Sol 4 | Charise Castro Smith | The Sol Project

SOL 4: CHARISE CASTRO SMITH

charise castro smith
the playwright

Charise Castro Smith is a playwright, television writer, and actor originally from Miami. Her playwriting credits include Feathers and Teeth (Goodman Theatre), Estrella Cruz [The Junkyard Queen] (Ars Nova/Halcyon Theatre), The Hunchback of Seville (Washington Ensemble Theatre/Trinity Repertory Company), Washeteria (Soho Rep.), and Boomcracklefly (Miracle Theatre). TV Credits include: Sweetbitter (Starz), The Haunting of Hill House (Netflix) and The Death of Eva Sofia Valdez (ABC Studios). Smith is a recipient of a Van Lier Fellowship at New Dramatists and is an alumna of Ars Nova’s Play Group and The New Georges Jam. She holds an MFA from Yale School of Drama.

Adriana Sevahn Nichols in EL HURACÁN. Photo © T. Charles Erickson, 2018.

el huracán
the play

An epic hurricane threatens Miami. A mother and daughter ready themselves for the storm as Abuela takes shelter in a world of memory, music, and magic. A powerful tale of family and forgiveness, El Huracán reveals what can be rebuilt in the aftermath of life’s most devastating tempests—and what can never be replaced.

yale repertory theatre
the partner theatre

Yale Repertory Theatre (James Bundy, Artistic Director; Victoria Nolan, Managing Director), the internationally celebrated professional theatre in residence at Yale School of Drama, has championed new work since 1966, producing well over 100 premieres—including two Pulitzer Prize winners and four other nominated finalists—by emerging and established playwrights. Seventeen Yale Rep productions have advanced to Broadway, garnering more than 40 Tony Award nominations and 10 Tony Awards. Yale Rep is also the recipient of the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. Established in 2008, Yale’s Binger Center for New Theatre has distinguished itself as one of the nation’s most robust and innovative new play programs. To date, the Binger Center has supported the work of more than 50 commissioned artists and underwritten the world premieres and subsequent productions of 31 new American plays and musicals at Yale Rep and theatres across the country.

laurie woolery
the director

Laurie Woolery is a director, playwright, educator, facilitator and producer. She has worked at the Public Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Yale Repertory, Trinity Repertory, Goodman Theater, Cornerstone Theater Company, South Coast Repertory, Mark Taper Forum, Denver Center, Los Angeles Philharmonic, East West Players, Los Angeles Theatre Center, Inge Center for the Arts, Plaza de la Raza/RedCAT, Ricardo Montalban Theatre, Deaf-West Theatre, Highways Performance Space and Sundance Playwrights Lab as well as the Sundance Children's Theater. Woolery has directed world premieres of plays by Tanya Saracho, Mary Kathryn Nagle, Marisela Trevino Orta, Aditi Kapil, K.J. Sanchez, Julie Marie Myatt, Cody Henderson, Allison Carey and others.

Currently, Woolery is the Director of Public Works at The Public Theater an initiative that seeks to engage the people of New York by making them creators and not just spectators. Working with partners organizations in all five boroughs, Public Works invites members of diverse communities to join in the creation of ambitious works of participatory theater. Recently, she launched a new program called "ACTivate" (Artist, Citizen, Theater maker) that takes an ensemble of community members and puts them in the “artistic driver’s seat” by partnering with a professional playwright and devised an original play. With collaborators Shaina Taub and Sonya Tayeh, Woolery co-adapted and directed a new musical adaptation of "As You Like It" which debuted at the Delacorte Theater with 200 New Yorkers and was named one of The New York Times best shows of 2017.

Woolery develops and directs new works with diverse communities ranging from incarcerated women to residents of a small Kansas town devastated by a tornado. Laurie has created site-specific work ranging from a working sawmill, parking lots, to the banks of the Los Angeles River. Woolery curated and produced a two-week festival in Los Angeles that explored issues of hunger that brought artists, activists, community and thought leaders together. In keeping with her lifelong commitment to community engagement, Woolery is partnering with Trinity Repertory Theater to deepen their artistic work in collaboration with the Latinx community in the larger Rhode Island area. As a playwright, Woolery’s plays have been produced throughout California. Her solo play Salvadorian Moon/African Sky was commissioned by Cornerstone Theater Company and performed in their citywide Festival of Faith.

Ms. Woolery is the former Associate Artistic Director of Cornerstone Theater Company, Conservatory Director at South Coast Repertory and former artist-in-residence at Hollygrove Children’s Home in Los Angeles. Woolery teaches at Princeton, NYU, Brown, USC, Cal Arts, Citrus College, California State University at Northridge, California State University at Los Angeles. Woolery serves on the Board of the Latino Producers Action Network, Latinx Theatre Commons and is the founding member of The Sol Project in New York. Woolery is a proud recipient of the Fuller Road Fellowship for Women Directors of Color.

Ms. Woolery is a graduate from University of California, Los Angeles.

EL HURACÁN
by Charise Castro Smith
directed by Laurie Woolery
with Irene Sofia Lucio, Jonathan Nichols, Maria-Christina Oliveras, Jennifer Paredes, Adriana Sevahn Nichols, Arturo Luís Soria

set design: Gerardo Díaz Sánchez
costume design: Herin Kaputkin
lighting design: Nic Vincent
sound design: Megumi Katayama
projection design: Yaara Bar
magic design: Christopher Rose
shadow puppet design: James Ortiz
production stage manager: Christina Fontana
casting by: Tara Rubin/Laura Schutzel
fight director: Rick Sordelet
dialect coach: Cynthia DeCure

#ElHuracan
@yalerep @solprojectnyc

highlights

2019 Connecticut Critic's Circle Award, Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play, Adriana Sevahn Nichols
2019 Connecticut Critic's Circle Award, Outstanding Projections, Yaara Bar
2019 Connecticut Critic's Circle Nomination, Outstanding Production of a Play
2019 Connecticut Critic's Circle Nomination, Outstanding Director, Laurie Woolery
2019 Connecticut Critic's Circle Nomination, Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play, Jennifer Paredes
2019 Connecticut Critic's Circle Nomination, Outstanding Costumes, Herin Kaputkin
2019 Connecticut Critic's Circle Nomination, Outstanding Sound, Megumi Katayama

Episode One - El Huracán - Charise Castro Smith & Laurie Woolery
SolTalk | February 13th, 2019

A Roundtable with Laurie Woolery and the Women of El Huracán
The Interval | October 16th, 2018

Playlist: El Huracan at Yale Repertory Theatre
Spotify | October 2018

For Yale's Charise Castro Smith, A Storm's A'Coming
ShowRiz | September 19th, 2018