Cándido Tirado is a Puerto Rican playwright who moved to the Bronx from

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

at age 11.Gibson, Lesley. "A Conversation with Cándido Tirado." A Conversation with Cándido Tirado. OnStage Magazine, n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2015.http://www.goodmantheatre.org/articles/a-conversation-with-candido-tirado/ Tirado is currently a resident playwright for Teatro Vista in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. In the United States his works have been produced by theater companies such as Teatro Vista,

Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre The Puerto Rican Traveling Theater is a theater company based at the 47th Street Theater in New York City. It was founded as El Nuevo Círculo Dramatico (The New Drama Circuit) by Míriam Colón and Roberto Rodríguez. It was one of the first Pue ...

, and the Goodman Theatre."Artist Bio." Cándido Tirado. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2015.http://www.goodmantheatre.org/Artists-Archive/creative-partners/playwrights/Candido-Tirado/ His works have also been produced outside of the United States, in places such as the

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and the

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. Tirado has taken part in directing and writing for INTAR theater's annual one-minute play festival. Tirado is married to

Carmen Rivera Carmen Rivera (born October 1, 1964) is an American playwright, teacher, and producer. Working for over 20 years in the arts, she is best known for her play ''La Gringa'' (1996) and the musical ''Celia: The Life and Music of Celia Cruz'' (2007), w ...

who is also a playwright. Together they co-wrote the award-winning musical ''Celia: The Life and Music of Celia Cruz'' which has been performed in places such as

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, and

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. Along with his wife, Cándido Tirado established a touring company that takes social issues to schools called Educational Play Productions."Cándido Tirado." Cándido Tirado. Web. 24 Nov. 2015. . This touring company produces shows that are meant to be told in the voices of the young people they speak to, which are elementary school students, middle school students, and high schoolers. These works are produced to showcase the choices and the consequences that inner-city youth are confronted with in response to their choices. Tirado has also directed a couple of plays written by Rivera including ''The Fall of Rafael Trujillo'' and ''Julia de Burgos: Child of Water''."Directing." Cándido Tirado. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2015.http://www.candidotirado.com/directing.html Other plays Tirado has directed include ''Growing up Gonzales'', ''Within the Skin of Saints'', and his very own ''Fish Men'', ''First Class'', ''Momma’s Boyz'', and so on. One of Tirado's goals in writing his plays is to get his audience angry about the issues that are going on in today's world and for them to leave the theater feeling empowered. Tirado's focus is not to put the spotlight specifically on Latinos, but to leave people with an understanding that "Latino" is becoming "the center of world cultures—African, ndigenous,European and Asian—because for imLatino culture is rooted in all these other cultures". Tirado's publications are as follows: The Chess Plays, Fish Men and King Without a Castle: NoPassport, First Class: Arte Publico Recent Puerto Rican Theater, Five Plays from New York; Penguin, Mentor Books; Some People Have All the Luck: Nuestro New York: An Anthology of Puerto Rican Playwrights; Ilka-The Dream: Positive/Negative – Women of color and HIV and AIDS, Aunt Lute Publishers. Some of Tirado's works include ''When Natural Calls'', ''Abuelo'', ''The Missing Colors of the Rainbow'', ''Hey There Black Cat'', and ''La Canción''.

Screenwriting

Tirado's screenwriting background includes being a staff writer for six episodes of the TV series East WillyB in 2013. He was also a staff writer for the show Ghostwriter

Accomplishments

Tirado's accomplishments include four fellowships from the

New York Foundation for the Arts The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is an independent 501(c)(3) charity, funded through government, foundation, corporate, and individual support, established in 1971. It is part of a network of national not-for-profit arts organizations ...

(NYFA), an Edgerton Foundation New Play Award (TCG), and an HOLA award for Best Musical for his musical ''Celia: The Life and Music of Celia Cruz'' (2008). Tirado's play ''Two Diamonds'' was nominated and became a finalist for the National New Play Network's (NNPN) National Showcase of New Plays."Six Scripts Selected for NNPN's 2014 National Showcase of New Plays in Sarasota This Weekend." BroadwayWorld.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2015.http://www.broadwayworld.com/washington-dc/article/Six-Scripts-Selected-for-NNPNs-2014-National-Showcase-of-New-Plays-in-Sarasota-Next-Month-20141120 Cándido was nominated for a Humanitas award for the show ''Ghostwriter''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tirado, Candido 21st-century American dramatists and playwrights Living people American people of Puerto Rican descent Year of birth missing (living people) Writers from the Bronx Place of birth missing (living people) Hispanic and Latino American dramatists and playwrights Puerto Rican dramatists and playwrights