105 is presenting a dance excerpt of Part 1: Walking Days at FronteraFest.
Presented by Hyde Park Theatre in collaboration with Scriptworks, FronteraFest is one of Austin's longest running Fringe Festivals, now in its 24th year of highlighting new, alternative and offbeat theatre.
Faster Than Bullets was presented at Here Arts Center on February 14, 2017 as part of Sanctuary, presented by Less Than Rent Theatre.
The reading featured Amanda Salazar and Leslie Malaika Lewis with Harrison Densmore directing.
Faster Than Bullets has been named a Semi-Finalist in NYCPlaywright's Women in the Age of Trump.
We did a closed reading of 893 | Ya-ku-za at 440 Studios, this past week. So great to have such brilliant minds in the room.
Huge Thanks to: Holly Chou, Rachel Lin, Kristan Seemel, and Sarah Haber.
Here's to making new work better.
Director Graham Schmidt asked me to step on to be Playwright-in-the-Room for the devised piece, "The Sonnets Project."
“The Sonnets Project” is an immersive, site-specific storytelling experience that invites audiences to consider, “If you had a chance to make a statement as you crossed over into the next life, what would you say?” Infused with music, dance, physical theater, and tons of love, “Sonnets” takes as its springboard the life of Wendy Johnson, a character from Jose Rivera’s play, "Sonnets for an Old Century." This is a performance about what we hold on to, and what we are able to leave behind, in an imagined waiting room between this life and the next.
The Sonnets Project ran from November 16-18th, 2016 at The University of Texas at Austin.
Director: Graham Schmidt
Playwright-in-the-Room: Daria Miyeko Marinelli
Scenic Designer: Iman Corbani
Lighting Designer: Alex Hanna
Costume Designer: Lirit Pendell
Ensemble: Miles, Agee, Jacob Basquez, Darlesia Carter, Jose Alejandro Figureoa, Oluwaseun Samuel Olayiwola, Elise Peterson, Tori Robertson, Hunter Sturgis, Oktavea Williams
So, I'm in the process of writing a post-apocalyptic trilogy call 105, that spans radio-play, immersive theatre, and dance ballet.
And that piece has gotten accepted to The Cohen New Works Festival.
More soon.
Occasionally, I'll be writing posts for the MFA Years.
Here's a sneak peek from the first one:
The Cocktail Party Pitch: I write immersive theatre and work that seeks to redefine the theatre going-experience.
What That Actually Means: I like writing work where you’re not just sitting and watching. Maybe you’re wandering around, maybe you’re eating something. I like writing work that’s experiential (whatever that means) and weird. I like work that surprises you.
Other Things You’ll Find in My Work: Strong female protagonists, because, yes. Wild broken things. Poetic stage directions. The agony of choice and the suffering of love.
You can find the whole article here.
Untameable was nominated for a NYIT Award for Outstanding Choreography and Movement.
Yes.
Here's an excerpt from an interview that Nikita, Ian, and I did:
What was your favorite part of working on this production?
Ian: My favorite of working on Untameable was the process of translating Daria's words into movement. Due to the enormity of the script and the many different pieces required to make it happen, the rest of the scenes that occurred outside of the vignettes between the Lady Queen and the Boy Prince were highly structured and needed to be as such to work effectively. Our moments were so flexible and fluid. It was very freeing.
Nikita: My favorite part of working on this production was interacting with the audience. Particularly as an immersive show, every evening was extremely different based on the audience's energy. I was able to feed off of their responses, as well as off of the work of my dance/devising partner, Ian Stewart every night. Often Ian and I had to work around bodies in our playing space so while we had structure, the moments of improvisation were thrilling.
Daria: The people. We assembled a smart, ambitious, passionate, talented beyond talented team. It was a dream.
Full article here.
Right before heading off to grad school, we did an awesome reading of The One You Feed at 440 Studios. Kristan Seemel directed, and Rachel Lin, Rachel Christopher, Olivia Jampol, Geany Masai, Fedna Jacquet, Annie-Sage Whitehurst, Maki Borden, Inés del Castillo, and John Racioppo brought the piece to life.
This is the picture I took when I walked to dinner after getting called by Kirk Lynn, letting me know that I'd gotten in off the waitlist for UT Austin.
I got into grad school, guys.
UT Austin, Here we go.
Kana Hatakeyama and Isabella Sazak in Faster Than Bullets' debut at The Oneness Project.
Faster Than Bullets is part of the 2016 Going to the River Festival!
It will be performed on Wednesday, July 16th, at 7pm at Ensemble Studio Theatre, with the talents of Leslie Lewis and Amanda Salazar, with Elizabeth Van Dyke directing.
Untameable is a finalist for the 2016 Dionysia New Play Competition, sponosred by Khaos Company Theatre. An excerpt of the piece will be presented during the the New Play Competition, and the winning play will receive a full production. It will be directed by James Mannan, and will be performed Friday May 20th and Saturday May 28th.
If you're in Indianapolis, IN- check it out!
The lovely Robert Kuang interviewed me for his blog Self-Care with Writers.
Here's a quick peek:
Did you grow up wanting to be a writer?
I’ve always been writing. I started skating around three or four and remember Tara Lipinski winning a ton of competitions. I told my mom, “I want to go to the Olympics so I can write an autobiography.” She was like, “You can probably write an autobiography without going to the Olympics.” I didn’t realize writing was a “career path,” and I say that in quotations because I still don’t think playwrights can make a living writing plays.
You can find the rest here.
The Amazing Inés del Castillo asked to use some of Untameable's script to make a short film piece. It's pretty awesome.
Check it out!
A short piece I wrote called Coax Me is being performed as part of Rising Circle's Spectrum Series, "Love in Living Color." The event will be happening on February 9th, at Jimmy's No. 43.
It'll be featuring the talents of Oladimeji Akinwande, Siho Ellsmore, Kevin R. Free, and Matthew Barbot, with Kana Hatakeyama directing.
Would be delighted to see you all there!
Untameable was named a Wordsmyth Theatre Finalist.
Bit by bit...!
Also, check out Wordsmyth Theatre. They do awesome work.
A Serialized Version of Daria's Red Runs The Stories, called Who I Killed for You is playing at The Flea as part of #serials! It's starring Crystal Arnette, Hye Young Chyun, and Brendan Sokler, with Kristan Seemel directing.
You can catch it this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 11pm. It will be awesome.
And maybe next week, IF it gets voted back.
Come out and support!
When it rains, it pours. Here's some more interviews and articles about Untameable and immersive theatre as a whole.
And sometimes dreams do come true. While producing Untameable, I got interviewed by Adam Szymkowicz for his blog, I Interview Playwrights.
Here's a little peek:
Q: Tell me, if you will, a story from your childhood that explains who you are as a writer or as a person.
A: I inappropriately saw Fight Club when I was 13 at a poorly supervised sleepover. After that I decided I was going to write a grimy violent novel, but it was going to be "experimental" in that it was going to only have dialogue. What I actually had written was a play. I wrote my first play and was calling it "an experimental novel."
Which is to say, I'm the kid who sticks out at the edge of the class photo. I'm kind of in the wrong spot and maybe (hopefully) it's endearing enough to not get me kicked out of the class. I'm rubbish at staying in line, I revel in independent deviation, I have a penchance for stumbling upon previously invented wheels and calling them new, and I have a deep affinity for fast banter dialogue, swift punches to the gut, and sweeping landscape moments where you watch the city burn.