Reina
Created by Augusto Bitter
Direction and Set Design
by Claren Grosz and Augusto Bitter
Produced by Pencil Kit Productions and Buddies in Bad Times Theatre as part of the 2025 Genrefuck series.
Composition - Y Josephine
Performer - Jaime Lujan
Sound Designer - Mickey Rodriguez
Lighting Designer - Shawn Henry and Nathan Bruce
Stage Manager - Taylor Zalik-Young
Deaf Interpreter - Courage Bacchus
Deaf Consultant - Juan Jaramillo
Photo by Warren Kang
Teaser by Drew Berry
She taps her foot, in line for food. She gets elbowed in her kidney, she studies, she sips soup, she makes arepas, she puts on makeup. She studies, she sips soup, she makes arepas, she puts on makeup. She tugs on her Adam’s apple - can she remove it? - and flings her jaw across the room.
Reina envisions the many lives of the anonymous woman depicted on a bag of Harina P.A.N. corn flour. A movement-centric hybrid between theatre, dance, and performance art that resists categorization, it invokes and celebrates personal femininity through a collection of poems, stories and choreographies in conversation with music by Y Josephine.
Photo by Eden Graham
Photos by Eden Graham
“Working on Reina was nourishing. I love movement based work, and Reina is a piece built around the body. Augusto creates pieces that feel delicious to move through.
I first witnessed Augusto perform Reina as a work-in-progress in 2020, my last in-person gathering - the day before lockdown. Joining the team as co-director in 2025, it was a joy to meet Reina all over again in the form of Jaime Lujan.
We invite the audience into Reina’s kitchen - our set features a witchy invocation circle of yellow kitchen objects, new and old, with the scent of freshly baking arepas in the air. Watching Reina feels like sharing a meal. The journey Reina takes you on isn’t logical or linear, it’s many small plates of poetry and impressions that wash over the pallet. I focused on drawing out the unique texture of each vignette Augusto had written and choreographed, so that each metaphorical bite along the way felt surprising and balanced.”
Rehearsal photos by Warren Kang
