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(Photo by Matthew Ferro)
Directed by New World School of the Arts theater faculty, Jennifer de Castroverde, the NWSA college acting program — with a cast of 17 students — will present the profound award-winning play by Karen Zacarías, Mariela in the Desert.
Set in the northern Mexican desert in 1950, Mariela in the Desert is a deadly mystery — a layered honest story of what happens to a family when creativity is forced to wither away.
Mariela and José were once the golden couple of the Mexican artists’ inner circle. Together they built a family and an artist colony to host friends Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and Rufino Tamayo. But now their daughter has grown up and run away, their friends are too famous to call, and artistic inspiration has been strangled by isolation and lies.
“Mariela in the Desert tells the story of a family trapped in endless grief, weighed down by guilt and silence,” explained college acting student Elizabeth Gonzalez, starring as Mariela.
“They’ve lost each other because they’ve never dared to speak the truth, the what, and the why. The play explores how — by finally facing what really happened — each character reaches a moment of release. It’s a story where the weight of shame must be set on fire and from those ashes healing is born.”
Mariela in the Desert will be presented Apr. 24, 25, 26 at 7:30 p.m., and Apr 26 at 2 p.m. at the Koubek Memorial Center. 2705 SW Third St., Miami, FL 33135. General admission is $12; students and seniors are $5.
This NWSA theatrical performance will offer a pre-show experience inside the Koubek Center’s historic mansion to deepen the audience’s immersion into the play, de Castroverde explained.
“We created an experience that serves as a passage into the play’s world. Inspired by the journey Mariela herself makes — from the thriving artistic scene of Mexico City to the desolate desert home — this pre-show element invites the audience into the same spiritual migration. Through sensory details — fragments of sound, image, and environment — we evoke the nostalgia and melancholy of the life Mariela and José once dreamed of, contrasting it with the stark, still existence they now inhabit.
“Theatrically, this prelude becomes a kind of ritual, preparing the audience for the pilgrimage they are about to take. I hope Mariela in the Desert offers a meditation on absolution — the slow, painful shedding of regret, the stripping down of ego, and the bare, fragile hope for grace,” de Castroverde continued. “In Mariela’s journey, we witness the human longing to be seen, forgiven, and remembered – not only by others but by oneself.
It is my hope that this production allows audiences to feel the weight of that yearning and to recognize, in Mariela’s redemption, a reflection of their own.”
About the process of understanding his character “José,” Matthew Ferro, also in the college acting track, noted, “One thing I’m learning in Mariela in the Desert, is that sometimes I think a character must be feeling a certain emotion during a specific moment in the play.
But, by doing that, by automatically saying the character is ‘happy’ here and ‘sad’ here — I block myself from the possibility that the character’s emotions are much more complicated than that. It takes away from how deep the character is, how complicated the story is, and how amazing the writer, Karen Zacarias, is.”
Acting and musical theater students at NWSA hone their craft through acting technique, movement, and speech classes, focusing on fundamentals of physical and emotional preparation. With performance at its core, training is based on the classical texts and the principles of drama as well as practical incursions into the contemporary and experimental edges of theatre. Consequently, alumni are found performing onstage nationally and internationally and their talent and vision are recognized and highly regarded in the industry.
New World School of the Arts was created by the Florida Legislature as a center of excellence in the performing and visual arts. It is an educational partnership of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Miami Dade College, and the University of Florida.
For information about New World School of the Arts call 305-237-3541.
Photo by Matthew Ferro. Pictured: Arielle Arciniega, Elizabeth Gonzales.
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