TeenTix Blog by Press Corps in Schools

Laughs in Spanish by Alexis Scheer in many ways, serves as a tribute to the vibrant city of Miami. The production more or less conveys a sense of the city, particularly through its set design, use of Spanglish, and lively dancing. However, while the play generally succeeds in this regard, the overall experience feels lacking, like being on the periphery rather than fully immersed in the moment. The play is playful, unserious at moments, yet the plot tends to be anticlimactic and low stakes, particularly towards the end. 

The play opens in utter disarray as paintings have been stolen, and Mari, the main character, is expected to hold an art gallery show that evening. With no paintings to display, her fiery temper (panic mode)  and workaholic nature add to the overall chaos of the situation. However, with the support of her friends and family, the situation begins to stabilize. Juan, a Miami police officer, leads the investigation, while his girlfriend, Caro, offers to lend her paintings for the show. Additionally, Mari’s mother, Estella, unexpectedly arrives in Miami,  accompanied by her assistant and former school friend, Jenny, who further helps.  

Have you ever wanted to see a telenovela, pero, different from all the traditional ones? Laughs in Spanish serves up all the drama and chaos you expect but in a more modern way. 

The play Laughs in Spanish, written by Alexis Scheer and directed by Dámaso Rodríguez, is an amusing, chaotic and  heartfelt comedy that mixes both English and Spanish to deliver the perfect blend of both. Set in Miami during Art Basel, the story kicks off in the middle of a crisis followed by family drama and unexpected discoveries, showing a realistic mother-daughter relationship, strong chemistry between the characters and themes of inclusivity. The talented cast includes Diana Burbano, Diana Garle, Cheyenne Barton, Gabriell Salgado and Beth Pollack.

Laughs In Spanish tells the story of an art show in Miami as an unexpected turn threatens to derail the whole show. While the show has this mysterious turn, it also highlights themes such as family relationships, romance, parenthood, marriage, and real-world themes often faced in today's society. 

Overall, Laughs in Spanish was a mixture of comedic and serious, with lots of plot twists, shocks, and even hidden romance. Although the play did fall short in the opening music and the language department, the play was still an enjoyable experience. 

Laughs in Spanish promises just that. It’s filled with energy, secrets and an awkward love story. You’ll gasp between the laughs and won’t want to look away, except for maybe the romance scenes. Immediately, Laughs in Spanish takes the audience to a vibrant day in Miami. It centers around a gallery owner, Mariana, who has to figure out how to fix things a day before her art show. The play does a good job showing what Miami is like with the cool sounds and visuals, making the play overall entertaining to watch but the romance in the story feels a bit awkward and out of place. The day before Mariana's art show, her paintings disappear while her mom Estella, a movie star, appears and tries to help out. But things only get more complicated and involve themes of family and relationships. Estella's assistant Jenny, who is also Mariana’s love interest, is introduced as well. Her intern Carolina, who is also an artist, uses her art to save the show while Carolina's boyfriend Juan, the cop, tries to figure out who stole the paintings. 

One way the play was successful was being entertaining, keeping the audience engaged. Right from the beginning, it grabbed the attention of the audience with the powerful acting in Mariana’s reaction to her paintings being stolen. It was packed with yelling and panic, making the audience invested in the problem. The plot had surprising twists like when there was a scene where Carolina and Juan both made an unexpected confession and got the audience eager to see what will happen next. There were also random moments of dancing that were fun to watch and got the audience reacting. However, some people might’ve thought that there was a little too much going on, with all the different things happening and it may have been confusing or boring for them. Or that even though there were surprises, some may have been able to predict some of the things that happened because similar things have happened in other stories or movies. For example, it wasn’t shocking how Mariana and Estella's relationship got fixed or the identity of the thief. But even with these potential counter arguments, the strong acting and high energy throughout the play still made it fun to watch. 

Laughs in Spanish was a play performed at Seattle Rep, written by Alexis Scheer. It's set in Miami, Florida, during the holiday season. The play is funny, entertaining, and keeps the viewer wanting more. It's a good play that I would ultimately recommend, even with there being some critiques I would make, such as the set. There are a lot of strong suits, though, like how it was a very light-hearted play even through the deeper topics they talk about and the characters' outfits. The play follows Mariana, an art gallery director, in the Miami area along with her assistant Carolina. The night before an art exhibition was supposed to happen, all the paintings were stolen. Juan, who happens to be Carolina's boyfriend, ends up being the cop on the scene after Mariana calls the police. Shortly after Mariana's mom, Estella, and her assistant, Jenny, show up.

