Welcome to Arroyo's

By Kristoffer Diaz
Directed by Jaime Castañeda
September 25, 2010 - October 31, 2010 / Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre
November 6 - 7, 2010 / Lincoln High School Center for the Arts

2010 Pulitzer Prize-finalist Kristoffer Diaz’s Welcome to Arroyo’s is a heartwarming story about a brother and sister finding their respective places in the world after the death of their mother. Alejandro is desperate to make Arroyo’s the hottest lounge in New York to honor the memory of his mother, while Molly’s desire to make her mark as a talented graffiti artist is at odds with her new infatuation with a rookie cop. Their struggle to move forward is made even more uncertain as they discover what might be a secret about their mother that could change the very foundation of their lives and, possibly, the history of hip hop music. Contains Strong Language.
 


Production Photos
GQ as Nelson Cardenal and Wade Allain-Marcus as Trip Goldstein in the West Coast Premiere of Welcome to Arroyo's by Kristoffer Diaz, at The Old Globe Sept. 25 - Oct. 31, 2010. Photo by Henry DiRocco.
GQ as Nelson Cardenal and Wade Allain-Marcus as Trip Goldstein in the West Coast Premiere of Welcome to Arroyo's by Kristoffer Diaz, at The Old Globe Sept. 25 - Oct. 31, 2010. Photo by Henry DiRocco.
(l. to r.) Amirah Vann as Amalia Arroyo and Andres Munar as Alejandro Arroyo in the West Coast Premiere of Welcome to Arroyo's by Kristoffer Diaz, at The Old Globe Sept. 25 - Oct. 31, 2010. Photo by Henry DiRocco.
GQ as Nelson Cardenal and Wade Allain-Marcus as Trip Goldstein in the West Coast Premiere of Welcome to Arroyo's by Kristoffer Diaz, at The Old Globe Sept. 25 - Oct. 31, 2010. Photo by Henry DiRocco.
(l. to r.) Byron Bronson as Officer Derek and Amirah Vann as Amalia Arroyo in the West Coast Premiere of Welcome to Arroyo's by Kristoffer Diaz, at The Old Globe Sept. 25 - Oct. 31, 2010. Photo by Henry DiRocco.
(l. to r.) Byron Bronson as Officer Derek, GQ as Nelson Cardenal, Wade Allain-Marcus as Trip Goldstein, Andres Munar as Alejandro Arroyo, Tala Ashe as Lelly Santiago and Amirah Vann as Amalia Arroyo, in the West Coast Premiere of Welcome to Arroyo's by Kristoffer Diaz, at The Old Globe Sept. 25 - Oct. 31, 2010. Photo by Henry DiRocco.
(l. to r.) Amirah Vann as Reina Rey and Andres Munar as Alejandro Arroyo in the West Coast Premiere of Welcome to Arroyo's by Kristoffer Diaz, at The Old Globe Sept. 25 - Oct. 31, 2010. Photo by Henry DiRocco.
(l. to r.) Amirah Vann as Amalia Arroyo, GQ as Nelson Cardenal and Wade Allain-Marcus as Trip Goldstein in the West Coast Premiere of Welcome to Arroyo's by Kristoffer Diaz, at The Old Globe Sept. 25 - Oct. 31, 2010. Photo by Henry DiRocco.
(l. to r.) Tala Ashe as Lelly Santiago and Andres Munar as Alejandro Arroyo in the West Coast Premiere of Welcome to Arroyo's by Kristoffer Diaz, at The Old Globe Sept. 25 - Oct. 31, 2010. Photo by Henry DiRocco.


Publicity Photos
The cast of the West Coast Premiere production of Kristoffer Diaz's Welcome to Arroyo's: (clockwise from left) Byron Bronson, Amirah Vann, GQ, Tala Ashe, Andres Munar and Wade Allain-Marcus. At The Old Globe Sept. 25 - Oct. 31, 2010. Photo courtesy of The Old Globe.
The cast of the West Coast Premiere production of Kristoffer Diaz's Welcome to Arroyo's: (l. to r.) Tala Ashe, Byron Bronson, Amirah Vann, Andres Munar, Wade Allain-Marcus and (kneeling in front) GQ. At The Old Globe Sept. 25 - Oct. 31, 2010. Photo courtesy of The Old Globe.
  
