Bio

Tere Martínez is a Puerto Rican playwright and educator. For more than thirty years, her commitment to teaching underserved and academically challenged populations has led her to the development of innovative drama-in-education techniques and projects. Tere has taught both high school and college students in New York, including several CUNY campuses. In 2018, she started the educational theatre program Raíces y Acción: Construyendo Comunidad with her wife Barbara Vlahides. The program is designed for Puerto Rican high school students and aims to create a new generation of leaders on the island.

Tere’s teaching experience has had a profound impact on her playwriting. Her commitment to education has inspired her to write about a wide variety of socially relevant topics, including community organizing, leadership, racism, HIV awareness and mental disorders. In 2023, she was recommissioned by CUNY Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez to write an updated version of her play Chain Reaction about the life and work of Puerto Rican community leader Antonia Pantoja. Her other educational plays Grit, Nihonjin Face, I Want You by My Side, Literal, Mar y Sol, Guerrilla Boricua and …and there’s always the stars…, were also commissioned by theaters or schools. Her print piece, Se valiente…son tus senos, about the importance of breast-cancer detection, was distributed nationwide.

Tere’s plays have been produced both in the United States and Puerto Rico by the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, TeatroStageFest, Pregones Theater, Tacoma Arts Live, Hostos Repertory Company, and IATI Theater, among others. Her most recent play, Paradise, a snapshot of life in Puerto Rico today, was commissioned and produced by La Lengua Teatro in San Francisco in the fall of 2024. Her theatrical adaptation of When I Was Puerto Rican, and her original plays, Borinquen vive en El Barrio, Mi última noche con Rubén Blades and For Mi Chichí, have toured the United States and Puerto Rico, appearing at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, CityParks Theater in New York City, and other locales.

In 2019, Tere’s play Mi última noche con Rubén Blades was published in the anthology Teatro Latino: Nuevas Obras de los Estados Unidos. Her plays have been studied in Latino studies and literature programs at several universities. Her work has been featured in books and publications about Latino theater in the United States. In 2025, Tere was awarded the prestigious fellowship Letras Boricuas by the Mellon Foundation and the Fondo Flamboyán para las Artes. Other awards include Outstanding Achievement in Playwriting (HOLA) 2008, Distinguished Educator of the Year (Hostos Community College) 2010 and a 2011 NYSCA playwriting grant.

Tere received her M.A. in Educational Theater from New York University.

Together with Brigitte Viellieu-Davis, she represents The Dramatists Guild of America in Puerto Rico.