Below you will find some of my most recent work as a playwright.
1000 Miles: A Powerful Immigration Story Unfolds on Stage in Wilton Manors
Photo Courtesy of New City Players
Review: Refuge or Rejection? The ‘1000 Miles’ Experience
By Mindy Leaf
South Florida Theater Magazine
Reviews
March 13, 2024
Read article click here
Looking for the Light in Vanessa Garcia’s 1000 Miles
By Ilana Jael
South Florida Theater Magazine
Movers & Shakers
March 10, 2024
Read article click here
Vanessa Garcia’s Play 1,000 Miles is Open to Interpretation
By Carolina del Busto
Miami New Times
March 6, 2024
Read article click here
Review: Jenna & The Whale at Ground Floor Theatre
By Joni Lorraine
Broadway World
August 24, 2023
Read article click here
‘I hope that it’s cathartic’: Ground Floor Theatre’s World Premiere of ‘Jenna & The Whale’
KUT 90.5 News
By Michael Lee
August 14, 2023
Listen Here
Ground Floor Theatre Jenna & The Whale
Off Stage & On the Air
August 9, 2023
Listen Here
Photo courtesy of Justin Namon
Review: Zoetic Stage’s World Premiere of ‘#Graced’ is a Journey Worth Taking
By Christine Dolen
Miami Herald & Art Burst Miami
May 10, 2023
Read article click here
From Scripts to Stages: Secrets, Laughter, and Drama in the Making of #Graced play
with Vanessa Garcia and Lucy Lopez
Que Bola Podcast Ep. 74
May 2, 2023
Listen Here
With Zoetic Stage’s ‘#Graced,’ Playwright Vanessa Garcia is Soaring
By Christine Dolen
May 1, 2023
Read article click here
Also printed in Miami Herald, here
Whisper in the Wings Episode 108
Stage Whisper by Andrew Cortes & Hope Bird
April 20, 2023
Listen Here
Ep. 248.5 Pero…Hanguiando with Lucy Lopez & Vanessa Garcia and feeling #Graced
Pero Let me Tell You Podcast
Spring 2023
Listen Here
Homegrown playwrights with Miami master playwright Vanessa Garcia (center).
(Photo by Gregory Reed)
Eight Short Plays by Miami’s Best Emerging Playwrights
By Gino R. Campodonico
Community Newspaper
March 27, 2023
Read article click here
Forgiveness, Home and Baking Intertwine in the Play ‘Sweet Goats and Blueberry Señoritas’
By Kate Payne, Leslie Ovalle Atkinson, and Elisa Baena
Sundial, WLRN
Nov. 20, 2023
Listen here
Review: Lovely ‘Sweet Goats and Blueberry Señoritas’ Ponders Universal Questions
By Aaron Krause
Miami Art Zine
Nov. 15, 2023
Read article click here
Review: Miami Connections in Maine-Based ‘Sweet Goats’ Give Play a Perfect Home at Actors’ Playhouse
By Christine Dolen
ArtBurst Miami
Nov. 13, 2023
Read article click here
Sweet Goats & Blueberry Señoritas A Tasty Debut at Actors Playhouse
By Raquel V. Reyes
Florida Theater On Stage
Nov. 12, 2023
Read article click here
Actors’ Playhouse’s ‘Sweet Goats’ Born in Maine But Its Roots Are in Miami
By Christine Dolen
ArtBurst Miami
Nov. 6, 2023
Read article click here
Acclaimed Cuban-American Play to Premiere in Miami
By Ale Fadel
Islander News
Oct 15, 2023
Read article click here
New Play Presents A Melding of Cuba & Maine, Explored Through Food and Family Ties
By Ari Snider
Maine Public
Jan. 31, 2023
Read article click here
Theater Review: In Sweet Goats, A Baker holds onto Cuban Roots While Making a Home in Maine
By Steve Feeney
Portland Press Herald
Jan. 30, 2023
Read article click here
Poet Richard Blanco Pulls From His Own Miami-to-Maine Story for his First Play
By Eric Russell
Portland Press Herald
January 8, 2023
Read article click here
Sweet Goats & Blueberry Señoritas, An Interview with Playwrights
Watch here
January 2023
Ruben Rabasa stars in premiere of Rubenology at GableStage
By Ana Maria Carrano
Miami’s Community News
Read article click here
At Gablestage, Actor Ruben Rabasa is Finally in the Spotlight
By Christine Dolen
Artburst Miami & Miami New Times
July 8, 2022
Read article click here and here
El Veterano Actor Cubano Rubén Rabasa Imparte Rubenologia Desde un Teatro
La Propuesta Digital
June 29, 2022
Read article click here
ICH BIN EIN BERLINER: An Audio Play with Visual Companion
Commissioned by Theatre Lab @FAU
Streaming Through: April 5-May 23, 2021
In Person Events (Streaming live): April 3-5, 2021 for the launch
Critical Responses so far:
Christine Dolen (Artburst) says:
"Ich Bin Ein Berliner embraces the personal and the resonantly universal...[Garcia's] play is, by turns, funny, thought-provoking and deeply moving."
