Stage & Screen

Cristina has written and directed two short films, Tallulah and Disappearing Act (adapted from A Puff of Orange Smoke by Lael Littke). Disappearing Act was produced by Black Lion Films for San Francisco Public Access Television. Tallulah was originally produced by Cloud and Daybreak Productions in Northern California, and more recently by Corvallis Film Lab (CFL) in Corvallis, Oregon. An Official Selection of the 10th Annual McMinnville Short Film Festival, the CFL production of Tallulah won the 2021 Local Film Audience Award.

Cristina appeared in and contributed original material to the play Coming Out at On the Fringe in Los Angeles. Her monologue “Word Stuff” was selected for LezWrite! 2017 and produced by 3Girls Theatre at Potrero Stage in San Francisco as part of their New Works Festival: “Radical Hope & The New Resistance.” She has had four plays produced in Oregon: her play Park Bench was first produced by Red Octopus Theatre at the Newport Performing Arts Center and again by the Majestic Playwrights Lab at the Majestic Theatre in Corvallis. Her play Weather Guy was one of six plays selected for the production Love in Unexpected Places, presented at the Majestic Theatre. Weather Guy was first produced as part of the Ten Minute Play in a Day Festival, presented by Linn Benton Community College and the Majestic Theatre in Corvallis. Her plays True Dane: The Hamlet Saga and Rafe Randler were both performed as part of the Majestic Theatre Sunday Showcase series in 2020.

In the spring of 2015, with the help and support of Jimbo Ivy at the Majestic Theatre in Corvallis, Cristina founded the Majestic Playwright’s Lab, a place for local playwrights to present and discuss their new work for the stage. John Byrne, her colleague and fellow playwright, helped establish the Lab and made it a welcoming place for playwrights, actors, directors, and interested community members.

In February, 2016, the Lab had its premiere production at the Majestic: Love in Unexpected Places presented six short plays by local playwrights to enthusiastic audiences who spread the word and gave Love a very successful debut run.

To expand the reach of the Lab, Cristina proposed a statewide 10-minute play competition to culminate in a 10-Minute Play Festival. That proposal became the Majestic Eight 2017, directed by Leigh Matthews Bock and Laura Blackwell, and Majestic Eight 2019, directed by Mary Jeanne Reynales and Leigh Matthews Bock. Both productions were capped with an Awards Ceremony and a lively Q&A with thoroughly engaged audiences.

After a hiatus due to Covid, Majestic Eight reorganized its creative and production staff and is now an annual event, directed by Leigh Matthews Bock and assisted by Kathie O’Brien. Along with four others, Cristina served as a judge to select the eight finalists for M-8 2024. The theme for the June 2024 production was “Third Time’s the Charm.”

In the fall of 2019, Leigh Matthews Bock invited Cristina and several other local playwrights to participate in the Veterans’ Voices Project. Each playwright was paired with a local veteran, and a time arranged between them for an interview. Veterans were asked about their military experience and any memories that were important to them. Playwrights were charged with turning those stories into a 10-minute play. A short period was allotted to complete the play, and then Leigh worked with a small ensemble of actors to prepare for two performance dates at the Majestic Theatre, scheduled to coincide with Veterans Day.

To date, Cristina has participated in every Veterans’ Voices Project, meeting with a different veteran each year to hear their stories and adapt them for the stage. Her plays for the project are Keep Going, Virginia (2019), Way of the Warrior (2020), Innocence Blown Away (2021), and Little Miracles (2022).

Her most recent involvement with the Majestic was a return to the stage, when she appeared as Austin in the Readers’ Theatre production of William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play by Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor. It was such a blast that she will not rule out another acting adventure.

Cristina has written one musical and four plays for children. Her musical Rules received a workshop presentation at the Koret Auditorium in San Francisco. Rumpelstiltskin, Thumbelina, The Enchanted Journey, and Peter and the Wolf (An Adaptation in Mime) were all produced and toured throughout the SF Bay Area. Thumbelina won a first-place award from the San Francisco Children’s Theatre Association and The Enchanted Journey, published by Samuel French, has been produced throughout the United States and Canada. The entire Samuel French catalog can now be found listed with Concord Theatricals at concordtheatricals.com