A new play by Dominican American playwright Erlina Ortiz
Winner of the 2022 National Latine Playwrights Award.
La Egoísta thrillingly combines stand-up and theater to explore the bonds between sisters, the cost of healthcare, and the hilariously fine line between selfish and selfless.
Summary
In La Egoísta, we meet Josefina, a stand-up comic on the rise who takes nothing seriously. Her younger sister, Betsaida takes everything seriously, including her faith. When a sudden diagnosis upends Betsaida’s life, they’re thrown together to rediscover all the affection, friction, and humor that still fuels their relationship.
Creative Team
Erlina Ortiz, she/her/ella (Playwright) is a Dominican American playwright and theatre maker from Reading, PA. Her heartfelt and humorous plays have been presented across the US and with Power Street Theatre where she is proud to be Resident Playwright and Co-Artistic Director. In 2018, her play Las Mujeres received The Bonaly Award for Creation of Community Joy and in 2019 Morir Soñando was nominated for six Barrymore Awards including Outstanding New Play. In Fall 2021, Young Money premiered at Azuka Theatre and went on to receive the ATCA/Steinberg New Play Award Citation.
In 2022. her play La Egoista was selected for the LTC Comedy Carnaval in Denver going on to win the 2022 National Latine Playwriting Award and premiering at Actors Theatre of Louisville and Skylight Theatre.
Erlina has embarked on the Amtrak Writer’s residency where she traveled across the US in an Amtrak sleeper car, the Signal Fire Residency Outpost Residency where she lived on the side of a mountain for a week, and in 2019, she gave the Keynote Address at the Delaware Writer’s Conference on the importance of nurturing your artistic community. Erlina was a member of NEXUS with New York Stage and Film and is a two-time recipient of the Leeway Art and Change Grant and the 2021 Leeway Transformation Award. In 2023, she was named as a Dramatist Guild Catalyst Fellow.
Erlina has taught playwriting with the University of the Arts, Power Street Theatre, and Blue Stoop. She currently serves as secretary of the board for Theatre Philadelphia. Her new musical, Siluetas, was developed for the O’Neill National Musical Theatre Conference and will be premiering with Power Street Theatre in 2024. Erlina believes being an artist is a superpower, she believes in using her powers for good.
Tatyana-Marie Carlo she/her/ella (Director). Named a “Broadway 2023 Industry Woman to Watch” by Broadway Women’s Fund, Carlo is a Latiné director from Miami. Her work is focused on joyful bilingual theater making, crafting experiences in spaces brimming with the full human emotional experience that resonate with both collaborators and audiences alike, including Off-Broadway production of Vámonos at Intar Theatre. She is currently the Resident Director of Trinity Repertory Company.
Tatyana has collaborated with many theaters across the United States, including Hartford Stage, Dallas Theater Center, Everyman Theatre, Children’s Theater Company, Intar Theatre. Past fellowships include: 2019 Matt Harris Directing Fellow at Williamstown Theater Festival, 2021 Drama League Public Works Fellow. Tatyana is an alumni of Brown University’s Directing MFA program (where she now teaches directing) and the New World School of the Arts’ Acting BFA program. SDC. Instagram: tatyanamariec
Development History
The world premiere of La Egoista was produced by Actors Theatre of Louisville, Executive Artistic Director Robert Barry Fleming.
The play was commissioned and developed by Live & In Color and received a reading at the 2022 Latinx Theatre Commons (LTC) Comedy Carnaval.
La Egoista was workshopped January 29-February 9, 2024 at the Manhattan Theatre Club Studios in New York, and featured Linedy Genao (Broadway: Bad Cinderella, On Your Feet!) and Sasha Merci (Film: Righteous Thieves) and was directed by Tatyana-Marie Carlo (Vámonos).
February 2024 Workshop Cast
Linedy Genao (Betsaida) is a fast-rising superstar on Broadway. With high school musical theater experience and a Business degree from UConn, she bet on herself and auditioned for the first open call for Gloria & Emilio Estefan’s On Your Feet! After receiving her first Broadway bound show offer for OYF, she went on to play the Alana/Zoe understudy role in Dear Evan Hansen prior to its closing on Broadway, as well joining the 1st National Tour in the same roles.
