Karen Zacarías
Karen Zacarías
Karen Zacarías was born in 1969 in Mexico to a Danish mother and Mexican father. Her mother was a nurse and her father was a doctor, which later inspired her handling of healthcare in several of her plays. Her grandfather, Miguel Zacarías, was a movie director during the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema. She has a BA with distinction from Stanford University and got her Masters in creative writing from Boston University. She is the founder of Young Playwrights’ Theater, an award winning theater company that teaches playwriting in Washington, D.C. public schools. She founded this company at the very young age of 24. Zacarías is one of the inaugural Resident Playwrights at Arena Stage in Washington, DC, and is the core founder of the LatinX Theatre Commons. Zacarías currently lives in Washington D.C. with her husband and three children.
Awards
Lee Reynolds Award (2019)
American Theatre Top 20 Most Produced Playwrights (2018-2019)
American Theatre Top 20 Most Produced Playwrights (2017-2018)
American Theatre Top 20 Most Produced Playwrights (2016-2017)
Steinberg Citation - Best New Play (2010)
New Voices Award
Paul Aneillo Award
National Francesca Primus Prize
New Voices Award
National Latino Play Award
Finalist Susan Blackburn
Helen Hayes for Outstanding New Play
Native Gardens
Production of Native Gardens by Karen Zacarías as performed at Intiman Theatre. Production photos by Naomi Ishisakaat.
Synopsis
In Native Gardens, a garden represents a cultural clash and turns friendly neighbors into intense enemies. High-powered lawyer Pablo and his very pregnant wife Tania, a doctoral candidate, work towards their American dream and buy a fixer-upper in an established mostly white neighborhood. Their home is next to Frank and Virginia, a well-established Washington D.C. couple with a prize-worthy English garden. A disagreement quickly erupts over the property line between their houses and leads to a fight exposing both couples’ notions of race, taste, class, and cultural privilege. In the end, an unexpected early arrival of Tania and Pablo's baby brings the couples together as both sides compromise and collaborate. Showcasing struggles as seen in modern-day culture, this show asks questions about divisive friendships, rightful ownership of land, and how to settle disputes over one’s own literal and figurative fence.
How this Play Could Be Used
Within a high school classroom, students could begin an interdisciplinary unit with the STEM or science departments to explore the concept of gardening. Lines from the text could be analyzed to dissect how the plants symbolically mirror societal struggles, could be an exploration of native gardens versus curated gardens, invasive plant and animal species as compared with false perceptions about immigration, or the concept of how biodiversity benefits the ecosystem and what Zacarías could be saying about society at large through that reference.
This play heavily represents the overarching concept of the American Dream and can easily be brought into a theatre curriculum. Actors could explore the American Dream concept then write and perform pieces to symbolize their ideas of the American Dream.
Sample Activity
Potential Audience: High School Theatre Classroom
Instructions:
Have students complete a personal journal reflecting on how they would define the term "The American Dream."
Pair up students and have them share their individual responses and tell them to focus on the similarities and then the differences. Prompt them to analyze what could cause differences (ie. personal backgrounds, past situations, family, etc...).
Have each pair quickly share those findings with the class.
Divide the class up into four groups and assign each group one of the main characters from Native Gardens. Have each group write a monologue from that character's perspective on the American Dream. Encourage them to use quotes and information deduced from the script.
Let each group perform their monologue for the class (this could be an individual performance, choric reading, or another creative creation). Discuss these performances. One area of focus could be discussing how each character's background would change or alter their view of the American Dream.
For a formative assessment for this activity, each student can create a "performance" demonstrating their own "American Dream." This can be done through monologue, scene-writing, a dance, a song, etc. Encourage the students to be creative in their reflection.
Performance Potential
If you desire to create a devised piece from this activity, you could incorporate each individual student's piece into a large-scale class production utilizing the styles, choices, and text the students' performances contained. This could be a digital production, live performance for an audience, or simply a whole-class activity.
Discussion Questions
Native Gardens is a comedy, and while on the surface it appears to be a comedy about good people having a silly dispute about a fence, beneath the surface, Zacarías exposes some serious social and political issues. What are some of the issues she exposes? Why do you think she is exposing them?
