Interview: Director Amanda Weier of MARISOL by José Rivera at Atwater Village Theatre

Open Fist Theatre Company is presenting a rare revival of Marisol, the Obie-winning work by Puerto Rican playwright José Rivera. Directed by Open Fist associate artistic director Amanda Weier, the production runs September 12 through October 24 at Atwater Village Theatre, with low-priced preview performances September 10 and 11.

Theatre of the Absurd and Rivera’s powerfully poetic language create a dreamlike blend of magical realism in this darkly funny, apocalyptic fable about survival, faith and hope. Taking place after her guardian angel abandons her to join the celestial battle against a senile God, Bronx resident Marisol Pérez must navigate a terrifying, unraveling world on her own while struggling to preserve her humanity.

Jade Santana, recently seen at Open Fist in Amerika and Brownstone, stars as Marisol opposite Taylor Scott as the Guardian Angel. The cast also features Barbara Lee Bragg, Hutchins Foster, Matthew Goodrich, Carmella Jenkins, Mara Michelle, Chima Rok, Jack Sharpe and Grace Soens and understudy/swing April-Star Collins.

I decided to speak with Marisol director Amanda Weier (pictured) about her vision for the production, why its message still feels relevant today, and what she hopes audiences will be talking about after seeing the production.

Thanks for speaking with me, Amanda. First of all, tell me about your history with Open Fist Theatre productions.

My history with Open Fist goes back quite a ways. I auditioned for the company in 2004, after having seen an incredible production of Caryl Churchill’s Fen and thinking “oh, wow, an L.A. theatre company doing Chicago-style theatre? Yes, please!” From there I appeared in back-to-back-to-back shows, the first being Elizabeth Egloff’s The Devils. Then I pitched to direct Daniel MacIvor’s Never Swim Alone and was subsequently invited to join staff as Literary Manager. From there I was selected to direct the West Coast premiere of Neil LaBute’s Autobahn, which led to me getting to direct James Stock’s Blue Night In The Heart of The West and Joyce Carol Oates’ I Stand Before You Naked. I then moved from Literary Manager to Production Manager. Currently I'm an Associate Artistic Director.

There’ve been so many production highlights over the years, from acting in Stage Door, The Idiot Box, A Wolf Inside The Fence, The Gary Plays and To The Bone, to taking a show to Edinburgh, and working on the world premiere of Frank Zappa’s Joe’s Garage. Returning from the pandemic, I directed Never Swim Alone again, alongside MacIvor’s The Soldier Dreams, the callbacks for which had been held the night before the world shut down.

Most recently I produced Dietrich Smith’s adaptation of Kafka’s Amerika and Fleming & Farley’s Bat Boy - The Musical. I’m omitting a lot, but am forever grateful for every show I’ve worked on, and especially for the people with whom I’ve gotten to collaborate over the years. Many of these same people are helping bring Marisol to life.

Obie award-winning playwright José Rivera
Photo courtesy of Broadway Play Publishing

What first drew you to Marisol, and why did you feel this was the right moment to bring José Rivera's play back to the stage?

I’ve wanted to direct Marisol since I first read the play over two decades ago. I’m a big fan magical realism and dark comedy, and the premise of badass guardian angels abandoning their charges to fight the-powers-that-be really speaks to my clumsily Catholic, Gen X heart on a visceral level. The images Rivera conjures and the way he explores themes ranging from racism and sexism to capitalism and faith is riveting, poetic and hyper-theatrical, yet the play is also funny and inaccessible. It’s really a remarkable piece.

As to why this moment felt like the right moment to bring the play back to the stage, I feel like we are in so many ways living out conditions described in the play - we’ve got homelessness and fires, we’ve got racist factions terrorizing communities of color and leaders who’ve lost a step, crippling debt and a compromised food supply. We can still see the moon, but it’s got a new scar thanks to a billionaire who likes Nazi salutes. The timing is actually almost too perfect…

The play blends magical realism, absurdism, and poetic language. How do you approach balancing those styles so audiences stay emotionally connected to the story?

I think audiences are willing to go on all kinds of wild rides as long as they care about the characters and feel that the rules of the world have been made clear enough for them to go on the journey. With this in mind, the cast and I culled the text to build viable back stories. From there we created a timeline. It was important to me that the characters be viewed as normal people doing normal things, right up until they were abandoned by guardian angels they didn’t realize existed. we offer a foothold for emotional connection by approaching the characters from a place of truthfulness, a place of “what would this kind of thinking person do if the unthinkable were to occur?” Marisol, in particular, offers this connection because she is our “every woman,” but all the characters in the play are - or at least were - flesh and blood real, and then events triggered by the call for a celestial revolution altered their trajectories, for better and worse.

At its heart, Marisol is about survival, faith, and hope. What do you hope audiences carry with them after leaving the theater?

I view the end of the play as a call-to-action. I think Rivera is encouraging us all to stop simply enduring and to instead find our power, our voice. Because the world - literally and metaphorically - is burning, many of our leaders seem unwell, democracy feels evermore fragile in the shadow of late-stage capitalism, making now an ideal time to call upon our own better angels to see if we can find a better way forward together.

