Izar Productions

A Quantum World

_{SAG/AFTRA/EQUITY    *     Download Begonya's Resume -- IMDB      *      Contact:  Tel: 310279-2981}

 

 

 

This short 1-person play is a 13" prologue to the full-length play in the works. Relating to consciousness, quantum physics, education, AI, and the truth escorting us beyond established material concepts.

Dr. Sal shares with her Preclinical Science class a patient's near-death experience as relating to how the principles of quantum physics perhaps validate the phenomena of consciousness.

During these seismic shifting times, resistant orthodox science fights awakening to consciousness as the foundational nature of reality, though quantum leaps in artificial intelligence functions, prove otherwise.

Written by Begonya Plaza-Rosenbluth and performed on August 26, 2023

New York Public Library for Equity Library Theatre Festival of Short Plays.

Directed by Dana Jacks,

Video recorded by Beverly Batzel.

 

 

 

 

 

Souvenir Views documentary by Begonya Plaza

Marc Larre Miranda is a young artist from Barcelona in NYC self-imposing a rite-of-passage. Inspired by the Situationist Movement and Guy Debord's philosophy he wants to experience the spontaneity of life as a transient progressing through ambiences. Marc never imagined that he'd be a witness to 9/11. Looking to survive and to honor New York he creates a poetic piece of art from matchbooks that he sells on Prince Street in Soho. 

Watch SOUVENIR VIEWS at INDIEPIXFILMS.COM to download onto your computer!

SOUVENIR VIEWS was shot in New York City and Barcelona. Immediately after the tragic World Trade Center Attack on 9/11, Marc creates a small piece of poetic beauty to sell and get by, that deliberately speaks to the heart of all New York mourners, while sleeping on a construction site, hungry, vulnerable and homeless. 

Begonya filmed Marc with a handheld Sony camera, and followed his story over the span of 1 year. While living  homeless in New York, to meeting with his affluent family in Barcelona though yearning for their son's return.

Marc's ingenuity and big heart brought him great fortune. He was invited to attend Cooper Union Art Institute a few months after "Souvenir Views" premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2003.

Other festivals: Festival Internacional de Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano de Havana, Cuba, 2004 Gerona Film Festival of Spain, Festival Internacional de cortometrajes de Barcelona 2005, aired on IFC 2005-2006, and toured the universities: Dartmouth College (Women's Studies, and Theater Departments), and Wagner College (Psychology, Sociology and English Departments), also Young Filmmakers Program at Anthology Film Archives of New York.

Duration: 25 minutes / Subtitles: Spanish and English. Locations: New York City and its underground, and Barcelona. Digital video, aspect ratio: 3:2 (720x480), video screen ratio: 4:3, edited on Final Cut Pro. 

OUTTAKES:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UNIVERSITIES & COLLEGES
• DVD licensed with lifetime public performance rights: $200 
* For electronic file/streaming rights or purchase orders

PUBLIC LIBRARIES, HIGH SCHOOLS & NON-PROFITS
• DVD licensed with lifetime public performance rights: $60
• Discounts available for multiple copies
* For electronic file/streaming rights or purchase orders

PERSONAL/HOME USE
* DVD: $30

Contact us:  [email protected]

Begonya Plaza online

 

Through creativity I explore the expansive adventure of life, with an inquiring mind and heart, aiming to evolve toward my fullest soul potential. Here, I share with you some of the creative works I've completed, and others that are still in progress. May your divine imagination be inspired, and we as a collective force bring forward the deep changes needed for transcending these critically unstable, and intolerant times motivated by fear, and greed. My play Teresa's Ecstasy addresses some of the differences created by perspectives of bias, and prejudice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FILMS I'VE WORKED IN:

You may recognize me in the roles I played in these films. They are from long ago though it feels like yesterday. Works I'm proud to have been a part of, for the excellence of craftsmanship in all of them. Most are classics, and "Tales from the Dark Side" is a pop horror classic. What fun it is to be an actor, and be able to tell stories. Now I mostly write, and it feels amazing to adventure in the imagination, combining my rich emotional life experiences, love for human character, the word, form, style, and my desire for expressing truth (in both English and Spanish) while solving character driven puzzles. Art like science, and philosophy aim at reflecting how fundamental truths and laws of nature relate to man's free will in the face of rejected consequences.

