Great Roles for Latine Women

From a young folklórico dancer to a Zoloft-addicted middle-aged mom to a very pregnant doctoral candidate, here’s a wide variety of roles for Latine women. Explore this collection of shows offering great roles for Latina female actors – from intimate one-person shows to large-scale ensemble pieces.

A Mexican Trilogy by Evelina Fernandez (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 6w, 5m)
Faith, Hope and Charity comprise Evelina Fernandez’s series, A Mexican Trilogy. The plays center around the Moraleses, a Mexican-American family, dealing with the im
pact that inspirational historical figures Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Pope John Paul II have upon their lives.

Faith: The first play in the trilogy, set a couple decades after the Mexican Revolution, tells the story of a family faced with the challenge of retaining ancient traditions and cultural memory in the midst of social and political upheaval.

Hope: Part II of the trilogy, Hope takes place in the 1960’s when a new young president, a national crisis and the loss of innocence follow the Morales family and the nation.

Charity: While the world mourns the death of Pope John Paul II, the centenarian matriarch of the Morales family is visited by the ghost of her great grandson slain in Iraq. Meanwhile, the sudden arrival of a relative from Mexico shakes things up.

Anna in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 3w, 5m)
A poignant, poetic and Pulitzer-winning play set in a Cuban-American cigar factory in Florida in 1929, where cigars are still rolled by hand and “lectors” are employed to educate and entertain the workers. The arrival of a new lector is a cause for celebration, but when he begins to read aloud from Anna Karenina, he unwittingly becomes a catalyst in the lives of his avid listeners, for whom Tolstoy, the tropics and the American dream prove a volatile combination.

Barrio Hollywood by Elaine Romero (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 2w, 2m)
This tense family drama is focused around two siblings and their aspirations to help their family out of their economic plight. One, a young ballet folklórico dancer and dedicated cultural artist, dreams of owning her own dance studio, while her brother hopes that his boxing career will make the right waves. That is, until a boxing accident leaves him hospitalized, and his sister unexpectedly falls in love with a doctor on the ward.

Chimichangas and Zoloft by Fernanda Coppel (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 3w, 2m)
Suffering from a profound sense of disappointment after her 40th birthday, Sonia flees her family and goes on a binge of prescription Zoloft and greasy chimichangas. Sonia’s rebellious daughter Jackie and her best friend Penelope hatch a plan to lure Sonia back home, while their fathers struggle with a secret association of their own. This irreverent story examines the search for happiness and the mysteries of sexuality through the eyes of two brazen teenagers.

Dream Hou$e by Eliana Pipes (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 3w, 2 any gender)
Two Latinx sisters prepare to sell their home on a reality TV show, hoping to capitalize on neighborhood gentrification. But once the cameras are rolling, the family’s turbulent past and uncertain future begin to collide, and the sisters are forced to reckon with the secrets held between the house’s walls. 

El Huracán by Charise Castro Smith (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 4w, 2m)
As Hurricane Andrew threatens Miami, perpetual grad student Miranda returns to Florida to help her mother Ximena and abuela Valeria weather the storm. But Valeria has already taken shelter in her own world of memory and magic as she deals with the onset of dementia. Loosely inspired by Shakespeare’s The Tempest, El Huracán is a beautifully lyrical play about resentment, responsibility and love.

El Nogalar by Tanya Saracho (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 4w, 1m)
In present-day Northern Mexico, members of the Galvan family return to their pecan orchard to reclaim their land after their matriarch, Maite, squandered the family’s money. Tragically, the Mexico they once knew has slowly been taken over by a drug war. Tanya Saracho’s modern adaptation of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard explores the relationships between sisters, and a mother and her daughters, as they learn how to adapt and survive in a new world.

Electricidad by Luis Alfaro (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 7w, 3m)
In the years following the murder of her father by her mother, Electricidad is committed to vengeance. To get it, she’ll need her brother, Orestes, to return from Las Vegas and help her finish the job. Transporting Sophocles’ Electra to the Los Angeles barrios, Luis Alfaro investigates violence, loss and redemption through the lens of this age-old tragedy.

Enfrascada by Tanya Saracho (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dark Comedy / 5w)
When Alicia finds out that her boyfriend of nine years has been cheating on her, she is devastated beyond belief. Luckily her friends are ready to help her – by any means necessary. They urge Alicia to experiment with Brujería, Hoodoo, and Santería magic; not only to heal her broken heart, but to help get her man back.

