Marfa
Monologues by Marfa Junior High students will come to life at Marfa Lives Arts’ Spring Showcase Theater with local actors at Planet Marfa on Tuesday, April 7, at 5 p.m. The organization wraps up its Tenth Annual Playwriting Preparatory Workshop led by Marfa Live Arts’ Lead Instructor Rachel Tate in partnership with Marfa ISD teacher Catherine Gore.
The showcase will feature award-winning monologues written by eighth-grade winners Itzayanna Duran, Olivia Esparza, Raivon Hamilton, Juliet Hinojos, Fabian Marquez and Logan Pippen. The seventh-grade winners will feature pieces by Azul Alvidrez, Ranger Dugan, Fatima Floresvillar, Liam Lopez and Lyla Luppino.
“I think the students gained the opportunity to express themselves in ways they don’t typically get to in a normal classroom setting,” Tate said. “I watched each day as their ideas became clearer and clearer. With that clarity, so came distinctive voices. This workshop gives them the chance to pull from their own desire to speak. What do they want to say and what creative ways will they find to say it?”
She continued, “Through the use of prompts we gradually transferred our thoughts and emotions into new words. While writing about inanimate objects they were given the opportunity to express their feelings through something outside of themselves. Their stories were shared through the experience of a created character. I got to hear them speak through erasers and cavemen, clouds and tired champion athletes.”
Tate spoke of one student in particular that caught her by surprise: “One of my favorite examples is of a student that I expected to not enjoy the writing, as he wrote very little throughout the week. The second to last day he told me he wanted me to read what he had written. I was so shocked to see he had conceived a beautiful monologue about a cloud in its conversation with rain. He wrote of the heaviness it felt and asked to let the load be lighter. It was a really wonderful teaching moment for me. To remember that even if it feels like the program won’t work, it genuinely always does. They have so much inside of them that touches and moves me each and every time.”
“Even if you don’t know a student or a teacher, please attend,” Tate added. “Come show a student that you want to hear what they think and that you value their voice in this community. We’ve also lined up some really great actors 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, this symbiotic relationship is necessary.”
For more information on past and future Marfa Live Arts, please visit their website at www.marfalivearts.org