DC playwright Karen Zacarías: How to write plays, raise kids and avoid the creative “desert”
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“Mariela in the Desert,” closing this weekend at GALA Hispanic Theatre, is a play about complicated family politics, strong mothers and daughters, and the importance of not losing yourself while taking care of everyone else. If it sounds like a true story that’s because award-winning playwright Karen Zacarías borrowed from the history of her Mexican grandmother, Herlinda, who gave up artistic aspirations of her own to stay home with the children and support the career of husband, Miguel Zacarías, a Mexican film director and producer. There’s also lots of witty repartee that lifts the mood of the otherwise serious—even thought provoking—play, and plenty of references to the artsy bygone era of her grandparents’ México.
Set in the desert in the 1950s, Mariela and José are faded artists, once celebrated contemporaries of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. But the couple has been too long in their secluded artist colony, forgotten by their famous friends, abandoned by their only daughter, and wallowing in the memory of their dead son—and long-gone creativity.
Hola Cultura talked with Zacarías about the play, her fascination with characters who break stereotypes and rebel against social strictures, and what it’s like to have a play opening within walking distance of the Washington D.C. home she shares with her husband and three children.
Tell us a little about yourself. You grew up in Mexico, right?
Yes, I lived in Mexico until I was 10 and then we moved to the United States, supposedly for one or two years while my father was getting a Masters Degree in Epidemiology, focused on sexually transmitted diseases. Suddenly a disease that was killing Haitian men and gay men in San Francisco came up and nobody knew what it was. My dad became part of that forefront of scientists that the U.S. Government asked to go to the U.S. Center on Disease Control and work on the AIDS epidemic. So he ended up at World Health Organization for many years. That was our immigration story. We weren’t supposed to stay in the United States. We were supposed to come and go back to Mexico, but the AIDS epidemic kind of changed the course of our family history. That’s how we ended up in D.C.
Now that you are a parent yourself, your work often seems to explore themes of motherhood and holding onto your own identity, just like the play at GALA right now. Are these themes you naturally gravitate towards?
Well, sure because it’s something that I grapple with every day but it’s also something that I’ve seen; Mariela is kind of my grandparent’s story. My grandfather was a famous movie producer, commercially successful, but he never felt that his “genius” was recognized like Luis Buñuel, or something like that. My grandmother was at home with eight kids. While he’d travel and go to Paris for three months for a film festival, she withered a little bit and was resentful because she had ideas and thoughts and books she wanted to write.
Things have improved since then. But still on a daily basis, I think a lot of women—and you see this in theater—don’t have as many opportunities. The reason the Women’s Playwrights Festival is happening in the fall is because only 20% of all plays on American stages are by women. It’s still something that we’re pushing up against on many different levels.
How do you balance personal mission with community engagement? Is being good to yourself the same as being good to the world? Is following your dreams at the cost of somebody else’s, at the expense of somebody else, worth it? And how do you balance that? The base of every good play is an unanswerable question. It’d be very pompous of me to say “I have the answer.” But they are a driving questions for me, and how I live my life and I look at the world.
There’s also a very good, dramatic plot
Right, because there are choices to be made. Plays are always about conflict and choice. I’m interested in women as protagonists [instead of] the supporting players [they are] in so many plays and movies. I’m really interested in moving the camera shot to that story, not the gentlemen’s story. Hopefully people go, “Oh, I’ve never thought of that.”
Do you see your plays as offering an opportunity to look inside?
Yes. It’s a dialogue with the audience; it’s not a monologue. People ask me, “Why did you write [your play about] Sor Juana in English? Why did you write “Mariela in the Desert” in English?” And I say, “Because I wanted these to be bridges to the mainstream–to an Anglo audience.”
The Latino characters that are shown on TV or in movies seem to be pretty one-dimensional. They’re gang members or cleaning stuff in the background. Here’s a college education family that talks about art. That’s not something you see often but it’s real. It’s something that exists. People are like, “That’s so universal!” And I’m like, “Of course it is! What did you think?” It’s a human story. I believe there can be harmony. I believe we can be different and still have that. Hopefully my plays reflect this idea.