I really enjoyed how the play touches on some deeper topics while still maintaining a more lighthearted demeanor. It touches on insecurity, identity, and feeling unready. Mari really struggles with comparing herself to her mom because her mom was a huge movie star, being immensely popular and not wanting to be like her. Mari won best in show for a painting she made. To celebrate, she went to a bar. She left momentarily to get money out of the ATM. When she came back, all the attention was on her mom. Before Mari told Estella about what actually happened though Estella was making jokes about what could have happened, she said, “I swear to god if he put a finger on you I will hunt him down and cut his dick off” which ultimately led to it feeling like a calmer conversation than if there weren't any jokes. Caro also expresses how unready she felt when she told Juan she was pregnant, she did not know if she wanted to bring a child into the world. Although throughout her talking to Juan, she was making jokes which helped it from being a hard, almost rigid conversation. Instead, it was easy and felt more free flowing. While they were talking, Caro said, “I hope it-THEY-I hope they feel empowered to be whatever gender or non-gender they feel.” It was said in a very non-serious tone, and it helped maintain the light-hearted feeling they were going for instead of an abrupt sad scene.

Have you ever stolen a famous painter’s artwork to help your pregnant girlfriend’s dreams come true? Juan the police officer did, in the wild and articulate play Laughs in Spanish, written by Alexis Scheer. This chaotic, emotional, and hilarious story is centered around Mariana, a post-college Latina woman who runs an art gallery in Miami. Just before the biggest art show of her career, her artist's paintings are mysteriously stolen. To make things even more stressful, her famous actress mother shows up unexpectedly, stirring things up even more. What follows is a fast-paced mess of events involving pregnancy, stolen art, court orders, love, and lots of hilarious and heartfelt moments. Laughs in Spanish is a unique and powerful representation of Latinx and queer identities, filled with real life struggles and very funny moments.

One of the things I appreciated most about this play was how it showcased the ups and downs of queer and Latina life without ever feeling preachy or too serious. The characters felt authentic, their chemistry was strong, and their personalities were very extravagant  in a good way. Even though the play had a lot going on, it was clear that the writer, Alexis Scheer, put a lot of care into making every character feel like they belonged and had a purpose, even if some of the plot lines felt a bit overwhelming (which I’ll talk more about later).

From the moment the lights go up, you’re exposed to the stage full of Miami energy, pulling you into a fast-paced and heartwarming narrative that balances humor and cultural depth. The play quickly evolved into a relatable exploration of identity, family, and culture. Laughs in Spanish proves to be a celebration of what it means to live, laugh, and love in two languages.

Laughs in Spanish, written by Alexis Scheer, is a fast-paced play set in Miami. The play follows Mariana’s immersive world as a gallery owner who has to handle valuable paintings disappearing right before a major art show. The plot is based on Mari as she scrambles to recover from a disaster that could ruin her career. She’s joined by her assistant, Caro, a struggling artist, and a bumbling cop, Juan, who is dating Caro. Things get even more dramatic as her plan to fix everything gets interrupted by her mother, Estella, and her assistant, Jenny. The characters are bold and complex, the different dynamics bring humorous and emotional depth to the play. As characters interact, secrets are revealed, tension rises, and we are taken through a hilarious journey in the life of a Latina family. Immediately captivated by a chaotically heartwarming and relatable plot, Laughs in Spanish is a culturally rich play that is full of humor. 

Have you ever gone to the theater expecting one of those remake comedy shows only to leave completely changed in opinion, by that I meant utterly transformed, by a performance that makes you both laugh and pause? Laughs in Spanish at Seattle Rep demonstrates this transformation with a precise blend of wardrobe choices, props, and, most notably, the actors’ commanding presence. The journey unfolds in phases, from moments that leave you speechless, to intimate, raw exchanges, and finally, a display of compassionate, captivating artistry.

This production wastes no time in disorienting its audience in the best possible way. Early in the show, as the stage bursts with bold, saturated colors and rapid-fire dialogue illustrating Miami’s vibrant art scene kinda vibe, the sudden color changes come to a stop. During Mari’s (Beth Pollack) meticulously planned gallery opening, displays of artworks mysteriously vanish. Rather than spiraling into immediate panic, the stage sinks into a hushed quiet as the lighting softens to a warm, almost hypnotic glow. In that hushed intensity, Mari, typically the embodiment of control, stands alone in the center of the gallery. The backdrop of swirling abstract art in hues of blue and orange evoked a delicate boundary between order and chaos, making every detail even more striking. 