May we never doubt to follow our bliss, and listen to our individual inner voice so to inspire each other, ceaselessly.

 SAG/AFTRA/EQUITY   --  IMDB link -- Download Begonya's Resume

Guernica Lives

In my early twenties I put aside my acting career and embarked on a passionately personal documentary adventure. I wanted to capture the voices and essence of Gernika's survivors who experienced horrific violence and destruction. Their memories echo throughout history as a cry for peace. 

April 26, 1987 was the 50th Anniversary of the Bombing of Guernica. 

The silenced survivors who during the Franco years could not speak, finally got to narrate their personal traumas of that horrific day in my documentary, Gernika Lives. 

Imagine that this was one of the first aerial bombings on innocent populations, after Harar in Ethiopia, Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia. Because Gernika is the emblem of Euskalerria (the Basque people in the Northern part of Spain, and Southern part of France,) the Fascists targeted the area to level it as a war of aggression waged by Franco and Hitler. 

When I was a little girl I remember sitting on my daddy’s lap and hearing his stories, while seeing tears roll down his cheeks. I wasn’t a filmmaker, but I somehow needed to make this amateur film for my father, and for all my Basque ancestors, and the people of Euskalerria. Some say that the Basques are the indigenous people of Europe. They speak their own unique language, and have maintained their identity and a democratic independence from the beginning of time while in a complicated dynamic with neighboring governments. During Franco’s regime, they were prohibited from speaking their language, or blaming their victimizing assailants.

In 1988 when I returned to the States, and wanted to distribute the film, nobody in Hollywood was familiar with this story or the least interested. Soon after I was cast in Born on the Fourth of July, and went on location to the Philippines, my film was shelved, but that learning experience is forever informative. 

Prior to Gernika's bombing, when my aita (father in Basque) was a child of three years of age, his family lived in a comfortable chalet in Barakaldo. My grandfather was the head of the worker's union of the shipyard, Los Astilleros.The Fascist Nationalists appropriated themselves of my grandparent's home, and sent them off to vanish in homeless conditions. First they fled on cargo trains to France, and then continued to Barcelona, until finally returning to the shattered remains of Guernica where my barefoot father helped clean up the rubble of the ravaged town. 

Written, directed, narrated, produced, and co-edited by Begonya Plaza
A co-production with K2000 in Bizkaia
Edited with Jack Tucker (Emmy winning editor)
Music by Xeberri and other distinguished Basque musicians (included in the film credits).
Film introduced by John Randolph (actor / activist, victim of McCarthyism)
Featuring: Basque artist/author Luis Iriondo, and historian, author Mario de Salegi
Dedicated to my father: Jesus Plaza 

In Spanish, and Euskera with English Voice-Over & subtitles. 39". 

Redirect to Gernika Lives page:

FREE ON VIMEO

GUERNICA by Pablo Picasso

Reviews

Dear Begonya

Thank you so much for the films which had arrived when I got back yesterday evening and watched. I loved them- such a personal journey for you. I especially liked Guernika Lives with its original footage and wonderful music to accompany it- very inspiring. I was even more horrified by the event and so touched by the courage and strength of the Basques- and the people who were interviewed. It must have been very emotional for your father. I so applaud their strength in holding on to their cultural and unique identity. 

On Saturday I will be sitting in the restaurant you recommended, thinking of the events, and will raise a glass to you and yours.

Thank you again,

Lesley - Miriam

England, february, 2013

 

GERO ARTE

means: see you soon. This short film was shot in 2013 in the Basque towns of Bakio, San Sebastian, and San Juan de Gasteluatxe in the province of Bizkaia, Northern Spain. Two years prior to Game of Thrones.

Half-siblings meet for the first time when the American sister visits her Basque half-brother to make amends for the sins of their father.     

I wrote this story inspired and reimagined from a childhood memory of a Basque friend's personal story. Also, wanting to work with my good friend, Patxi Barco, whom I know since 1986 when I was in Gernika making Gernika Lives and editing at K200 production house where we met.

