Meet NYC-based Artist Iraisa Ann Reilly
Iraisa Ann Reilly is an actor, playwright, and teacher based in New York City. Her one-woman show that she wrote and stars in, A Bodega Princess Remembers La Fiesta de los Reyes Magos, 1998, will premiere off-Broadway in November 2025. You can find out more on her website and Instagram.
CATHOLIC ARTIST CONNECTION: Where are you from originally, and what brought you to your current city?
IRAISA ANN REILLY: I am originally from Southern New Jersey. I moved to New York for the first time in 2019 to start grad school. That was short-lived when COVID hit and I moved back to my hometown. I came back to New York in 2023 when I got an adjunct teaching job at NYU. I moved for the work, and to be amongst other artists in my field and to continue to develop my artistic community in New York.
How do you understand your vocation as a Catholic artist?
In a lot of my work I feel like I am putting a question out into the world— “Does anyone else feel like this?” As someone from two different ethnic backgrounds who often felt excluded from a lot of spaces, I hope my work will bring people together and cure loneliness. I hope people will see themselves reflected in the characters I create. I don’t say I am a “Catholic artist” although almost everything I write has faith involved. I want as many people to relate to my work as possible and I tell people I am a practicing Catholic, but I hope that no matter what faith background my audience is from, they may relate to the stories that I tell.
Where have you found support in the Church for your vocation as an artist?
Growing up the church is where I discovered my vocation. My solo show, A Bodega Princess Remembers La Fiesta De Los Reyes Magos, 1998, which is premiering off-Broadway at Ensemble Studio Theatre, is about how I learned that I loved to perform in the Spanish choir at my church. I went to the University of Notre Dame for undergrad and my professors there taught me that there is a higher purpose to storytelling. They taught me that telling stories can actively address social concerns and we can change the world and we are called to be a sign of hope through the stories we tell.
How can the Church be more welcoming to artists?
I would love a space to create work about faith with other artists. This probably exists, but I have not found it yet. As an adult, I’ve found these spaces for other aspects of my identity, but not my faith.
How can the artistic world be more welcoming to artists of faith?
Oof, I have a lot of thoughts on this. I remember working with a practicing Muslim woman a few years ago, and in passing I mentioned that I was practicing Catholic. Her response was “That’s cool!” It opened up a beautiful conversation about faith. I do feel like secular spaces often welcome a sense of godlessness...when the reality is there may be people of different faiths in those spaces who would be open to discussing our similarities and differences. I guess this is all to say, I don’t want the artistic world I inhabit to cater necessarily just to my beliefs, but I do think greater discussions about faith, spirituality, and belief in a creator/higher being would be welcome by more artists than we imagine. I wish there was a community/festival/residency where artists could speak openly about their belief in God, something, or nothing. I think we often shy away from talking about faith (or I know I do sometimes) out of wanting to respect others beliefs, when in reality we may have more in common than we realize.
Describe a recent day in which you were most completely living out your vocation as an artist.
I wrote a play called Saturday Mourning Cartoons that has to do with elder care, faith, and loss. There are moments that are funny and moments that are sad. I really believe that comedy is a way to change the world, but anyway, I’ve had several readings of this play. It is not autobiographical, but there are autobiographical moments—some of which deal with someone struggling with their faith. I have struggled with my faith in recent years. I sit at Mass and wonder what I am doing there. I struggle to pray. And life experiences definitely tested my faith and what I truly believe in. All of these things, I believe, ultimately made my faith stronger. I wrote the first draft of the play during this very difficult time of doubt in my life. My hope was that people would see themselves reflected in the play, whether they were caretakers themselves or have dealt with loss. After readings, people have shared their own struggles with faith. They said the play made them want to call the caretaker in their family, and that they saw themselves and their family in the play. Someone even told me it made them want to have faith again. I don’t think I could have written this play with so much empathy had I not had that struggle myself. It’s weird to say, but it brought me joy knowing that others connected to my work, and maybe we could heal together through this story.
What are your top 3 pieces of advice for Catholic artists post-graduation?
When I came out of college my faith community was not the same as the one I had at school, but you can find those people. Go to stuff. Hang out with people if you can. If you can’t, now there are so many ways of finding community online. If you can’t get to your dream city right away, that’s OK. Find online communities that might be based there and reach out. Maybe they have meetings you can attend, so when you can move, you’ll already have people there you know (I was in a position like this. I did not move to New York until 8 years post-undergrad. The transition was easy because I already had people I knew here.) Having a day job is not giving up. You won’t always need a day job, and sometimes you will leave a day job and go back to a day job and the life of an artist is not linear. If it’s in your heart that you are meant to do this, you’ll find a way. You are always an artist whether you are getting paid for it or not.