Erlina Ortiz

Erlina Ortiz (she/her/ella) is a Dominican-American playwright, theatre maker, and multidisciplinary artist from Reading, PA. Her heartfelt and humorous plays have been presented across the US and in Philadelphia with Power Street Theatre where she is proud to be Co-Artistic Director and Company Manager. 

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In 2018 her play Las Mujeres received The Bonaly Award for Creation of Community Joy and in 2019 Morir Sonyando was nominated for six Barrymore Awards including Outstanding New Play. In Fall 2021 Young Money premiered at Azuka Theatre and went on to receive the ATCA/Steinberg New Play Award Citation. In 2025 her play She Wore Those Shoes was developed with Urban Theatre Company and American Blues Theatre in Chicago. Her new musical, Siluetas, was developed for the O’Neill National Musical Theatre Conference and premiered with Power Street Theatre in June 2024. It went on to be nominated for 7 Barrymore Awards. In 2022 her play La Egoista was selected for the LTC Comedy Carnaval in Denver going on to win the 2022 National Latine Playwriting Award, premiering at Actors Theatre of Louisville and Skylight Theatre and being featured on the 2023 Kilroy's WEB. It went on to premiere at Philadelphia Theatre Company in October 2024 in association with Edgewood Entertainment.

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Erlina has embarked on the Amtrak Writer’s residency where she traveled across the US in an Amtrak sleeper car, the Signal Fire Residency Outpost Residency where she lived on the side of a mountain for a week, and the UCROSS artist residency where her only neighbors were cows. Erlina was a member of NEXUS with New York Stage and Film and is a two time recipient of the Leeway Art and Change Grant and the 2021 Leeway Transformation Award. In 2023 she was named as a Dramatist Guild Foundation Catalyst Fellow. Erlina has taught theatre and playwriting with the University of the Arts, Power Street Theatre, Philadelphia Free Library, and Blue Stoop. She served on the board of Theatre Philadelphia between 2019 and 2026, is a founding member of the Philadelphia Latine Theatre Alliance, was a University of Pennsylvania Equity in Action Visiting Scholar and somewhere in there she gave the Keynote Address at the Delaware Writer’s Conference on the importance of nurturing your artistic community.

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Erlina believes being an artist is a superpower, she believes in using her powers for good.

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erlinaortiz.com - @erlina6ortiz