Category: My Writing

#PlayIn19Days

Leave a comment

I’m 8 days into my self-proclaimed #PlayIn19Days challenge and… I’m doing okay. In terms of my own guidelines, I’m actually a little behind. But I have a great idea/approach that I’ve never done before so I think that earns me a little leeway. Anyway, I wanted to blog a little bit about what I’m writing, to document my process and articulate the story. So here you go:

The play I’m writing is entitled Waiting for Villa. It’s about a Nicaraguan community that is uprooted by Hurricane Mitch in 1998. Specifically (as I have written so far), it follows a man and a woman facing employment and relationship issues all while the storm rages Central America.

My idea is to tell the story through several short scenes (1-3 pages long) and this is how I’m approaching the 19 days part. Each day, my goal is to write at least 1 scene that moves the story forward. I think it’s neat and somewhat easy. This approach also lends to the fact that I did not live this experience, living in Nicaragua, escaping a hurricane. The short scenes allow me to write very little, while also opening a window to the truth.

This story is inspired by the small village of Villa Catalina, in Chinandega, Nicaragua. I was privileged to have visited the village through Teatro Catalina and Amigos for Christ last March. I got to see this poor community and meet some of the families and play with a lot of the children. We got to learn about the history of Villa, from before Hurricane Mitch all the way to the present. Many people don’t realize that the effects of a hurricane can be detrimental and life-changing. What’s worse is that some governments ignore the state of living of their people, making it difficult for families to prosper and children to get an education. Teatro Catalina is a company that advocates for theatre education for kids in Villa Catalina. A lot of people in the states (and everywhere) underestimate the power of theatre, but for a kid in Nicaragua, it can mean confidence and leadership and hope for the future. So I’m using my theatre education and my privilege to write a play, to enlighten the world on the horrific hurricane and the hope that followed.

I hope to finish in 19 days mostly to just finish it but also to give me time to edit it. I will reach out and do some more research to make sure that the story is realistic and factual. And I may want to submit it to some contests because why not? I really want this story to be shared, one way or another. If you have any insights, please share. 🙂 

On another note, writing every day is helping me, emotionally. I knew that it would help me feel more whole, more purposeful. Creating is good for my soul!

To follow my writing and life on a more daily/140-character basis, you can follow me on Twitter @marissamaym .

August 1st

Leave a comment

I think know I am becoming restless. I graduated college eight weeks ago, found a townhouse and moved out of my parents’ house four weeks ago, and told myself to start writing a play two weeks ago.

Welp, here I am. Trying to muster up enough creative spirit/muse/motivation/anything to start writing while at the same time doing my best to HUSTLE for my first job post-college. Not sure how to do either of those things, but they’re probably not unrelated.

My restlessness comes from frustration and stress in both my creative and professional goals. But I think it comes from my personal happenings. I mean, I did just graduate from college and I did just move out of my parents’ house. That’s huge, no matter who you are. I’ve gone through this enormous transition, impressing my parents that I found a townhouse and pushing myself to land a job. I’m putting pressure on myself to be the best. To be perfect. I know that’s not how it is… maybe I’m naive.

Anyway. Maybe putting my goals on the internet will help me to both keep myself accountable and to clear my head:

Creative: Write a play (first draft) by August 19th.
Professional: Get a job by the end of the month.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Lessons Learned from SCU, a poem

Leave a comment

In Spring Quarter 2016, I stepped onto the Love Jones stage for the second and last time in front of my peers and potential SCU first-years. I was extremely excited and extremely nervous… and I wrote my poem two days before the performance and barely finished it hours before. AND… I memorized it! I was so pleased with myself because that was the first time I had memorized it and it was probably the biggest crowd I had ever performed for. Here’s the piece for you to read:

