Theatre Alumna Cristina (Cha) Ramos '21 Featured in Several Summer 2021 Productions

Theatre alumna Cristina (Cha) Ramos ’21 will serve as the intimacy director of a nude production of Antigonick in Prospect Park later this month. The performance is the latest production from Torn Out Theater. Founded in August 2016, Torn Out Theater is a home for theater projects that push the boundaries of how we see the human body and what we assume about modern sexuality. The theatre company’s previous nude performances include: an all-female version of Shakespeare’s The Tempest in 2016, an all-male production of Hamlet in 2017, as well as a mixed-gender production of Aphra Behn's Restoration comedy, The Rover, in 2018.

Antigonick, written by Canadian poet Anne Carson, is a 2012 adaptation of Sophocles' ancient work, Antigone. Performances will run August 19–August 22 at the Music Pagoda in Prospect Park. There are no reservations, and seating is first come, first served. Further information, including a performance schedule as well as directions, can be found here.

Audiences can also catch Ramos on stage when she performs with the Vixens En Garde, an all-female Shakespeare sword-fighting troupe, at two upcoming Renaissance festivals. As noted on their website, the Vixens En Garde are dedicated to changing the narrative surrounding both Shakespeare and femininity through comic story-telling and powerful swordplay. Ramos performs as Brizo Isleña, “the fierce and flirtatious buccaneer of the Spanish Caribbean who would never forget her small-town-outcast island roots.” The troupe’s impressive repertoire of shortened adaptations include Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Titus Andronicus, Henry V, Coriolanus, The Pirate Show, and The Dueling Show. All of the company’s members are not only trained fighters, but stunt performers as well.

Ramos will perform in the troupe’s upcoming performances at the Capital District Renaissance Festival (August 14–15) as well as the Maryland Renaissance Festival (August  28–29, and September 4–6).

Cristina (Cha) Ramos (she/her/ella) is a multidisciplinary theatre artist focused on the storytelling power of movement. Cha works primarily as a fight and intimacy director for the stage, but can also be found in rehearsal rooms as a dramaturg, playwright, and performer. She is most drawn to queer and Latine work, and is especially adept at working at the intersections of multiple movement styles (intimacy, combat, dance, etc.). Her second original play Fire Burn Them—a 2020 finalist for the Columbia@Roundabout New Play Reading Series—was developed under the guidance of adjunct faculty member Leslie Ayvazian and had an invited reading at Riverside Church. Her third full-length play is an adaptation developed under the guidance of adjunct faculty member Morgan Jenness. You can find more about her work at www.CallMeCha.com