MARFA — Monologues by Marfa Junior High seventh- and eighth-grade students will come to life at Marfa Lives Arts’ Winter Showcase Theater with local actors at Planet Marfa on Thursday, February 27, at 5 p.m., as the organization wraps up its Ninth Annual Playwriting Preparatory Workshop, led by MLA’s Lead Instructor Rachel Tate in partnership with Marfa ISD teacher Jaylia Foster.
The showcase will feature award-winning monologues written by eighth-grade students Aiden Gonzales (“Canelo Alvarez Boxing Gloves”), Lilliana Zubia (“Love”), Alyssa Garcia (“Hello, I am Ally”), Jerika Rodriguez (“General Ron”) and Adeline Marques (“My Mind Escape”), and seventh-grade students Nathan Stevens (“Did He Abandon Me?”), Francisco Muñoz (“To Be An Alien”), Ravion Hamilton (“The Hunted”), Juliet Hinojos (“Tiny Spider”) and Olivia Esparza (“My Name is Red”).
“As a team, we read through each submission and chose our top for each grade,” said Tate. “I really dislike having to choose winners. It’s my least favorite part, and I wish you could see all of the monologues written.” The monologues, Tate added, were written using “space” as a main prompt, allowing the students to reach into the word and see what it meant for them. “Whether that be outer space, or the need for personal space, or what it means to take up space,” she explained. “I found the pieces to be imaginative with many unique perspectives of those ideas and how they fit in their brains.”
The workshop, Tate’s third with Marfa Live Arts, also led to reunions with some students with whom she had taught last year. “I always love being with the kids. Building rapport with last year’s seventh-graders made me really excited to reconnect with them a year later. They’re a lot of fun and make me laugh and feel welcomed,” Tate said of watching returning students’ self-development. “It’s neat to see how this process allows for growth each year they participate. There is a familiarity of their own voice that gets to be added on to and then carried into their one-acts later in high school.”
Along with seeing former students, Tate also enjoyed meeting the new ones, with excitement to see how they find their own voices and how they can relate their experiences to an audience. “It’s also great to meet the new students in the seventh-grade classes. Who is behind the voice, and what are they discovering about themselves, and how do they see the world?” Tate said. “There was a lot of sweetness this year. Also, lots of basketball and big emotions. I like to see where their thoughts are and how they align with the kind of age-old feelings that happen in our middle school years. Also, how is this generation different than mine or yours? What values are shared cross generationally and which new ones are forming?”
Along with leading the students in new and unfamiliar creative territories, Tate has also found herself learning with the children. “It inspires me to sit with them and do the same for myself. This process was specifically beneficial for me personally, to take on the same challenges I am asking of them,” Tate explained. “We then become collaborators instead of just student/teacher. There are some really wonderful writers in this group, and I hope as mentors and community members we take the time to listen.” The success of the workshop, she added, could not have been possible without the guidance of Foster. “These workshops are facilitated through Ms. Jaylia Foster’s class, and I love the relationship I’ve been able to build over the years with her. I admire the daily dedication of these teachers in a variety of different learning scenarios. What a great blessing our teachers are. Really and truly,” she said.
The Winter Showcase at Planet Marfa, she added, is a great chance to support the students and let them know their creative pursuits will not be for naught. “Even if you don’t know a student or a teacher, please attend. Come show a student that you want to hear what they think and that you value their voice in this community. We have to support them. We get to support them,” Tate said. “We’ve also lined up some really awesome actors across this region to participate. I love the opportunity to connect a student with an adult who maybe wouldn’t have gotten the chance to know them otherwise. It’s a reciprocal benefit. We feed one another with support and ideas which will then go directly into the fabric of our shared community. If we want to sustain true local ideas and values into this place, we get to call home, this symbiotic relationship is necessary.”
For more information on past and future Marfa Live Arts, please visit their website at www.marfalivearts.org
