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(PLAINFIELD, NJ) -- Dragonfly Multicultural Arts Center continues its 2025 season with Fade, a powerful and witty play by acclaimed playwright Tanya Saracho, from September 12-14, 2025 at the duCret Center of Art. In Fade, Lucia, a Mexican-born novelist, lands her first TV writing job in a white male-dominated writers' room.
Feeling out of place, she strikes up an unexpected friendship with Abel, the studio’s janitor and the only other Latino in the building. As Abel shares his personal stories, Lucia begins weaving them into her television scripts—blurring the lines between storytelling, authenticity, and exploitation.
Saracho’s play offers a sharp, funny, and thought-provoking exploration of class and race within the Latinx community, while also probing larger questions about ambition, belonging, and identity.
Oldayr Ruiz and Stephanie Villaneuva in rehearsal, photo by Catherine LaMoreaux
This production is directed by Annick Vasquez, who has previously appeared on the Dragonfly stage in Real Women Have Curves and Our Town. Andrew Rodriguez, who appeared at Mr. Webb in Dragonfly’s production of Our Town, assistant directs. The cast features Stephanie Villanueva as Lucia and Oldayr Ruiz as Abel.
Performances will be held Friday, September 12, and Saturday, September 13 at 8:00pm, and Sunday, September 14, 2025 at 3:00pm. Tickets range from $15–20 and are available for purchase online or at the door. All performances take place at the duCret Center of Art (1030 Central Avenue) in Plainfield, New Jersey. WARNING: FADE contains curses and very strong language.
Director Vasquez grew up as a Colombian immigrant in the south and found directing this play deeply personal and profoundly important. She says that “By confronting classism and racism head-on, and by giving voice to the struggle of being Latine in an Anglo world, this production becomes a platform for truth, empathy, and connection.”
Dragonfly Multicultural Arts Center is a nonprofit theater based in Plainfield, NJ, dedicated to producing diverse and inclusive works for family audiences in Central New Jersey. Now in its second decade, Dragonfly has staged more than 30 plays ranging from classics to contemporary works, always with a focus on representation and community connection.
Oldayr Ruiz and Stephanie Villaneuva in rehearsal, photo by Catherine LaMoreaux
