Level Up!
Desi López is her authentic self in exactly one place — The Proxy, a virtual world where she's a warrior at Level 61 with butterfly wings. Her mother has died. Her dog is dying. The quest to save him drags both of her worlds into each other.
“There's a true elegance to this enchanting play by Gabriel Rivas Gómez, especially in how deftly it intertwines grounded family dynamics with a lush, video game-inspired fantasy world.”
— Pauline Adamek, ArtsBeatLA
“Level Up is an epic tale, a story of resilience and speaking truth to power.”
— Laura Foti Cohen, Larchmont Buzz
Desi is twelve, and there is something she hasn’t told her family. In The Proxy the quest is winnable and the rules are clear; in the living room, neither is true. With her older brother Memo in tow — a hopeless newbie — she goes looking for her mother inside the game, and finds that the level can’t be won without telling the truth.
Production history
The world premiere ran March 26 – May 3, 2026: Latino Theater Company at the Los Angeles Theatre Center, directed by Fidel Gómez, featuring Richard Azurdia, Mathias Brinda, Sol Marina Crespo, Xol Gonzalez, Khalíf J. Gillett, Wiley Naman Strasser, Andi René Christensen, Celeste Lanuza, and Mauricio Marte.
The play was developed in Latino Theater Company’s Circle of Imaginistas, with lead actor Mathias Brinda involved from the earliest workshops. Co-commissioned by Latino Theater Company and Children’s Theatre Company (Minneapolis) through the Generation Now initiative, supported by the Mellon Foundation.
Scenic design by François-Pierre Couture · costumes by Maria Catarina Copelli · lighting by Xinyuan Li · sound by Robert Revell · projections by Hsuan-Kuang Hsieh.