The relationship between Marisol and her guardian angel is both fantastical and deeply human. What makes that dynamic so compelling onstage?

This scene really is so key to our understanding of the rules of the world Rivera has created. We learn that Marisol’s angel, young as she presents, has been around for thousands of years and that she’s protected Marisol from all kinds of harm, from sexual assaults to encounters with Uzi-wielding fanatics. We also learn that the angel must leave Marisol in order to lead a revolution that is likely doomed. So it’s a meet-cute and a break-up scene at the same time. It’s a scene in which two young women, little girls really, set us up for what will happen when angels drop their wings of peace. It’s an intimate scene, yet the stakes couldn't be higher, and Taylor and Jade do beautiful work bringing it to life.

Taylor Scott and Jade Santana
Photo by Amanda Weier

Jade Santana returns to Open Fist to play Marisol. Have you worked with her before? And what qualities made her the right actor for this demanding role?

I’ve had the privilege of knowing the delight that is Jade Santana for several years now. A long-time Open Fist member (at least when our country’s immigration offices cooperate…), she appeared in our productions of Anna In The Tropics, Amerika and Brownstone, and I’ve directed and gotten to act alongside her in our topical sketch show This Week This Week. Jade is a hard-working and wonderful actor with sublime timing and exceptional emotional depth. She’s also just very endearing and likable. These qualities made her the right choice for the role of Marisol.

The cast portrays a wide range of extraordinary characters. How have you worked with the ensemble to create a cohesive theatrical world despite the play's shifting realities?

This has been a fantastic cast with which to do a deep dive. Everyone’s commitment to creating a cohesive world has been truly next-level. We started with table work predicated on the belief that the best way to get an audience to care about the story is to develop three-dimensional characters to serve as ambassadors for it. Some characters, like Lenny, initially seem a little out-there, and others go mad as their circumstances shift; but in all cases we made sure there was logic to their through-lines. Man With Scar Tissue, for example, was an air-traffic controller, but when he began seeing angels, he started drinking and lost his job. Lady With Furs makes reference to being an attorney, but a bad purchase gets her into trouble and she reacts from a mentality of scarcity. Marisol and June work in an office that publishes science books. They have a handle on how the world is supposed to work, but then things stop working that way. Reality shifts on these once-upon-a-time-reasonable people, and that leads to unexpected, but never unearned outcomes.

Can you talk about your collaboration with the design team (The creative team includes scenic designer Brad Bentz, lighting designer Matt Richter, sound designer Christopher Moscatiello, Costume Designer Mylette Nora, props designers Bruce Dickinson and Anna Kraus, choreographer Yusuf Nasir and fight choreographer Tambrie Allsup) and how scenery, lighting, sound, costumes, and props help tell this story?

I’ve somehow managed to assemble The Avengers of design teams and I’m beyond grateful for everyone’s spirit of collaboration, to say nothing of their abundant talent. I’ve been in talks with a lot of the team for a few years and we’ve discussed how the play is a bit Banksy, a bit Chagall, throw in some Fisher King and Trent Reznor… out of this we’ve developed a vocabulary that’s led to exciting design choices that support and elevate the story. This is very much a passion project for me and I feel incredibly lucky that everyone who has come aboard seems to share my passion.

For audiences unfamiliar with José Rivera's work, what makes Marisol an ideal introduction to his writing?

Marisol is an ideal introduction to José Rivera’s writing because the play features every element he speaks of in his “36 Assumptions About Playwriting.” If you’re unfamiliar with these assumptions, an online search will reveal them and they’re all so wonderful. Assumption #4 is probably my favorite: “Write plays in order to organize despair and chaos. To live vicariously. To play God. To project an idealized version of the world. To destroy things you hate in the world and yourself. To remember and to forget… To dance with language… To sound alarms. To provoke conversation.” Marisol does all of this and so much more.

If you could ask José Rivera one question about Marisol today, what would it be?

I’d ask Mr. Rivera about the proposed consolidation of men’s roles that occurred between the '94 version and the ’99 version of the play. Open Fist’s production sees the roles of Lenny, Ice Cream Man, Golf Club Man and Man With Scar Tissue all played by different actors, and I imagine consolidation was explored for budgetary reasons. But I’d love to know his experience with seeing the play realized in different ways. Because we are a rare revival, I’ve been working with what I imagine Mr. Rivera’s original intentions were, and I’d really love for him to see our production (and love it), and then agree to do a talk back :)

A girl can dream, right?

Of course! We must! What conversations do you hope this production sparks among audiences after the curtain comes down?

I hope the production sparks conversation around where we seem to be as a society 30-odd years after this play was originally written. And I’d hope there might be some discussion as to where we might decide to take this grand experiment in democracy, in humanity.

Is there anything else you would like readers to know about the production?

I should mention that we really are a limited-run production. I know people say that all the time, but we truly do have to close October 24th due to scheduling at the theatre. So, if you’re remotely interested in checking us out - and I hope you are - please plan to attend sooner rather than later.

Thanks so much!

Thank you!

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