Start with Joaquin
The play builds a vivid portrait from family stories, favorite foods, music, basketball, writing, jokes, and everyday memories.
GUAC: The Play
A celebration of Joaquin's life — and a rallying cry for what comes next.
Written and performed by Manuel Oliver, GUAC is a fearless, funny, deeply personal solo theatrical work about a father, a son, a family, and the decision to turn loss into a relentless force for change.
LAUNCHED / ACTIVE
2023–present
100 min
current running time
1
performer on stage
2026
first bilingual production
CAMPAIGN GALLERY
The work, up close.
WHAT IT IS
GUAC introduces audiences to Joaquin “Guac” Oliver as a full person — son, brother, friend, writer, basketball player, music lover, and teenager — rather than reducing his life to the violence that ended it.
Manuel combines storytelling, humor, music, original visual art, audience participation, video projection, and activism. The result is both intimate and confrontational: a portrait of Joaquin and a challenge to the audience to decide what they will do with the story after they leave the theater.
CURRENT / RECENT
Current / most recent 2026 production: September 25–October 10 at The People's Theatre, Centro Cultural Inmigrante, Washington Heights, New York City. English + Spanish; no intermission.
HOW THE IDEA WORKED
Attention is only useful
if it moves somewhere.
CTR initiatives are designed to do more than communicate. Each one creates a path from attention to participation, accountability, remembrance, or action.
Turn memory into live art
Manuel creates visual art on stage while sound, projection, movement, and direct address make every performance feel immediate.
End with action
GUAC is designed to continue beyond the curtain through post-show conversation, community engagement, and the broader work of Change The Ref.
IMPACT
From solo festival to major stages — without losing the urgency.
An early version earned Best Production at the 2023 United Solo Festival. GUAC later appeared at The Public Theater, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, and Center Theatre Group, and in 2026 opened The People's Theatre's permanent home with the show's first bilingual staging in Washington Heights, New York.
WHY IT STILL MATTERS
GUAC expands Change The Ref's activism into an art form that gives audiences time with Joaquin himself. It is not only a story about what happened in Parkland; it is about love, memory, creativity, and the responsibility to act.
CREATED WITH
- Written & performed by Manuel Oliver
- Co-written by James Clements
- Directed & produced by Michael Cotey
- Executive producer Patricia Oliver
LIVE / UPCOMING
See what’s coming next.
Upcoming Change The Ref events are pulled directly from the eG Events system, so this section stays connected to the same schedule used across the site.
PERMANENT HOME
Visit the official GUAC site
This initiative lives here now.
Original campaign sites may change or go offline over time. ChangeTheRef.org keeps the full story, purpose, and legacy of this initiative accessible in one permanent place.