What happens when an art gallery becomes ground zero for unexpected chaos? Laughs in Spanish takes its audience on a journey full of fast-paced dialogue combined with unforeseen scenes. The stage performance alternates between powerful dramatic moments and comedic scenes, which drew me in because of its energetic energy throughout the play. I attended the Seattle Rep Theater production of Laughs in Spanish last week. The story follows Mari, a director of an art gallery in Miami when her major art exhibition collapses due to both stolen paintings and family conflicts. The play by Alexis Scheer takes place in Miami while combining comedic elements with deep themes about cultural identity and ambition. Through laughter and disorder, the play investigates how people manage their life ambitions against their family obligations. 

The play begins during the setup for a high-profile Miami art event. Mariana, a gallery director who wants to succeed, is about to lose her job. She finds out that some expensive paintings have been stolen. It’s a serious problem that gets worse when her intern Carolina, Miami cop Juan, and her mother Estella get involved, each making the situation more complicated. But beneath the humor and chaos, Laughs in Spanish is a story about self-worth, identity, and the ways we fight to be seen in the spaces we occupy.

The rich Goldbergs are coming over at 6 PM, and Mari needs to appeal to them to stay successful. Laughs in Spanish takes place in an art gallery, where Mari, the owner, has to juggle executing a party while all the paintings have been stolen. This play is charismatic, vibrant, and touching. 

During the play, many things start popping up as Mari tries to handle everything independently. Just as when we thought everything was going well, we learn that the wrong catering order was delivered to the gallery. It’s no surprise that it’s Mari’s responsibility to maintain the spotlight, but with all the pressure to get it under control, we see her on the verge of losing it. As for her mom, Estella only shows up when necessary. She chose to show up before the party to uncover a dark past. On the other hand, Mari has this huge problem to fix, and she doesn’t want her mom to be here, making it worse, when Estella has been absent for most of her life. This play was successful because it’s a great demonstration of family dynamics. For example, Mari plays this angry façade for most of the play until she decides to talk to her mom about these problems and what has been frustrating her. It’s a realistic moment where most people can relate. It shows how Mari had to put down her walls to build new walls of trust with Estella. This scene speaks volumes about communication and love. To move on, the spectacle works well in the play, even in this scene. At one point, Mari returns from shopping and reveals an intense, scarlet dress with a glittering, uneven hemline. As the stage lights turn on, it illustrates Mari’s new persona; she’s become much more luminous with a simmering, feisty attitude. She’s not as cranky as she once was, and in her transformation, we see Mari overcoming the barriers of vulnerability. 

In most stories about people of color, the plot is always about how the character struggles as they try to achieve success. Rarely do stories start with a minority character who is already successful and tell us what they have sacrificed for that achievement. 

However, Alexis Scheer, a half-Colombian playwright, focused on these perspectives in her play called Laughs in Spanish, an engaging and meaningful play centered on Hispanic characters.

Fat Ham is a radiant phoenix soaring through the ashes of Hamlet’s tragedy. With a lively set and explosive characters, this show is a sweet to the sweet.

We follow the story mainly from Juicy, a Queer Black man who struggles with the recent union of his mother, Tedra, and his uncle, Rev. The couple, who married shortly after the death of Juicy’s father, hosts a barbecue party to celebrate. While Juicy helps set up the backyard for the party, the ghost of his dead father visits him and orders him to kill Rev, revealing he was the one that killed him. From there, the story spirals into chaos including musical performances and questionable monologues, while introducing us to the reimagined versions of Hamlet’s characters. Giving a fresh adaptation that branches out from the original play, we see how a story of a woeful prince of Denmark becomes a tasteful tale for the modern age.

Fat Ham is a theatrical feast. It’s a pork-fectly captivating performance full of outstanding success, from the language to the dance party in the end, this production is a must-see. Don’t miss out on this flavorful ride!

Fat Ham, written by James Ijames is a Hamlet-inspired play that made its successful debut at the Public Theater in New York City on May 12, 2022. This production has been generating excitement for its strong exploration of identity through the idea of toxic masculinity, vulnerability and building community. Its recent show on May 9, 2024 in Seattle highlighted the importance of being yourself and accepting who you are. Unlike Hamlet, Fat Ham is mostly focused on finding yourself and not much on seeking revenge. The story revolves around Juicy, a young Queer African American man, who is confronted by the ghost of his dad during a barbecue in the backyard of his modern-day American house, with his contemporary Southern family.

