Iraisa Ann Reilly

Iraisa Ann Reilly

Iraisa Ann Reilly is a Jersey-born, New York-based artist with artistic origins in Philadelphia. She has a passion for telling stories that are bilingual, bicultural, and that actively address social concerns. Her play The Jersey Devil is a Papi Chulo received at staged reading at Sol Project's Sol Fest, 2022. It was on the Yale Drama Series Shortlist (2022), and a recipient of the KCACTF Latinx New Play...
Iraisa Ann Reilly is a Jersey-born, New York-based artist with artistic origins in Philadelphia. She has a passion for telling stories that are bilingual, bicultural, and that actively address social concerns. Her play The Jersey Devil is a Papi Chulo received at staged reading at Sol Project's Sol Fest, 2022. It was on the Yale Drama Series Shortlist (2022), and a recipient of the KCACTF Latinx New Play Prize and Mark Twain Prize for comedic playwriting (2021). Iraisa Ann’s play Good Cuban Girls was developed and produced by Teatro Del Sol (at the Arden Theatre, 2019). Her work has been recognized by The Bay Area Playwright’s Festival, New York Classical Theatre, and Rorschach Theatre, and developed by The New Harmony Project, Theatre Exile, and NYU Production Lab’s Development Studio. Iraisa Ann’s screenplay, La Reina Del Bronx won Best Feature Screenplay at the Fusion Film Festival, 2022. As a performer, she recently appeared in Philadelphia Theatre Company’s production of The Wolves (#14), and wrote, produced and performed her own one-woman show, A Beginner’s Guide to Interpreting Aphasia for the Philadelphia Solow Fest. She is currently under commission with Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi to write a play about the life and work of Mexican-American civil rights activist, Dr. Hector P. Garcia. Iraisa Ann was semifinalist for the Page 73 Fellowship, 2019, and a recipient of the Chair Award from NYU’s Department of Dramatic Writing 2021. MFA in Dramatic Writing, NYU, BA Theatre and English University of Notre Dame. iraisaannreilly.com

Plays

  • Good Cuban Girls
    Marisol is home from college for the summer-with a big secret. How will she break this news to the matriarchs of her family without inducing her grandmother's instantaneous death? Good Cuban Girls is a coming of age story that navigates the first generation American struggle for cultural preservation in the face of exile. This bilingual play is an examination of faith, family and culture through three generations of Good Cuban Girls.
  • The Jersey Devil Is a Papi Chulo
    The Jersey Devil Is A Papi Chulo is a comedic, bilingual, post-quarantine play. Five American-Latina friends embark on a camping trip in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey for the bachelorette party that should have been. There they encounter two white “papi chulos” (‘hotties’) who are doing this camping thing right: with running water. The boys hatch a plan inspired by reality television in order to determine...
    The Jersey Devil Is A Papi Chulo is a comedic, bilingual, post-quarantine play. Five American-Latina friends embark on a camping trip in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey for the bachelorette party that should have been. There they encounter two white “papi chulos” (‘hotties’) who are doing this camping thing right: with running water. The boys hatch a plan inspired by reality television in order to determine which of the femme-fatales they will save from deportation through marriage. But will the boys be able to save the women from The Jersey Devil?


    Yale Drama Series Short List, 2022
    Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Latinx Playwrighting Award
    Second Place Mark Twain Prize for Comedic Playwriting

