The New Works/Latino Voices Playwrights presentation will perform at the Teatro La Tea. Caicedo Productions, Cynalex Productions and Latino World/Mundo Latino Inc., in association with Teatro La Tea collaborate to produce the works.

Obie Award-winning playwright Rivera (References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot,"The Motorcycle Diaries") pens his latest work Adoration of the Old Woman which will received a staged reading March 29 as part of the festival.

The work, directed by Jo Bonney (Living Out, The Fifth of July), is set against the backdrop of Puerto Rico's struggle with its decision of statehood — whether to be independent, become a state or remain its current status. A young woman, who speaks no Spanish, moves in with 105-year-old great-grandmother who speaks no English. Both women deal with problems of love — the younger with two new suitors and the older with the ghost of her widow's mistress.

The festival also features Robert Domìnguez's The Outside Man,Tanya Saracho's To The Baggage Claim, Angie Cruz, Cyn Cañel Rossi and Karen Torres' The Women of Nine, Janis Astòr del Valle's Transplantations, Michael J. Narvaez's All Sides, Robert Santana's Chained Dog, Fernando Mañon's Ley of the Land and Juan Shamsul Alam's Fuego.

Past "Songs from Coconut Hill" festivals have presented over 20 new works including X&Y Stories a collection of works by Migdalia Cruz, Michael Garcès, Jesse Mojica, Carmen Rivera, Cyn Cañel Rossi, Edwin Sanchez, Candido Tirado and Janis Astòr del Valle — which is set to return to New York in the fall of 2004. For tickets to "Songs from Coconut Hill," at the Teatro La Tea (in the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center at 107 Suffolk Street), call (212) 868-4444. For more information and a full schedule, visit www.songsfromcoconuthill.com.