  1. Don’t waste time on magical wishes. You know the drill, rubbing your golden lamp for good grades, good food, good friends, and no embarrassing trips down the stairs of your freshman dorm. You’ll wish and wish and wish, but maybe tripping on the stairs is better than tripping over your first college kiss–because he won’t answer your wishes or even your text messages.
  2. I don’t need those wishes–I have all the wit in the world right here. From growing up in East Side San Jose, walking home from Quimby Oak Middle School, and learning how to college almost completely on my own, a magic genie has nothing on me.
  3. That being said… college will kick your butt all the way back to your public/private/boarding/what-have-you school. So WORK HARD. Shoulder your backpack with notebooks and pens, social anxieties and career aspirations–wake up for your 8am and do all the reading. It pays off.
  4. Be patient. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither was Palm Drive or McLaughlin-Walsh or the new art building. If you wait long enough for anything, something beautiful might just happen.
  5. While I try to be as nice as I can… some people just aren’t nice. Some people intend well, but they tend to their feelings more–they end up dropping prejudice about your race, your gender, your major–they tend to drop and shatter your optimistic worldview. So I keep my guard up.
  6. I am a woman and women are looked at a little bit differently… I am strong and confident and all of that jazz, but do not try to jazz me up. Just because I’m smiling–I love to smile, but it’s also a social expectation–just because I’m smiling does not mean I want your body pressed against mine, hold on sorry, my roommate’s calling me, she’s telling me to PRESS NO for do not mistake a woman’s “niceness” for her consent.
  7. Remember when I said to be patient? I meant in regards to your sophomore year crush –he’ll come around and around and around and around 8 months, he’ll hold your heart in his hands and you will have never felt safer.
  8. My major is not my end-all, be-all
  9. And neither is the color of my skin. Because as much as I am PRIVILEGED to be studying English, to communicate my thoughts clearly, and to be studying THEATRE, to create art with a purpose–Because as much as I am PROUD to be brown-skinned and brown-eyed, to be MEXICAN and FILIPINO in one body–I would hope that you pay attention to not what I look like, but what I do– I hope you will not pay attention to what my degree will say but what I say. And what I say is:
  10. Don’t give up. You DESERVE to be here. I believe in you and you and you and you and I made it this far for a reason and that reason is making our parents proud, making our grandmas proud, making our aunties proud, making way for our 11-year-old cousins so that they too can see what they are made of.

Staging Hapa

Leave a comment

I want to share a quick update about a big project I have embarked on.

Last school year, I wrote a play, Hapa Cup of Sugar. Hapa follows 22-year-old fresh-out-of-college Leila. Leila works in her parents’ laundromat with her younger sister and brother. She moves through the world as a hapa, someone who is bi-racial. As she learns how others perceive her, Leila tries to figure out what happens next in her life.

I had the privilege of putting on a staged reading of Hapa through SCU’s “New Playwrights’ Festival.” It was an awesome experience working with a director and a cast! I loved seeing my words come to life right before my eyes (it was super surreal).

That was just the first part, though.

Now, I have been privileged to receive the Hackworth Grant from my school’s ethics center to stage my play for real. That means with a cast, with a set, with costumes, with lights… in front of my classmates and peers! THIS IS HUGE!

The whole reason I started even thinking about writing this play back in Spring 2014 was to tell a story about someone who was different and to tell that story to my school. I feel so blessed to have been given this opportunity, to share my words with the SCU community.

But I also feel empowered and responsible. The point of my project Staging Hapa Cup of Sugar is to combat racism. It’s to tell a story about a girl who has not only graduated college, but who was also the first to graduate from college in her family, who grew up bi-racial in the Bay Area and was thrown into a school populated primarily by white people, who takes care of her siblings in a low-income home. I believe that this story needs to be shared with the community in order to create more understanding of race and diversity at SCU.

For those of you that know me, you know that I have been heavily involved with the Multicultural Center at school. I spent my first year at SCU on the Japanese Student Association board (I am not Japanese, just curious about the culture!) and I dedicated the past two years on MCC Staff. As a senior, I will continue to dedicate my time to diversity and inclusion through Staging Hapa.

Part of Staging Hapa is producing the play and another part is socially engaging with SCU students. We are starting a dialogue around diversity on social media, tabling in front of Benson, and conducting a talk-back discussion after the performances. Stay tuned for more information!

You will definitely see more of Staging Hapa without a doubt! Check us out on social media starting next week and check out the play on November 18 and 19 in the Fess Parker Studio.

TLDR; I wrote a play and now it’s really happening!!! Thanks for reading! Ask for details!