From June 26-29, City Theatre’s Summer Shorts will perform short plays by Miami’s best emerging playwrights at the Sandrell Rivers Theater. In this series the playwrights share a little with the Jitney about their work.
Miami is a unique city, in that the question that usually follows “What’s your name?” when meeting a stranger is “Where are you from?”
You’re Colombian? That means one thing. You’re Venezuelan? That means another. You’re Cuban? I know you already. My play Taboo is what happens when this mindset backfires during a game night amongst friends, and how cultures can clash over something as simple as a bowl of chips.
In recent years, many a New-Yorker have moved to Miami and redefined what our city is. It is the city of Pilates and coffee shops and clubs. Miami, as I knew it, was always the city of La Carreta, pin-pan-puns, and the Afilador truck. My inspiration for this play came from a joke about mariquitas, also known as plantain chips. We laughed at the audacity of someone not of the culture thinking they struck gold with this “brand new” delicious snack that is now rebranded as a “Low-Cal Lightweight Snack Seasoned with Pink Salt from the Himalayas.” Taboo explores this threat of cultural erasure in the Latino community and what it’s like to feel like an outsider in your own home.
Whether you enjoy Pink Himalayan salt dusted banana chips or mariquitas, you will have a blast watching Taboo. I am grateful to City Theater as well as my playwriting mentors for giving me this opportunity and helping hone my voice to say something meaningful while staying true to myself.