Carolina del Busto (Miami New Times) says:
"As she speaks, it’s clear how stories flow out of her almost effortlessly, like a quiet stream in the woods — and yet, as powerful as a storm."
John Thomason (Boca Magazine) says:
"I’ve been vocally anti- “virtual entertainment” since the pandemic started, but I’m finally humbled: Here is a profound work of creativity that perfectly meets the moment."
Jenna & The Whale
Virtual Reading of New Play Jenna & The Whale to Benefit North Star Projects & The Sol Project
By BWW News Desk
Broadway World
June 25, 2020
More info here
Playwriting Pair’s Whale of A Tale Gets A Big-Time Virtual Reading
By Christine Dolen
Miami Herald
June 25, 2020
More info here
A monologue and a scene from Jenna & The Whale, for The Arsht Center:
Grace, Sponsored by Monteverde
WP Pipeline Festival
WP Theatre
April 16-19, 2020
The WP Festival has moved online.
Please check out @WPtheater on insta. As well as: @GraceSponsoredByMonteverde @MonteverdeMoonshine @CatInSearchOfGrace @vgarcia43
The Amparo Experience
Written by Vanessa Garcia
Directed by Victoria Collado
Produced by Team Enterprises, Bacardi, Broadway World, and Abre Camino Collective
Extended Again and Again:
MORE About the Amparo Experience:
Vanessa Garcia & Victoria Collado discuss “The Amparo Experience”
Immigrant Archive Project, 2019
‘Amparo Experience’ tells the story of family behind Havana Club
NBC 7
April 12, 2019
Amparo
Written by Vanessa Garcia
Directed by Victoria Collado
Produced by Team Enterprises, Bacardi, Broadway World, and Abre Camino Collective
Photos by Roberto Chamorro
Miami Trailer
New York Trailer
Bacardi Recently Produced a ‘Sleep no More’-Like Live Experience Recreating 1950s Cuba – Rake an Exclusive Look Inside
Business Insider
By Tanya Dua
April, 7, 2018
Read More Here
Read more under Press
My short play, FREEK! is anthologized below.
The play is about a young teenaged rafter that arrives in Miami from Cuba, grows rubber feet, and battles her bullies.
ESTATE -- April 19, 20, & 22, 2017
Estate - Challenging the laws of the land.
An ordinary wedding transforms into an extraordinary journey through time, space, and culture. Lace up your walking shoes and unleash your imagination as you follow a Bootlegger, a Bride, and an Indigenous Guide across the lush landscape of a Florida estate, and straight down to its underbelly.
Plays collaboratively written by Stephanie Ansin, Hannah Benitez, Vanessa Garcia, and William Hector, under the guidance of Master Playwright Kenny Finkle.
For more, please visit: www.deeringestate.org/estate-site-specific-plays/
My short play “The Crocodile’s Bite,” anthologized below.
Monologues from full-length plays “Grace, Sponsored by Monteverde” and “The Cuban Spring” also anthologized below.
The Final 30, Sam French OOB Festival.
