Judy Reyes To Debut Passion Project ‘Freestyle: A Love Story’ Theater Play In LA, Starring Justina Machado & James Martinez

If you grew up in the 80s and early 90s, you may have listened to freestyle music, also known as Latin hip-hop, born after the disco era that dominated the airwaves from New York to Miami, Los Angeles, Texas, as well as Philly and Boston, to name a few areas. Among the genre’s biggest fans was an early-20s Judy Reyes, currently a series regular on ABC’s High Potential, who is pulling double duty on the network, reprising her fan-favorite character Carla Espinosa on the new Scrubs series.

Reyes and her husband George Valencia enjoyed going to clubs to dance to artists like Lisa Lisa and the Cult Jam, Expose, The Cover Girls, TKA, Judy Torres, Marc Anthony, and Brenda K. Starr. It’s worth noting that in 1988, Mariah Carey got her start in the industry, in part, as a backup singer for Starr.

While lamenting how short the freestyle era lasted, Reyes and Valencia had plans for a documentary that they would collaborate on with John Leguizamo. However, Covid put a damper on their plans, and places they pitched lost interest.

Full of determination, Reyes and Valencia pivoted to making a theater play. Tonight, Freestyle: A Love Story will make its Los Angeles debut at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre, with Justina Machado and James Martinez in the lead roles, which often rotate from city to city. Valencia is the creator, director, and co-writer, alongside Lidia Ramirez, of the production, with Reyes serving as executive producer alongside fellow thespian Ana Ortiz and Malcolm Lam.

Actors who have led this production elsewhere include Latino power couple Liza Colón-Zayas and David Zayas, EP Ortiz, who most famously starred in Ugly Betty, Luna Lauren Vélez of Dexter fame, Selena and Chicago P.D.‘s Jon Seda, Six Feet Under star Freddy Rodriguez, and Felix Solis, who recently joined the cast of Amazon’s Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone.

“Justina and James Martinez will star this time around, and we’re really excited. It’s a reunion for them because they played husband and wife on One Day at a Time. It keeps the community strong and tight and motivated and inspired while continuing to tell our stories through the work. This is what we know,” said Reyes.

She added, “Our existence here is an act of political defiance, and the only way that we know how to continue to exist is to tell our stories, to each other and for each other. We’re fixated on that. At this age, while things are literally physically being torn away from us by time, technology, or politics, we’re doing everything we can to hold on to our history. Our history brings joy, and the joy brings it back to the people. So it’s a full circle, and it keeps us together.”

Tonight’s attendees will hear music performed by freestyle legends Torres, whose hit song “Come Into My Arms” is a favorite of Reyes’, and K7 of TKA fame for a completely immersive experience.

“People are encouraged to shout out, call out, laugh, sing along, dance, get up, woot woot, all of it. It’s completely immersive because we have dancing, we have a DJ, we have Judy, we have K, we have music, we have a screen with a little bit of documented history of what freestyle is.”

Proceeds from tonight’s performance of Freestyle: A Love Story will benefit the Sound of GOL Foundation and LA Watford Women Football Club, an all-Latina football team, whom they hope to send to the UK for two weeks of training with a professional football team.

“We want to give back to our community. For LA Watford, the goal is to build a place where they can learn each other’s strengths, learn what’s out there, and what they can bring to the community. We also want to share a little bit of who we are with them. We want them to know that this is for them.”