Julián Mesri '20 and Meropi Peponides '13 Get Ready For World Premiere of Immersive Show

Theatre alums Julián Mesri '20 and Meropi Peponides '13 are part of the creative team bringing to life the World Premiere of CANCIONES, an immersive theatrical experience to take place inside an apartment in Flatbush Brooklyn May 2–24, 2026. 

The show was inspired by the Linda Ronstadt album Canciones de mi Padre and is described as “a site-specific party, an acoustic Mariachi jam, and a family reunion all rolled into an immersive, interactive experience,” according to Broadway World. It follows the Guerrero family reunion. Join three generations of the legendary Guerrero family as they celebrate their family reunion, following them through different rooms in the apartment as they discuss how to and who will uphold the musical legacy of the family. 

CANCIONES is born from collaboration. The play is being put on through the combined efforts of Radical Evolution, Latinx Playwrights Circle, The Sol Project, and Boundless Theatre Company. In addition to Mesri and Peponides, Rebecca Martínez, Beto O’Byrne, and Sara Ornelas are the creators behind the project. 

“We believe that we’re most resilient when we double down on building community and expand our definition of family," shared the creators in a statement. "At a moment when our Latiné and other immigrant communities face horrific state repression, we declare our shared humanity with defiant joy and cranking the music of our ancestors up to 11.” 

Julián Mesri is a New York-based Argentinean-American playwright and composer who makes multilingual plays and musicals in the US and around the world. He is the co-adaptor and composer/lyricist for the Mobile Unit bilingual production of the Drama Desk nominated and LATA award winning Comedy of Errors and Much Ado About Nothing at the Public Theater. His play, The Irrepressible Magic of the Tropics (workshopped at The Playwrights Center) premiered as part of Intar’s 2025 season. He is currently the Judith Champion Musical Theater Launchpad Resident at Signature Theater and a Core Writer at the Playwrights Center. He received an EST/Sloan Commission for his musical Favaloro: A Heart in Pieces. Recent work includes Telo (Live and In Color Finalist, O’Neill NMTC Finalist), Last Coffee in Rockville (NAMT Finalist), and Bartolomé de las Casas Ruins My Pool (O’Neill NPC Finalist). Other work includes composing the live score of Henry 6 at The Old Globe, directing/arranging Songs About Trains with Radical Evolution, music directing and co-orchestrating Brian Quijada’s Somewhere Over the Border (Syracuse Stage, Geva Theater). He has been a member of the Public Theater Emerging Writer’s Group, a Dramatist Guild Fellow, an Emerging Artist of Color Fellow and Usual Suspect at NYTW, a member of Lark's Playwright's Workshop at Second Stage, and a Van Lier fellow at Repertorio Español. His modern staging of Fuenteovejuna received the HOLA Gilberto Saldivar Outstanding production award. He has also translated dramatic works for the Lark US/Mexico Exchange and PEN World Voices. He received his MFA in Playwriting  from Columbia University.

Meropi Peponides is a theater maker, dramaturg, curator, podcast producer, writer, and co-founder of Radical Evolution. She served as a co-creative director of the 2026 and 2025 Under the Radar Festivals, and was producer and then co-director at Soho Rep from 2014–2023. She has been co-creating and producing theatre for 20 years with a focus on devised ensemble work, new plays, site-specific work and community-based performance. Her work explores cross-cultural affinity and seeks to disrupt cultural hierarchies by drawing inspiration from BIPOC and nonwestern traditions. Upcoming with Radical Evolution: Hunger (working title, commission from Soho Rep), and season two of Performing the Revolution. Select fellowships/Speaking Engagements: UTNT Guest Respondent 2026, Socialism 2024 Conference, 2024 Sobremesa with A Todo Dar productions. Other organizations with which she has collaborated include Pig Iron, The Foundry Theatre, and The Movement Theatre Company. BA, UCLA. MFA, Columbia University (Dean's fellow).