Most recently, Linedy starred in the titular role of Cinderella in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Bad Cinderella and was named to Variety’s 10 Broadway Actors to Watch List. Full theater credits include Broadway: On Your Feet! (OBC), Dear Evan Hansen, Bad Cinderella (OBC); Tours: Dear Evan Hansen; Regional: Passing Through, West Side Story, Havana Music Hall, A Taste of Things to Come, In the Heights. Instagram: @linedygenao
Sasha Merci (Josefina) is a first-generation Dominican American actor, comedian, and viral digital creator. She most recently starred in the heist comedy feature, Righteous Thieves (Lionsgate) opposite Lisa Vidal and Cam Gigandet. In 2020, she co-hosted her own comedy talk show, “Like, Share, Dímelo” (FUSE), a series exploring pop culture, politics, dating, and everything Latinx. Prior to that, Sasha starred in the critically lauded feature film, De Lo Mío (HBO) and in the popular web series, “Group Therapy” (Complex).
She was recently honored as one of Freeform TV’s #YoungBlackAndFreeform recipients alongside entertainers including Coco Jones, Ziwe Fumudoh and Ian Lara, and been featured in Refinery 29, Pop Sugar and the LA Times among other publications. Sasha is currently host of 3G’s, a weekly podcast from mitú Studios co-hosted by comedians Erik Rivera and Jesus Sepulveda.
She is originally from the Bronx, New York and is currently living in Los Angeles. Sasha created El Teteo, a massively popular Dominican-themed party in Downtown L.A. bringing east coast Caribbean culture to the west and cultivating a community of Latinx comics and creatives.
Producers
Dale A. Mott (Producer) is a leading producer of critically acclaimed and award-winning productions including the Tony Award-nominated musical New York, New York, the Tony Award-nominated revival of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, and the Tony Award-winning musical A Strange Loop. Other seminal Broadway productions include Thoughts Of A Colored Man and The Lifespan Of A Fact. Mott is also a three-time Telly Award recipient, winning the Best Social Impact Video Bronze Prize for “I Have A Right To Vote,” which garnered over 1.2 million views during the 2020 national election cycle; Best Online Non-Scripted Series Bronze Prize for the #ByGrace Live Chat Series hosted by celebrity chef Carla Hall and producer/composer Nolan Williams, Jr. and featuring guests Broadway legend Brian Stokes Mitchell, James Beard Lifetime Achievement Award winner Dr. Jessica B. Harris, and others; and Best Food & Beverage Online Series Bronze Prize for the #ByGrace Live Chat Series.
Prior to producing, Dale enjoyed a thirty-year non-profit fundraising career serving in leadership roles with the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, CARE, The Phillips Collection, Arena Stage, Halcyon, Penumbra Theatre Company, and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. Mott serves on the board of directors for the Ogden Museum of Southern Art and is an associate member of The Broadway League.
He is also a preliminary judge for the National High School Musical Theatre Awards, more commonly known as the Jimmy Awards, given annually to recognize musical theatre performances by high school students in the United States. Mott and his husband, Ken Hyle, split their time between New Orleans and New York.
Charles D. Urstadt is focused on bringing new voices to commercial audiences. As producer/managing director of Edgewood Entertainment, he is part of a Tony Award®-winning winning team that is unwavering in its commitment to supporting and sharing artists’ stories that are beautiful, authentic, relatable, and deeply affecting.
In addition to his work with Edgewood, Charlie is also chairman and president of Urstadt Property Company, Inc., a privately held commercial real estate investment corporation. Past real estate experience includes serving as chairman of the board of directors of Urstadt Biddle Properties, Inc, a real estate investment trust traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The company, based in Greenwich, CT, owned 77 properties containing approximately 5.3 million square feet. The company merged with Regency Centers in August 2023. Other past real estate positions include serving as executive vice president of Brown Harris Stevens Inc. and senior vice president of Pearce, Urstadt, Mayer & Greer, Inc.
As a resident of New York, Charlie was a board member of the Ensemble Studio Theater, the Friends of WNET/Thirteen, and the New York State Board of Historic Preservation.
In New Orleans, Charlie is president of the Preservation Resource Center where he has been a director for the last five years. He is also a trustee of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, where he served a four-year term as chairman. In honor of his service, the museum named him chairman emeritus and created the Charles D. Urstadt Acquisition Fund.
Charlie resides in New Orleans with his husband David Bernard and their Boston Terrier Dolly.
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