email : Webview : "Pages from a Love Manifesto" opens Friday, April 29

DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE ARTS PRESENTS
A PRAXIS SERIES PRODUCTION

PAGES FROM A LOVE MANIFESTO
Devised and Directed by Nico Torrez '22

ONE WEEKEND ONLY!

Friday, April 29 at 8 p.m. in McKenna Theatre
Saturday, April 30 at 8 p.m. in McKenna Theatre
Sunday, May 1 at 2 p.m. in McKenna Theatre

Digital Program

*Event is pay-what-you-can. Tickets only available online.
No in-person ticket sales or Will Call.
Review our in-person audience guidance.

A Chat with Nico Torrez '22

What do you hope audiences will take away from this production?
In perhaps a silly way, my only hope for this piece is that it is the kind of show that you can’t wait to start talking about on the car ride home. I have done my best to intentionally structure something to spark conversation, because at the root of all of this work is just that: a conversation. Or, an exploration. So much of my year working on Pages has been about the conversations we as artists have been able to foster: about love, about heartbreak, about relationships and community. It truly has and continues to shape and mold my perspective on the world and how we relate to one another. I would love to see audiences walk away with more questions about themselves, and to continue the pursuit of that introspection beyond the theater.

How did you bring Pages to life?
I knew devising was always something I wanted to try, but I hadn’t really found the starting concept/text/thoughts that I was passionate enough about to explore...until I began revisiting bell hooks’ All About Love over the course of the first pandemic lockdown in 2020. I found that her writings on building communities on love ethics felt both more pertinent and comforting amid the isolation of Covid than ever before; as a reader, I was forced to reexamine my positionality in this world, to include my relationships with others and with love. It really changed me as a person, and I wanted to find a way to bring that to my peers, and thus Pages was born.

Photo by Ashley Morrison

What excites you most about this play?
I am more nervous and excited now than I think I’ve ever been for a show before. Bottom line: I am obviously so elated to be back in the theatre and have the space to create again after such a tumultuous two years. My first directed production at New Paltz was canceled a week before opening due to Covid, so in a lot of ways, this piece is somehow a comeback, a debut, and the accumulation of the things I’ve learned in the last two years.

Between our original devising company, to our current cast, to all of our management and production crews, to our designers, and so many more, Pages would never have become more than a blip of a thought in my mind if it weren’t for the numerous people willing to take a chance on me—and that is something I will certainly always carry with me. I’m excited for audiences to see what the students at New Paltz have to provide, because they have really created something stunning despite the obstacles and challenges.

Photo by Ashley Morrison

Director
Nico Torrez '22

About the Director

Nico Torrez (they/them) is a graduating Theatre Arts senior, with a concentration in Theatre Studies and a minor in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Their interest lies in social justice centered work, as a director and dramaturg, exploring the systemic oppressions around us, how they’ve shaped our conscious histories, and questioning what it means to be human.

Recent credits include Grounded, Tell Them Tomorrow (director), The Wolves, Cadillac Crew (assistant director), and The Killing Fields (Dramaturg). They’ve been featured in The American Theatre Wing’s docu-series Working in the Theatre and have had the opportunity to work at SUNY New Paltz as a theatre studies intern, thanks to the Hitz Foundation. Pages From a Love Manifesto, their senior thesis project, is their first devising/playwriting credit.

Learn more about Nico at their website.

School of Fine & Performing Arts at SUNY New Paltz