Playwright and University of Notre Dame alumna Dolores Díaz returned to campus on Thursday, March 26, for a staged reading of her play George Washington’s Mexican Birthday at the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center. Directed by Gabrielle Randle-Bent, the reading was followed by a post-show conversation moderated by Anne García-Romero, professor in the Department of Film, Television, and Theatre and ILS Faculty Fellow. Earlier that afternoon, Díaz also met with students for an informal conversation in the Julian Samora Lounge in Bond Hall. Díaz, a 2005 Notre Dame graduate, spoke with students about growing up in Laredo, Texas, her path from science to the arts, and the questions of identity and belonging that shape her work.
Set in Laredo, George Washington’s Mexican Birthday follows a group of high school students preparing for the city’s George Washington Birthday Celebration, a setting Díaz uses to explore identity, ambition, radicalization, and the pressures placed on Latiné students as they imagine their futures. The play was originally developed at the 2024 Goodman Theatre New Stages Festival. During her conversation with students in Bond Hall, Díaz reflected on how leaving home can make identity suddenly feel newly visible. “You don’t really think about our identity,” she said, “because it just feels like home.”
That tension between home, perception, and self-definition was central to the day’s conversations. Díaz told students that some of the play’s questions grew out of her own experience coming to Notre Dame and encountering new expectations around how identity is understood and categorized. She also spoke candidly about the challenge of finding belonging on campus, recalling that “it took me a while to find my people.” In another moment, she described her artistic interests as grounded in places where “identity is unstable enough that it is both serious and at times absurd,” a line that helps illuminate the play’s tone and its layered treatment of race, performance, and belonging.
The reading was co-sponsored by the Department of Film, Television, and Theatre, Letras Latinas, which is the Institute for Latino Studies’ literary initiative, the Franco Family Institute for Liberal Arts and the Public Good, and the Teaching Beyond the Classroom program provided by Mr. Earl Linehan and Mrs. Darielle Linehan. The event also grew out of a larger collaboration between ILS and FTT. In a February article previewing the program, Dr. Karen Richman, Director of Undergraduate Studies at ILS and Latino Studies Professor of the Practice, explained that the idea of inviting Díaz emerged after she and students in the Institute's Cross Cultural Leadership Program attended a Chicago production of Díaz’s Black Sunday in July 2024 and later shared dinner and conversation with the playwright. Richman called the prospect of bringing Díaz back to campus “an unforgettably inspired experience for all.”
For Francisco Aragón, director of Letras Latinas and Latino Studies Professor of the Practice, the event also opened up exciting possibilities for future programming. “When Letras Latinas had an office, and was headquartered in Washington, D.C., my love for the theater skyrocketed,” Aragón said. “So when ILS faculty member Karen Richman pitched the idea of bringing Dolores Díaz to campus to stage a reading of her play, I was all in. Plays are a literary art, after all. My hope is that staging a reading of George Washington’s Mexican Birthday was the beginning of a new trend.”
Student participation was central to the performance as well. The cast and production team included Notre Dame students Ryan Madrid, Eny Ramirez, Jenisse Jarquin, Diego Ramos, and Annika Fernandez, along with Notre Dame alumnus Timothy Merkle and local professional actor Jared Fernley. The visit also extended into the classroom, with Díaz and Randle-Bent visiting García-Romero’s “Playwriting” and “Adaptation” courses, as well as Sarah Gitenstein’s “Acting and Directing New Work for the Stage.” Gitenstein, an assistant professor in FTT, also served as a co-producer of the performance.
Annika Fernandez, an undergraduate who participated in the staged reading and played Magdalena Santos, said the experience pushed her into unfamiliar but rewarding territory. “Although I had no prior acting experience and felt hesitant at first, learning more about the storyline sparked my curiosity about the character and encouraged me to take on the role,” Fernandez said. She added that working with Díaz, Randle-Bent, and the rest of the cast was “truly a rewarding experience,” and that the rehearsal process revealed “the level of commitment and passion shared among the entire team.”
Stephania Sanchez, an ILS Latino Studies Merit Scholar, served as an undergraduate research assistant on the project, said the play’s themes resonated deeply. “Serving as an undergraduate research assistant on this project was especially meaningful, as its themes of Hispanic labeling, navigating multiple identities, and cultural celebration deeply resonated with me,” Sanchez said. “Bringing Dolores Díaz back to Notre Dame as an alumna felt powerful, and her work skillfully builds tension for characters you might initially dismiss and ultimately challenge your assumptions.” Sanchez added that students walked away with “a deeper understanding of identity and a renewed appreciation for storytelling as a way to humanize complex experiences.”
Díaz’s return to Notre Dame brought students into conversation not only with a working playwright, but with an alumna reflecting openly on the path that took her from South Texas to Notre Dame and eventually to the stage. In the Julian Samora Lounge, she offered one more piece of advice that seemed to resonate beyond playwriting itself: “Focus on the work, focus on what you can control.” For students navigating their own questions of identity, vocation, and voice, that message felt especially fitting.