Ren Dara Santiago: Dissolving Narratives through Loving Deeply

Welcome everyone! You're in for some deep nourishment today. Our conversation is with Ren Dara Santiago. We cover so many heart centered things in this conversation. We talk about how to dispel narratives through truly seeing someone's heart, building families, her work as a playwright, and so much more.

Ren is a Big Sister first and foremost! Every space carries Beanie, Butchie, and Kaying. This Fila-Rican playwright was born in the Bronx, raised in Yonkers and Harlem at intersections of Coded Streets and Bodega Avenues. She’s proud of her history and shares in the practice of uplifting the wisdom that comes from her community. From the originators and generators. From creators thriving despite the exploitation of our cultures, loved ones, systematic debts, and geographies. Ren writes stories that activate our potential for deep loving, for brave loving, for healing, for the hustlers. For people that work hard. For the real heroes, who deserve their lives to be honored in stories; complex, expansive, simple and great. Theater should give communities room to dream. To honor the unknowable, conjured by theater-makers of resilient lineages, offering us the opportunity to shift the limits of possibility.

Ren is currently working with Rattlestick Playwrights Theater as the showrunner for the MTA Radio Plays, launching December 13th; and commissions with En Garde Arts, The Drama Club NYC, The Theatre Co, and New York Rep. Ren teaches playwriting at the National Theater Institute, MCC Youth Company, Williams College, and Williamstown Community Works.

She is a founding member of Middle Voice at Rattlestick, a member of Rising Phoenix Rep. She's the recipient of the TOW Foundation 2020 Residency at Rattlestick, Rising Phoenix Rep’s Cornelia Street American Playwriting Award, and the MCC Alumni Award. She’s developed work with The Bushwick Starr, Cherry Lane Theatre, Clubbed Thumb, Gingold Theatrical Group, LAByrinth, The Lark Play Development Center, MCC Theater, Ojai Playwrights Conference, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Rising Phoenix Rep, and SPACE on Ryder Farm.

www.rendarasantiago.com

@rendsanti, @rattlestickny