We recently connected with Juan Ramirez, Jr. and have shared our conversation below.
Juan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
Some of my earliest childhood memories center on me drawing, using a full page as a single panel – basically storyboarding before I knew it was storyboarding. I would cast among my toys and also select who the camera crew was going to be and stage pretend film shoots – even playing some music in the background from the stereo, to go along with the scenes.
You were cool in school if you had anything that cost money, whether it was Coogi sweater, a walkman, or even comics, or if you were able to rent movies and my father had a friend who ran a video store one block away. I’d absorb everything I watched. I think I was in fifth grade, when one day a friend of mine saw me drawing and proposed a competition. Whoever drew the best drawing was declared winner, a vote taken by the class. I spent the entire weekend creating a story. When it was time to present, he forgotten all about it and drew up some last-minute crap. The class declared him to be the winner. But for the rest of the day, everyone kept talking about my story and how it should be a published comic. That’s when I knew I was a writer.
I got a theory about how artists decide to pursue the professional path. I think three things got to happen to them: Engagement, Encouragement and Enjoyment. Now there’s no exact science to this but over the years, I’ve spoken with artists who recall their first engagement with the art form they now admire, and how it changed their life. Then they talk about Encouragement, and how a teacher – usually a teacher – or an artistic professional gave them honest words about their work, propelling them forward. For me, as a multi-hyphenated artist, encouragement came from various people, at various times. I believe it’s not until you experience Enjoyment, does one commit to the path. And this comes in an unexpected way. It’s not when your stage play goes up on a stage, when you get your first check from your work, or when actors or family members tell you they liked what they saw, but it’s when a stranger connects deeply with your story, and now feels like they know you and with this invitation, you’ve given them the permission to have an experience they will treasure as a forever memory. Every day I get up asking myself if I want to continue this pursuit, and to this day, I keep saying yes.
Juan, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I’m Juan Ramirez, Jr. – a Nuyorican-Chapín Boogie Down Bronx born-and-raised award-winning and internationally produced playwright and screenwriter, monologist, director, actor, filmmaker, producer, poet, rapper, virtual marathoner, and I can make a delicious coquito and steak.
I’m self-made. I’ve been making the rounds in the industry for a long time and as much as it’s a big world, it’s also small and surprising to figure how out many degrees you truly are away from Kevin Bacon. The answer is one.
My most notable theater plays include “Calling Puerto Rico”, recently received a workshop production in 2023 with Pa’lante Theater Company, directed by Rafael Feliciano-Roman, to a sold-out run, going viral on the company’s Tiktok, and later going on a five-city tour in Connecticut, reaching a total of 2,000+ audience members. The play was selected into the 2020 – 2021 Dramatists Guild Fellowship with mentorship from Migdalia Cruz and Lucy Thurber and Elena Araoz. The play was selected as a Miranda Family Voces Latinx Playwriting Competition Finalist with Repertorio Espańol directed by Cándido Tirado and received a workshop reading starring Sean Carvajal (Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train) and Monica Steuer (Fur), along with being a Playwright’s Foundation Bay Area Playwrights Festival Finalist. The play received the 2019 Bronx Recognize Its Own Award (BRIO) part of NYC Dept of Cultural Affairs. The play is about Joél, suffering from agoraphobia via generational trauma, living in NYC, who tries to rescue his grandfather, Aníbal, while Hurricane Maria makes landfall in Puerto Rico. Impacted personally by the natural disaster, I wanted the play to educate audiences about how hope, like us, can still survive.
My solo show, “Broadway Of The Bronx: A Juan Man Show” is about Juan Angel, a Bronx street corner hustler and tour guide, educating gentrifiers on the neighborhood with the real facts about the history of his home, while discovering his longtime girlfriend is pregnant and now, he’s got to make some changes of his own. Selected for Block-by-Block Investigation grant with Rattlestick led by Cusi Cram, where the work began as a historical research project. In 2022, the play received the Bronx Council on the Arts inaugural Bronx Council Visions Fund Production Grant and a Yaddo Residency, where a workshop production was produced, directed by Cándido Tirado with dramaturgy by Carmen Rivera and Pandora Scooter.