Does being a mother get easier as your kids get older?
No, it’s getting harder! I’m really surprised by it. My son is going to turn 13. They were vulnerable when they were two or three or four (years old) but now they’re vulnerable in a different way. As an adolescent who may be bullied, he needs to talk to someone. It’s a different kind of psychology. They feel your absence, even though they’re more independent. They’re much more vocal when I have to go away, but they’re also much prouder. Every once in a while, I hear: “I wish you didn’t write plays.” But they’re also really proud and they love going to them. They tell their friends.
When I first started writing Mariela, I didn’t have kids. As I became a mother, added more to my brood and matured more as a parent, I really came to understand Mariela’s role. Some of the things she said in earlier drafts weren’t as authentic as what I found later on. Now I feel it’s landed in the right place. In 2010 I did a big rewrite. By then I had three kids. That’s the version I’ve translated into Spanish. That feeling of coming back to Spanish is nice. It’s like the play has come home to roost. It lives well in Spanish because these are painters who don’t paint. They use words as their brushes. It’s very colorful language in Spanish. I heard the first run-through yesterday and I thought, “Wow, that sounds pretty!” It’s nice to hear it alive in my grandmother’s native tongue.
It is interesting how one language or another can be better for one word or another.
Yes. I love the English version but there’s something about Spanish. When you see the English version, you’re supposing that they’re talking in Spanish because they’re all in Mexico. They’re not speaking English, you know? It makes sense, they’re living in Mexico and speaking in Spanish. There’s a logic to it.
What’s it like having a play opening in your hometown as opposed to out of town?
It’s a lot more stressful. Sometimes it’s lovely. I ran to rehearsal yesterday and literally walked home. That never happens. You can have a lot more of your friends and family go and bring your kids to rehearsal, so they can see you work. But it also feels like being in the front row at your own eulogy. You know when the reviews come out. You feel a lot more involved; it’s exciting but you feel a lot more vulnerable.
When the show happens in another town, there’s a kind of anonymity that’s refreshing and safe. Here, everyone knows you; sometimes even praise is hard to take. It’s a lot. But I better get used to it, because I have four plays in D.C. next year.
Give us your pitch. Why should we come to see this play at GALA?
First, it’s about family. It’s a play about strong women and the relationship between mothers and daughters. How letting your dream die can hurt your family and how bringing it back to life is important. It sounds like a heavy play, and it is. But there’s a lot of humor. Mariela is very wry. I think many people identify with the family. So many people say, “Oh Mariela is my mother,” or “Oh, she’s my aunt.” It will feel like you’ve taken a trip to a Mexico that’s still alive but in the past. More than any of my other plays, people stop me and say, “I saw that play four years ago and I still think about it.” The characters get under your skin.
What’s coming up next for you in the Washington-area after this play?
In September, at Arena Stage, I have “Destiny of Desire.” It’s a Latino play—a comedy this time. It’s about the power of the telenovela in our culture. But it’s also subversive. It’s everything you’ve never seen happen in a telenovela. Some of the actors start rebelling against the storyline and veering the story towards different characters. It comes to be about the workers in the family. So it’s this very funny struggle, back and forth. I think it’s going to be really fun. But it also talks about one of the most important populist art forms its strengths and weaknesses. There’s a theme song and music in it. There’s open-heart surgery—I mean anything you think could happen is in there.
Then in January at the Kennedy Center, I have “Oliverio,” a Brazilian twist on the “Oliver Twist” story. There’s a little boy growing up in Rio with Brazilian music. It’s a Latin American take on Oliver Twist.
—Christine MacDonald
“Mariela en el desierto”
In Spanish with English Surtitles
GALA Hispanic Theatre
3333 14th Street, NW, Washington, D.C.
By Karen Zacarías
Directed by Abel López
Apr 16 – May 10, 2015
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