In collaboration with The Sol Project
Don't Eat The Mangos by Ricardo Pérez González, Directed by David Mendizábal
Tuesday, October 17, 6:30 PM @ The Cherry Lane Theater

DON'T EAT THE MANGOS tells the story of three sisters living outside of San Juan, Puerto Rico. The sisters are faced with the daunting task of caring for their cancer-stricken Mami and their wheelchair-bound Papi. Despite being paralyzed, Papi still rules his family through fear, intimidation, and the ringing of a small bell. Family secrets surface, relationships are tested, and the sisters are forced to contend with a legacy of trauma.

Ricardo Pérez González, a loud-mouthed maricón with bacalao on his breath and salsa on his hips, splits his writing time between his stoop garden in NYC and his window garden in LA. His first play, the story of the WWI Christmas Truce In Fields Where They Lay (dir. Brad Raimondo) was hailed by the NY Times as “gripping” and “moving drama.” Following that debut, the Sundance Institute selected Ricardo for their Inaugural Writer’s Intensive and his Alan Turing Biopic, The Tender Peel, won him an Alfred P. Sloan Grant. He is also an alumnus of the Emerging Writer's Group at the Public Theater and a winner of the MetLife Nuestras Voces national playwrighting award.

On the Grounds of Belonging, his play about racially segregated gay bars in 1950s Houston, Texas, recently debuted at the Public Theater as part of Public Studio. It's the first in a trilogy that follows a pair of lovers, one black and one white, from the 1950s to the present day, charting the course of Queer Love and racial progress through the decades. Among other things, Ricardo is a sucker for a romance.

He was recently commissioned to co-write the script for the feature film The Rest of Us, produced by Mary Stuart Masterson and directed by Linda G. Mills. The Rest of Us tells the story of a campus suicide contagion and the students and faculty who struggle to face it. Dark and surprisingly funny, The Rest of Us takes the topic head on, balancing mental health issues with an uncompromising look at the impact of suicide. Additional writing credits include the drag ball musical Neon Baby (book writer/co-lyricist, Pregones 2013), Ashé, his Puerto Rican style two brothers myth (UP Theater, 2013; Repertorio, 2016; Labyrinth, 2017), his transgender family drama La casa de Ocaso (Asunción Playwriting Competition, 2010), his BDSM drama R.A.C.K., and his short film Losses and Gains about gay male body image. Additional screenplays include an adaptation of the original dystopian novel, the one that started it all, We by Zegeny Zamyatin, and a dark comedy about an ailing mother seeking redemption, I Believe in Angels. His pilots include Not-For- Profit (the story of an assimilated Latina lawyer working in immigration rights who discovers she’s not Latina enough), Link (a modern day Legend of Zelda pilot), and Aslyum (a pilot about mental institutions at the turn of the last century). Works in progress include his comedic play about cultural scapegoating, Name & Blame, Inc., and his play about the cutthroat world of women in academia, The Judgment of Athena.

David Mendizábal is one of the Producing Artistic Leaders of The Movement Theatre Company and the Artistic Associate at Atlantic Theater Company. Directing credits include: And She Would Stand Like This (The Movement), On the Grounds of Belonging (The Public); Tell Hector I Miss Him (Atlantic); Evensong (APAC); Locusts Have No King (INTAR); Look Upon Our Lowliness and Bintou (The Movement). David is a participant in the Leadership U: One-on-One program, funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and administered by Theatre Communications Group. He is a Founding Member and Artistic Producer of The Sol Project and member of the Latinx Theatre Commons. Alumnus of The Drama League Director's Project, Lincoln Center Theater Director's Lab and NALAC Leadership Institute. He is a member of the 2017 artEquity Facilitator Training Program. www.davidmendizabal.com