Set in Laredo, Texas, a group of high school students prepares for the month-long George Washington Birthday Celebration — where tradition, identity, and ambition collide.
The staged reading of this full-length play will be followed by a conversation with Dolores Diaz, moderated by Professor Anne García-Romero.
Directed by Gabrielle Randle-Bent
This event is free but ticketed. Tickets can be reserved at performingarts.nd.edu.
About the Play & Playwright
George Washington’s Mexican Birthday was originally developed at the 2024 Goodman Theatre New Stages Festival. In her play, Díaz explores intersectional identity for Latiné-Americans for whom checking the “right” demographic box can make all the difference. Viewed through the month-long George Washington’s Birthday Celebration in Laredo, Texas, the play explores a high school community, radicalization, and the past, present, and future of fluid identities in the United States.
Dolores Díaz is a Chicana playwright whose recent productions include Black Sunday (2024), produced by TimeLine Theatre, Man of the People (2022), produced by Stage Left Theater, and Zulema (2021) produced by Goodman Theatre in partnership with Chicago Park District, the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, Chicago Latino Theater Alliance, and the National Museum of Mexican Art. Díaz is a resident at Chicago Dramatists and a Dramatists Guild Co-Representative for the Chicago Region. She has taught at various institutions including Texas Tech University, Columbia College, and Northwestern University.
About the Director
Gabrielle Randle-Bent is a director, dramaturg, and scholar. Her directorial highlights include A Raisin in the Sun; Antigone; The Island; and The Tragedy of Othello, The Moor of Venice (co-directed with Charles Newell) at Court Theatre, where she serves as Associate Artistic Director; 1919 (Steppenwolf); and The Year of Magical Thinking (Remy Bumppo). She is a co-founder of the Civic Actor Studio, a leadership program of the University of Chicago’s Office of Civic Engagement. She has a BA in Drama from Stanford University, an MA in Performance as Public Practice from the University of Texas at Austin, and an Interdisciplinary PhD in Theatre and Drama from Northwestern University.
This reading is co-sponosred by the Department of Film, Television, and Theatre, the Institute for Latino Studies' Letras Latinas, the Franco Family Institute for Liberal Arts and the Public Good, and the Teaching Beyond the Classroom program provided by Mr. Earl Linehan and Mrs. Darielle Linehan.
Originally published at ftt.nd.edu.