As the co-founder and executive artistic director of the People’s Theatre, Mino Lora sets the stage to spotlight the voices of the immigrant communities in Upper Manhattan.
She started the People’s Theatre to serve Washington Heights and Inwood 16 years ago, but her interest in community building and social justice can be traced to her childhood in the Dominican Republic.
“I always thought I would be a teacher, and that’s what I was studying in college,” said Ms. Lora, 44, who was born and raised in the capital city of Santo Domingo. “But after I attended the International Theatre Festival of Santo Domingo 1999, I dropped out of school.”
She received a scholarship to study theater in Purchase, N.Y., at Manhattanville College (which recently changed its name to Manhattanville University). After graduating, she moved to New York City and found her footing as a director. She later co-founded the People’s Theatre with Bob Braswell, her roommate-turned-husband.
“For me, the creative process is the most interesting part,” she said.
In 2026, the theater will get its first permanent home: a $40 million multidisciplinary performing arts center at Miramar, a new mixed-income residential building in Inwood.
“I dreamed of this for 10 years,” Ms. Lora said, adding that she saw the center as a model for similar spaces around the country.
Ms. Lora lives in an apartment in the Spuyten Duyvil neighborhood of the Bronx with Mr. Braswell, 42, who is the theater’s managing director, and their children, Emma Lucia, 11, and Marcos, 8.
FEEDING THE EARLY RISERS I try to sleep in, so I don’t get up until 8:30. But Emma Lucia and Marcos generally are up by 7 and are starving, so we have our first breakfast of the day. I make myself a cup of coffee and then make them eggs and cheese or waffles; they’re frozen. Emma has just gotten old enough to help me.
We have our second breakfast around 10 a.m. at the Johnson, which is the closest diner to our apartment. The kids like it — Marcos, a proud Bronx kid, loves the Bronx-themed décor. They usually get waffles or pancakes. I always eat the same thing: an egg-white Greek omelet with extra crispy home fries in hot sauce, multigrain toast and an oat latte.
DANCING FOR JOY Some Sundays, I run in the gym in our apartment building, but on others, I drive Emma Lucia to Alvin Ailey in Midtown Manhattan for dance class, which starts at noon. I used to drop her off and wait for her, but when I realized there were also classes for adults, I signed up. I had been doing West African dance, but I just started the contemporary class. I’ve always liked to dance and danced a lot when I was in college, but then I got too busy and stopped. I love to keep moving because it’s a way of harnessing my own personal joy.
PIZZA BREAK By 1:30, we’re pretty hungry, so we go to lunch in Midtown. We don’t have any particular place. We always look for new spots. Often, we have pizza — white pieces with broccoli.
THE PLAY’S THE THING When we’re prepping plays for production, I generally skip lunch and have business meetings. Right now, we’re working on “Domino Effect” by Marco Antonio Rodriguez, which takes place during an evening in Washington Heights, where a game of dominoes becomes a bridge between generations, touching on themes of identity, resilience and connection. It runs from April 4 to April 20, so I’m meeting regularly with Rodriguez, the creative producer, Jiawen Hu, and the assistant director, Catalina Beltran.
PUTTING ON MY HARD HAT Afterward, I take the subway up to Inwood to the construction site of the People’s Theatre: Centro Cultural Inmigrante. I generally go there two to three times a month with Allison Robin, principal and co-owner of Envoie Projects, our owners’ reps for the project. Three of the theater’s board members, Cindy Caplan, Zahira Perez and Mel Wuong, who are all immigrant women, join me. The elevator just went in, and the shell will be done in February, and then we’ll get to go in and make it look like a real theater.
TIME FOR CHARADES Then I head home for the night. I love to cook, so I start prepping dinner as well as the meals for the week while my husband cooks pasta for the kids’ lunchboxes. After dinner, we play board games. Our current favorites are Ticket to Ride, the card game Uno and Rummikub. We also play charades, which I have been doing since I was growing up.
Emma Lucia and Marcos are theater kids. They go to public schools, and they’ve both been in class plays. Emma Lucia’s in the People’s Theatre Academy, and she told me she wants to sing and dance on Broadway. I am thrilled that she wants a career in the arts; she’s talented and so joyful when she performs that it makes my heart swell. Marcos, however, has said he wants to be an inventor and recently informed me that theater is merely his hobby.
GETTING THE KIDS SETTLED Around 8 or 8:15, Bob and I start getting the kids ready for bed. We used to read to them, but they are too old for that now, which I find kind of sad. They’re bilingual, so they read books in English and in Spanish. I’m proud of that, even though it makes it harder for them, but it’s important to me and my Dominican culture.
A GLASS OF WINE AND A BOOK BEFORE BED Once the kids are in bed, which is around 8:30 p.m., Bob and I watch TV to wind down. I particularly like “The Great British Baking Show” on Netflix. Then I read in bed.
Right now, I have several library books, including “A Caribbean Heiress in Paris” by Adriana Herrera, which I’m reading in English, and “El Principio del Corazón” by Helen Hoang, which I got in Spanish.
This also is a time for Bob and me to talk about the logistics of the upcoming week. I have to balance producing and directing with raising a family, so we decide who’s picking the kids up from school and taking them to soccer practice. I end the night with a glass of rosé or white wine or even a vodka tonic, a favorite of my dad’s. He was an artist and painter, and a lot of what I am comes from him. He passed away last year at age 86, so drinking it is a way to honor him.
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