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Name: Marisela
Location: San Francisco
Interests: Poetry, theatre, film, yoga
Expertise: Playwriting
American Triage :
Play commissioned by Marin Theatre Company 2006; 2007 MTC Nu Werkz series; 2008 MTC workshop production; 2011 East L.A. Rep staged reading.
Braided Sorrow :
2005 Bay Area Playwrights Festival; 2006 Ford Amphitheatre Latina/o Summer Play Reading Series; 2006 Chicano/Latino Literary Prize in Drama; September 2008, world premiere, El Centro Su Teatro, Denver, CO; 2009 Pen Center USA Literary Award for Drama.
Heart Shaped Nebula:
2011 Playwrights Foundation Resident Playwrights Showcase staged reading; 2011 Impact Theatre staged reading; 2012 O'Neill National Playwrights Conference Semi-Finalist.
Woman on Fire
2006 Primer Pasos; 2007 full-length commission by the Latino Playwrights Initiative; 2007 Bay Area Playwrights Festival BASH; 2008 Playwrights Foundation’s Rough reading series; 2012 Teatro Luna’s Lunadas reading series.
Occupation: Playwright, Poet
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
6/9/2005
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| An End To The Radio Silence
For all sorts of reasons I haven't blogged in almost a week. Life has been extra hectic and busy, and here's why:
- 9 to 5 job work is crazy
- I had to write 3 separate play treatments for The River Bride, Wolf at the Door and Alcira.
- I participated in a Dinner and Dali evening with an AlterTheater patron (AlterLab playwright Rebecca Frank and I had dinner with two AlterTheater patrons and saw References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot).
- I had several blog posts I had to write last week. One for Theatre Bay Area (see mine at the bottom) and one for TheatreFace.com.
- I spent Saturday making a puppet for my niece. (I'm in the middle of a huge puppet making project for my sobrinos. I have three pigs, a wolf and a princess.)
- I injured my back (yet again) on Sunday.
- I went to the beach to see the eclipse on Sunday.
Yes, it was a busy, busy week last week. I am trying to get a handle on it all because I have a lot of writing and submitting to do. And of course, healing. My back (which is most likely a disc issue) needs rest. -M
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| La Muerte de Carlos Fuentes
I.
Half a lifetime ago
I met you.
A brief
elegant encounter
with a man
who could have been my grandfather.
II.
The news
settles into my skin
my bones.
I find it a challenge to focus.
My thoughts
scatter
like birds
taking flight.
III.
I search for a reason
a reason why
the death of a man
I met only once
could affect me so.
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| Conference Prep: Theatre Bay Area's Annual Conference
I'm am psyched. Psyched about this Monday. First, I got the day off from work. Second, I'll be attending the day-long Theatre Bay Area conference. And third, I'm on the playwrights panel in the evening.
The conference's theme is "Activate Your World." The playwrights panel will focus on proactive approaches playwrights are taking to address the specific challenges they face. The other playwrights on the panel include Michelle Carter, Phillip Kan Gotanda, Mark Jackson and Peter Sinn Nachtrieb. I'm excited to meet Michelle, Phillip and Mark. And I look forward to seeing Peter again. (side note: Peter and I are both alumna of the Playwrights Foundation's Resident Playwright Initiative.)
I was invited to participate to talk about how I've been developing a web presence as a way to build relationships nationally and foster/move forward my career. Now I've been blogging for seven years now (seven years this June), but it's really been the past year on Twitter and blogging for 2amTheatre that has raised my profile and helped me establish relationships with artists in other cities.
Oh, and I can help but be amused about the fact that I don't own a smart phone. So sorry, no conference tweets. (Irony much?).
Here's the full list of breakout sessions and speakers. And thankfully for each breakout there is one session that I am most definitely drawn to (I hate when I have to choose between two sessions going on at the same time). It looks like it's going to a great day of reconnecting with peers, meeting artists and conversation.
-M
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| Luminous Orb
Photo by Hugo Carbajal. Taken last night on his rooftop where it was oh so cold.
That's the thought that would come to my mind every time I took a moment to gaze up at the super moon this past weekend. And not super as in awesome, but that's what astronomers were calling it since it was the biggest and brightest full moon of the year.
Saturday was the brightest of the two moons this weekend. I stepped out onto the sidewalk outside my place to get a look at it. But I didn't spend lots of time in my pajamas staring up at the moon. But I did go out there twice to admire it.
It's easy to see why it inspires poetry.
I made a point Sunday to see the moon again. This time I went over to someone's house who had a rooftop. Though, Sunday it was terribly cold up on that rooftop and we were only up there for couple of minutes taking pictures.
I remember standing in my backyard as a girl watching a lunar eclipse with my dad. Bare feet? I think so, because I always remember the feel of the blades of St. Augustine grass wet with moisture.
On my way home, on the street I looked up again. And a final time when I got to my block.
Luminous orb.
-M
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| The River Bride's First Dramaturgical Meeting
Photo by Toni Frissell. Was actually taken in a dolphin tank.
Last night I met with my dramaturg for our first conversation (first, because their will be more) on my new play The River Bride.
I met my dramaturg Nakissa in 2007 when I was working on turning my one act play Woman on Fire into a full length play. I asked Nakissa to work with me and it was the beginning of an amazing friendship and artistic collaboration.
I don't have an MFA in playwriting. And I've only taken one playwriting class, so I learned how to do rewrites while working with Nakissa on Woman on Fire. Our dramaturgical sessions often go several hours as we talk about the play's big picture concepts and then focus our way down to specific moments in the play.
I feel truly fortunate to have this relationship. It's hard to describe. But when two artists find each other like this, it's a great thing. She makes me a better playwright. And our conversations drive me to new drafts that make the plays better than the previous one.
Nakissa and I also worked on Heart Shaped Nebula and she's familiar with my other plays which comes in handy as she can see The River Bride in the context of my body of work so far. And we've built a level of trust that allows us to really dig deep into a play to explore it together--it's not always easy to let someone into a work in progress. I myself am very selective about who can hear/read an early draft because I'm still figuring out what the play wants to become and I need that space.
But back to last night.
Last night I curled up in a chair opposite Nakissa and started taking notes. My biggest concern was the shape the play was in. Did she think it would be ready for a fall production? Since I juggle playwriting with a full time job it can be challenging to find free time to write and the end result is I tend to write more slowly than I'd like. Turning around a production-ready script in one year was quite a challenge for me.
The good news is she thinks it's in good shape, really good shape. In fact there were just a couple of key issues to address and then some minor tweaking.
She also loves the play. And while Woman on Fire will always have a special place in her heart because we worked so closely on it for a good while, she thinks The River Bride is her favorite.
And now I have notes, notes and a renewed vigor to work on the next draft.
Happy writing,
M
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