TEATRO ESPEJO PRESENTS

JOTA

*Please note, our Teatro Espejo ticket link will redirect you to the FAT ELEPHANT ticket site.

JOTA written and performed by Katherine Bahena Benitez

Directed by Manuel José Pickett
Part of our 50th Anniversary Season!

ABOUT THE PLAY

JOTA is a solo performance piece that came to fruition from Katherine's personal lived experiences as a Queer Latine person raised in the Catholic Church. As a result, JOTA carries not only the truth, but the seeds of liberation and strength. We now share their story with the hope of ending the criminalization of being gay.

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT

Katherine Bahena-Benitez (she/they) is a queer Mexican Indigenous multidisciplinary artist, born and raised in Stockton, California. The proud daughter of Mexican and Indigenous farmworkers, she grew up grounded in the values of resilience, determination, and community—principles instilled in her by her family and are now central to how she tells stories.

At 13, Katherine turned to writing as an outlet to express her dreams, fears, and frustrations. While she attended a high school renowned for its performing arts program, she never saw the arts as a viable path. The weight of socio-economic limitations and lack of representation kept her dreams hidden, surfacing only in quiet moments and on the page.

It wasn’t until college that Katherine began to fully embrace her voice as both writer and performer. For the first time, she pursued the arts with intention, overcoming the challenges of being the first in her family to enter such a field. What began as a personal practice evolved into a calling—to uplift stories like hers, ones often erased or overlooked.

Now based between New York and California, Katherine is an actor, writer, director, filmmaker, teaching artist, and model. She has trained with the American Conservatory Theater, the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, California State University Sacramento, and the Broadway Advocacy Coalition at Columbia University. She’s performed with New York Stage and Film, Teatro Línea de Sombra, NYU Skirball, La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, among others. She has been featured in HipLatina, Vogue, Remezcla, Fenty, Voyage LA, Canvas Rebel, Brooks, and Apostrophe Magazine. A Miranda Family Fellow alum, Katherine’s writing has been published in HEROICA, Museum Guild, and the International Human Arts Movement.

Katherine continues to evolve as an artist, expanding her creative practice into photography, music, and creative direction. At the heart of her work is a desire to remember, to make space for stories that reflect sexuality, race, identity, and power, and to leave a legacy that affirms communities often pushed to the margins.

With deep joy, she now debuts her solo show JOTA with Teatro Espejo—the first theater she ever worked with, and where she says, "my dreams came to life."

Katherine says, “Con mucho amor y cariño, I do this for our gente, I do this for us.” 

For more of Katherine IG: @_imjstlivin OR email: bbenitezkatherine@gmail.com

PAST PRODUCTIONS