Plays written by Orlando Hernandez
EVA MARÍA, PLEASE COME HOME
LA TEMPESTAD
LA BROA’
TIKTOK TOOK MY TACO
Synopses:
Eva María, Please Come Home – Ten-year-old Eva María arrives in Rhode Island from Mexico looking for her father, only to find a cartoonish dystopia of vigilante shopkeepers, charlatan preachers, sound-wave hackers, and ecoterrorist birders. As she uncovers the painful truth about her father’s early years in this country, she must decide between self-preservation and helping others in an increasingly savage world. And the government just started performing purity tests… Part-picaresque, part-sci-fi, part-historical-allegory, all in a small post-industrial New England city.
La Tempestad – This bilingual adaptation of The Tempest continues Shakespeare’s investigation into language, power, and place, guided by Caribbean and Latinx experiences of living in multiple languages, code-switching, and negotiating power and belonging. Our adaptation also writes against Shakespeare by centering the characters of Ariel and Calibán, asking what kind of subversion and transformation are possible in places with legacies of colonial violence and exploitation.
Loa Broa’ – La Broa’ tells the stories of Latinx communities in Rhode Island, their struggles and triumphs, and how they were able to get a foothold in healthcare, social services, activism, the arts, and politics. Told through the tape recorder of Ana—a journalism student at Providence College in the 90s, who finds comfort and inspiration in Doña Rosa, the matriarch of the Dominican community who’s making peace with her husband’s death and their market closing. Inspired by Marta Martínez’s Nuestras Raíces Oral History Project.
TikTok Took my Taco – Three high school friends get catapulted into another dimension while doing a TikTok dance. A surrealist comedy with tender notes, touching on young romance, bullying, technology, and making peace with a departed loved one.
Biography:
Orlando Hernández is a playwright from Hoboken, NJ. He is a 2026-2027 Terrence McNally New Works Incubator Fellow at Rattlestick Theater. He helped develop Teatro en el Verano, a bilingual theater collaboration between Trinity Repertory Company and Rhode Island Latino Arts that began in 2016. His play La Broa’ (Broad Street) received its world premiere at Trinity Rep in 2024. As a member of La Bulla Collective, alongside Tatyana-Marie Carlo and Leandro “Kufa” Castro, he has worked on bilingual adaptations of Shakespeare plays, including La Tempestad, which was produced at Trinity in 2025. He holds a B.A. in English from Yale University, and his poems, translations, and essays have appeared in publications in print and online.
In addition to his writing, Orlando performs and teaches widely as a tap dancer. His dance-theater work has been presented at venues around the US and internationally including New York Live Arts, On the Boards, Jacob’s Pillow, Joe’s Pub, and La Casa de Cultura Ruth Hernández Torres. He is a 2025-2028 Jerome Fellow in Dance. He lives in Washington Heights.