From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Best Playwright

October 18 2006

Teo Castellanos

Miami playwright Castellanos explosively explored gender stereotypes in the two-person show Glossy Page Pimps, taking the part of the oily and unctuous playa opposite his New York-based co-writer, Raquel Almazán. Drawing parallels among the relationships of owner and slave, pimp and prostitute, and prostitute and john, the pair delivered their dialogue Def Poetry Jam-style, examining exploitation from varied viewpoints. Adding to the hip-hop vibe, DJ Snowhite provided an aural backdrop that included songs by Trina, Lil' Kim and Foxy Brown, each of whom deals with sexuality in her own rather-blunt terms. The play, thus far, has been performed only in a September 2005 read-through at the Miami Light Project's tiny Light Box Theater in Miami, but its potency and effect on the audience were undeniable. Even more powerful was Castellanos' Scratch and Burn, which premiered at last year's Miami/Project Hip-Hop and made use of the talented members of Castellanos' D-Project urban-arts collective to lay bare the roots of aggression and the real costs of war through powerful hip-hop and dance.