I’m Jayne (I hear the Y when I say it), a Queens based (and born and bred, Queens pride!) Puerto Rican nonbinary writer who just completed their MFA in Playwriting at IU Bloomington, with a BA from the Honors College at Fordham University in Lincoln Center. My most recent plays include I never asked for a gofundme, Walter Mercado Presents: A queer Puerto Rican (not just) Christmas Carol, unqle play, and 30 Seconds.  I’m also a performer, having spent my childhood as a showbiz kid. As an adult, I’ve performed with companies such as Theatreworks in Palo Alto, the Aurora Theatre and Berkeley Rep, both in Berkeley, as well as the BRAVA theatre in the Mission District of SF. Recent roles include Garnet McClit in Holly Hughes’ The Well of Horniness and Niece in unqle play, both at IUB. My work has been developed with the New Harmony Writers’ Conference, American Stage, KCACTF at the Kennedy Center, Renaissance Theatreworks, and Coe College, among others. I am a proud member of AEA, SAG-AFTRA, and the Dramatist’s Guild.

Ok, now that THAT’s out of the way. A little about me as a writer. Ever since I was on the school bus writing Princess Jaynie in my black and white composition book while Irene ican’trememberherlastname played the glockenspiel, scenes have made sense to me; they are how I worked through the things I didn’t understand about the world (which were a lot of things).

Now, as a writer (and human), I am uniquely interested in using the theatre to experience the things that can only happen in community, even (or especially?) a community that is created and disbanded in one night of theatre.

As a mixed queer nonbinary human, I live in a lot of gray area, and it is my hope that my work makes inroads in what it means to live between worlds, to live in the gray. I hope that my work can create something like healing, for myself and for those harmed by the binary in all its forms. I hope that the joy and play that shines through in the stories I write is, above all, the biggest act of resistance I can offer within the epic conjuring that is theatre.

In conclusion, I am a cancer sun, virgo rising, and taurus moon; if you just went ‘hmmm’ or nodded knowingly at that information, then you will most likely enjoy my work. If you just rolled your eyes at that information, you will also enjoy my work. I believe the tarot can solve most everyday problems, and what the tarot can’t fix, well-made toast likely can.