Waiting for Godínez
"Why do they take you, my friend, and put you in a cage, hoping to deport you?"
Written by Daniel A. Olivas
Staged Reading Presentation:
Friday, June 9, 2023 – 8:00 PM
Language: English
Directed by Andrea Goldman
Featuring Gredivel Vasquez, Jesus E. Martinez, Ilker öztop, Amy Liou, and Svitlana Onopa
Puppetry Development & Design by Amy Liou
Location:
IATI Theater Studio
64 E. 4th St 2 Fl
New York, NY, 10003
Hashtag: #Cimientos2023
Tickets
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Synopsis
Waiting for Godínez mirrors Beckett’s iconic Godot play but with distinct differences. In Act I, we encounter Isabel and Jesús waiting in a city park for a man named Godínez. We learn that each night, immigration officials kidnap Jesús and throw him in a cage with the intent of deporting him. Each time, Jesús escapes and returns to Isabel and wait for Godínez. While they wait, two other people enter: Piso (an older literary agent) is pulled in a dilapidated cart by his client, a young poet named Afortunada. Piso mistreats the poet and informs Isabel and Jesús that he intends to trade Afortunada in for a novelist who will make more money. Piso and Afortunada eventually leave. A child enters with a message from Godínez. As with the Godot play, in Act II, the “action” repeats but with disturbing variances.
About the Playwright
Daniel A. Olivas is a playwright, fiction writer, poet, book critic, and attorney. His first full-length play, Waiting for Godínez, was selected for the Playwrights’ Arena Summer Reading Series (2020), The Road Theatre’s Twelfth Annual Playwrights Festival (2021), and the Garry Marshall Theatre’s New Works Festival (2022). He was selected for Circle X Theatre Company’s inaugural Emerging Playwrights Group to adapt his acclaimed 2011 novel, The Book of Want (University of Arizona Press), for a streamed reading in 2021. His play, Waiting, received a world premiere in 2021 in a Playwrights’ Arena production. Olivas is the author of ten books of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry including, How to Date a Flying Mexican: New and Collected Stories (University of Nevada Press), and Crossing the Border: Collected Poems (Pact Press). Olivas received his degree in English literature from Stanford University, and law degree from UCLA.