Subverting expectations is the name of the game with this play. Fat Ham is a loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s titular play Hamlet. This play written by James Ijames is a wonderful example of subversion that deserves recognition. It truly feels like a modern take on the works of Shakespeare, who, bear in mind, actually wrote a large amount of comedies. The humor and tragedy are blended so finely that it will leave you in both kinds of tears.

Its intentional focus on Hamlet isn’t just superficial or simply the base in the blend of a story, but the core of which the whole story sits on, allowing the reflection of Shakespeare's work to be visible throughout this play. The values of this story flipped on its head as the story asks, “Why must it be this way?” creating comedy in the face of would-be tragedy. With the focus character of this play being Juicy, our Hamlet counterpart focuses on why one should be allowed to be soft combined with the hardships one would face as one strives for it. This perfectly compliments Larry, the Laertes counterpart which at first seems to coincide with Laertes much more than Juicy with Hamlet, with how he served in the military and even more so with him being an honor-bound yes-man. But if you look closer you see an inner softness that wants to escape the pressure put on him that is practically restraining him to that version of him that other people want him to be.

Fat Ham at the Seattle Rep is a wonderful performance that creates a conversation with the audience about self expression, identity, expectations, and above all else takes immense joy in having fun with the audience. From the set work to the actors’ physical performance, a sense of excitement and festivity is present through the entire play. Although it is very different from its source material of Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet, Fat Ham does keep a condensed form of the original’s structure, using it to orient the audience and smoothly establish the play’s characters, plot, and where it differs. The play opens with Juicy (the analog to prince Hamlet) and Tio (the analog to Horatio and Juicy’s cousin) decorating for the party celebrating the marriage of Juicy’s mother, Tedra to his uncle, Rev, which will be the setting for the rest of the play.

Throughout the performance, the cast and especially Juicy, will address or acknowledge the audience, the Shakespearean origins of the play, and the expectations the audience has from those origins. Early on, Juicy will quote lines from Hamlet to demonstrate how he is more studied and introspective than those around him and this evolves later into one of multiple fourth wall breaks, where Juicy stops the play and quotes one of Hamlet’s famous soliloquies in its entirety to the audience. This element of the play can be seen as clunky or gratuitous, but it’s a functional way to integrate Hamlet into its shortened structure and lighter self-referential tone.

Backyard barbeques aren’t your typical setting for tragedies—especially not a Shakespearean tragedy. And yet, the Pulitzer prize-winning interpretation of Hamlet, called Fat Ham, takes place in a suburban backyard. Playwright James Ijames reimagined Hamlet, a story of death, tragedy, and revenge, to be retold by a Southern African American family. Hamlet himself is represented by a queer Black man named Juicy, tackling the challenges of generational trauma and self-identity. The characters themselves struggle with modern problems in a modern-day setting, attributing to the play's biggest strength—its relatability. James Ijames took advantage of the universality of Shakespeare’s themes and effectively translated them into a Southern context. Much like Hamlet, Fat Ham begins with the celebration of Juicy’s mother marrying his Uncle, Rev. However, unlike Elsinore, their wedding cookout takes place in Juicy’s backyard, shortly after the death of Juicy’s father, Pap. Pap later returns in a ghostly form and demands that Juicy avenge him, as it was Rev who was responsible for Pap's murder. This event serves as a foundation for Ijames to introduce themes of mental health, violence, and generational trauma within Black communities. Fat Ham serves as a successful adaptation of Hamlet due to its representation of conflicts within Black communities and breaking those cycles.

While Fat Ham does showcase the darker side of African American trauma, it shows those patterns being broken and resolved. An example of this is with Pap. Ijames strategically paints him out to be an abusive father, to represent violence within Black communities in the play. This message is conveyed through aggressive, argumentative dialogue to engage the audience with captivating, evoking verbal conflicts. During Pap’s visit from beyond the grave, they argued, violent words being thrown at each other at bone-rattling volumes. As someone who has heard such conflicts many times before in my own family on similar topics, I found the disagreements to be very relatable. It feels raw, using commonly used phrases many teens hear these days coming from parents, which is something that many fights in entertainment tend to overlook. You can tell Ijames and other writers had done their research when skillfully writing what real quarrels sound like. The dialogue continues to be this play's strong suit to also convey themes of mental health to both characters and directly to the audience.

