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Mariela in the Desert

  • Karen Zacarías
  • Full Length Play, Drama, 1950s
  • 3M, 3F
  • ISBN: 9780573710377

Set in the northern Mexican desert in 1950, Mariela in the Desert is a deadly mystery—a layered yet profoundly honest story of what happens to a family when creativity is forced to dry and wither away.

More information

Description

  • Full Length Play
  • Drama
  • 120 minutes

  • Time Period: 1950s
  • Target Audience: Adult
  • Cautions: Alcohol, Mild Adult Themes, Strong Language

  • Performance Group:
  • Blackbox / Second Stage /Fringe Groups, Professional Theatre

  • Accolades:
  • Winner! National Latino Playwright Award (2004)
    Winner! National Francesca Primus Prize for Outstanding Emerging Playwright
Mariela and José were once the golden couple of the Mexican artists’ inner circle. Together they built a family and an artist colony to host friends Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo and Rufino Tamayo. But now their daughter has grown up and run away, their friends are too famous to call, and artistic inspiration has been strangled by isolation and lies.

Set in the northern Mexican desert in 1950, Mariela in the Desert is a deadly mystery—a layered yet profoundly honest story of what happens to a family when creativity is forced to dry and wither away.
REVIEWS:

"By turns enlightening, hilarious, and heart wrenching... Mariela in the Desert is a story of strangled creativity and great potential, of familial love and cruelty, and the fine lines that separate them—or don't."

 Portland Mercury

"It’s a play much like the family that lives in it. Think of a fraying blanket with many loose threads. Pull just one, and you fear it might all just fall apart. That it never does—the family or the play—is writer Karen Zacarías’ achievement. Her characters are fully drawn and her dialogue is infused with a color all its own... Mariela in the Desert lingers in the mind like the sandy desert air."

 John Moore, Denver Post

"Mariela in the Desert is a beautiful play, a serious piece about the way art works in the lives of the human beings who create it, the possibilities of transcendence it offers."

 Juliet Whitman, Westword Arts

Premiere Production: Mariela in the Desert made its world premiere at The Goodman Theatre in Chicago in January 2005, in a production directed by Henry Godinez. On April 1, 2010, after significant revision, a new version of the play premiered at The Denver Center, in a production directed by Bruce Sevy.

Characters

  • Casting: 3M, 3F
  • Casting Attributes: Role(s) for Latino Actor(s)

  • MARIELA – A wry, beautiful, strong, woman who used to paint. Age: 40-45.
    JOSE – Her husband. A famous artist. Age: 50-60.
    OLIVA – Jose’s pious older sister. Age: 50-65.
    BLANCA – Mariel’s and Jose’s talented and vulnerable daughter. Age: 21 (Also plays Blanca as a child.)
    CARLOS – The son who has disappeared. Blanca’s younger brother.
    ADAM – Jewish-American Art History Professor teaching in Mexico City. Blanca’s lover. Age: 35-45.

    • Available Material

    Name Price
    Mariela in the Desert Script This is optional. Order Now

    Mariela and José were once the golden couple of the Mexican artists’ inner circle. Together they built a family and an artist colony to host friends Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo and Rufino Tamayo. But now their daughter has grown up and run away, their friends are too famous to call, and artistic inspiration has been strangled by isolation and lies.

    Set in the northern Mexican desert in 1950, Mariela in the Desert is a deadly mystery—a layered yet profoundly honest story of what happens to a family when creativity is forced to dry and wither away.

    		$24.95

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