{"id":269113,"date":"2026-08-20T22:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T22:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/269113\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T22:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T22:16:08","slug":"jersey-arts-podcast-ritz-theatre-companys-production-of-la-gringa-broaches-life-on-the-periphery-of-a-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/269113\/","title":{"rendered":"Jersey Arts Podcast: Ritz Theatre Company&#8217;s Production of &#8216;La Gringa&#8217; Broaches Life On the Periphery of a Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newjerseystage.com\/content\/author\/gina-marie-rodriguez\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gina Marie Rodriguez<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jerseyarts.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">JerseyArts.com<\/a><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p>originally published: 08\/20\/2026<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/La Gringa Feature Stories 1920x1080.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"313\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s episode hits extra close to home for host Gina Marie Rodriguez. As a member of the Puerto Rican diaspora who often feels neither here nor there, she says she is honored to get the chance to speak with the director and cast of the <a href=\"https:\/\/ritztheatreco.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ritz Theatre Company<\/a>\u2019s production of \u201cLa Gringa.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>La Gringa, written by Carmen Rivera, is the story of a young woman\u2019s search for her identity. Mari\u00ada Elena Garcia goes to visit her family in Puerto Rico during the Christmas holidays and arrives with plans to connect with her homeland. Although this is her first trip to Puerto Rico, she has had an intense love for the island, and even majored in Puerto Rican Studies in college. Once Maria is in Puerto Rico, she realizes that Puerto Rico does not welcome her with open arms.<\/p>\n<p>Recording this episode while in Puerto Rico herself, on location for a short film with a very similar theme, this interview is special to Rodriguez. Culture should not be gatekept. This is a story of reclamation.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.buzzsprout.com\/1818424\/episodes\/19677532-ritz-theatre-company-s-production-of-la-gringa-broaches-life-on-the-periphery-of-a-culture.mp3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ListenToPodcast.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"200\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Stay tuned to hear from the cast and creative behind \u201cLa Gringa.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newjerseystage.com\/advertise\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Promote your shows at New Jersey Stage! Click here for info<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Gina Marie Rodriguez, JerseyArts.com originally published: 08\/20\/2026 Today\u2019s episode hits extra close to home for host Gina&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":["post-269113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}