"My work is border fluid. It exists on a plane with my ancestors and is steeped in a deep tradition that crosses multiple cultures from the Spanish castles of Avila, to the pyramids of Tenochtitlan, to the wild cactus of the Texas brush where in a dark deserted cinema I tasted the lips of my first lover and understood that the truths I’d been sold as a child were fallacy."
David Davila
MAJOR WORKS
by David Davila
AZTEC PIRATES & THE INSIGNIFICANCE OF
LIFE ON MARS
a Latinx Fantasia on National Themes
Johnny Montenegro is an ICE agent trying to put back the pieces of his life after an ugly incident in the field got him suspended from duty. While arresting a man he had already deported two years earlier, he was called a traitor to his race and he beat the accuser half to death, but he couldn’t shake the idea that had been planted within him: was he a traitor to his race? Equipped with only his commands Johnny embarks on an odyssey as he searches for the truth about his country, his culture, and his memory. However with every answer that he finds, there is something inside of him that becomes less clear. His quest to clear his conscience leads him from strip bars to courtrooms to hospitals to morgues, as he seeks the validation he needs to continue living complicitly.
Across borders and allegiances this two part play takes you on a harrowing and disturbing adventure that examines life for Latinx people caught between embracing their roots and conforming to the mob mentality of a Trump-era USA.
Part 1 in the Aztec Pirates Plays
MANUEL VS THE STATUE OF LIBERTY
an undocumented musical comedy
Manuel vs. the Statue of Liberty is a musical comedy about undocumented immigrants and what it means to be American. Manuel is as American as Taco Salad and student debt, but if he wants to go to college himself he'll have to risk coming out as an undocumented immigrant. That could be extra tricky now that new immigration reform laws require all so-called-illegal immigrants to fight the Statue of Liberty (a genderqueer rock n’ roll version of the American icon) in a real life high stakes boxing match for their green-cards. Is Manuel brave enough or even crazy enough to take on the two-hundred and twenty-five ton mammoth of copper and steel? This raucous musical comedy leaps from Latin rhythms to rap and hip-hop to glam rock to soaring Broadway ballads as our hero navigates a treacherous world where any stranger could become an enemy, and even baby Jesus can be deported.
Music & Lyrics by David Davila
Book & Lyrics by Noemi de la Puente
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ANIMAL HUSBANDRY
a gay bedroom drama
Do you have a “type” when it comes to sex and love? Tall? Dark? Blonde? Robust? Danny and Gerry fit each other’s bills to the T, so why are they so wrong for each other? Animal Husbandry is a gay bedroom drama that explores an explosive May-December romance and deconstructs the effects that psychosexual desires can have on our adult relationships.
***WARNING: explicit content, violence, and nudity***
PROMESA
a mariachi musical
Promesa is a mariachi musical across four centuries that takes you on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. Yaretzi, an Aztec woman after the fall of Tenochtitlan, Leonora, a soldadera in the Mexican Revolution, and Milagros, a doctor at the height of the AIDS epidemic, all undertake this difficult pilgrimage to the sacred site at El Tepeyac in hopes of a miracle. Not all of them will get the miracle they want, but perhaps faith itself is the miracle they need.
Music & Lyrics by David Davila
Book & Lyrics by Noemi de la Puente
#52SONGS
a song cycle
A massive year long cycle and vlog composed and performed by David Davila in 2011. Davila challenged himself to write and perform a song a week for an entire year while he vlogged about the process. The result was a large collection of personal, political, hysterical, and often poignant songs reflecting the world of a starving artist living in New York City.
All 52 songs by David Davila
select songs cowritten with:
Steph Nash, Thomas Dieter, Eric Grunin, Sean Havrilla, Maria Guadalupe Davila, Gerardo Davila, Charles Barksdale, Roxanne Cardenas, Yalda Zamiri, Xavier Ciro, and Drew Gasparini.