(l. to r.) Wade Allain-Marcus and GQ with music director Shammy Dee in rehearsal for the West Coast Premiere of Kristoffer Diaz's Welcome to Arroyo's, at The Old Globe Sept. 25 - Oct. 31, 2010. Photo courtesy of The Old Globe.
(l. to r.) The Welcome to Arroyo's creative team: music director Shammy Dee, playwright Krisoffer Diaz and director Jaime Castañeda. At The Old Globe Sept. 25 - Oct. 31, 2010. Photo courtesy of The Old Globe.
Playwright Kristoffer Diaz. The West Coast Premiere of Diaz's Welcome to Arroyo's runs Sept. 25 - Oct. 31, 2010 in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre. Photo by Emili Panian.
 
   
Jaime Castañeda will direct the West Coast Premiere of Kristoffer Diaz's Welcome to Arroyo's runs Sept. 25 - Oct. 31, 2010 in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre. Photo courtesy of The Old Globe.
 


Cast and Creative Team

(click on image to download a high-resolution photo)
Wade Allain-Marcus (Trip Goldstein) was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, where he attended Harvard-Westlake School before heading to New York University’s Tisch School of Drama. Upon receiving an early BFA, he immediately landed roles in Friends With Money and Waist Deep. In 2006, he debuted with Lin Manuel-Miranda’s Freestyle Love Supreme at the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal and still performs regularly with them. He guest starred on “Gossip Girl” and “Burn Notice,” and costarred in the MTV musical The American Mall. Also, he showcased his abilities as a singer/guitarist in the Off Broadway musical Post No Bills at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, where he originated the role of Eddie Harper. Most recently, Mr. Allain-Marcus participated in the Sundance Theater Lab at Governor’s Island, in the New York International Fringe Festival hit When Last We Flew (best play, best performance) and costars alongside Ethan Hawke in Antoine Fuqua’s Brooklyn’s Finest. Look for him in Kids In America with Topher Grace and Anna Faris set to hit theatres in March 2011.
Tala Ashe (Lelly Santiago) is making her Old Globe debut in Welcome to Arroyo’s. Her regional and New York credits include Urge for Going (Ojai Playwright’s Conference and Public Theater’s New Works Now), Aftermath (Guggenheim Works and Progress with New York Theatre Workshop), Again and Against (Labyrinth Theatre Intensive), Autophagy (Drama League) and Love’s Labour’s Lost (Huntington Theatre Company). Her television and film credits include “Covert Affairs,” “30 Rock,” “Law & Order,” “As the World Turns,” “All My Children,” Circumstances (Sundance Institute Film Lab) and Waiting in Beijing. She is a proud member of the Barefoot Theatre Company. Ms. Ashe received her BFA in Acting from Boston University’s School of Theatre and also trained in London at LAMDA.
Byron Bronson (Officer Derek) graduated from Rutgers University in 2008 where he received a BFA in Acting. At Rutgers, he was in such plays as Romeo and Juliet, A Winter’s Tale, Stop Kiss and Exonerated. He was recently a part of the Pulitzer Prize winning production of Ruined. His television credits include “All My Children.” He is proud to be making his theatrical west coast debut.
Andres Munar (Alejandro Arroyo) recently completed a Fox Foundation/TCG Fellowship at Cornerstone Theater Company with his performance in Naomi Iizuka’s Three Truths. He is a longtime collaborator of Michael John Garces both at Cornerstone Theatre Company (Los Illegals) as well as at INTAR Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, HERE Arts Center, The Shalimar, The 24 Hour Plays and Mile Square Theater. Also at INTAR Theatre, Eduardo Machado’s Kissing Fidel and Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas’ Tight Embrace. Other credits include American Jornalero by Ed Cardona (Working Theater), Rock, Paper, Scissors by Ben Snyder (Hip Hop Theater Festival), Decomposition by Alfonso Carcamo (Lark Play Development Center), translated by Mariana Carreno, Rajiv Joseph´s Huck and Holden (Cherry Lane Theatre), Kingdom (New York Music Theatre Festival), The Dispute (The National Asian-American Theatre Company) and Life is a Dream (Edge Theatre Company). Mr. Munar is a recipient of the Bowden Award from New Dramatists and will be seen next year in Woolly Mammoth’s production of Oedipus Rey, written by Luis Alfaro. He has guest starred on a couple of TV shows and made his feature film debut in Steven Soderbergh’s Che. His second feature, Entre Nos, was presented at the Tribeca Film Festival.
