Doraville’s Merely Players Presents reaches the Latinx community through theater 

Founded in 2018, this community theater recently staged its first bilingual production and looks forward to growing a Latinx audience.

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There’s a simple solution to getting a community more involved with your art: Make it accessible, affordable and, most importantly, understandable. 

Doraville’s Merely Players Presents continues to bridge that gap through multiple forms of representation — first, by casting Latinx actors, and, more recently, by hosting their first bilingual production. 

Earlier this month, Merely Players Presents staged a Spanish run of Nilo Cruz’s Pulitzer prize-winning play Anna in the Tropics, co-directed by Rose Bianco and Carla Scruggs. They staged the English run in mid-August. 

“People will come to see anything that Merely Players Presents will put on because it’s usually pretty good,” says Bianco, who is known for her roles in shows like Cobra Kai and WandaVision and films including One Fast Move and Nochebuena. With Merely Players Presents, Bianco helms roles other than acting: costume designer, stage manager, board member emeritus, volunteer and, most recently, co-director. Anna in the Tropics was Bianco’s first bilingual play, but it certainly won’t be her — or the group’s — last.

Bianco acknowledges that the Latinx community is harder for the acting world to reach. Roles are seldom awarded to the community, and, when they are, they’re minor, or worse, typecast. “The Latino representation is abysmal on TV and film,” she says. “My big banner these days is Latino representation.” 

Doraville’s population is about 45% Hispanic, including both Latinx and non-Latinx cultures. Bianco credits board president Scruggs with the idea of running a bilingual production. And it paid off. 

“Overall, the reaction by everyone I spoke to was how wonderful the play was, how needed it is [and] how amazing it was to have the play done in English and in Spanish, which is not a very common thing,” Bianco says.

“I think that there are some Latino Americans who [said], ‘Oh, we never get to see Spanish plays. Let’s go see it.’” she adds. “There’s just not enough of that.” 

Merely Players Presents arrived in Doraville in 2018, finding its first home at the Atlanta Cuban Club. Although the club shuttered in 2020, the group maintained its relationship with the city of Doraville and obtained space in the city’s Civic Center. 

Joan McElroy, founder and artistic director, likens Doraville to a huge neighborhood. “Everybody’s so friendly and wonderful, and the city really supports the arts. They have an arts council and a grassroots group called DArt (Doraville Art),” she says. “And they said, well, we don’t have a theater, but we’ll show you what we’ve got. Theater always finds a way.” 

Now in its third season at the Civic Center, the community theater is in the process of relocating once again to 3688 King Ave. The new space, which opens October 2, has higher ceilings and improved handicap accessibility. It’s also across the street from Doraville’s MARTA station. 

The group plans to fully move into the new location this winter, and, at the moment, is fundraising for volunteer-run conversion expenses, such as adding a grid and stage lighting. 

Before the big move, one more play will be staged in the current space — Merely Players Presents’ holiday production, Let Nothing You Dismay, written by local playwright Topher Payne and directed by Amy Lucas. Their first production in the new space, Our Town, is holding auditions next month and will be directed by McElroy. 

“We very much want [Doraville] to be proud of what we do because this is, first, for them,” McElroy says. “But we’ve reached people throughout the metropolitan area, so that’s been great.”

Bianco encourages anyone wanting to get involved with Merely Players Presents to come see the shows, audition, subscribe, donate and volunteer. 

“We’re supported actively by the city, which to me is external corroboration of our good work and our mission of diversity and inclusion and good storytelling,” Bianco says. “We plan to do Spanish plays for anyone in the community … and we want people to know about it so that the next one will be even more successful.” 

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Sarra Sedghi is a freelance writer and editor based in Atlanta. She mostly writes about food, but she likes writing about people best.