Florencia Iriondo is an Argentinian-American playwright, composer, actor, singer, and showrunner. She is best known for her

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

musical, ''South,'' which won the 2023 Pipeline Arts Foundation Award for New Musical Theatre. Iriondo wrote the book, music, and lyrics, and she also stars in the one-woman show. Iriondo was born and raised in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

, Argentina. She currently lives and works in the East Village of New York City, where she has resided since 2013. She has also lived in

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

and

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

Career

Iriondo worked at

LinkedIn LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented Social networking service, social network. It was launched on May 5, 2003 by Reid Hoffman and Eric Ly. Since December 2016, LinkedIn has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft. ...

for many years, where she was the company's first

showrunner A showrunner is the top-level executive producer of a television series. The position outranks other creative and management personnel, including episode directors, in contrast to feature films, in which the director has creative control over th ...

and founder of original video. While working at LinkedIn, she would write and perform music and theater in her spare time. She began her first show, ''South'', in 2014 when she wrote the opening song, "Vengo del Sur," at a teal upright piano in her East Village apartment. She left LinkedIn in 2022 to pursue musical theater and her show, ''South'', full time. As a writer and performer, Iriondo was a Town Stage 2020 Sokoloff Arts Creative Fellow and a recipient of the

National Alliance for Musical Theatre National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

's 2022-23 Writers Residency Grants. Her first show, ''Back Home'', was originally written for three women. This show would ultimately become ''South'', a one-woman show featuring Iriondo.

''South'', the musical

Iriondo's show, ''South'', opened Off-Broadway at

Soho Playhouse The SoHo Playhouse is an Off-Broadway theatre at 15 Vandam Street in the Hudson Square area of Manhattan. The theatre opened in 1962 as the Village South Theatre with the original production of Jean Erdman's musical play ''The Coach with the S ...

in October 2023. Iriondo wrote the book, lyrics, and music, and she is the only actor in the one-act, one-woman show. The acoustic score was written and arranged along with fellow musicians, Federico Díaz and Luis D'Elias, with a mixture of Argentinian and North American pop influences. Though Iriondo performs the one-woman show alone, she is accompanied on stage by two musicians, guitarist Federico Díaz and

Latin Grammy Award The Latin Grammy Awards (stylized as Latin GRAMMYs) are awards presented by the Latin Recording Academy to recognize outstanding achievement in the Latin music industry. The Latin Grammy honors works recorded in Spanish or Portuguese from any ...

winner Agustin Uriburu, playing the cello and guitar. ''South'' was developed in residency at the New York Stage and Theater in the summer of 2021 and at The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. and it was the winner of the Pipeline Arts Foundation Award for New Musical Theatre in 2023. The show is inspired by Iriondo's experiences as a Latina immigrant in New York City, and it explores themes of family and belonging. It tells the fictional story of Chica, who fled her home in the southernmost tip of Argentina to live in New York City. The musical follows Chica's journey of self-discovery and identity as she navigates a new language, a new culture, and a big new city. The cast album was recorded in Argentina.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Iriondo, Florencia Living people Argentine women dramatists and playwrights American women dramatists and playwrights 21st-century American dramatists and playwrights Year of birth missing (living people)