Montserrat Mendez
​WRITER/DIRECTOR
​
​ESCRITOR/DIRECTOR

​"You're unfamiliar with Montserrat Mendez, you say? Oh My dear, then you must go off to your garrulous Google, or your yappy Yahoo and absorb all you can about him. He is - and I say this with envy - a perfectly marvelous playwright... A Comic Masterwork… A veritable monsoon of precisely executed comedy, I hardly expected thoroughly stupid to be so bright." ​Leonard Jacobs - Backstage
Montserrat Méndez: Writer. Director. Professional Troublemaker.

Born in Puerto Rico, and now a Jersey boy baptized in the raw, unfiltered chaos of New York’s indie theater scene, Montse crafts stories that hit like a gut-punch wrapped in a velvet glove. He’s got English Literature, Spanish Literature and Theatre degrees from the University of Scranton.

His play Thoroughly Stupid Things (a Wildean grenade of wit) won Outstanding Playwrighting at FringeNYC 2008. His chamber musical El Fuego Y Su Heredero; about Lolita Lebrón’s armed uprising in the U.S. Capitol was a finalist for the Perelman PAC’s Democratic Cycle. Because nothing says "musical" like revolution.

As a director, he’s left his fingerprints all over NYC:  Manhattan Theatre Source, Nylon Fusion Collective. He is a core work member of Flux Theatre Ensemble; where he’s unleashed plays like Rebecca Roman Redd at the Most Dangerous Hour, A Full-Blown Horror Story and The Residencies.

Screenwriting? Oh, he does that too. Nicholl Fellowship Top 10 (A Trial of Spies). Sundance Labs Second Rounder. Athena List Finalist with A Woman of Brooklyn. 

​Dramatists Guild member.
Retro Productions company artist.
Because history deserves to be stolen back
with style, brains, and a little blood on the page.
Montserrat Méndez: Escritor. Director. Agente del Caos Profesional.

Nacido en Puerto Rico y ahora un muchacho de Jersey bautizado en el caos puro y sin filtros de la escena teatral independiente de Nueva York, Montse crea historias que golpean como un puñetazo envuelto en un guante de seda. Tiene títulos en Literatura Inglesa, Literatura Española y Teatro de la Universidad de Scranton.

Su obra Thoroughly Stupid Things (una granada de ingenio al estilo Wilde) ganó el premio a Mejor Dramaturgia en el FringeNYC 2008. Su musical de cámara El Fuego y Su Heredero, sobre el levantamiento armado de Lolita Lebrón en el Capitolio de los EE.UU., fue finalista del Democratic Cycle del Perelman PAC. Porque nada dice "musical" como la revolución.

Como director, ha dejado su huella por toda Nueva York: Manhattan Theatre Source, Nylon Fusion Collective. Es miembro clave de Flux Theatre Ensemble, donde ha estrenado obras como Rebecca Roman Redd at the Most Dangerous Hour, A Full-Blown Horror Story y The Residencies.

¿Y guiones de cine? Ah, también hace eso. Top 10 del Nicholl Fellowship (A Trial of Spies). Segunda ronda en Sundance Labs. Finalista del Athena List con A Woman of Brooklyn.

​Miembro del Dramatists Guild.
Artista de Retro Productions.
Porque la historia merece ser reclamada
con estilo, cerebro y un poco de sangre en la página.

ARTISTIC STATEMENT

I believe language is one of the most powerful weapons ever created. Twice in my life, violence has tried to take me, leaving me with a cracked skull, lifelong tinnitus, a shattered jaw, two stab wounds, and a need for new front teeth. And yet, I’ve chosen to return this brutality with words as my weapons.

Theatre is a living, breathing battleground for the soul, a place where characters reveal their scars and fight for their humanity. As a queer, Latino, disabled playwright and filmmaker, I interrogate the intersection of identity and survival, the quiet rebellions of those who refuse to be taken by the darkness. I write to disturb, to inspire, to leave you in stitches, to remind you that we only have one life. Live it to the hilt and wear it gloriously.

I want my audience to leave the theater questioning their own resilience and their own defiance. I want them to ask: How do we fight back? How do we carve out space for ourselves in a world that tries to erase us?

I am Montserrat Mendez. I am a playwright and filmmaker. And I wield words as weapons to ensure no one is silenced.

MANIFIESTO ARTÍSTICO
​

Creo que el lenguaje es una de las armas más poderosas jamás creadas. Dos veces en mi vida, la violencia ha intentado arrebatarme, dejándome con el cráneo fracturado, tinnitus de por vida, la mandíbula destrozada, dos puñaladas y la necesidad de nuevos dientes frontales. Y, sin embargo, he elegido responder a esta brutalidad con palabras como mis armas.

El teatro es un campo de batalla vivo y palpitante para el alma, un lugar donde los personajes revelan sus cicatrices y luchan por su humanidad. Como dramaturgo y cineasta queer, latino y discapacitado, interrogo la intersección entre identidad y supervivencia, las rebeliones silenciosas de quienes se niegan a ser consumidos por la oscuridad. Escribo para incomodar, para inspirar, para hacerte reír a carcajadas, para recordarte que solo tenemos una vida. Vívela al máximo y llévala con orgullo.

​Quiero que mi audiencia salga del teatro cuestionando su propia resiliencia y su propia rebeldía. Quiero que se pregunten: ¿Cómo luchamos? ¿Cómo nos abrimos espacio en un mundo que intenta borrarnos?
Soy Montserrat Mendez. Soy dramaturgo y cineasta. Y empuño las palabras como armas para asegurar que nadie sea silenciado.

AWARDS, RECOGNITIONS & "NEAR RECOGNITIONS"
​

2025
Redbull Short Play Festival
Finalist
Viva Puerto Rico Libre! 

2025
Terrence McNally New Works Incubator at Rattlestick
SemiFinalist
Sombraluz O La Presencia

2025
New Jersey State Council for The Arts Finalist Award
Sombraluz O La Presencia
A Game of Cunning

2025
Mid-Atlantic Arts Finalist - 2025
Sombraluz  O La Presencia

2024
Finalist
The Democratic Cycle 
The Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC NYC) and Civis Foundation (a Galvan Initiatives affiliate)
El Fuego Y Su Heredero

2024
People's Theatre Project
Playwright's Unit Fellowship
Sombraluz

2024
Map Fund Grantees 
Portal Magic Consensus Time
as part of the Flux Theatre Ensemble

2023
Second Round
Creative Capital Award 
A Trial of Spies 

2022
Second Round Finalist
Sundance Directors Lab
A Woman of Brooklyn

2021
Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting
A Woman of Brooklyn
​Top 20%

2021
Finalist
Spotify Sound Up
LatinX Program

2015
Finalist
Athena List
Chisholm - A Woman of Brooklyn

2008
Outstanding Playwriting Award
New York International Fringe Festival
The Importance of Being Earnest Part Deux:
Thoroughly Stupid Things

2008
Finalist
Orlando Shakespeare Theater
PlayFest
The Importance of Being Earnest Part Deux:
Thoroughly Stupid Things

2008
Finalist (Top 30)
Nicholl Fellowship
A Trial of Spies
​