frikiNation, a musical by Krystal Ortiz with music & lyrics by EsKoria. Direction by Rula A. Muñoz and music direction by Jaime Cepero.
A staged concert reading presented as part of Carnegie Hall's Nuestros Sonidos Festival. In partnership with The Sol Project and The Movement Theatre Company, with support from Musical Theater Factory, ¡OYE! Group, and National Queer Theater.
frikiNation is a new historical, bilingual, Cuban punk rock jukebox musical that tells the true story of young punks in Cuba in the early 1990s who took extreme measures to rig the communist system in their favor. In an attempt to access a higher quality of life within the government-sanctioned HIV sanitariums, punks across the island started injecting themselves with HIV-positive blood. Using a 2002 album by Cuban punk band EsKoria, frikiNation tells this powerful history by following a pregnant rebel, her new temperamental lover, and a band of misfit friends as they fight to survive and create music in a society that pushes them to the margins. With the help of Maria, a cultural programs director determined to educate and protect them, they navigate love, freedom, and a dangerous plan to secure a better life—no matter the cost.