Elsa, a doctor of primatology, is on the autism spectrum and has hidden this fact from the world. She is currently working with an orangutan named Wookie, who Elsa hopes to prove is capable of speaking a human language.
Elsa’s 12 year old nephew, A.J., is also on the Autism spectrum. He is “Locked in”- completely non-verbal.
However, thanks to A.J.'s so called "disability" he and Wookie joyously discover that they can communicate with each other.
This explodes Elsa's carefully constructed, science based worldview and forces her to drop the mask of normality she has worn her whole life.

Written for Center Theatre Group's Writers Workshop 18-19

In the near future, an inexplicable plague infests La Gran Colombia. Ingrid Bolivar--the brilliant, mad ex-wife of Colombia's leader--is the only one who knows that the plague is carried by young women of the streets, whom she adopts and uses as weapons against the government. Policarpa, a girl with magical gifts, is supposed to be Ingrid's secret apocalyptic weapon. But when Policarpa falls in love with a top government official, she resists becoming an instrument of destruction and instead seeks to become a savior through sacrifice.

Rooted in traditional Latin American magical realism, the nightmare magic science fiction world of Policarpa exists in a neither here-or-there.

Policarpa has been developed by The Drama League's Rough Draft series, Theatricum Botanicum Seedlings, Oregon Shakespeare Festival Black Swan Lab Latinx Play Project, and Milagro Theatre’s Ingenio play reading series. It received an Honorable Mention for the Jane Chambers Playwriting Award and was a finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival.

Policarpa was a part of The Drama League’s Rough Draft series in May 2017, where it was developed by Melinda Hall. Also developed at Theatricum Botanicum Seedlings 2017 and Oregon Shakespeare Festival Black Swan Lab Latinx play project 2017. It was the inaugural play for Milagro Theatre’s Ingenio play reading series 2018, and was recorded for The Parsnip Ship, 2018 with Hall at the helm.
It received an Honorable Mention, Association for Theatre in Higher Education’s 2017 Jane Chambers Playwriting Award and is currently a semi-finalist for the Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Festival 2018 and a finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Foundation Festival 2018.

Silueta
A new play imagined from a true story.

1985: A sultry New York night. A marital spat. Cuban artist Ana Mendieta plunges 34 stories from her bedroom window to the sidewalk below. A tragic accident? Or murder?

Silueta imagines Ana's husband, sculptor Carl Andre, as he might be today, still living in the 34th-floor apartment that he shared with the beautiful, ambitious Ana. He is riddled by frustration at the loss of his artistic potency and by a gnawing suspicion about his innocence in Ana's death. The ghost of Ana haunts him relentlessly at the scene of the tragedy. They are both obsessed with the same question, what really happened that fatal night? Silueta is a two-person show based on the true story of Ana Mendieta, who fell to her death in 1985. She was a rising star in the art world. Her husband, Carl Andre, was one of the founders of Minimalism. He was prosecuted for her murder and acquitted. The play explores their volatile relationship.

Silueta is a collaboration by Tom Shelton, Chris Shelton and Diana Burbano. Written for Tom and Diana to perform, the play came out of research and improv sessions with Chris, a writer/director.

The spring/summer of 2020, a big-box grocery store in Santa Ana, Orange County, CA.
Three young essential workers, forced to grow up fast during the pandemic, fight racism as well as the virus.

After acid is thrown in a young woman's face, a Phoenix (Fenix) rises.
A Colombian woman and acid attack survivor who successfully campaigned for a law targeting perpetrators of acid attacks in her country tells her story.

DREAMING is an intimate and poignant look into the lives of a mother and daughter, both hoping for a secure and better future in America. The daughter, of Mexican immigrant parents, was brought here as a child, is now a DACA member and faces the threat of US deportation. Her mother, without a husband and lack of money, has returned to Mexico, hoping to return to the States one day, under better circumstances.

A gunman has opened fire on a college campus. Now someone has to clean it up.

A young man is hit by a drunk driver. He lies in a coma as his family and Tupac struggles to help him cope with his new reality.

A young woman meets her heroine, while doing battle with seal, sea lions and developers in La Jolla, CA.

Marie is dying, but has no regrets.

Jeopardy, a fight and a missing testicle does not mean you get to tear my gun from my cold dead hands.

The tragedy in Charlottesville served to open a scar in America. The white supremacist movement has come out of their hidden corners and darkened basements, helped along by their leader in Washington. This in and of itself is frightening, but I hold out hope. There is also a strong and vocal resistance movement who have put their bodies on the line to defy those who would take this country into the dark ages. There has been loss, and likely will be more, but their defiance will serve as a beacon for others to come and stand against the darkness.

We MUST continue to be decent, and outspoken, and to protect each other, in spite of the evil that is trying to overwhelm our compassion.

A young woman tries to consign her engagement ring after the violent death of her fiancé.

Two step siblings come to a tiny truce over a video game.

Little Miss Junior Orange County is a fierce competition as three girls vie for the crown. The battle is heated until hey discover they have much more in common than dumb grown up standards of beauty.

An older woman learns to live again while on the AIDS ride.

A beautiful Slovenian ex-model confronts her son's tutor and faces questions about her place in the world.

A professor teaches her student facial reconstruction.
Written for 365 Women a Year.

Sylvia Rivera sets the record straight on Stonewall, the gay liberation movement and the erasure of queer people of color and members of the LGBTQ community who do not conform to gender norms or typical gender categories. From her own words.

Pobre Ri has crushes on white boys and they do things like trying to teach them how to ski.

Zoomerlandia is a short play by Diana Burbano written for online viewing. It explores the lives of three recent college graduates as they navigate the risks and joys of a complicated 2020 summer.

A prequel to Titus Andronicus. Tamora sets in motion the events of the play by killing Titus' son.