics of Puerto Rican Diasporic Drama
  • Translocas
  • Poets, Philosophers, Lovers: On the Writings of Giannina Braschi 
  • Nuestro New York: An Anthology of Puerto Rican Plays
  • Puerto Rican Theater on Puerto Rican Independence
Puerto Rican playwrights United States of Banana
Puerto Rican theater United States of Banana

Contemporary Puerto Rican Theater

United States of Banana

“The plot of United States of Banana unfolds in the following way: Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Nietzsche’s Zarathustra and a character named Giannina decide to cross the Hudson to go to Liberty Island, penetrate the Statue of Liberty and free Segismundo, subsequently freeing Puerto Rico from its colonial captivity. This act of defiance produces a response from Gertrude –Hamlet’s mother – who concocts a plan to marry Basilio, free Segismundo, and bring him into the same family as Hamlet as the only possible way to save the ancien régime of imperial United States of Banana from collapsing. 

As part of her plan, Gertrude convinces Basilio that Puerto Rico should be granted admission into the United States of Banana, that all illegal immigrants shall be granted citizenship, and that the borders of the United States of Banana shall be opened. However, her efforts to mitigate the revolution by granting concessions to Giannina and the other insurgents fail, who declare unilaterally the independence of Puerto Rico after realizing that the changes in the United States of Banana’s policies towards Puerto Rico and Latin America were an attempt to perpetuate a sort of imperial Pax Banana under the joint leadership of Basilio and Gertrude. 

Postdramatic theatre: United States of Banana
United States of Banana, Latinx theatre

War erupts between Puerto Rico, Cuba (which has claims to Puerto Rico and seeks to create its own Caribbean empire), and the United States of Banana; Giannina and her comrades can only rely on coconuts and philosophical conversation to fight the soldiers of the empire. But the timely intervention of China – the United States creditor – secures the independence of Puerto Rico and brings Braschi’s geo-political comedy to a close.” Ronald Mendoza de Jesus

Postdramatic Theater Director

Colombian theater director Juan Pablo Felix Torres writes about directing United States of Banana, a Postdramatic theatre text by Puerto Rican playwright Giannina Braschi.

“On the process of staging the play “United States of Banana”, based on the original text written by Puerto Rican author Giannina Braschi. This work has been widely praised by academics both in and outside the United States and has opened new spaces to reflect on the ideas that concern the Latino population living in the US. These literary expressions are the sign of a vital community that is slowly assuming a historical role in the shaping of the most powerful nation in the planet. 

Postdramatic theatre plays


Since I consider theater to be a social thermometer, I chose this play as my thesis project to testify about the state of affairs regarding the situation of Puerto Rico. Its lack of sovereignty and self-regulation constitute a metaphor about the foreign policy the government of the United States has exercised in many countries, but especially in Latin America. However, it is also time to set our own proposals over the table and abandon the paternalist model that justifies and supports our attitude of beneficiaries of the charities coming from the first world. 
In this play, characters from Classical literature become symbols of entire races and populations to polish a gigantic mirror in which we can look at ourselves. Despite its scathing humor and harrowing critique, the text helped us create a performative event in 6 which we all, creators and spectators, shared a common responsibility: that of contributing to making a world that is fairer and a society that finds hope more easily…” Juan Pablo Felix, author of United States of Banana: A Postcolonial Dramatic Fiction

Latinx theater 

Female Puerto Rican playwrights

Hispanic theater companies and festivals in USA

Puerto Rican Women Playwrights

Key words: Nuyorican theater, nuyorican playwrights, Postdramatic theater, post-dramatic theatre, Puerto Rican playwrights, Puerto Rican women playwrights, Latinx theater, Postcolonial theater, Puerto Rican theater, Latinx playwrights, Puerto Rican theater companies. Boricua women playwrights, Women Playwrights, Puerto Rican playwrights