THIRD PERSON Debuts: A Radical, Minimalist Play for the Moment
Award-winning playwright Catherine Filloux and rising star Felipe Salinas reunite for a searing epistolary drama exploring grief, activism, and accountability—premiering September 20 at NYC’s CultureHub.
THIRD PERSON
A Bold New Epistolary Play Reuniting Acclaimed Playwright Catherine Filloux with Rising Star Felipe Salinas
Written by CATHERINE FILLOUX
Starring FELIPE SALINAS
Directed by ELENA ARAOZ
THREE PERFORMANCES - ONE DAY ONLY
SEPTEMBER 20, 2025 AT CULTUREHUB
This fall THIRD PERSON, the powerful new play by award-winning playwright and librettist Catherine Filloux, will World Premiere at CultureHub in a one-day only, three performance event. Known for her deep commitment to human rights storytelling, Filloux brings a searing new piece to the stage, written specifically for 15-year-old Felipe Salinas, who also starred in her livestream play about children and deportation, Turning Your Body Into a Compass. THIRD PERSON will play three performances on September 20 at 2 pm, 6 pm, 8 pm at CultureHub (47 Great Jones St., 3rd Fl, NYC). Tickets are FREE with a suggested donation at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/third-person-tickets-1378019035029?aff=oddtdtcreator
Told entirely through letters, emails, and dictated messages, Third Person is an epistolary play that centers on Octavio, a passionate high school student, his mother Diane, an English teacher and poet, and Robert, a wealthy CEO of a defense conglomerate and parent at Octavio’s school. What begins as a personal inquiry becomes a profound reckoning with silence and accountability.
The role of Octavio was written for Salinas, now stepping into the spotlight in a production that bridges generations and communities. Directed by Elena Araoz, the show builds on her past collaborations with Filloux (How to Eat an Orange, Kidnap Road) and features casting by Pat McCorkle, with an innovative multi-cast approach that invites rotating interpretations of the three roles.
Filloux has designed Third Person to be sustainably produced in a range of settings—from major institutions to underserved spaces—with a minimalist staging model: three microphones, a table, and lights. This radical simplicity shifts the focus back to the words, the actors, and the urgent themes of the play: student activism, corporate power, mental health, and the fight to be heard. There is a missile-like precision, where humour, poetry, passion, intelligence are used to exact effect.
Catherine’s work has been praised in the press:
“Catherine Filloux’s plays are more than just stories, they’re catalysts; they aim to send you forth from the theater not just satisfied and thinking but to make change in the world.” — Matt Barbot, Immigrant Report
“Opera Against the Patriarchy.” — Alex Ross, The New Yorker (on Orlando, Vienna State Opera)
“The man who invented the word genocide, Raphael Lemkin, turns out to have an unsettled afterlife in the compelling drama by Catherine Filloux… A call to action.”— Neil Genzlinger, The New York Times (on Lemkin’s House)
THIRD PERSON will play three performances on September 20 at 2 pm, 6 pm, 8 pm at CultureHub (47 Great Jones St., 3rd Fl, NYC). Tickets are FREE with a suggested donation at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/third-person-tickets-1378019035029?aff=oddtdtcreator
Running Time: 60 minutes
Website: Culturehub.org and CatherineFilloux.com
BIOGRAPHIES
CATHERINE FILLOUX (Playwright) is a French-Algerian-American playwright and librettist who has spent over three decades addressing the aftermath of human rights violations. Her work has been produced internationally and includes operas and plays on topics such as the Khmer Rouge genocide (Where Elephants Weep), prison reform (whatdoesfreemean?), and child separation (Compass). She is the recipient of the Grawemeyer Award and a Voice for Change Award from the Asian American Arts Alliance.
ELENA ARAOZ (Director) is a stage director of theater, opera, multi-media performance, and large-scale immersive theatrical events, working internationally, Off-Broadway, and across the country. Elena is attracted to epic stories, and her productions are known for huge dance-like theatrics and acutely naturalistic acting. The New York Times has praised Araoz's productions as “form-busting and gorgeous,” “striking,” “primal,” “wild,” “stirring,” and “refreshingly natural,” The Boston Globe as “riveting,” “dreamy,” and “vivid,” and The New Yorker as “refreshing.
FELIPE SALINAS, an actor and singer, is in high school, having appeared in plays at Symphony Space, on television for Showtime and PBS, and in commercials. He performed at the 14th Annual International Human Rights Summit at the United Nations. He plays football and soccer, as well as the guitar. Felipe was also in Filloux’s play “Danny” directed by Regina Taylor in her series Love and Kindness in the Time of Quarantine for Planet Connections.
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