Pablo mentions “Good fences make good friends” and Virginia corrects him to “Good fences make good neighbors”. How does Zacarías use the symbol of a fence to define and inadvertently determine relationships?
Does your racial identity affect your willingness or interest in directing or even teaching this play?
Zacarías said the first draft of Native Gardens had a tragic ending. She stepped back and asked, “How can I make this a comedy?” Would the message of this play be different if it wasn't a comedy? How would this affect how the audience received this play?
The Book Club Play
The cast of The Book Club Play when staged at the Cincinnati Playhouse’s Thompson Shelterhouse Theatre. Photo by Sandy Underwood.
Synopsis
The Book Club Play starts with all five members excited and nervous about being a part of an award winning filmmaker’s documentary project. Exploration of books brings about personal revelations, surprising reactions and unexpected actions. An unexpected new member shakes up the book club and soon the group dynamics are changed forever.
Application
In a high school classroom setting, an exploration of The Book Club Play could start with a discussion about books. A teacher could use this play to start a discussion. What books have changed their lives? What books do they never want to read again and why? When the writer leaves space for a reader's imagination how important is the reader's perception to the overall impact of the book?
Zacarías weaves in issues surrounding stereotypes, ageism, and classism throughout the play. A teacher could utilize this play to do a character study and teach character development. Students could analyze the characters mentally, emotionally, and physically using the context clues within the play. Students could choose to do monologue performances to perfect character work based on their research. Students could also write a scene between themselves and the chosen character and perform those scenes within the class to further demonstrate strong character development and application.
Destiny of Desire
Vilma Silva, Ella Saldana North, Esperanza America in Destiny of Desire at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Photo by Jenny Graham.
Synopsis
Destiny of Desire, a true telenovela, tells the story of two baby girls born in Mexico, one into poverty and one into wealth. To avoid dealing with her baby’s chronic health issues, the rich mom switches the babies at birth. Eighteen years later the girls meet, and all insanity ensues. Switching places one night, the pauper becomes the princess and both girls fall into forbidden love relationships. In the finale, the truth is revealed as the girls are able to end up with the one they were destined for and with their original parents.
Application
Utilizing this play in a high school classroom setting would be an impactful opportunity to explore the genre of the telenovela and/or soap opera, the use of complicated plot structure, the use of melodrama and larger-than-life characters.
Further exploration could include asking the students to focus on the theme of destiny as seen in this production by doing writing projects such as writing their own monologues, scenes, or even mini-plays about the trajectory of their own life and subsequent destiny.
Any school or theatre community searching for shows to showcase their LatinX actors would benefit from the utilization of this specific Zacarías work featuring eleven LatinX characters.
Canon of Work
Plays
Destiny of Desire: A Brechtian Telenovela
Native Gardens
Into the Beautiful North
The Book Club Play
Just Like Us (adapted from the book by Helen Thorpe)
Legacy of Light
Mariela in the Desert
The Sins of Sor Juana
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
Our War
TYA Musicals
Collaborated with composer Deborah Wicks La Puma
OLIVÉRio: A Brazilian Twist
(Kennedy Center)Ella Enchanted
(First Stage Milwaukee/Adventure Theatre MTC)Jane of the Jungle
(South Coast Repertory)Frida Libre
(La Jolla Playhouse)Looking for Roberto Clemente
(Imagination Stage)Chasing George Washington: A White House Adventure
(Kennedy Center)Einstein is a Dummy
(Alliance Theatre)Cinderella Eats Rice and Beans
(Imagination Stage)Ferdinand the Bull
(Imagination Stage)The Magical Piñata
(Imagination Stage)Works in Progress
An adaptation of Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence
