The Ayahuasca Play
An Irons in the Fire Project
In collaboration with Page 73
By Lori Felipe-Barkin
Directed by Sarah Blush
Thursday, June 4, 2026 @ 3:30pm
Puerto Rican Traveling Theater
304 W 47th St, New York, NY 10036
Attendance is free but seating is extremely limited and by reservation only.
Performed By
Frankie Alvarez
Annie Fox
Fernando Gonzalez
Matías De La Flor
Octavia Chavez-Richmond
Juanita Castro-Ochoa
Stage Manager: Brynn Lilah Sklar
Production Assistant: Ana Carol
Synopsis
Dr. Nolan has been gone for one year and K'uychi Allpa, a Kichwa community in the Amazon rainforest, is struggling to stay afloat. Rudy, a U.S. veteran, turns to Ayahuasca as his last resort and Shae, an ex-evangelical-turned-devout psychonaut, is filling the void Dr. Nolan left as well as healing the one inside of her. The Ayahuasca Play is a trilingual (English, Spanish, & Kichwa) theatrical piece that explores the complexities around burgeoning Ayahuasca tourism in the Amazon rainforest in which themes of spiritual hunger in the 21st century, globalization, and the porous lines between exploitation and spiritual elevation collide.
Playwright
LORI FELIPE-BARKIN [she/her] is a bilingual (English & Spanish) playwright, performer, and voiceover artist based out of NYC and Miami. She is the 2025 Page 73 writing fellow and 2026 NYSCA grantee. Her plays include Flor Underwater, Ama. Egg. Oyá., and The Peepholeman. Her work has been selected to be read at Play Penn, Iati Theater, INTAR Theater, Playwrights Horizons, La Jolla, and BAM Fischer Theater. She has been a finalist for the 2023 Risk Theatre Award, the 2023 Austin Film Festival Playwriting Competition, and the 2024 Royer Award. She also received an honorable Mention for the 2021Terrence McNally Award. She holds an MFA in playwriting from Brooklyn College.
Director
SARAH BLUSH [she/her] directs, writes and develops original projects for theatre, TV and more. Select directing: Lightning Rod Special’s Lions (Cannonball Festival; upcoming Edinburgh Fringe 2026); Racecar Racecar Racecar by Kallan Dana (A.R.T./NY); Bailey Williams’ Coach Coach (Clubbed Thumb), Events (The Brick), & I thought I would die but I didn’t (The Tank; Time Out Critics Pick); Future Wife: Party in a Spreadsheet w/ reid tang (New Georges); Sehnsucht (JACK; NYT Critics Pick). Sarah has developed new works with P73, Ars Nova, Rattlestick, Coffey Street, The O’Neill, The Playwrights Center, Williamstown Theatre Festival, HERE, Bushwick Starr, The Public Theater and more. Sarah is a recipient of the Clubbed Thumb Directing Fellowship, New Georges Audrey Residency, Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, Colt Coeur Artist Residency, Barn Arts Residency, and New York Society Library’s Emerging Female Artist Grant. Teaching/ Guest Directing: Brown MFA, NYU Graduate Acting, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, UAlbany, and NYU: Meisner, Playwrights Horizons, and The Atlantic studios. Sarah’s original TV pilot PREMONITION, an erotic thriller-meets-stoner romcom (co-written with Sofya Levitsky-Weitz), was developed with Lionsgate and Peacock. @sarahblush.
Poster Sketch by Sean Devare