a Dominican-American playwright, performer, and theatre maker from Reading, Pennsylvania. Her heartfelt and humorous plays ranging from topics of gentrification, women's rights, and cultural preservation have been presented with Power Street Theatre where she is proud to be Co-Artistic Director. In 2018, her play Las Mujeres received The Bonaly Award for Creation of Community Joy and in 2019 her play Morir Sonyando was nominated for six Barrymore Awards including Outstanding New Play. Erlina has received the Amtrak Writer’s residency where she traveled across the United States in an Amtrak sleeper car, the Signal Fire Outpost Residency where she lived on the side of a mountain for a week, and in 2019 she gave the Keynote Address at the Delaware Writer’s Conference on the importance of nurturing your artistic community. In 2021 she began serving as secretary of the board for Theatre Philadelphia.
Erlina was a member of NEXUS with New York Stage and Film and is a two time recipient of the Leeway Art and Change Grant and the 2021 Leeway Transformation Award. In Fall 2021, she received her professional Philadelphia premiere with Young Money (Azuka Theatre) which went on to receive the ATCA/Steinberg New Play Award Citation. In 2022, her play La Egoista was selected for the LTC Comedy Carnaval in Denver, Colorado, going on to win the 2022 National Latine Playwriting Award and her new musical Siluetas was selected for the O’Neill National Musical Theatre Conference. She has taught playwriting with the University of the Arts, Power Street Theatre, and Blue Stoop. Erlina believes being an artist is a superpower; she believes in using her powers for good.
