ABOUT THE PLAY
This Pacific Northwest premiere brings the electrifying energy of spoken-word poetry to the stage!
It’s risky for an undocumented young Chicana writer to share her work in public. When this brilliant poet asks her best friend to perform her work onstage, the words ignite audiences and launch her stand-in into the spotlight as a rising Latinx voice. But as the applause grows louder, so do the questions: Who owns a story? Who gets heard? And what happens when activism and ambition collide?
Blending theatre with the pulse of the poetry-slam scene, Brown Face explores friendship, identity, and cultural appropriation with humor, heart, and urgency.
In a city like Portland, where spoken word artistry and social justice have long gone hand in hand, this fierce, powerful, and deeply relevant new play invites audiences to lean in, listen closely, and join the conversation.
Photosensitivity Alert:
This play contains strobe lights, rapid flashing, and intense lighting effects
which can trigger seizures in people with photosensitive epilepsy, and cause
discomfort or vertigo for those with migraines or sensory sensitivities.
Are you a poet, writer, or monologuer?
EVERY performance of Brown Face will open with a 15-minute open-mic slam prologue. Jump in and Share a poem, passage, joke, or story.
To sign up for any 3-minute slot for the slam prologue, email Artistic Associate mia@mintcream-leopard-837177.hostingersite.com
Please note: Brown Face tickets are required for entry to the theatre
Carissa Atallah is an award-winning Southern California playwright. Her debut play, Brown Face, was the 2022 recipient of The Harold and Mimi Steinberg National Student Playwriting Award presented by The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. BROWN FACE also achieved Honorable Mention Status in the Playwright Foundation’s 45th Bay Area Playwrights Festival. Atallah was a 2023 Walter E. Dakin Fellow at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, supported by the Tennessee Williams estate, where she worked under the mentorship of David Adjmi and Talene Monahon. In 2024, she became a fellow in the Candela Fellowship, a flagship program dedicated to fostering theater education for emerging playwrights of Latin American and Caribbean heritage held at the Dramatists Guild of America. Additionally, she is a two-time semi-finalist for The Future of Playwriting Prize, presented by Ucross and The Blank Theatre.
Mia Torres Garcia is an actor, writer, director, and dramaturg. An honors graduate from Gonzaga University (BA, 2024), her education in literature and theater performance launched her into a career at Milagro in 2024. Also in 2024, she received Gonzaga University’s Academic Excellence and Citizenship Award in Theatre Arts Performance. Her film directing debut, won the “Out of Chaos Playing Antigone” film contest (2024). Among the many hats she wears as Artistic Associate, her Milagro directing credits include last season’s FRIDA un retablo and in March 2026, staged readings of Erlina Ortiz’s Las Mujeres, and Alexis Scheer’s Laughs in Spanish as part of our Mundo de las Mujeres celebration. She’s acted with PDX companies Sunstone Theatre and Sparkplug Theatre, and she recently made her Milagro MainStage acting debut playing Doña Leonor in Los Empeños de una Casa.
