ATC has named Evelina Fernández the recipient of the 2026 National Latine Playwrights Award for her powerful new work Blow Away the Clouds.
An award-winning playwright, screenwriter, and actor, Fernández has built a powerful body of work that amplifies the Mexican diaspora with depth, humor, history, and heart. Raised in Arizona and with strong ties to the Phoenix community, Fernández returns to her home state with a new play set in 1930s Arizona.
In addition to naming the 2026 NLPA winner, ATC will celebrate its third year hosting the National Latine Playwrights Award & Festival at Tempe Center for the Arts on Thursday, September 17. The free event invites the community to experience a staged reading of the prize-winning play, celebrate Fernández’s achievement, connect with artists, and enjoy an evening of music, food, and conversation.
The festival will be led by NLPA Program Director Elaine Romero and directed by José Luis Valenzuela, Fernández’s husband and longtime artistic collaborator. Fernández and Valenzuela are also the co-founders of Latino Theater Company, a Los Angeles-based theatre company dedicated to creating and producing work that explores the diverse experiences of the Latine community.
About Blow Away the Clouds
Set in Arizona during the 1930s, Blow Away the Clouds is a vibrant play with music that explores history, memory, and the lives of its characters through storytelling and song.
The reading will feature a cast of five with live music performed by a guitarist. The cast will also sing throughout the piece, creating an experience that sits somewhere between a traditional play and a musical. Written primarily in English with Spanish woven throughout, the work brings Latine voices and Arizona history to the stage in a deeply personal way.
Fernández is currently developing Blow Away the Clouds at South Coast Repertory.
About Evelina Fernández
Evelina Fernández is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter, and actor whose work amplifies the Mexican diaspora with depth, humor, history, and heart. Her stories move across generations, borders, and memory, exploring the complexities of identity, family, culture, and community.
Fernández received the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Writing of a World Premiere Play for A Mexican Trilogy, published by Samuel French, and again for The Mother of Henry in 2019. Her other acclaimed plays include Solitude (2009), Dementia (2010), Premeditation (2014), and Sleep with the Angels (2022).
Her beloved holiday pageant play, La Virgen de Guadalupe, Dios Inantzin, has been featured in both the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times. She also co-wrote Whittier Boulevard with her colleagues at Latino Theater Company.
Her most recent play, The Storyteller of East L.A. (2026), was commissioned by Latino Theater Company’s Circle of Imaginistas. The production was extended twice by popular demand at the Latino Theater Company and received stellar reviews.
Fernández was part of the Center Theatre Group Writers’ Workshop and is currently developing Blow Away the Clouds at South Coast Repertory. Her adaptation, Antigone: In the Language of Kings, will open at the Getty Villa outdoor amphitheater in September 2026.