Caribbean King

Overview

Caribbean King is a de-colonial, trans-gressive, adaptive confrontation with Shakespeare’s King Lear in which Cord(elia) fights to survive against a catastrophic hurricane barreling towards his family’s resort, and his hotelier father’s unshakeable belief that he is a daughter, not a son. A love letter to found family and queer community building, the play features a chorus of drag performers who play the role of the hurricane, and has Black, Queer, Diasporic liberation at the eye of its storm.

 

AZ Espinoza is a participant in Philly Fringe Postcards, peer-to-peer review experiment created for the 2025 Fringe by Savannah Reich. 

About the Artist

AZ Espinoza (they/he) is an afro-futurist-trans-masculine-feminist making magic through theatre. As a playwright, director, mover and maker their praxis is grounded in community building, embodiments of queer joy, and decolonial ritual practice. AZs plays include full length works All My Mothers Dream in Spanish (2023 world premiere at Azuka Theatre y Teatro del Sol), Homeridae (2024 NNPN National Showcase of New Plays) and Caribbean King (2023 MAP Fund Finalist). His responses to The Bakkhai, Pericles, Mae West's The Drag, and more, are sites of expression where adaptation serves as a tool for revolution. As director: Savannah Reich's A Series of Meetings (world premiere at Ursinus College); Benjamin Benne's Alma (Passage Theatre); William Shakespeares Macbeth (DelShakes); Alice Childresss Wine in the Wilderness (PAC and BlackBestFriend). Recent embodied performance work has been supported by the SubCircle Residency and Leah Stein Dance Company. AZ is a 2025 Queer Art Fellow and a theater educator for all ages, most recently at Temple University and Haverford College.

Credits