The Monsters We Know: Mark-Eugene Garcia’s Book Signing at the Drama Book Shop- INSC Magazine

Before summer theater descends into festival frenzy and outdoor spectacle, June gave us something far more satisfying: three emotionally potent evenings that bypassed bombast and landed, instead, directly in the chest.
In different corners of New York’s downtown scene, artists found fresh ways to say the unsayable—whether through myth, mime, or the ticking countdown of a mechanical heart. Here’s a closer look at three performances that continue to linger well into July.

The Monsters We Know: Mark-Eugene Garcia’s Book Signing at the Drama Book Shop
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On Friday the 13th—clearly no accident—playwright Mark-Eugene Garcia turned what could have been a conventional literary event into a mini theatrical séance. Hosted at The Drama Book Shop and celebrating the publication of With Bated Breath, Eight Tales of Pedro, and Goat Blood, the evening unfolded like a summoning: of stories, of history, of the monsters—real and imagined—that live just beneath the skin.
Garcia, whose work fuses Chicano identity with myth, satire, and the supernatural, shared not only reflections on his two-decade career but also presented a live scene from Goat Blood, performed by original cast members Hraban Luyat and Sergio Caetano.
Luyat played Owen, an all-American patriot whose comic relief brought levity to the play’s most tense and reflective moments. Through humor, the character becomes a lens for exploring deeper themes of culture, belonging, and mortality. Embodying a lighthearted jester, Luyat’s playful presence folded seamlessly into Caetano’s (Pablo) rhythm and energy, making this brief performance feel less like a promotional teaser and more like a vivid, self-contained moment from a fully realized world.