Aurora Theatre's Teatro del Sol Presents MARIELA IN THE DESERT

Aurora Theatre continues the 2013-2014 Harvel Lab Series with a Teatro del Sol production, Mariela in the Desert by Karen Zacarías. It is 1950 and artists Mariela and José are living an isolated existence in the desert of Northern Mexico, haunted by the ghost of their young son. José is very ill and Mariela sends a telegram to their daughter encouraging her to come home. Where once the walls were beautifully decorated, now only one painting remains, and it is shrouded in mystery. This play will be performed in Spanish with English supertitles. This production features and amazing cast including the stunning Blanca Agüero in the title role of Mariela and Aurora Theatre Producing Artistic Director Anthony P. Rodriguez as her husband, the ailing artist José.

Karen Zacarías' award-winning plays include The Book Club Play, Legacy of Light, Mariela in the Desert, The Sins of Sor Juana, an adaptation of Julia Alvarez's How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents and the adaptation of Helen Thorpe's nonfiction book Just Like Us. Her TYA musicals with composer Deborah Wicks La Puma include Chasing George Washington: A White House Adventure, Einstein Is a Dummy, Looking for Roberto Clemente, Jane of the Jungle, Cinderella Eats Rice and Beans, Ferdinand the Bull and Frida Libre. Her plays have been produced at the Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Goodman Theatre, Round House Theatre, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Alliance Theatre, Imagination Stage, GALA Hispanic Theatre, Berkshire Theatre Festival, South Coast Repertory, La Jolla Playhouse, Cleveland Play House, San Jose Repertory Theatre and more. Her awards include 2010 Steinberg/ACTA New Play Citation, National Francesca Primus Prize, the Kennedy Center's New Visions/New Voices Award, National Latino Playwriting Award and a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding New Play. Additionally, Zacarías was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. She is currently a playwright-in-residence at Arena Stage and teaches at Georgetown University. Zacarías is the founder of Young Playwrights' Theater, an award-winning theatre company that teaches playwriting in local public schools.

Aurora Theatre Artistic Director Anthony P. Rodriguez, "This past October, I attended the Latino Theatre Commons National Convening in Boston. Through this historic event, I realized that I was in a unique position to be able to employ more Latino artists at Aurora. So we did. Renowned director Tlaloc Rivas, from the University of Iowa and one of the busiest directors in the Midwest, is a friend of Karen Zacarías and a big fan of her work, so he made the commitment to spearhead the entire project, supertitles and all." He goes on to say, "Designers like Regina Garcia and Maria Cristina Fusté are naturally drawn to work that speaks to the richness of our community. Mariela not only explores the culture behind Mexican Expressionism and great artists like Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, but how we deal with personal tragedy in our family."

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