About the Play:

Real Women Have Curves is a full-length comedy by Josefina López. Fabric flies and tempers flare when Ana, fresh out of high school, rebels against the status quo with dreams of becoming a writer. Real Women Have Curves follows five full-figured Latina employees work who in a tiny sewing factory as they traverse the political and social pressures of immigration and holding onto their heritage in East Los Angeles.

Real Women Have Curves is set in the summer of 1987 in East Los Angeles. This is the outrageously funny story of five full-figured Latina women who are racing to meet nearly impossible production deadlines in order to keep their tiny family-run factory from going under. And while they work, hiding from the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service), they talk... about their husbands and lovers, their children, their dreams for the future. The story is told from the point of view of Ana, the youngest among them. Just graduated from high school, Ana dreams of getting out of the barrio and going off to college and becoming a famous writer. Although she needs the money, Ana doesn't like working at the factory and has little respect for the coworkers, who make fun of her ambitions and what they consider her idealistic feminist philosophies. However, Ana keeps coming to her job and chronicling her experiences in a journal. As the summer unfolds, she slowly gains an understanding and appreciation of the work and the women, eventually writing an essay that wins her a journalism fellowship which will take her to New York City. Real Women Have Curves is a microcosm of the Latina immigrant experience that celebrates real women’s bodies, the power of women, and the incredible bond that happens when women work together.

Her first full-length play, Real Women Have Curves, recalling her real-life experiences of growing up undocumented and working in a sewing factory, premiered in 1990 at San Francisco's Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts. Since then the play had regional premieres at professional theatres across the US and has been mounted by high schools, colleges, and community theatres.

Cast: 5 female

What people say:

"The dialogue, sprinkled with Spanish phrases, is funny even when it is painful." — Albuquerque Journal

"An entertaining story about the incredible bond that women share." — Broadway World

"It has strong messages about body positivity, feminism and class consciousness, and its depiction of the hard work of formerly undocumented immigrant American women is a valuable thing in itself at this moment in American politics." — The Mercury News

About the Playwright:

Josefina López is best known for writing the play and co-writing the 2002 Sundance Award-winning film Real Women Have Curves. A prolific writer, it is only one of many literary and artistic works she has created since her artistic career began at 17 years old. Born in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, in 1969, she was 5 years old when her family immigrated to the United States and settled in the East Los Angeles neighbourhood of Boyle Heights. She was undocumented for 13 years before receiving amnesty in 1987, and eventually became a U.S. citizen in 1995. She has been working as a professional screenwriter in Hollywood for almost 30 years with countless development deals and screenplay assignments.