For its 25th Anniversary, WPT brings together Latina directors from different generations to lead the Mujeres Creando Theatrical Concerts for Human Rights. A space shaped by listening, where women’s voices are amplified and urgent stories take the stage.
Theater creates humanity.
Miranda González
Miranda Gonzalez (Co-Director-Adapter/UTC Artistic Director) is the Artistic Director of UrbanTheater Company. She also was a founding ensemble member of Chicago’s Only All Latina Theater company Teatro Luna and has devised and developed plays since 2000. After performing as an actress for 10 years she decided to turn her artistic endeavors towards directing.
Denise Yvette Serna
Denise holds an MFA in Theatre Directing from London’s East 15 Acting School, and co-founded Global Hive Laboratories, an international collective working toward a global theatre through an intentional practice of Active Access and community exchange.
Rinska Carrasco
Carrasco is a proud Dominican-American director and SAG-AFTRA actor represented by Gray Talent. She has been nominated by the Jeff Committee for her work on and off stage. You can catch her on screen on Powers, The Michael Che Show, Cherry, Chicago P.D., Empire and 61st Street.
9
MARCH
CHAMAMÉ
Directed by
Miranda González
Written by
Celeste Veleda
Argentina
Clara, an elderly woman, moves through an ordinary afternoon in her home along the Argentine littoral. As chamamé music drifts in and out of the radio dial, she prepares for a gathering with friends, a simple ritual that now gives meaning to her days. In this waiting, the play enters the solitude of old age, the quiet marginalization so often imposed upon the elderly, and the profound human need to be seen, heard, and accompanied.
16
MARCH
HOY NO VIENE NADIE
Directed by
Denise Yvette Serna
Written by
Diana Chery-Ramírez
Colombia
The survivors of an imagined town that has lost everything in an act of violence cling to daily routines, to the love of their trades and traditions, in a gesture at once fragile and luminous, an effort to sustain life and safeguard their legacy in the face of devastation.
27
MARCH
CANCIÓN DE COBRE Y ARENA
Directed by
Rinska Carrasco
Written by
Raquel Calonge
Spain
In a desert landscape in 2025, two siblings, a twelve-year-old girl and her nine-year-old brother, flee the drought that has erased their village. Along their journey, they confront violence, abuse, and loss, but also encounter friendship, solidarity, and hope as forms of resistance.
On International Human Rights Day 2025, and as we begin the celebration of our 25th anniversary, Water People Theater proudly announces the winning theatrical texts of the third edition of Mujeres Creando 2026, the Human Rights Theatrical Concert Series, an initiative that reaffirms our ongoing commitment to women’s voices in contemporary theater and to the creation of works in defense of human rights.
Congratulations to the awarded authors!
Our international jury, composed of renowned creators, playwrights, and advocates of Hispanic theater including Egla Hassan, Sonia Chocrón, Indira Páez, Belén Galain, Neher Jacqueline Briceño, and Rebeca Alemán, selected the winning texts based on the quality, innovation, and depth of their human-rights-driven dramatic proposals, highlighting the power of theater written by women to address the challenges of our time.
The Theatrical Concerts of the three winning plays will be presented at the Instituto Cervantes of Chicago in March, on Monday the 9th and Monday the 16th, as part of Women’s Month, and will culminate on Friday, March 27, in celebration of World Theatre Day.
Water People Theater celebrates the extraordinary participation in this edition: 42 submissions, of which seven were preselected and sent to the jury for final evaluation.
We are deeply grateful to all the Spanish-speaking playwrights who, from different countries and realities, shared their perspectives, courage, and the strength of their stories. Each submitted work confirms the urgent need to sustain spaces for creation where theater written by women engages with human rights, challenges our societies, and opens paths of memory, resistance, and transformation.
OUR JURY PANEL
EGLA HASSAN
Theater director, Jeff Awards juror, and retired MFA program head at Western Illinois University.
INDIRA PÁEZ
Writer and screenwriter with more than three decades of experience in television, theater, and literature.
NEHER J. BRICEÑO
Theater director, playwright, and co-artistic director of the International Miami Hispanic Theater Festival.
SONIA CHOCRÓN
Writer and poet; author of acclaimed novels and screenplays.
BELEN GALAIN
Playwright, director, and two-time winner of Mujeres Creando.
REBECA ALEMÁN
Actress, writer, journalist, and pianist; founder of Water People Theater.
These prestigious women dedicated to the arts are the jury for the third edition of Mujeres Creando!
A panel of women committed to defending human rights, with a deep and critical perspective on the submitted works. Thanks to them, Mujeres Creando continues to be a space where writing becomes a tool for change.
CANCIÓN DE COBRE Y ARENA
Raquel Calonge – Spain
En un desierto en el año 2025, dos hermanos, una niña de doce años y un niño de nueve, caminan huyendo de la sequía que ha borrado su aldea. En su travesía se cruzan con la violencia, el abuso, el engaño y la pérdida, pero también con la esperanza y la amistad.
CHAMAMÉ
Celeste Veleda – Argentina
Clara, una mujer mayor, transita las horas de una siesta interminable en su casa del litoral. Entre el zumbido del ventilador, los mosquitos, las batatas en el horno y el chamamé que va y viene del dial, conversa con una figura fuera de campo, Laura, que la acompaña en el silencio, en la memoria, en el cuerpo que se cansa.
HOY NO VIENE NADIE
Diana Chery-Ramírez – Colombia
Presenta a los sobrevivientes de un pueblo imaginario que lo ha perdido todo tras un ataque de violencia. En un acto desesperado no solo por sobrevivir, sino por honrar a sus muertos y mantener su legado, los habitantes de este pueblo en vía de extinción se aferran a la cotidianidad, al amor por sus oficios, por sus tradiciones y por la vida.
