Criminal Queerness Festival is a signature National Queer Theater program that supports the development and production of new plays by international and immigrant theater-makers and playwrights experiencing censorship or criminalization in their countries of origin. This is a co-production between National Queer Theater and HERE and presented at HERE’s Mainstage Theater.

frikiNATION

Written by Krystal Ortiz

Directed by Rula A. Muñoz

Music and Lyrics by EsKoria

frikiNation is a historical, bilingual, Cuban punk rock jukebox musical that tells the true story of young punks in Cuba in the early 1990s who took extreme measures to rig the communist system in their favor. In an attempt to access a higher quality of life within the government sanctioned HIV sanitariums, punks across the island started injecting themselves with HIV-positive blood. Using a 2003 album by Cuban punk band EsKoria, frikiNation tells this powerful history by following a pregnant rebel, her new skeptical lover, and a band of misfit friends as they fight to survive and create music in a society that pushes them to the margins. With the help of Maria, a cultural programs director determined to educate and protect them, they navigate love, freedom, and a dangerous plan to secure a better life—no matter the cost.

Content warnings: Abortion, police violence, incarceration.

About the Playwright: 

Krystal Ortiz is a Cuban-American playwright and performer based in both Chicago and NYC. frikiNation has been in development since 2018 and has been supported over the past year by UrbanTheater Company, The Department of Chicago Cultural Affairs, The Movement Theatre Company, The Sol Project, Musical Theatre Factory, ¡OYE! Group, and National Queer Theater. Krystal is also co-producing a documentary about the history of los frikis cubanos with director Carlos Lopez Estrada. Krystal is currently under commission for a new musical via the Goodman Theatre’s 2024-2025 New Stages Residency with collaborator Satya Jnani Chavez. Regional performance credits include: Quixote Nuevo (Denver Center for the Performing Arts), Kid Prince and Pablo (New York Stage & Film Powerhouse; Ars Nova). Select Chicago performance credits include: The Writer (Steep Theatre), Anna In The Tropics (Remy Bumppo Theatre Company), Please, Continue [Hamlet] (Chicago Humanities Festival/MCA Stage), Lettie (Victory Gardens), La Havana Madrid (Teatro Vista, Goodman Theatre), and The Fly Honey Show (The Inconvenience). Krystal is an alumnus of New World School of the Arts in Miami, FL and The Theatre School at DePaul University. www.krystalortiz.com 

EsKoria

Founded as Eskoria del Odio, the band performed regularly in Santa Clara and other cities in Cuba, promoting a punk movement reflected in the bands put together by its former members. In 1995 they recorded the demo Puta vida, of poor quality, followed by Al fin, por fin in February 2003. The band’s career, marked by ups and downs and periods of inactivity, was cut short by the murder of its leader, Wiliam Fabian, on January 31, 2010. Since then, several concerts have been organized in his memory. The last surviving member of the band, Pedro Luis Rios, currently resides in Montreal, Canada, and performs with his band, Beyond Breach.

Festival Schedule:

Tuesday, June 24: frikiNation – 7:00pm