Esther Banegas Gatica

is a Honduran bilingual playwright, screenwriter, actor, director, producer, translator, script consultant, and teaching artist who works to uplift the experiences of U.S. immigrants and women—constantly showcasing through her creative work a more authentic representation of Latine stories. She’s a graduate of Teatro Prometeo from Miami Dade College. She’s obtained a BFA in theatre from Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She’s taught and performed with/at: Miami Hispanic International Theatre Festival, Syracuse Stage, the Gluck Foundation, Fort Worth Fringe, Breath of Fire Latina Theatre ensemble, and Full Circle Players. Recently, her play “LatiNext” was just named a semi-finalist for the 30th annual Bay Area Playwrights Festival. She is part of the Playground LA writers pool with various plays selected as “Best of”. Esther is a recent MFA Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts graduate of the University of California, Riverside, where she works for the local Black Voice News as a writer, project manager, and audience engagement newsletter coordinator, and as a producer for Hindsight Productions. She is featured in a chapter of the book Latinx Actor Training and Inside the Performance Workshop (A sourcebook for Rasaboxes and Other Exercises), both published in 2023 by Routledge Press, for her work in Teatro Prometeo in Miami. She is a founding board member of the World Builders Incubator as well as a writer developing solutions-based stories. She recently translated subtitles for the Emmy-winning documentary “Eat Your Catfish” and offers her varied expertise as a core member of Distinctive Voices LLC.