Mateo Hernandez

Mateo Hernandez (he/they) is a queer, Latinx theatre maker, applied theatre practitioner, pedagogue, and scholar currently residing on the ancestral lands of the Tonkawa, Lipan-Apache, Karankawa, Comanche, and Coahuiltecan peoples, also known as central Texas. Their research interests include queering pedagogies and performance through transgender epistemologies, queer feminist critique, and abolitionist art-making practices. As a playwright, his plays have been chosen for the Ingenio New Play Festival (Milagro Theatre, Teatro Vivo, Cara Mia Theatre), the New Plays for Young Audiences: BIPOC Initiative (NYU Steinhardt), the Austin Latinx New Play Festival (Teatro Vivo), the UTNT Festival, and the Cohen New Works Festival (UT Austin). They have also worked with companies such as...

Mateo Hernandez (he/they) is a queer, Latinx theatre maker, applied theatre practitioner, pedagogue, and scholar currently residing on the ancestral lands of the Tonkawa, Lipan-Apache, Karankawa, Comanche, and Coahuiltecan peoples, also known as central Texas. Their research interests include queering pedagogies and performance through transgender epistemologies, queer feminist critique, and abolitionist art-making practices. As a playwright, his plays have been chosen for the Ingenio New Play Festival (Milagro Theatre, Teatro Vivo, Cara Mia Theatre), the New Plays for Young Audiences: BIPOC Initiative (NYU Steinhardt), the Austin Latinx New Play Festival (Teatro Vivo), the UTNT Festival, and the Cohen New Works Festival (UT Austin). They have also worked with companies such as UrbanTheatre Co., Filament Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, Lifeline Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Chicago Children’s Theatre, Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health, and Creative Action. Mateo is the 2023 recipient of the Don and Elizabeth Doyle Fellowship from the American Alliance for Theatre & Education as well as a 2023 Point Foundation BIPOC Scholar. They have served in service organizations like the Alliance of Latinx Theatre Artists of Chicago (ALTA) and the Latinx Theatre Commons (LTC). Mateo is a company member with For Youth Inquiry (FYI), a performance company in Chicago, IL. They are also a member of the Board of Directors for Teatro Vivo in Austin, TX, and the American Alliance for Theatre & Education. He holds a M.F.A. in Drama & Theatre for Youth & Communities as well as a B.F.A. in Theatre Studies from The University of Texas at Austin.

Scripts

spayce boys

by Mateo Hernandez

Synopsis

spayce boys is a play for young audiences that follows two queer, Latinx, middle school-age boys who are forced to work together on a school project but just cannot seem to figure each other out. One day they find themselves in a mysterious room in their school that rockets them out into outer spayce. Once there, they are again forced to work together to prove to the robot rocket that they are indeed human boys...

spayce boys is a play for young audiences that follows two queer, Latinx, middle school-age boys who are forced to work together on a school project but just cannot seem to figure each other out. One day they find themselves in a mysterious room in their school that rockets them out into outer spayce. Once there, they are again forced to work together to prove to the robot rocket that they are indeed human boys and should be allowed to return to earth. This is a tender play about finding friends, being raised/socialized as a boy on earth, and how being witness to young folks is essential.
Past Development – UTNT: The University of Texas at Austin (2024); New Plays for Young Audiences: New York University Steinhardt (2021); INGENIO: Teatro Vivo, Cara Mia, Milagro (2020).