Begonya Plaza Pledges Devotion to Teresa’s Ecstasy
Written by Doug Strassler on March 9, 2012. Posted in Arts, Exclusive from New York Press, NYPress-Exclusive, Theater
By Doug Strassler
“Tell me more about you,” is the first thing Begonya Plaza says to me as I meet her in front of the Cherry Lane Theatre, where her new show, Teresa’s Ecstasy,is set to open on Wednesday, March 14. Photo caption: Begoyne Plaza, left, and Shawn Elliott.
Photo by Carol Rosegg. I must be careful here, I think. Should I let her know
that I have been a fan of hers since catching her in Maid to Order, a fun 1980s comedy starring Ally Sheedy? No way. I must be composed, professional. I mention several of the outlets for which I write, and we settle down in a cozy West Village bistro for an early pre-show dinner. Conversation returns to the show. “Phew,” I say to myself, “well-played, Doug.”
Ecstasy is about Carlotta (played by Plaza), a writer en route to Avila to research the famous Saint Teresa. Before arriving there, she makes a pit stop in Barcelona to hand her estranged husband, Andres (Shawn Elliott), divorce papers. Over a wine-abetted lunch, he fights to find a spark that might rekindle
their flailing relationship, while Carlotta has bigger concerns on her mind. Will Pomerantz is the director.
Plaza, who has a college-age daughter, began work on Ecstasy six years ago. “I was looking to return to acting after taking time to be a mother,” she explains. “I wanted to get back to action.” Initially,however, it was written as a one-woman show about the 16th century saint. Plaza had written a screenplay about the artist Salvador Dalí, and in doing her research found that one of the books at his bedside table was the saint's autobiography. “I thought, ‘Why would someone like him, someone so perverse, be interested in this extraodinary mystic?’” Plaza says. She read the book herself, “and I got sucked in. She is fascinating, that whole period of time, the Spanish Inquisition, it’s all fascinating, and I wondered what it would be like to play Teresa. We think we live in a macho world now? She lived in an atmosphere of prejudice. I’d probably become a nun too then – it would be the only way to educate myself!” According to Plaza, who says she always travels to monasteries when beginning to write something March 9th, 2012 (literally, “it’s a blessing”), it wasn’t the religious aspects of Teresa’s life as much as the spiritual elements that touched Plaza and led her to explore the woman further. She sent an early version to Elliott, a friend of hers, who told her that her subject was too perfect. “There was no conflict! He told me people would get bored,” Plaza explained. At one point in the process, Plaza had a phone conversation with her ex-husband, with whom she has an amicable relationship. “He is a noble but opinionated man, and he likes to contradict. He was dismissing what I was talking about,” Plaza continues, “and I thought, ‘That’s my conflict!’” She rewrote the play to focus on Andres and the
Teresa-influenced Carlotta; eventually Elliott himself won the part. (Linda Larkin also stars as Becky, Carlotta’s publisher). I tell Plaza that history and cross-cultural differences seem to dominate her work. In addition to Dalí and St. Teresa, Plaza has also written about such people as Evita Perón, Simón Bolivar, Dolores Ibarruri,
Antonio Machín and such subjects as Iraqi veterans and the Spanish Civil War. She agrees. “I don’t know why I wasn’t interested when I was in high school,” she jokes. “But history is the gossip of the past, right?”
While definitely excited about Ecstasy, Plaza is still in that apprehensive pre-opening phase. “It’s a roller coaster ride,” she says. “But I am filled with gratitude. I keep saying, ‘Let’s have fun.’” This leads me to refer to an interview I once saw with Kathy Bates, in which the acclaimed actress also discussed
the importance of having fun when acting. “It is called a play,” I repeat to Plaza.
“You just mentioned my favorite actress!” she exclaims. “I looooove her.” And now I’m not just an interviewer talking to a talented artist; we’re two fans on common ground. So I let my guard down and admit my fondness for Plaza and Maid to Order. Plaza laughs as I tell her how much joy that brought my family as a child growing up, and while I get the impression she hasn’t thought of the film in quite some time, she smiles at the memory and said it was fun to make. After the interview is over and we’ve parted ways, I think about what Plaza said about feeling gratitude
for what she gets to do. And a similar feeling washes over me, too.