A libretto for The Sun Also Rises
A libretto for The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Additional Resources
Bibliography
Awards
American Theatre Editors. (2019, January 30). League of professional theatre women announces 2019 awards. American Theatre. www.americantheatre.org/2019/01/30/league-of-professional-theatre-women-announces-2019-awards/
Tran, D. (2019, September 17) The top 20 most-produced playwrights of the 2018-19 season. American Theatre. www.americantheatre.org/2018/09/20/the-top-20-most-produced-playwrights-of-the-2018-19-season/
Interviews
Brown, D. (2011, October 14). Playwright Karen Zacarías finds inspiration in Arena Stage's residency program. The Washington Post. www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/playwright-karen-zacarias-finds-inspiration-in-arena-stages-residency-program/2011/10/11/gIQAObvBkL_story.html
Burns, E. (2015, September 14). BWW Interview: A date with destiny: talking with playwright Karen Zacarías. BroadwayWorld.com. www.broadwayworld.com/washington-dc/article/BWW-Interview-A-Date-with-DESTINY-Talking-with-Playwright-Karen-Zacaras-20150914
Fhaner, B. (2017, October 18). Playwright Karen Zacarías gives young people a voice in ‘Ella Enchanted’. South Coast Repertory. https://www.scr.org/get-connected/south-coast-repertorys-stories/south-coast-repertory's-stories/2017/10/18/playwright-karen-zacar%C3%ADas-gives-young-people-a-voice-in-ella-enchanted
Floyd, T. (2020, June 1). How playwright Karen Zacarías would spend a perfect day in D.C. The Washington Post. www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/how-playwright-karen-zacarias-would-spend-a-perfect-day-in-dc/2020/05/29/5f5027a4-a057-11ea-81bb-c2f70f01034b_story.html
Hola. (2015, April 16). DC playwright Karen Zacarías: how to write plays, raise kids and avoid the creative ‘desert’. Holacultura.com. www.holacultura.com/dc-playwright-karen-zacarias-how-to-write-plays-raise-kids-and-avoid-the-creative-desert/
Hulla, N. (2020, March 6). Destiny of Desire: Playwright's notes by Karen Zacarías. Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. www.cincyplay.com/about/blog/cinncinati-blog/2020/03/06/destiny-of-desire-playwright's-notes-by-karen-zacar%C3%ADas
Siguenza, H. (2020, April 16). ‘Our voices are the future of theatre’. HowlRound Theatre Commons. howlround.com/our-voices-are-future-theatre
Resources
Albuquerque, S. J. (1991). Violent acts: A study of contemporary Latin American theatre. Wayne State University Press Detroit.
Huerta, Jorge (2008) "From the margins to the mainstream: latino/a theater in the U.S.," Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature: Vol. 32: Iss. 2, Article 13.
Huerta, Jorge (2004) "Teaching and producing Latina/ O and Latin American plays in US colleges and universities." Theatre Journal, 56(3), 472-474. https://www.jstor.com/stable/25069480.
Larsen, C., & Vargas, M. (1998) Latin American women dramatists: Theater, texts, and theories. Indiana University Press.
Plays
Zacarías, K. (2017). The book club play. Dramatic Publishing Company.
Zacarías, K. (2019). Destiny of desire. Dramatic Publishing Company.
Zacarías, K. (2016). Native Gardens. A Samuel French, Inc. Title.
Play Reviews
Arbona-Ruiz, M. (2017, November 16). Acclaimed Latina playwright Karen Zacarías shatters biases, a laugh at a time. NBCNews.com. www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/acclaimed-latina-playwright-karen-zacar-shatters-biases-laugh-time-n815761
Aucoin, D. (2019, October 9). In two comedies, a playwright sides with our better selves - The Boston Globe. BostonGlobe.com. www.bostonglobe.com/arts/theater/dance/2019/10/08/two-comedies-playwright-sides-with-our-better-selves/ZGOUEnTBW4qSputT46FUsJ/story.html
Byrne, T. (2019, October 3). Playwright Karen Zacarías explores the turf of backyards and book clubs. BostonGlobe.com. www.bostonglobe.com/arts/theater/dance/2019/10/03/playwright-karen-zacarias-explores-turf-backyards-and-book-clubs/pVZ72HyHjTqlwLGT3MPUtN/story.html
Videos
CGTN America. (2017, December 14). A conversation with playwriting success story Karen Zacarías [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lSNPBL6Eq8
Tedx talks. (2020, April 7). The green tailed monkey story: Karen Zacarías [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p13ZW7nhsg
Information for this web page compiled by Casey Starkey & June Ash Moore (2020)