←Recommendations of MAMI'S HOUSE

A family’s legacy is rooted in place and this beautifully written play honors a woman who sacrificed much for those she raised. The impending natural disaster is no match for the love that permeates this house and the memories of simple pleasures like playing dominoes and having a good meal. There is sadness and pain there, too, but Mami, while physically absent, is a sheltering, healing presence. Profoundly moving.

The heart wrenching struggle to leave behind one's most cherished memories in pursuit of survival is captured here brilliantly. Well done.

The heartbreak of leaving behind what you know, to say goodbye to the things that hold the most value to you and to go into the unknown sit at the heart of this piece that is less drama and more grief examined for the always wounded and always maligned Puerto Rico. Nelson Diaz-Marcano creates a laugh and a quiet reminder of the coming end of anything we held yesterday and leaving us with only the future. A bright one? ¿Quién sabe? But a future, nonetheless. A beautiful play. My only gripe: Chayanne is totally a superstar, not local!

A touching play about family and honoring one’s home and those memories of it. It pulls at the heart with its characters and action. It would make a great addition to any short play festival.

Haunting and engaging short play. It makes you question what home is, and how or if we can get by without the physical house that last held our loved ones.

Nelson DM's 'Mami's House" is a perfect prologue, a perfect first play to a cycle of plays on Puerto Rico - an introduction to American audiences and literary managers to one of the most confident young playwrights on New Play Exchange (that's what I think) - a Latinx playwright exploring Boricua and American identity who needs your serious attention now - c'mon! - read, share, produce his work - check it out Caridad Svich - it's necessary, experimental, diverse, evocative, political, intense, intimate.

Diaz-Marcano's dialogue dances, but what pierces my heart is that all of his characters that I've read, I know them. My grandmother was on the island during Maria, and we did everything to get her safe, my cousin went to Florida with her family during Irma; not everyone has these luxuries, let alone love, in their life, especially in anticipation of a natural disaster. Many people have to stay because it's their only option. When you learn why Chayanne stays - it's not entirely the house - you'll understand why "jokes" about Puerto Rico already missing lights are a disgrace.