Skull Rack
a work-in-progress readingIn this pseudo-historical dark comedy set in 1459, Tez is captured by the Mexica (more commonly known as the Aztecs) and forced to impersonate a Nahua god for a year.
Written by Jaymes Sanchez '13
Directed by Cristina Angeles
Unbeknownst to him, Tez is participating in a yearly ritual that will result in his brutal sacrifice, a religious ritual that the king uses to inspire the people toward conquest. Tez tries to convince himself that he actually is a god, if only to reduce his debilitating fear of death. As Tez and his babysitter, the king's niece, develop a bond, they plot their escape from the empire.
A conversation with the artists follows the performance.
Jaymes Sanchez '13 is a Texan playwright, actor and educator living in Brooklyn. Jaymes' work has been supported by Latinx Playwrights Circle, Broadway Podcast Network/Rattlestick Theater, The Orchard Project, The Lark, The Ucross Foundation, SPACE on Ryder Farm and The Barn at Lee. He was an Inaugural Latinx Playwrights Circle Summer Fellow in 2023; The Summer Fellows then formed a collective called DIEZ, which received an Artist Grant from The National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC) in 2024. Jaymes received the 2020 Keene Prize for Literature and the second place prize of Playing on Air's 2020 James Stevenson Award. He has been a finalist for the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, Ojai Playwrights Conference, and the Latinx Theatre Commons Carnaval. BA: Dartmouth College; MFA: The Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin.
Cristina Angeles is an Afrolatina director, writer and theater maker who develops new plays, musicals and socially conscious adaptations of classics that place women of color at the forefront. Today, Cristina is the Associate Resident Director at Roundabout Theatre Company and the Founding Artistic Director of Checkmark Productions, an NYC based company dedicated to developing new work by artists of the global majority. Her recent directing credits include Hilary Bettis's Queen of Basel at Theaterworks Hartford and overseeing the North American productions of Six: The Musical. Up next, Cristina will be directing Marie and Rosetta at Indiana Repertory Theatre. More at https://www.cristinaangeles.com/
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