For more information about Teresa’s Ecstasy, go to http://teresasecstasy.com/.
Tags: Ally Sheedy, Begoyne Plaza, Carol Rosegg, Cherry Lane Theatre, Maid to Order, Shawn Elliott, Teresa's Ecstasy, West Village.
2003, Mixed Reviews by film critics Jill Cozzi and Gabriel Shanks. The Web Alliance for Film Commentary and their reviews are quoted at the popular Rotten Tomatoes portal site.
Souvenir Views is produced by Abe Shainberg and Written and Directed by Begonya Plaza
Without money or plans, and armed with only the goal of finding a "rite of passage" experience in order to evolve as an individual, Marc Larre Miranda ventured from his middle-class family in Barcelona, Spain and traveled to New York in September of 2001.
Sleeping on the street and living off his wits and his art, Miranda views his new surroundings through the prism of the Situationist movement of the 1950's. What better location could possibly exist for a young man seeking to find his own way, away from the expectations of his affluent businessman father than the New York City of late summer 2001? What better time to embark on a Situationist-inspired quest to begin to transform society by first reinventing yourself; to construct the situations of your life and release your own potential? "What matters when you visit a city are the experiences you've lived, not what cathedrals or cool buildings you've seen," he says. Little does he know that his observations about how the modern society has turned us into mere spectators of spectacle; how the media, rather than experience, provides our sense of adventure, are about to be tested by his presence in lower Manhattan on the morning of September 11, 2001. For in just a few terrible hours, the largest media spectacle of the new century unfolds in real time. For those who witness it, the spectacle IS the experience.
There are some very big themes touched on in Plaza's economical 22-minute film: the cultural contributions of New York's many itinerant musicians who form a sprawling Putumayo compilation on the streets and subway tunnels of New York; the concept of initiation into manhood via exposure to some dangerous ritual; the inevitable selling out most of us eventually have to do when living the bohemian life becomes too logistically difficult; the complicated relations between the idealistic young and their world-weary parents, the line between art that honors a tragedy and commerce that exploits it. Each of these provide enough material by itself for a documentary film. Like its subject's tiny cityscapes, this small piece of work is a hidden treasure that completes a story, while still leaving us wishing for more.
MixedReviews.net
2000, DIARIO VASCO
Begonya Plaza presenta su version de "Vive Gernika" en New York -
La cineasta colombiana de origen vasco begonya Plaza presenta hoy por la tarde en la Eusko Etxea de Nueva York una nueva version de su pelicula Gernika Lives/Vive Gernika. Se trata de un documental sobre el bombardeo de Gernika por las tropas alemanas el 26 de abril de 1937 a traves de los recuerdos de su padre, Jesus Plaza, durante un intimo recorrido por la villa. El documental esta presentado por el actor John Randolph (El Honor de los Prizzi), y en el participan el ex alcalde de la villa, Juan Luis Zuzaeta , el antiguo jugador de futbol Mauri Ugartemendia o el bailarin Victor Olaeta, entre otros. En la version actualizada, el escritor vasco residente en Nueva York Mario de Salegi, comenta las imagenes mientras el mismo recuerda este dia que le toco vivir en Amorebieta.
"Como con el Holocausto judio, es bueno recordar que paso en Gernika el 26 de abril de 1937 para que algo asi no vuelva a ocurrir nuca mas" comenta begonya Plaza, quien se siente muy orgullosa de su origen vasco. Quiso realizar esta pelicula para que los estadounidenses pudieran conocer este tragico suceso y esta villa. Cada vez que begonya conoce a alguien surge una pregunta inevitable: Cual es el origen de tu nombre? Este documental, que esta dedicado a su padre, quiere dar respuesta a esa pregunta.
+++++++++++++++ EUSKAL KULTURA ++++++++++++++++++++++++
