Los Nutcrackers: A Christmas Carajo

BAAD! The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance proudly presents Los Nutcrackers: A Christmas Carajo, written by BAAD! Co-Founder and Executive Director Charles Rice-González, and directed by Gama Valle. This year marks the play’s 22nd year at BAAD!, and the first time that Valle helms the work. The play interweaves two holiday classics, The Nutcracker and A Christmas Carol to create a queer, Latinx play about a couple who go on a psychedelic trip through their lives one Christmas Eve.

The play features an exciting and talented cast of Latinx actors featuring: Joyah Dominique, Vasilios León, Juan Cálix, SkittLeZ Ortiz, and Jesse Vega.

Charles Rice-González has written several plays including Pink Jesus, The Artist and I Just Love Andy Gibb published in Blacktino Queer Performance: A Critical Anthology (Duke Press) and produced at Pregones Theater. His lauded debut novel, Chulito, is about a 16-year-old, Latino tough boy coming out in the South Bronx, and he co-edited the anthology From Macho to Mariposa: New Gay Latino Fiction. He has published over two dozen works and has won several awards including the 2014 Emerging Writers Award from the Lambda Literary Foundation, the 2022 PEN America Writing as Activism Fellowship, a 2022 MacDowell Fellowship where he was named a James Baldwin fellow and the 2024 etras Boricuas Fellowship. He received an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College.

Puerto Rican writer, casting director and theatre director Gama Valle holds an M.F.A in Directing from The New School (New York City) and a B.A. in Drama from University of Puerto Rico (Río Piedras). Gama is a proud member of New Light Theater Project and the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. To learn more about Gama, please visit gamavalle.com or find him on all social media platforms as @gamavalle.