6TH ANNUAL PLAYWRITING WORKSHOP
Co-presented with Marfa Independent School District
Led by Georgina Escobar
Monday-Friday, April 17-21, 2017
Marfa High School
This spring, Marfa Live Arts hosted the 6th Annual Playwriting Workshop at Marfa ISD during high school English classes. Our playwright in residence this year is Georgina Escobar. For the past six years, Marfa Live Arts has worked hand-in-hand with Marfa ISD to present a weeklong playwriting workshop to 9-12th grade students with an award-winning playwright at no cost to the school district.
Escobar, our selected playwright, currently lives in New York City, but has roots in West Texas growing up in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. She led students through creative writing exercises, guiding them to develop characters and plots while unleashing their imaginations resulting in each student writing an original one-act play. With almost 500 student plays written since 2011, past Marfa Live Arts playwrights in residence include Octavio Solis, Liz Castillo and Raul Garza.
The goal of the Playwriting Workshop is to meet the very real need for exposure to performing arts and literary education for the underserved children of Marfa. The program has been recognized by school leadership and educators as an inventive way to engage students to improve their writing skills while developing critical thinking, self-confidence, and increased self-awareness.
During the week, we also staged BEACONS, a play by Escobar performed by actor Mindy Leanse with support by actors from the community. Students and their families were invited to the free performance on stage at the Crowley Theater on April 19th. This event gave students from the workshop an opportunity to see a professional production while working on their own plays.
Winning student plays will then be selected from each grade, and brought to life on stage during a magical evening when plays are staged at the Crowley Theater during the 6th Annual One-Act Plays on May 2nd. The student playwrights direct local actors, community leaders, friends, and neighbors in the final staged productions. It’s an electrifying night—affirming our commitment to showing our students that their stories matter.
On April 17, listen to Marfa Public Radio for a West Texas Talk interview with playwright Georgina Escoba and actor Mindy Leanse. Tune in live at 6:30pm (CST) at 93.5FM or streaming online.
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LINKS:
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Marfa Public Radio Interview: During the 2016 Playwriting Workshop, Diana Nguyen talked to Jennie Lyn Hamilton director of Marfa Live Arts, Andrew Peters former Superintendent of Marfa ISD, and three of that year’s playwrights including Adrianna Pineda, Huck Roch, and Jeremy Guevara. Broadcast on May 2, 2016.
ARTIST BIOS:
Georgina Escobar is the maker of ridiculous, and sometimes impossible narratives, that run current systems of thinking through different filters of visual, musical, and interpretative logic. Through illustration, playing, painting, and music she finds the words for the creation of worlds that seek to empower women, youth, and the positive evolution of the human spirit. Her writing takes you through speculative evolution biblical comedies, to the reimagined frontiers of sci-fi feminism, and into huge, hyper-realistic, modern playgrounds for the stage. Georgina is originally from Juarez, Mexico and currently resides in New York City.
THANKS:
Marfa Live Arts, the 6th Annual Playwriting Workshop and Student One-Act Plays are generously supported by the Carl B. & Florence E. King Foundation, Kirkpatrick Family Fund, Marfa Education Foundation, and 2017 Season Sponsors. In-kind support provided by Michael McGuire and Porter’s Thriftway. This program could not be realized without the collaboration of Marfa Independent School District’s Superintendent Oscar Aguero and educators Linda Ojeda and Amy Lane. Special thanks to Big Bend Sentinel, Tim Crowley & Peggy O’Brien of Crowley Theater, Rob Crowley, Mayor Dan Dunlap, Delfin and Minerva Lopez, Marfa Public Radio, Robert Saltonstall, Dan Shiman, and Cory Van Dyke. Graphic design by Yoseff Ben-Yehuda.
