MARFA – Today, Thursday, April 29, the award-winning One-Act Plays will be presented at the Marfa Shorthorn Football Field at 2 pm. Masks and social distancing are required.
Sixty-eight plays were written last week at Marfa High School during Marfa Live Arts’ 10th annual Playwriting Program taught this year by National Latino Playwrighting Awardee Octavio Solis.
When asked his assessment on the plays, Solis shared, “Overall, they were beautifully handled and really well done. Many students took their work to a level that really captured the ideas they were trying to express and convey.” He continued, “All have an innate talent that if they attended to it diligently over the next couple years, many could blossom into writers of some significance … into the writers that are published and performed. I hope the teachers keep working on and fostering this type of creative writing. It’s a fantastic outlet for exploration and these kids really want to do it.”
2021 First-Place winners are: The Brawl Down Under by Tristan Kelly, ninth grade; A Grim Tale of Waiting by Dimetrey Stewart, 10th grade; Wake Up by Hannah Ibarra, 11th grade; The First Conversation by John Aguero, 12th grade.
Honorable Mention winners are: The Hopeful Cow by Annalise Marquez, ninth grade; The Album by Alexis Gonzales, 10th grade; Broken by Emily Hernandez, 10th grade; 40 – Tena by Evelyn Sanchez, 11th grade; Olvido y Orgullo by Saul Lozano, 12th grade.
The top four winning plays will be brought to life by actors from the community including Lily Aguero, Pam Breithaupt, Nick Bustillos, Belen Garcia, Rachel Monroe, Tina Rivera and Yoseff Ben-Yehada.
Senior John Aguero talks about having his words brought to life, “You get to see what you wrote down and what other students wrote down and then you see it actually performed. It’s much different than when you were writing it.” Junior Cristian Ontiveros adds, “When my play won that was so awesome. I was able to come and see my play presented. It’s a really good memory to have.”
Shorthorn graduate and former winning playwright Isabella Morales shares her remembrance, “I really liked seeing my work being performed by other people and knowing I can write something good enough for other people to see. It’s amazing to see how people envision things differently than the way you did … Is that how writers who write famous books feel? Do they go into little processes like that? Is that how it all starts?”
The Playwriting Program and the Marfa High School One-Act Plays supports Marfa Live Arts’ mission of educating area youth and producing dramatic arts programming while bringing our community together.
For more information please visit www.marfalivearts.org.