ROLE CALL
GUADALÍS DEL CARMEN
Profession: Playwright and actor
Hometown: Chicago
Current home: New York City
KNOWN FOR: Bees and Honey (Kilroys List 2019), A Shero’s Journey; or, What Anacaona and Yemayá Taught Me… (published in Theater magazine), and My Father’s Keeper (Kilroys 2019 Honorable Mention)
WHAT’S NEXT: She’s working on her next play.
WHAT MAKES HER SPECIAL: “During a time in which anti-Blackness runs rampant in our country, playwrights such as Guadalís are incredibly necessary,” says Trevor Boffone, scholar and educator in Latinx theatre. “As an Afro-Latina/Dominican playwright, Guadalís offers nuanced depictions of how Blackness and Latinidad intersect, ultimately expanding our understanding of both communities. Her plays are bold, dynamic, funny, pointed, and fresh.”
“You know that feeling when you walk into rooms and people look at you like you’re from another planet,” says Del Carmen, “even though you’re a daughter of immigrants born and raised in the Midwest and are also a descendant? I started writing so people can stop asking me why I speak Spanish or why I was invited to Latinx spaces, and so folks like me don’t have to use language as a passport into spaces meant for us to begin with. I started writing so I could talk about anti-Blackness and things that annoy me, like guys wearing sunglasses at night in dark clubs.” She adds, “Mainly I write because my brain won’t shut off at 3 a.m., and writing plays are my lullabies. Also, it’s NYC, the city with the largest population of Dominicans outside of Dominican Republic—y’all gonna start producing Dominican plays yet?”
