Mariela in the Desert
by Karen Zacarias

Name: Mariela in the Desert
Brand: Karen Zacarias
SKU: 9780573710377
Rating: 4 (5 reviews)

Mariela in the Desert Book Cover — Mariela in the Desert Cover

Highlights

Female

Male

120 mins 1950s Role(s) for Latine Actor(s) Unit Set/Multiple Settings Period Costumes

Synopsis

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.

Set in the northern Mexican desert in 1950, Mariela in the Desert is a deadly mystery—a layered yet profoundly honest story of what happens to a family when creativity is forced to dry and wither away.

Press Reviews

"By turns enlightening, hilarious, and heart wrenching... Mariela in the Desert is a story of strangled creativity and great potential, of familial love and cruelty, and the fine lines that separate them—or don't."
— Portland Mercury

"It’s a play much like the family that lives in it. Think of a fraying blanket with many loose threads. Pull just one, and you fear it might all just fall apart. That it never does—the family or the play—is writer Karen Zacarías’ achievement. Her characters are fully drawn and her dialogue is infused with a color all its own... Mariela in the Desert lingers in the mind like the sandy desert air."
— John Moore, Denver Post

"Mariela in the Desert is a beautiful play, a serious piece about the way art works in the lives of the human beings who create it, the possibilities of transcendence it offers."
— Juliet Whitman, Westword Arts

Characters

Character	Gender	Age	Description
MARIELA A wry, beautiful, strong, woman who used to paint. Age: 40-45.	female	40	A wry, beautiful, strong, woman who used to paint. Age: 40-45.
JOSE Her husband. A famous artist. Age: 50-60.	male	50	Her husband. A famous artist. Age: 50-60.
OLIVA Jose’s pious older sister. Age: 50-65.	female	50	Jose’s pious older sister. Age: 50-65.
BLANCA Mariel’s and Jose’s talented and vulnerable daughter. Age: 21 (Also plays Blanca as a child.)	female	—	Mariel’s and Jose’s talented and vulnerable daughter. Age: 21 (Also plays Blanca as a child.)
CARLOS The son who has disappeared. Blanca’s younger brother.	male	—	The son who has disappeared. Blanca’s younger brother.
ADAM Jewish-American Art History Professor teaching in Mexico City. Blanca’s lover. Age: 35-45.	—	35-45	Jewish-American Art History Professor teaching in Mexico City. Blanca’s lover. Age: 35-45.