Evita by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Drama / 2w, 3m)
Evita charts the young and ambitious Eva Peron’s meteoric rise to sainthood. Set in Argentina between 1934-1952, the Tony-winning musical follows Eva Duarte on her journey from poor illegitimate child to ambitious actress to, as wife of military leader-turned-president Juan Peron, the most powerful woman in Latin America, before her death from cancer at age 33.

Fade by Tanya Saracho (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 1w, 1m)
When Lucia, a Mexican-born novelist, gets her first TV writing job, she feels a bit out of place on the white, male-dominated set. Lucia quickly becomes friends with the only other Latino around, a janitor named Abel. As Abel shares his stories with Lucia, similar plots begin to find their way into the TV scripts that Lucia writes. Fade is a play about class and race within the Latine community, as well as at large, and how status does not change who you are at your core.

Fuente by Cusi Cram (US)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 2w, 4m)
Something is not right. There is a secret humidity in the air of a town where the breezes have been on strike for two hundred years. Soledad thinks she is Alexis Carrington from Dynasty and feels itchy. Although Chaparro can’t seem to scratch her itch anymore, Esteban might just be the man for the job. And Adela watches it all unfold as if it were a soap opera on TV. Maybe it is? Anything is possible in Fuente.

Ghosts of Bogotá by Diana Burbano (US)
(Full-Length Play, Dark Comedy / 3w, 2m, 1 any gender)
A heartbreaking dark comedy about three siblings returning to their parents’ birth country to bury their grandfather…who no one will mourn. Ghosts of Bogotá is both a universal story about family secrets and a unique tale about the immigrant experience of never feeling fully at home in a country that can claim you.

How to Defend Yourself by Liliana Padilla (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 5w, 2m, 1 girl)
Seven college students gather for a DIY self-defense workshop after a sorority sister is raped. They learn how to “not be a victim,” how to use their bodies as weapons, how to fend off attackers. The form of self-defense becomes a channel for their rage, trauma, confusion, anxiety and desire – lots of desire. Challenged to determine what they want and how to ask for it, the students must ultimately face the insidious ways rape culture steals one’s body and sense of belonging. 

2020 Steppenwolf Theatre production of I am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter (Michael Brosilow)

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Isaac Gómez and Erika L. Sánchez (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Dramatic Comedy / 4w, 4m)
As she grieves the death of her older sister, Júlia Reyes faces pressure to put her own dreams of becoming a writer on hold. She finds herself caught between her family’s expectations and the less-than-perfect life she grapples with every day as a 15-year-old growing up in Chicago. This remarkable stage adaptation of the bestselling YA novel is a rich and poignant exploration of how to transcend your circumstances while remaining true to who you are.

I Wanna Fuck Like Romeo and Juliet by Andrew Rincón (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 2w, 3m)
Snow in July, comets falling from the sky… the world is thrown into chaos as Cupid (a Latine god) rips off her wings and gives up on love. But her old flame Saint Valentine has a plan to bring her spirits back up, and it involves reigniting the flame between Alejandro and Benny, two queer folk who are going through a breakup. Moving from the heavens to Hackensack, I Wanna Fuck like Romeo and Juliet is a love story of epic proportions that captures the many flavors of queer love. 

In the Heights by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Comedy / 6w, 6m)
In the Heights tells the universal story of a vibrant community in New York’s Washington Heights neighborhood – a place where the coffee from the corner bodega is light and sweet, the windows are always open and the breeze carries the rhythm of three generations of music. It’s a community on the brink of change, full of hopes, dreams and pressures, where the biggest struggles can be deciding which traditions you take with you, and which ones you leave behind.

Just Like Us by Karen Zacarías (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 7w, 2m)
Based on Helen Thorpe’s bestselling book, this documentary-style play follows four Latina teenage girls in Denver—two of whom are documented and two who are not—through young adulthood. Their close-knit friendships begin to unravel when immigration status dictates the girls’ opportunities, or lack thereof. When a political firestorm arises, each girl’s future becomes increasingly complicated. Just Like Us poses difficult yet essential questions about what makes us American. 

Laughs in Spanish by Alexis Scheer (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 4w, 1m)
It’s Art Basel, and the stakes are high for the gallery that Mariana runs in the Wynwood Arts District in Miami. And when Mariana’s movie-star mother tries to help out, things get even more complicado. Laughs in Spanish is a fast-paced, cafecíto-induced comedy about art and success – and mothers and daughters. 

Mala by Melinda Lopez (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 1w)
Mala is a darkly funny tale about what it means to put our loved ones first, right to the very end, and what happens when we strive to be good but don’t always succeed. A one-woman tour-de-force for a powerful actress, Mala careens from comedy to deep pathos, while having the toughest conversation about the most common of events – the end of life.