#52songs was originally performed at the Laurie Beechman Theatre with additional performances at The Triad, The West End, and the Underground.
ADAN Y JULIO Y LA FRONTERA 2003
a gay romance in two exciting acts
Set against the violent backdrop of the Texas/Mexico border in 2003, this action-packed romance follows Adan, a teenage assassin hell bent on getting revenge against the drug lord who killed his entire family. But his plans are turned upside down when he falls in love with Julio; the drug lord's son. He wants nothing more than to runaway with this beautiful creature across the Rio Grande and escape the fates they seem destined to endure, but fate has other plans. Drag Queens and hit men go toe to toe in this dangerous romance filled with adventure that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
THE MESQUITE TREE
an American tragedy
Manuela gave birth to Fatima when she was fifteen. Fatima gave birth to Blanca when she was sixteen. Blanca gave birth to Carmel when she was fifteen. Carmel gave birth to Destiny when she was fourteen. Now Destiny is fifteen and Blanca wants more for her than a life lived as a single mother in a small house in a small town in the Rio Grande Valley with all of her abuelas. Can she break the cycle before it repeats again?
VOX POP!
a post-democratic musical
In the distant future, a group of rebels in an unnamed country hide from their government in an abandoned theatre. Knowing that their time is running out, they pass on a forbidden story to their children about the rise and fall of a mythical nation that was once said to be the greatest.
Book, Music, & Lyrics by David Davila
AZTEC PIRATES & THE INEQUITY OF SACRIFICE
a Latinx Fantasia on National Themes
Three years after the deadly actions of an ICE agent changed their lives forever, Elida wants closure, Carmen wants absolution, and Michelle wants justice. But as they try to move on, looming mysteries and visions of prophetic Aztec Warriors force them into a journey that will entangle their lives further.
Across borders and allegiances this two part play takes you on a harrowing and disturbing adventure that examines life for Latinx people caught between embracing their roots and conforming to the mob mentality of a Trump-era USA.
Part 2 in the Aztec Pirates Plays
HOTEL PUERTO VALLARTA
a legitimate work of dramatic theatre
The Hotel Puerto Vallarta is the second most popular drag hotel in all of sunny Puerto Vallarta - but that ain't saying much considering there are only two. Though it hasn't been remodeled by the fab five or any other interior designer since the early nineties, some would call its shabbiness chic. Still, others would call an Über to take them to a nicer hotel. Still, local drag has been turned hotel manager, Connie Guisada has plans to restore it to it's former glory one day! But those plans could be up in smoke when Connie and the other queens find out that their boss Barbra Coa has plans to sell the hotel to developers. Can Connie prevent the sale of the Hotel Puerto Vallarta by the end of the business day?
THE PIÑATA
a new play
It's 1935 and the lives of several prostitutes in South Texas, and the ranch hands that visit them, are changed forever when Lina creates the most beautiful piñata any of them have ever seen. Is it art? Is it crafts? Is it more of a feeling? Or is it just a piñata that needs to be smashed before Cuca gets an idea she can't un-think? As the ranchers begin to question their place in society, Cuca and Lina find themselves torn between the obligations of the dry Texas brush and the dream that they could actually be together.
THE PIÑATA received a workshop production at Indiana University in February of 2022.
SCISSORS UNDER THE HOUSE
a horror play
When Noelia and Melinda Ramirez find the corpses of three stray cats hanging from their porch they suspect that someone is using dark magic to curse them. They are quick to follow the advice of their local curandera, and dig a mote of protection around their small house. But as Señora Lerma warned, if they find scissors when they dig - it might already be too late. Can they find out who has it in for them and reverse this evil curse before it's too late? And who is this woman wearing feathers that baby Sylvia keeps seeing?
Scissors Under the House is a horror based on true events.