  • Saturday Mourning Cartoons
    Jessica and Benny have a falling out over whether to put their abuela, Yolanda, in a nursing home. Ultimately, Benny wins the argument, and Yolanda is sent to “el home.” When a pandemic hits and they are no longer able to go inside during visiting hours, the family is forced to confront one another while visiting her at the window. Yolanda will never find herself alone, as she is constantly in the care and...
    Jessica and Benny have a falling out over whether to put their abuela, Yolanda, in a nursing home. Ultimately, Benny wins the argument, and Yolanda is sent to “el home.” When a pandemic hits and they are no longer able to go inside during visiting hours, the family is forced to confront one another while visiting her at the window. Yolanda will never find herself alone, as she is constantly in the care and presence of a special visitor. Saturday Mourning Cartoons is a play about dealing with change when everything changes at once, and mourning alone in a time of collective mourning.
  • Miss American Bellyflop
    Cristina Morales is a blackjack dealer working at a casino on the brink of closing in Atlantic City, when the ghosts of Miss America past offer to turn her into a pageant queen. Little does she know, the queens have their own malevolent agenda. Can Cristina become Miss America without rejecting her community and the people she loves the most?
  • Madame Anastasia's Crystal Ball
    The summer of 2006 was supposed to be the best one yet for best friends Marina and Jenni. Chasing after boys, working at Angelo’s Pizza on the boardwalk, and partying at night. But ten years later, in 2016, Marina returns, harboring a secret and trying to figure out why her life took a wrong turn after that summer. Nothing is the same, with nearby Atlantic City full of bankrupt casinos, and a friendship that is...
    The summer of 2006 was supposed to be the best one yet for best friends Marina and Jenni. Chasing after boys, working at Angelo’s Pizza on the boardwalk, and partying at night. But ten years later, in 2016, Marina returns, harboring a secret and trying to figure out why her life took a wrong turn after that summer. Nothing is the same, with nearby Atlantic City full of bankrupt casinos, and a friendship that is ripping apart at the seams. Why didn’t the psychic medium warn them about all of this ten years ago? And if she had, would they have listened?
    Semifinalist, Bay Area Playwright's Festival 2021.
  • Cloistered
    A nun and a rat meet at Ft. Tryon Park in NYC, and they become friends.
  • Ocean Beach
    It’s been a while since Rose’s mother, Esther could remember much. Her disease has caused her to slip into an unresponsive coma, and Rose sits by her side during what will be the final hours of her life. Knowing that her mother can hear her, she decides to read letters which she found while cleaning out her childhood home. The letters were written by Rose’s father, Joseph, in the month’s leading up to their...
    It’s been a while since Rose’s mother, Esther could remember much. Her disease has caused her to slip into an unresponsive coma, and Rose sits by her side during what will be the final hours of her life. Knowing that her mother can hear her, she decides to read letters which she found while cleaning out her childhood home. The letters were written by Rose’s father, Joseph, in the month’s leading up to their wedding in 1947. As Rose reads the letters, Joseph and Esther appear reliving their love story, and their daughter discovers the life they lived before they were her parents. Two people who were never going to marry until one day when everything changed. A day that Rose never knew about until her parents decided to tell her through the letters.
  • One Day Old
    One day Old tells the true story of Operacion Pedro Pan through the lens of a dream. Wendy is the daughter of a Cuban exile and a college freshman away from home for the first time. She loses a necklace that her father gave her- one of the few physical items that her family has since they fled Cuba in the early 1960s. In a dream, she meets Pedro, a seventeen year-old man from 1962 who has fled Cuba through the...
    One day Old tells the true story of Operacion Pedro Pan through the lens of a dream. Wendy is the daughter of a Cuban exile and a college freshman away from home for the first time. She loses a necklace that her father gave her- one of the few physical items that her family has since they fled Cuba in the early 1960s. In a dream, she meets Pedro, a seventeen year-old man from 1962 who has fled Cuba through the underground operation that came to be known as Operacion Pedro Pan. Together they navigate a spiritual world that transcends the past and present. Pedro searches for his family as Wendy discovers what she was really after all along.
  • The Merit Badge
    Fabiola, a girl scout, tries to scale a wall in the middle of the night. Her friend India finds her. Fabiola explains she is trying to get to a park on the other side of the wall where her mom is waiting to see her through a fence. Will India help her even though it might mean going against the vow of serving God and Country? Will she risk her merit badge to help a sister?
  • La Reina Del Bronx
    The Bronx, 1965. Carmen and Juanito were friends in Havana. Now they are refugees in the Bronx. She helps him get ready for a drag show as she tries to get the new dirt about "el jefe" from the factory that they work at. Carmen comes to realize that sometimes you don't want to know "el chisme".
  • The Heartbreakers
    Millenials navigate the dating world- the flipside to Tom Petty.
  • Not 21 Yet
    2005. Two estranged friends from Atlantic City embark on different paths; College and Iraq. Written prior to 11/8/16, yet with references to #Trump.
  • Tom Petty
    Two women talk at the mall talking about 'that guy' at work. And he shows up.