Mala Hierba by Tanya Saracho (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 4w)
Liliana has a sparkle few can deny, and no one can resist. The trophy wife of a border magnate living in Texas, she’s seemingly impeccable. But beneath that polished exterior lies a fierce determination to survive at any cost. When Liliana’s true desires break the surface, she’ll have to decide between the value of obligation versus the price of freedom.

Man Cave by John J. Caswell, Jr. (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 4w)
In this chilling political thriller, Imaculada has gathered her friends in the fortress-like mansion belonging to her absent employer, a wealthy Republican Congressman living high on a hill in Sedona, Arizona. Together they convert his luxurious basement man cave into their own spiritual war room and protective sanctuary from the violence of men, both real and supernatural. 

Mariela in the Desert by Karen Zacarias (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 3w, 3m)
Mariela and José were once the golden couple of the Mexican artists’ inner circle. But now their daughter has grown up and run away, their friends are too famous to call, and artistic inspiration has been strangled by isolation and lies. Set in the northern Mexican desert in 1950, Mariela in the Desert is a deadly mystery – a layered yet profoundly honest story of what happens to a family when creativity is forced to dry and wither away. 

Marisol by José Rivera (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 4w, 1m)
Marisol Perez, a young Latine woman, is a copy editor for a Manhattan publisher. One evening Marisol is visited by her guardian angel who informs her that she can no longer serve as Marisol’s protector because she has been called to join a revolution against an old and senile God. Simple. The war in heaven spills over into New York City, reducing it to a smoldering urban wasteland where giant fires send noxious smoke to darken the skies in this sharp, grandiose fantasy.

Native Gardens by Karen Zacarías (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 2w, 2m)
Pablo, a high-powered lawyer, and doctoral candidate Tania, his very pregnant wife, are realizing the American dream when they purchase a house next door to community stalwarts Virginia and Frank. But a disagreement over a long-standing fence line soon spirals into a hilarious all-out war of taste, class, privilege and entitlement.

Our Lady of the Tortilla by Luis Santeiro (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 4w, 2m)
The Cruz family is volatile, even in the best of times. On this particular day, Nelson, the youngest son, enters the house in a panic to hide the more obvious religious relics from the sight of his “gringo” girlfriend who is visiting for the weekend. Nelson’s mother, Dahlia, is obsessed with retrieving her husband from his new girlfriend while Eddie, her elder son, shows up in a van with his failed life and pregnant girlfriend. But the “real” pandemonium is caused by sweet, long-suffering Aunt Dolores when she sees the face of the Holy Virgin in a tortilla.

Rabiosa by Nelson Diaz-Marcano (US/UK)
(10-Minute Play, Drama / 1w)
A short one-woman show, Rabiosa pits a fiery Puerto Rican woman against Hurricane Maria, as she demands the hurricane give back what it took away. The battle is on, the lasso is ready, but will the island survive?

She Like Girls by Chisa Hutchinson (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 6w, 3m)
High schooler Kia Clark has dreamt of Marisol Feliciano for months, but always assumed that she was staunchly heterosexual. While supporting Marisol through a health crisis, the two share a forbidden kiss that starts a fulfilling – but challenging – romantic relationship.

Simona’s Search by Martín Zimmerman (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 1w, 2m)
Simona’s father is an enigma. Curious about his life in Latin America before moving to the United States, Simona obsesses over his secrets as her thoughts and dreams become haunted by the mystery that is his past. A riveting exploration of the bond between fathers and daughters, love and sacrifice, nature and nurture.

Soldadera by Josefina Niggli (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 7w, 1m)
During the Mexican Revolution, seven women outlaws, most of whom have seen their sons and husbands tortured to death before their eyes, gather with their captive. Their leader, Concha, is convinced that someone is signaling to the Federal troops. Is it the captive, the girl who loves him, or the flirt? As the ring draws tighter around them, Concha devises a means of exposing the traitor, stopping the enemy, and safeguarding their precious storage of ammunition.

Somewhere Over the Border by Brian Quijada (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Dramatic Comedy / 3w, 3m)
Inspired by the real-life journey of the author’s mother, Reina Quijada, from El Salvador to the US, and by L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Somewhere Over the Border embraces the factual and the fantastical in its depiction of one young girl’s pursuit of the American dream. As Reina travels north to the Mexican border, she gathers friends, faces down dangers, and holds tight to the memory of the little boy she left behind. 

