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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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| Who Goes There
I can't believe that. That suddenly a window closes and it closes forever. And two people can never be anything more than friends. Maybe it's like a re-entry window. The way spaceships re-enter the atmosphere, if they miss their window, they have to wait, have to do another revolution around the earth before they return to that window. Maybe that's what people are like. We just have to orbit around each other's lives a little bit longer until it happens again, that window appears and both people can come rushing towards it. Towards each other.
I heard that opening line in my head the other day. The rest was an idea, an impression. But it was a persistent thought that kept rising up in my mind over the past few days. Don't know who this is, who this character might be, but she might return and bring a whole play with her. Who knows.
-M
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| A Simple Joy
Today I got to sleep in 'til 8am. A luxury. That may not sound like a lot but my bedroom gets a lot of natural light in the morning so it's hard to sleep past 8am unless I'm seriously dead tired. I mention this because sleeping in, that small luxury is something I look forward to on the weekends. Lately I haven't been getting enough of it and it feels like the stress in my life is on the verge of getting the better of me.
But back to today, my day of rest. All I had to do today was head over to the East Bay to catch the play Counter Attack playing at Ashby Stage. It's a Stagebridge production, the first of theirs I've seen. I went because Hugo Carbajal, who played Miqueo in my two readings of Heart Shaped Nebula last year, is in the play. Hugo, like many of the cast members, plays multiple parts. He's a politician who's a regular at the diner (the location of the play's action), has a small walk-on as a part of a crew of bike enthusiasts who come to the diner and finally and most enjoyably as the diner's bus boy Jaime (which so happens to be my younger brother's name--whoo!).
I really enjoyed the performance. There was a simple joy to it. The cast is made up of seasoned actors and total newbies. But they all seemed to be having a fun time of it, strutting their stuff (literally as there was live music performed during the play) on stage.
Some of my favorite moments where when Hugo was doing physical work (both clownish and then when he was dancing). I told him afterward that I thought he was so cute dancing around stage with the broom. But that doesn't really convey what I meant. Watching him with the broom I immediately started smiling. Like a little spring of joy had opened up inside me. I felt happy. I know that sounds totally cheesy, but isn't that lovely?
I realized how much I need more moments like this. Life has been über hectic (9 to 5 job overload, playwriting deadlines, new blogging responsibilities, overall spreading myself too thin) and I need small moments of joy, need to cultivate them more in my life. My hectic life is a sort of Catch-22 at the moment and the play today has got me asking myself questions on how to better juggle it all.
More soon,
-M
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| I Want To Go To There
This screenshot just doesn't do it justice.
Lynda Bachman, who directed my reading of Heart Shaped Nebula at Impact Theatre sent me the link to something called a Phototopic Sky Survey. I figured it had something to do with stars so I clicked on the link. I had no idea. None.
It's this amazing turn-every-which-way-and-you-can-see-the-entire-cosmos site. My mouth literally fell open, an agape smile. I think there was a tear involved that's how sappy I am for astronomy.
And yes, the first thought that popped into my head was Liz Lemon's famous, "I want to go to there." (Here's the romantic version of that line.)
Oh, and if you click on the little "i" icon you can see constellations, stars and even nebula. So guess what I found.
There they are. Soul and Heart Nebula in the upper right hand corner of the above screenshot. They're just two red clouds in the picture, but it's them.
Seeing the stars like this makes me want to plan a trip to the Canary Islands. Some day!
Some day I will go to there.
-M
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| Tontlawald at Cutting Ball
How could I forget to mention in my blog post this morning that I went to see a preview of Tontlawald last Saturday? Did my Sunday transit mishap truly erase one of the highlights of the three day weekend from my memory?
Marilet Martinez in Cutting Ball's Tontlawald, photo by Annie Paladino
I was excited to see Tontlawald as I know some of the Cutting Ball crew pretty well from helping them produce Vanguardia a few years ago and I know actors in the show (Marilet and Rebecca) and I hadn't seen a Cutting Ball show in a while now.
How do I explain Tontlawald? I don't know if I can. I could tell you it's a devised theatre piece. Which it is. That it's experimental. Which it is. That it's based on an ancient Estonian fairy tale. All these are accurate descriptions, but I find it hard to describe the theatrical experience.
But perhaps this video by Cutting Ball will give you a better sense of the piece.
After the show I joined Marilet and a few of her friends at Farmer Browns' for some tasty food and drink. Marilet and I rode the 38 home, chatting the entire way. It was great. A truly great evening.
-M
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| Holiday Weekend Recap
There's a lot to summarize, so I'll forgo a narrative and just stick to bullets ('cause I kinda have a headache this morning).
Here's what happened this weekend:
- Friday night I vanquished a mutant fly/beetle that gave me a serious case of the heebie-jeebies
- I'm still kinda shaking my head at the fact that I wrote an essay about the Bene Gesserit.
- I stocked up on brie, bread and prosciutto for my Sunday table reading
- Took the Golden Gate Transit bus up to San Rafael for AlterLab. It was great--got to hear The River Bride aloud and now have notes to move me forward into a new draft which incidentally is due at the end of March and with my upcoming trip to Chicago I am feeling the pressure to do it all. Yowzers.
- I figured out what I'm doing for the AlterLab salon we're having in late March. Again, I feel the pressure of not having enough time.
- I made it to the bus stop at 4:35 pm. This is important to note since I didn't get home until close to 8pm.
- Yes, there was traffic coming back over the bridge, but it was a combination of three things that led to doubling my return trip time. 1) It was cold waiting for the bus at the Golden Gate Bridge, as if I had arrived at some magical hour when all the tourists decided to depart from the bridge. Being cold I jumped onto the 28 without realizing I was getting on the wrong 28. I was on the one headed to Fort Mason, not to 19th Avenue which would lead me home. And then, 2) there was massive, crazy, never-before-seen traffic all along Lombard. And then I made mistake number 3) which was was getting off the bus and not hailing a taxi as I should have. Instead I got off the bus and got on one headed the other direction. Yes, this was the "right" bus, but it took me back into even worse traffic where I sat on the bus for about an hour as we returned to the Golden Gate Bridge and then headed to 19th Avenue. Needless to say I was a zombie when I got home.
- Monday I slept in with the intention of not seeing anyone (as the long trip home made me very fed up with people) until the afternoon. I did yoga and then connected with my dramaturg for a late night sushi dinner.
- Oh, and I cemented plans with a playwright neighbor to meet today to do some writing together. I'm going to work on my TheatreFace blog post that due tomorrow.
- So much to do. So little time and even less sleep it seems like.
-M
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