José Rivera

DGF Fellows Program Playwriting Chair

José Rivera’s 26 full-length plays have been seen nationally and internationally and translated into a dozen languages.  His Obie Award-winning Marisol and References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot, both produced by The Public Theatre, NY, are taught at universities around the country.  Other plays include Cloud Tectonics, Sueño, Sonnets for an Old Century, Boleros for the Disenchanted, Brainpeople, Massacre (Sing to Your Children), The Last Book of Homer, Adoration of the Old Woman, Lovesong (Imperfect) and Your Name Means Dream.  His screenplay “The Motorcycle Diaries,” was nominated for 2005 Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar (making him the first Puerto Rican writer so honored), a BAFTA and WGA Awards.   “On the Road” premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.  “Trade” was the first film to premiere at the United Nations.  Rivera co-created and produced “Eerie, Indiana,” (NBC) and was a staff writer on “Penny Dreadful: City of Angels” (Showtime) 2019.  He has written, produced and directed the award-winning short films “The Fall of a Sparrow” and “The Civet,” seen in festivals around the country.  He has served on the boards of Theatre Communication Group and the Sundance Institute and mentored at Sundance Screenwriting Labs in Utah, Jordan, and India and has written all 16 episodes of the TV adaptation of One Hundred Years of Solitude for Netflix.