Sonia Flew by Melinda Lopez (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 3w, 3m)
Sonia Flew telescopes the large cultural and political forces of a historic moment to examine their impact on the intimate lives of ordinary men and women. What do we owe our parents? Can we forgive the past? This poetic and urgent play bridges time and culture in a drama about the cost of forgiveness.

The English Only Restaurant by Silvio Martinez Palau, Sergio Garcia Marruz and Saul Spangenburg (US)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 3w, 8m)
This wild farce mauls both the English and the Spanish languages as it lampoons the pretensions of upwardly mobile Latines, the snobberies of Gringos, high fashion, trendy restaurants and just about everything else. The perpetrators of the mayhem are gathered in a Queens restaurant just after Spanish has been outlawed, and have complied with the law by adopting English sounding names and trying to speak in a style they associate with high society.

The Gardens of Anuncia by Michael John LaChiusa (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Dramatic Comedy / 5w, 2m)
Before her amazing career on Broadway, Graciela Daniele was a young girl growing up in 1940s Buenos Aires in the shadow of the Perón regime. The Gardens of Anuncia is her coming-of-age story in the form of a gorgeous, tango-infused new musical written by her longtime collaborator and friend, Michael John LaChiusa. With wit and wisdom, the show follows Anuncia as she tends the garden of her country house and reflects on her life. 

The Ritz by Terrence McNally (US)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 3w, 14m)
Rita Moreno won a 1975 Tony Award for her outrageous performance as Googie Gomez in this hilarious farce set in a gay bathhouse. When a hapless, middle-aged, very married man takes it on the lam from his mafioso brother-in-law, he ducks into The Ritz, the last place anyone would look for him. This sets up an old-fashioned door-slamming farce, with bumbling detectives, insatiable lovers and Googie Gomez, an over-the-top would-be Bette Midler looking for her big break.

The River Bride by Marisela Treviño Orta (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 3w, 3m)
Once upon a time, in a fishing village along the Amazon, there lived two sisters struggling to find their “happily ever after.” Helena is dreading her sister Belmira’s wedding. The groom, Duarte, should have been hers, and she knows that her sister only wants to escape their sleepy Brazilian town for an exciting new life in the city. But three days before the wedding, fishermen pull a mysterious stranger out of the river – a man with no past who offers both sisters an alluring, possibly dangerous future.

Torero by Monet Hurst-Mendoza (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 2w, 2m, 2 any gender)
Bullfighting in Yucatán, Mexico is a world nearly exclusive to men – yet for Elena María Ramírez, it is her life’s ambition. With the help of her best friend, a matador’s son, Elena begins secretly training to compete with the greatest. But when she discovers that her seemingly inherent talent can beat even the most accomplished toreros, this young woman must choose between accepting society’s limits or breaking boundaries.

Two Sisters and a Piano by Nilo Cruz (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 2w, 2m)
1991. During the Pan American Games, two sisters are serving house arrest in turbulent Havana. Passion infiltrates politics when a lieutenant assigned to their case becomes infatuated with one of them. Tremendously moving, yet still filled with a thrilling sense of cat-and-mouse, Two Sisters and a Piano is another masterful work from the Pulitzer Prize-winning Nilo Cruz.

Water by the Spoonful by Quiara Alegría Hudes (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 3w, 4m)
This Pulitzer-winning play examines addiction and recovery, family (both biological and found), identity and displacement, the lingering impact of war and the complex nature of online versus real-world communities and human connections. Elliot has returned from Iraq and is struggling to find his place in the world while living in Philadelphia. Meanwhile. somewhere in a chat room, recovering addicts – including his mother – keep each other alive, hour by hour, day by day. The boundaries of family and community are stretched across continents and cyberspace as birth families splinter and online families collide.

Wet Brain by John J. Caswell, Jr. (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dark Comedy / 2w, 3m)
Deep in the suburbs of Arizona, three trainwreck siblings are charged with the care of their trainwreck father, who may or may not live a secret alien life. John J. Caswell, Jr.’s brutally funny new play pierces one family’s emotional void as they search the cosmos to find a common language.  

Wolf at the Door by Marisela Treviño Orta (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 3w, 1m)
Inspired by Latino folklore and mythology, Wolf at the Door is part of a cycle of fairy tales from Marisela Treviño Orta. Isadora finds the strength to stand up to her abusive husband Septimo when he forces the very pregnant Yolot to stay against her will. While Septimo makes plans for the baby, Isadora and Yolot devise one of their own. But, as a pack of wolves closes in on the hacienda, Isadora must decide what price she’ll pay for her own freedom.

Find more shows featuring great roles for Latine actors on the Concord Theatricals website. In the US/North America, click here. In the UK/Europe, click here.