GQ (Nelson Cardenal) co-created, co-directed and starred in the award-winning, internationally-acclaimed, Funk it Up About Nothin’--a musical, hip-hop “ad-RAP-tation” of Shakespeare’s classic, Much Ado About Nothing. The Off Broadway smash hit The Bomb-itty of Errors, which GQ co-created and starred in, has since toured around the world. Along with his brother and the other Bomb-itty guys, GQ wrote and starred in a hip-hop/sketch comedy TV show “Scratch and Burn” (MTV). GQ’s screen credits include the movies Drumline, Taxi, I Think I Love My Wife and Werner Herzog’s Rescue Dawn. He wrote, directed and starred in the film Just Another Story (Showtime), has had prominent roles in “Boston Public” (Fox), “Numbers” (CBS) and co-starred in the one-hour drama “Johnny Zero” (Fox). He recently guest starred in John Herzfeld’s pilot, “S.I.S” (Sony). Together with his brother JQ, he recorded The Feel Good Album of the Year. GQ is a member of the comic rap group known as The Retar Crew. Originally from Chicago, he received his BFA from the Experimental Theatre Wing of Tisch School of the Arts at NYU.
Amirah Vann (Amalia Arroyo) Theatre: The Arden Project (Old Vic New Voices), Follow Me To Nellie’s (Eugene O’Neill Theater Center), Pericles (Continuum Co.-Florence, Italy), Dream a Little Dream based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Continuum Co.-NYC Parks/Florence, Italy), Kingdom (The Old Globe), Kingdom workshop (The Public Theater/QTIP), Blueprint (Theatre Row Studios, Summer Play Festival), The Brother/Sister Plays workshop (McCarter Theatre Center/The Public Theater), Laughing Pictures (Flea Theater), The Making of Eugenie Doe (Ohio Theater). TV/film: the independent film Once More with Feeling, “Guiding Light”. Training: MFA-NYU Graduate Acting Program; BA-Fordham University. Ms. Vann is also a recipient of the Princess Grace award in Acting.
  Kristoffer Diaz (Playwright) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. His full-length plays, including The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity (2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist) and Welcome to Arroyo’s, have been produced and developed at Second Stage, Victory Gardens, InterAct, Mixed Blood, American Theatre Company, Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Atlantic, Teatro Vista, The Orchard Project, the Hip-Hop Theater Festival, The Lark, the Summer Play Festival, the Donmar Warehouse (London), and South Coast Repertory. Mr. Diaz was one of the creators of Brink!, the apprentice anthology show at the 2009 Humana Festival of New American Plays. He is a playwright-in-residence at Teatro Vista, a recipient of the Jerome Fellowship, the Future Aesthetics Artist Regrant and the Van Lier Fellowship (New Dramatists), a co-founder of The Unit Collective, and a member of the Ars Nova Play Group. Mr. Diaz is currently working on commissions for the Center Theatre Group, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and Teatro Vista/The Goodman. As an educator, conference presenter, and dramaturg, Mr. Diaz has worked with the Theatre Communications Group, El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice, the International Thespian Festival, Florida Thespians, Cleveland Play House, No Passport, Austin Scriptworks/Latino Playwright Initiative, Rising Circle Productions, Future Aesthetics Artist Dialogue, the Association for Theatre in Higher Education and the Playwrights Center.  He holds a BA from New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, an MFA from NYU’s Department of Dramatic Writing and an MFA from Brooklyn College’s Performing Arts Management program..
  Jaime Castañeda (Director) directed the world premiere of Welcome to Arroyo's at Chicago’s American Theatre Company.  His credits include Red Light Winter (Perseverance Theatre), Biggest A**hole Ever Born (Intar), Long Way Go Down (Hotink Festival, Harold Clurman Theatre Company), One for the Road (DirectorFest), Crave, Closer, Blue/Orange, Nocturne, Sonnets for an Old Century and Tapas (FireStarter Productions), Miracle Day (45 Bleecker), This is How it Goes (Amphibian Stage Productions), and Lincolnesque, A Very Merry Unauthorized Children’s Scientology Pageant and Art (Circle Theatre).  He has also assistant directed productions at the Atlantic Theater Company, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Center Theatre Group and the recent revival of Speed the Plow on Broadway.  Castañeda is the recipient of a Drama League fall fellowship, Princess Grace Award, and TCG New Generations grant and currently works on the artistic staff of the Atlantic Theater Company in New York City.  He received an MFA in Directing from the University of Texas at Austin.