Second year graduate student Sarah Kelley has been working hard
preparing to dramaturg MARISOL- which will serve as her final thesis project!
As she traveled through the fantastical world of José Rivera, her vision of his
work has deepened. Villanova Theatre is looking forward to sharing her engaging
audience display which will prep audiences to enter Marisol’s world. Check out
Sarah’s blog post to learn more about MARISOL.
Marisol
by José Rivera is a puzzle that is a thrill to unravel. When I started my
dramaturgical research this summer, I was excited and daunted by the wide range
of topics Rivera introduces in the play and the passion with which he tackles
them. Is the play about gender dynamics? Violence in urban areas? Millennialism
and the Apocalypse? Homelessness and the growing gap between the rich and the
poor? Through my research and our rehearsals so far, I really believe the play
is about all of the above ideas and that they all have equal weight in telling Rivera’s
story. Many past productions of Marisol chose
one or two topical lenses through which to present the play to an audience, but
one of James' goals is to bring clarity to all angles and fully explore
everything Rivera gives us to experiment with in this gorgeous and poetic script.
My two personal threads of interest the
helped me step inside the world of the play on my first reading was: (1) the
connection between societal fears of the Millennium in the early 1990s and the
current fears we hold regarding the impending election of 2016; (2) linking the
problems of the past and present that women face in a patriarchal and dangerous
world. Using these concepts has been helpful for me to connect to Marisol. Although the play has many 1990s
references, Rivera’s work feels incredibly timely for audiences right now at
Villanova and in a larger context, as we strive to define what “American
Values” are in 2016.
I've gained many new insights during the
first two weeks of rehearsals watching the brilliant work of James, the cast,
and the production team. I've learned how important the concepts of physical space
and time are in understanding the characters’ journeys through the play. I have
also learned that the contrast between what we expect as an audience and what
is actually happening onstage is a huge part of Rivera's genius in crafting a
masterpiece of "anti-apathy" theater. By pointing out the larger
societal issues using the expressionistic imagery of magic realism, Rivera
utilizes creativity and exaggeration to poke holes in existing socio-political systems
and point out injustices that are often invisible in our daily lives. His
storytelling encourages the audience’s emotions to shift from pathos to
euphoria at the drop of a hat, like a heightened version of how we live
each day.
I hope Marisol
encourages everyone who sees it to WAKE UP and take action as much as it has
inspired me to work toward making the world better during this process and
beyond. Rivera intertwines activism with his goal of speaking modern truth to
power through century’s old literary traditions of apocalyptic literature and
magic realism. In the Augustinian spirit, I hope we all leave Villanova Theatre
wanting to act on the courage of our own uncertainty and set the world aflame
with positive change.
Villanova Theatre's production of MARISOL runs November
8-20. Get your tickets at www.villanovatheatre.org or give us a call at 610-519-7474.
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