Takeo Rivera

A native of the San Francisco Bay Area currently residing in Boston, Dr. Takeo Rivera is a playwright and assistant professor in English and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Boston University. Rivera’s creative work focuses largely on race, gender, and sexuality, experimenting with poetry, comedy, and emotional viscera to unsettle our assumptions of both the spectacular and the mundane. His first major play, Goliath, was held for national consideration by the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, won Outstanding New Play at the Planet Connections Theater Festivity in New York City, and toured the east coast and the San Francisco Bay Area, produced by Poetic Theater Productions. As a member of the San Francisco PlayGround writer’s pool, Rivera wrote the comedy short...

A native of the San Francisco Bay Area currently residing in Boston, Dr. Takeo Rivera is a playwright and assistant professor in English and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Boston University. Rivera’s creative work focuses largely on race, gender, and sexuality, experimenting with poetry, comedy, and emotional viscera to unsettle our assumptions of both the spectacular and the mundane. His first major play, Goliath, was held for national consideration by the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, won Outstanding New Play at the Planet Connections Theater Festivity in New York City, and toured the east coast and the San Francisco Bay Area, produced by Poetic Theater Productions. As a member of the San Francisco PlayGround writer’s pool, Rivera wrote the comedy short Feminist Valhalla, which was staged at the Berkeley Repertory Theater and won the PlayGround People’s Choice Award for March 2015. Rivera also co-founded the New Play Reading Series at UC Berkeley, a program that develops 6-8 plays-in-progress written by early- to mid-career playwrights each year. Other works that have been read or staged include R&L, Prometheus Nguyen, Die Soon, and The Will to Knowledge. As a professor, Rivera teaches courses in drama, Asian American literature, queer theory, and new media, and is currently revising his book manuscript, entitled Model Minority Masochism. Rivera was also a member of the 2018 PlayLab Unit at CompanyONE Theatre in Boston.

Scripts

Goliath: A Choreopoem

by Takeo Rivera

Synopsis

Loosely inspired by real events during the Iraq War, Goliath is a 45-minute gust of visceral poetry centered around an American soldier named David. David, a "candle who could drown in too much air," commits a grave war crime, and through a series of slam poetry-inflected monologues from his loved ones, Goliath asks "how do we recognize our own faces in the mirror /when we have long since fled ourselves?"...

Loosely inspired by real events during the Iraq War, Goliath is a 45-minute gust of visceral poetry centered around an American soldier named David. David, a "candle who could drown in too much air," commits a grave war crime, and through a series of slam poetry-inflected monologues from his loved ones, Goliath asks "how do we recognize our own faces in the mirror /when we have long since fled ourselves?" Goliath is a brutal critique of American masculinity and imperialism, as well as a sorrowful cry for the victims of war both from the U.S. and abroad.

Feminist Valhalla

by Takeo Rivera

Synopsis

Feminist heroes of lore: Audre Lorde, Hatshepsut, Gabriela Silang, Frida Kahlo, and Joan of Arc, are enjoying their time watching Top Chef in the afterlife until an interloper arrives and threatens to bring their post-life feminist utopia crashing down!

Feminist heroes of lore: Audre Lorde, Hatshepsut, Gabriela Silang, Frida Kahlo, and Joan of Arc, are enjoying their time watching Top Chef in the afterlife until an interloper arrives and threatens to bring their post-life feminist utopia crashing down!

TAMALES

by Takeo Rivera

Synopsis

A romantic tragicomedy about tech gentrification and delicious steaming wrapped masa. When a San Francisco tech worker falls in love with a tamal salesman, she gets more than she's bargained for.

A romantic tragicomedy about tech gentrification and delicious steaming wrapped masa. When a San Francisco tech worker falls in love with a tamal salesman, she gets more than she's bargained for.

Die Soon

by Takeo Rivera

Synopsis

Three old friends from the suburbs have one night of pool, and not all is as it seems.

Three old friends from the suburbs have one night of pool, and not all is as it seems.

Prometheus Nguyen

by Takeo Rivera

Synopsis

Her brother was murdered by police. Now, she's trying to live an ethical life. Prometheus Nguyen is an exploration of one woman's journey to combat injustice, and who to become in doing so.

Her brother was murdered by police. Now, she's trying to live an ethical life. Prometheus Nguyen is an exploration of one woman's journey to combat injustice, and who to become in doing so.