I was recently in Chicago for the World Premier of my play “The American Dream”, produced by Subtext Studio Theatre Company, selected to be part of Chicago International Latino Theater Alliance’s Destinos Festival, directed by Omar Vincente Fernandez with a script translation by Kairis Rivera. The play is about Corina, an immigrant from Guatemala who has smuggled her way across the border guided by Efren, her coyote aka human smuggler. Instead of finding freedom, she finds herself imprisoned by Efren, who now holds her inside a safe house, awaiting the final Western Union payment from her husband. Set in the last hour and twenty minutes, Corina begs for her freedom but letting her go is against everything Efren stands for.
My first poetry publication was released in November, funnily titled “Juan By Juan”, which also contains ten theatrical monologues. The book is a pun on my name, while exploring moments of my life with titles like “From Day Juan”, “Chip On Juan’s Shoulder”, “A Product Of Juan’s Environment”, and “A Legend In Juan’s Own Mind”. I hope with this book, readers will reflect on the origin, history and evolution of their own names.
This year, I have been selected for the Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Commission with my play “Of Great Magnitude, or The Earthquake Play”, about facts-based Diego, who tells longtime eccentric girlfriend Xochitl about his science hero, Mexican civil engineer Dr. Leonardo Zeevaert, who built the foundation for the world’s first skyscraper on a highly seismic zone. As Leonardo must win the public opinion of the superstitious people, Diego hopes to win over his potential in-laws.
If it’s not evident by now, I’m a hard worker and what makes me the proudest is that I’m happy with who I’ve become. I grew up in the age of where the old English saying goes “A jack of all trades is a master of none”. Yet, I was determined to follow my curiosity about the art forms I felt connected to instinctually. Some came out of necessity because I had no one else who could help. And recently, I learned the actual complete saying goes like this: ““A jack of all trades is a master of none but oftentimes better than a master of one.”
I’m inspired by the voiceless, I investigate the hard questions, I propose ideas that make the audience work, as an artivist (artist + activist) I focus on healing stories and I seek to reveal characters truths in the most beautiful of ways.
My brand motto is this, I’m an artist with surprises, be it as a writer in front of my laptop, a filmmaker behind the camera, on stage as an actor, or at an open mic performing poetry with a drink in my hand – I am a Juan Man Show.
Follow me on my journey on Instagram at @AJuanManShow. If you’re looking to support an artist, get yourself a shirt on my online store. And if you’re a performer looking for monologues, you’ll find links in my website to free and for sale work, in my Monologue Catalogue.
With many projects on the horizon, check out my website at www.JuanRamirezJr.com
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Since 2006, I sent out my plays and self-produced my own work for a good ten years before I got my first official yes. Now I’m not saying this like a look-how-resilient-I-am or give me a pat on the back. Some may say I was crazy. In fact, some say that if you don’t get anything after ten years, you should give up. But what does that mean exactly? I was still self-producing. I was crafting my skill. I was doing the same thing I did as a kid, sitting on a stoop practicing my rap flow. So I was doing something. This first yes was to a play development program for a play I wrote called “Stroke Of Madness”, about a painter who blames his muse for his lack of inspiration and when she goes missing, her tragedy inspires his next work. After spending the year on rewrites, the play got a reading starring the talented Sebastian Stimman. I got busier and it was shelved. This was in 2016. Today, developments are being made and so, nearly another ten years later, the play will have its first production. Resilience is a mixed bag of commitment, ambition, a plan, the slightest glimmer of hope and the choice to take the first step in the journey.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
Respect art. Keep the library and bookstores open by reading books. Go to museums. Go to the theaters to see the plays and films you believe in. Binge and stream the content that speaks to you. Stop to smell the flowers and then look at the beautifully designed garden. Look up at your neighborhood’s architectural designs. Take a selfie with graffiti. Put your favorite music on repeat. Post artists. Share artists. Always tag the artist. Pay for their meals. Read their articles on CanvasRebel Magazine. Give them standing ovations. Spare them from boring conversation. Tell them a joke. Spare them from the creative ideas you’ll never work on. Hug them. With consent. And if I had to choose only one thing you can do for an artist, it’s show up.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.JuanRamirezJr.com
- Instagram: @AJuanManShow
- Twitter: @JuanMRamirezJr
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ajuanmanshow
- Other: https://linktr.ee/juanmanshow
Image Credits
(For the boxing pic) Photo credits: Franky G Gonzalez (For Grafitti pic) Photo credits: Cristy Reynoso (Juan at music stand and Juan on stage with Calling Puerto Rico) Photo credits: Angela Reynoso