James Ijames serves a sizzling feast of social commentary with a glaze of comedy, all wrapped in the stage play, Fat Ham. In Fat Ham, we follow a Hamlet-like character, Juicy, and his struggles with his newfound family dynamic; after his father, Pap, was killed in prison, his Uncle Rev, married his mom, Tedra. At the beginning of the play, while Juicy leaves his best friend/cousin Tio in the yard, Pap's ghost appears. With flickering porch lights and a red sky, Pap, draped in white sheets, shuffles through the yard in search of Juicy as thunder cracks off stage. The same scene is repeated when Juicy is now left alone, mirroring the same sequence in the original Hamlet, yet instead of Juicy bravely seeking after his father’s ghost, he cowers in fear, freaking out as the spirit surges towards him. Pap then urges Juicy to seek revenge once he calms down, encouraging him to gut his uncle like a pig in a display of toxic masculine ideals of violence. Throughout the play, Juicy struggles with the idea of killing Rev, not wanting to follow his fathers footsteps.

Juicy, (portrayed by Taj E.M. Burroughs), is an angsty, brooding, thoughtful character; much like his Shakespearean counterpart, Hamlet. His story similarly follows Hamlet's, with the exception of the family dynamics. Though Juicy struggles with his fathers, Pap’s, (played by Reginald André Jackson), death, it’s for different reasons. Juicy isn’t super comfortable with grieving his father, seeing as they didn’t have the best relationship; he recounts a time when Pap destroyed his favorite doll because he viewed it as unmanly. His mom, Tedra, (Jasmine Lomax), also recounts how Pap would hit her, “in the tit!”, as she said. Another difference between our modern Hamlet and the original is that he doesn’t actually want to kill his uncle Rev, (also played by Jackson), because his father wants him to. He doesn’t like him, that much is the same, but Juicy dislikes him because he pressures Juicy to be more manly, even encouraging him to fight and be angry, much like Pap. Plus the fact that Juicy recognizes how fast Rev married his mom, and how harmful Rev’s behavior can be to her. Tedra still sees this as an improvement from Pap, though, because even if Rev is mean and toxic, he’s a step up from Pap, and Tedra is scared of being alone, as she states when talking to Juicy about his problems with his uncle.

Accepting a legacy is never as simple as it sounds, whether it be the weight of a crown or a sizzling hot grill. It’s considered an honor to carry what your forefathers have passed down—or at least it should be. Seattle Rep presents a modern adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet called Fat Ham, written by James Ijames. It follows the story of Juicy, an aspiring HR manager, as he battles expectations creeping in from every corner and staying true to himself as a queer and Black man in the rural South. Having so much piled on his plate, Juicy’s various troubles and even that of those around him echo the many realities of swaying in contradiction. It’s hard to know where to start. Through its characters’ struggles, Fat Ham beautifully portrays the struggle of being authentic towards yourself in an environment that doesn’t nurture it.

The play opens by showing off preparations to celebrate Tedra’s (Juicy’s mom) remarriage to Juicy’s uncle, Rev. Juicy is then visited by an anguished spirit in need of revenge: his own father. With the pressure on and a blade thrust into his hands, Juicy’s subjected to countless reminders of his upbringing and is faced with an ultimatum he’s not sure he can carry out, as it goes against his core beliefs. Torn between continuing a toxic cycle and challenging expectations for the men in his family, Juicy sets himself down a path of trial and error.

Into the Woods is a very famous musical, following the story of four very famous fairy tales, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk and Little Red Riding Hood. This play takes place in a forest most of the time.

This musical is about a baker and a wife who have always wanted to have a child of their own, when unexpectedly the witch from next door comes to them and tells them if they really want to have a child they have to find four special items, which are, a cape as red as blood, a cow as white as milk, hair as yellow as corn and lastly a slipper as pure as gold. From there it’s the baker’s and wife’s mission to find those missing items before the time limit or else they will never get their child.

Have you ever seen the play Into the Woods It is a very entertaining and unique play. It's a musical and fairytale play consisting a bit of romance , betrayal , suspense , action , and mystery. The play has dramatic plot twists and has a theme to it. It is hosted in the Fifth Avenue Theater in Seattle W.A. In my opinion I would say to go watch the play Into the Woods in the Fifth Avenue Theater and here are my reasons why.