My short play The Crocodile’s Bite has been chosen for the Sam French Final 30, it will be produced by Juggerknot Theatre.
For more about The Crocodile's Bite in NYC, click here
The Crocodile’s Bite has also been named a finalist for the City Theatre National Short Playwriting Award.
Grace, Sponsored by Monteverde (A Full-length play)
The Cuban Spring
by Vanessa Garcia,
a full length play about family secrets, the dangers of migration, and the tension between generations
World Premiere Sept. 2014 @
Press for The Cuban Spring:
Playwright Vanessa Garcia Tackles Identity in Exile in Her New Play 'The Cuban Spring'
By Amy Reyes / Miami.com / Oct. 15, 2014
Read More Click Here
Top Theater Events of 2014-15 By Christine Dolen
Miami Herald / Sept. 19, 2014
Read More Click Here
Photo from The Cuban Spring Presented at New Theatre Oct. - Nov. 2014
by Eileen Suarez
Creative Mornings Talk, February 2014. Topic: Rebel.
Lasso by Vanessa Garcia. A One Act Play premiered at New Theatre, Miami. Finalist for City Theatre's National Short Playwriting Award.
THE UNDERGROUND -- A Show About Making Art in the 21st Century
On September 21st and 22nd, The Krane and New Light Theatre, launch a brand new theatre piece/ event called THE UNDERGROUND. The Show starts its run at GAB Studio in Miami --105 NW 23rd Street Miami, Florida -- on September 21 and 22, at 7 pm each night. THE UNDERGROUND continues its life in Fort Lauderdale at The New Light Theatre at Gallery 101 -- 3354 NE 33rd Street, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33308 -- on Oct. 12 and 13 at 7pm.
2013 Brings The Underground to LA and Back to Miami...
See: www.thekrane.com for more details.
PRESS:
"THE UNDERGROUND" digs a hole in Wynwood
By Neil De La Flor, Published in Knight Arts Blog, Sept 17, 2012
http://www.knightarts.org/community/miami/the-underground-digs-a-hole-in-wynwood
“You can’t be deep without a surface,” author Jonathan Lethem writes.
Sometimes surfaces are physical barriers that block us from seeing what’s beneath. Sometimes surfaces are also imaginary barriers that we erect out of fear of failure or success. Sometimes digging beneath and breaking these surfaces yields unexpected beauty or truth or happiness or whatever it is we may be seeking. But sometimes when we dig we find nothing. And, then what? Give up. Of course, not. It just means it’s time to go to the theater.
[Photo: Gema Calero | “The Underground.”]
On September 21st and 22nd, The Krane and New Light Theatre, will preview “The Underground,” “a show
about what it means to be an artist in the 21st century.”
The theater piece follows Maude, a young woman who moves back in with her parents after graduating with an architecture degree. Like many twenty-somethings
(and thirty-somethings, forty-somethings, etc.) Maude doesn’t know what to do with her life and a world of the limited possibilities.
Maude does what most rational humans would do when confronted with an existential crisis: she digs a hole. As Maude struggles to find meaning in her life, she
goes into the dark to find the light. Her parents are freaked out, but let her dig her way to a meaningful life. Maybe this is a metaphor for how to find our
way. Shred the plan. Dig a hole. See what we find. Devised living.
“The Underground” is devised theater. “This means that we didn’t start out with a script. Instead, the script arose out of the rehearsal process,” says Vanessa Garcia, founding artistic director of The Krane. “I had a set of ideas I wanted to deal with — about art and what it means to make art today — and we took it from there.”
From there, “The Underground” is revealed.
“The Underground” runs at two locations. Location 1: GAB Studio in Wynwood, 105 NW 23rd St., Miami on September 21 & 22 at 7 p.m. Cost: pay what you can. Location 2: The New Light Theatre at Gallery 101, 3354 NE 33rd St., Fort Lauderdale, FL, 33308, October 12 & 13 at 7:00 PM, Cost: $12. For more information contact Vanessa Garcia at vgarcia43@yahoo.com and/or 305-450-9931 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 305-450-9931 end_of_the_skype_highlighting.
Website: www.vanessagarcia.org