Dominant Animals returns to NYC for Hispanic Heritage Month run

VOE Coqui Productions is bringing Dominant Animals back to Teatro LATEA in New York from Oct. 2-4, 2026, using a Puerto Rican family drama to spark conversations about machismo, trauma, incarceration, and healing. The run is aimed at audiences and organizations working with families, educators, social workers, and community groups.

Why it matters: - Dominant Animals uses a Hispanic Heritage Month run to turn a Puerto Rican family story into a wider conversation about masculinity, trauma, forgiveness, and emotional healing. - The production is positioned as both theater and a community resource for families, educators, social workers, counselors, mental-health professionals, restorative-justice advocates, reentry groups, and community leaders. - The play’s themes connect directly to families affected by incarceration and generational trauma.

What happened: - VOE Coqui Productions is bringing Dominant Animals back to Teatro LATEA in New York City for three performances from Oct. 2-4, 2026. - The play is written by Cris Eli Blak and centers on a Puerto Rican family in Queens facing machismo, toxic masculinity, anger, emotional silence, incarceration, and unresolved trauma. - Executive Producer Eddie Martinez said the company is reviving the production because the conversations it raises should continue inside theaters, homes, and communities. - The October production is directed by award-winning Puerto Rican artist Adrienne Acevedo Lovette.

The details: - The schedule is Friday, Oct. 2 at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 3 at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, Oct. 4 at 3:00 p.m. - Teatro LATEA is at 107 Suffolk Street, Second Floor, New York, NY 10002. - General-admission tickets are 10% off through Sept. 18 and cost $27 during the promotion, down from $30. - Group tickets cost $25 per person for groups of 10 or more and can be arranged directly with Teatro LATEA. - Tickets are available through the Teatro LATEA event page. - Dominant Animals explores whether strength can become emotional isolation and whether accountability and vulnerability can interrupt destructive family cycles. - The play also examines how incarceration can affect a family long after a person returns home. - VOE Coqui Productions says the Hispanic Heritage Month engagement is meant to elevate an authentic Puerto Rican family story while showing Latino theater as both art and a catalyst for dialogue. - The production’s June festival presentation drew audience praise, including descriptions of the play as “profoundly impactful” and “breathtakingly powerful.”

Between the lines: - The production reflects a broader trend in which theater is being used as a convening space for conversations about mental health, reentry, and family repair. - A recent episode of The Voice of Eddie Show on PulsoCentral.com extended the play’s themes into a community discussion with Daisy Laureano, LCSW, a Puerto Rican social worker with more than 20 years of experience across hospital, psychiatric, behavioral-health, geriatric, neurological, and school-based settings. - Laureano said families can love one another while still lacking the language and tools to communicate that love in healthy ways. - Laureano also argued that understanding harmful family patterns does not excuse them, but can help families accept responsibility and build healthier relationships. - The production’s use of a Puerto Rican family drama during Hispanic Heritage Month gives the company a culturally specific frame for questions that reach beyond one community.

What's next: - Organizations interested in group attendance or in extending the conversation through their own programming are invited to contact the production. - Photos, production artwork, interviews, press seats, and additional materials are available upon request. - Dominant Animals is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, which provides fiscal oversight and receives contributions for the production’s charitable purposes.

The bottom line: - Dominant Animals is being staged as more than a play: VOE Coqui Productions wants it to function as a prompt for families and communities to talk honestly about masculinity, trauma, and what healing can look like.