About the Play:

Our Lady of the Tortilla has become a favourite of acting teachers for Three-Person Scenes.

Our Lady of the Tortilla is a full-length comedy by Luis Santeiro. In one wild weekend, a Cuban-American family threatens to burst at the seams. The college-aged son brings home his WASPy girlfriend; his flamboyant mother goes off in mad pursuit of her straying husband, and the old aunt sees the face of the Holy Virgin in a tortilla, setting off a mad media frenzy.

Our Lady of the Tortilla tells the story of an inter-generational, Cuban family in the U.S. struggling with tradition, culture, language, love, and… each other! The Cruz family is volatile even in the best of times. On this particular day, Nelson, the youngest son, enters the house in a panic to hide the more obvious religious relics from the sight of his 'Gringa' girlfriend, who is visiting for the weekend. Nelson's mother, Dahlia, is obsessed with retrieving her husband from his new girlfriend; Eddie, her elder son, shows up in a van with his failed life and pregnant girlfriend. But the "real" pandemonium is caused by sweet, long-suffering Dolores, Dahlia's pious old-maid sister, when she sees the face of the Holy Virgin in a tortilla. This miracle brings hordes of believers and reporters to camp out on the Cruz's lawn to await further miracles. As the family struggles with beliefs and conflicts, old and new, the endurance of family love is revealed to be the real miracle.

Our Lady of the Tortilla premiered in 1987 by INTAR Hispanic American Arts Center in New York City. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and has enjoyed hundreds of productions across the US.

Cast: 4 female, 2 male

What people say:

"…There is nothing more hilarious than the sound of two cultures clashing in an American living room…the play piles ethnolinguistic puns on top of sight gags and camp lust so ecstatically you'd think you were back in TV's golden age." — Village Voice

"For all its farcical cleverness, this affectionate spoof…also manages to make some very sweet and serious points about the 'miracle of family love'." — New York Post

"…revelations that dazzle and tickle at the same time." — New York Times

About the Playwright:

Luis Santeiro is a Cuban-American playwright and television writer. Born in Cuba and raised in Miami, he turned his real life experiences into inspiration. He has written numerous successful plays drawing on his Cuban roots and creating mirror-like characters from his family and childhood. He has been nominated for twenty Daytime Emmy Awards and has won fourteen, twelve of these during his twenty-nine-year career a member of the Sesame Street writing staff.