THE INVISIBLE HAND OF GOD
TOUCHED ME IN A BAD PLACE
an interactive power play
When mid-level manager Jaime Ramirez gets the promotion of a lifetime, he’s sure moving his family to central Mexico will change their lives for the better. But his plans are turned on their head when he falls for his employee, a woman dead set on changing working conditions and extinguishing American capitalist ideals. Should he fire her and squash her labor rebellion, risking a sexual harassment suit in the process, or should he join the fight against his greedy employers and sacrifice the fortunes they’ve promised him?
Winner of the National New Play Network Smith Prize for Political Theatre.
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1970'S COLLEGE SEX COMEDY
a derivative farcical flop
It's 1978 in small town South Texas and Freddy Vasquez just dropped acid in order to hype himself up to make whoopie with the hot chick in his dorm room and prove to himself and everyone else that he indeed likes hot chicks. He doesn't. He's actually madly in love with his hunky roommate Greg who walks around in nothing but a towel. Luckily for him, his drug induced Elton John sex fantasy has come to life to help him plot the perfect scheme to get rid of this girl and bed Greg. It's a swinging key-party fantasia packed with penis puppets, K.I.S.S. costumes, and Dolly Parton impersonators! Get ready for a disco-extravaganza you won't soon forget!
Written for the Indiana University Dept of Theatre and Dance, this play had a production in 2023 at IU.
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MEN OF GOD
a play in two acts
As a Catholic priest, Sergio took a vow of chastity, but as a man he has broken that vow again and again. He understands that living a good life is easier said than done, but when he is sent to council a saint-like priest who has been accused of murdering a little boy, everything he has ever believed in will be put into perspective.
NASH POTATOES & DAVEY
a post-hipster duo
Davey & Nash are two songwriters living the Bohemian Dream in Bushwick and writing songs about love, longing, and spiders. Together they lead the audience on a journey of self-discovery and un-ironic "fun and games" including trivia, crossword puzzles, and coloring books. Their heartbreak is your entertainment in this two person commentary on why we feel attraction to the people who haunt us.
Music & Lyrics by
David Davila & Steph Nash
BUTT BABIES NEVER LIVE
a poetry cycle
A massive poetry cycle about life, death, and longing dedicated to the many men I've loved and lusted.
TALES FROM HIGHWAY 281
a song cycle
An semi-autobiographical song cycle about a young boy who doesn't belong in his small town in South Texas and longs to escape.
Tales from Highway 281 originally premiered at Intar Theatre in 2013 as part of the Grass Roots Festival.
ROMAN Á CLEF
a solo musical
After the sudden death of his high school choir director and longtime mentor, Roman, now thirty-five, is completely lost. As he unpacks the memories of his childhood bedroom he relives the hilarious and often painful memories of an adolescence that he begins to realize might have been manipulated by the adults around him. ROMAN Á CLEF is a heart-wrenching solo musical that is most-definitely, one-hundred percent, absolutely not autobiographical!
EVERYTHING IS NOT GOING TO BE OKAY
a new play
Oscar has somehow managed to survive the wars of extinction by sailing down the gulf of Mexico until he finds the one safe place for hundreds of miles in the Northern Mexican city of Matamoros. But in order to stay in the protected haven, he'll have to stand trial and prove to the ruling matriarchy that he isn't to blame for the United States' crimes against Mother Earth.
THE RATTLE OF THE SNAKE & OTHER NIGHTMARES
a chaos
A family struggles with the shame of the unspoken scars of their child's sexual trauma in this hybrid hellscape of nightmares that is equal parts theatre of cruelty and dystopian choreopoem. This poetic divination attempts to speak to an audience's worst fears through devised movement and incantation.
CIBOLO CREEK HAD WATER ONCE
WHERE HEART'S DELIGHT DID BLOOM
a new play
A massive fire is quickly approaching Jeany and Stephen's small South Texas house and everyone for miles has been ordered to evacuate. But Stephen would rather die than abandon the only thing his family has left in the world... even as his very pregnant wife tries to change his mind. Can she convince him to leave before they're trapped in flame or is their fate forever tied to the fate of this doomed planet?