 

 

Starring:

Ainhoa Aierbe, Patxi Barco & Begonya Plaza

Spanish, English and Euskera with subtitles in English. Duration: 15 minute. Shot on 5DMark II. Aspect ratio: 1920 X1080 (HDV) - Private screener on Youtube.  Available as a Quicktime.mov file and on DVD region "o".  Released in 2014.

 

 

 

 

Kontxi Orbegozo was so incredibly splendid and gracious allowing us to use her bar.

Kontxi is not only my extraordinary friend but her dishes are exquisite and I recommend you visit her bar if you have a chance to travel to San Sebastian or Donosti (the name in Euskera).

Alai Taberna at Catalina de Erauso Kalea, 9, 20010 Donostia, Gipuzkoa, Spain Phone: +34-943-46 62 81

 

Camara: Antonio Galvez, Assistant Camera: Alain Consonni, Sound: Jon Fika, Editing: Taji Ameen & Begonya Plaza, Music: accordion composer: Kepa Junkera, Produced by: Izar Productions,  & CreAv

All rights reserved, May 12, 2014

 

 

 

  

Eskerrik asko, dear friends of Bakio.  Koldo and Rosa you were amazing in how you offered up your bar and services at the wonderful Itsasargi Kafetxea at: Zarrakoa Bidea, 7, 48130 Bakio, Bizkaia, Spain. Tel: +34 946 19 31 93

Thank you! all who served as background patrons encouraging a smooth shoot, and patiently enduring the repetitive takes with joy and good will. The night turned out to be a big town event. How delighful, and I am so grateful to you all.

 

My dear and long time friend Miguelín made all this possible, with permits, contacts and his own enthusiastic involvement. So true that time and distance means nothing when there is a strong bond of friendship. After the shoot, Miguel invited us to his amazing caserio-home and prepared for us a meal composed of the percebes he caught, out in the rocky seas of the Atlantic ocean, eggs, tomatoes and chicken from his farm, and delicious local chorizos and sardines. It was a banquet. Eskerrik asko Miguelín. You deserve your own documentary, and here is Miguelín talking about his lemon trees. (Click outside the white frame to enter my blog and see this video and more posts.)

Forever we will remember this experience and treasure not only its creative challenges but the beautiful people I made friends with along the way. Gero arte!

 

  

 

Begonya is interviewed by Felix and Kike on Basque Radio IFLANDIA

IFLANDIA entrevista a Begonya Plaza

At half show: 51:50 for the second half of the program Begonya comes on. 

IFlandia Radio Euskadi Es un programa divertido, interesante sobre cultura y arte. Para todos los de habla hispana les recomiendo descargar sus podcasts. 10/16/2013

LINK to Iflandia

 

"Do the Blind Dream?" by Barry Gifford 

A private reading by the theater group BLACK LODGE THEATER, directed by Alexandra Siladi

The play takes place in Fùlmine, a small town close to the sea in the south of Italy. Beatrice, a woman in her seventies, has just died, and her children are gathering to attend her funeral. Aldo, Beatrice's son, and Sandra, her eldest daughter, arrive at the house of "Aunt" Rosa, their mother's caregiver in her last years——Beatrice suffered from Alzheimer's disease——with their respective spouses, Giuliana and Ignazio. Cara, Beatrice's younger daughter, a famous actress, arrives with her American boyfriend, Buddy. The family, along with Aunt Rosa and two men from the funeral home, and later, a Priest, constitute the main cast.

"Do the Blind Dream?" is a title built on double entendre: Does anyone, sighted or not, see the truth of daily events? To paraphrase the poet Delmore Schwartz, in dreams reside responsibilities.

As the action proceeds we become acquainted with the jealousies, rivalries and secrets concerning the immediate family and the (mostly——as well as ghostly) absent father and husband. As everyone talks we begin to discern how and why they lie——not only to each other but to themselves. The only person among them who retains a true sense of her self, as well as a measure of elegance, is Beatrice, the dead woman, who in life did not speak a coherent sentence in her final years. Here, however, she is free to talk, liberated in death as she was imprisoned in life by convention, a bad marriage and, finally, illness.

Also at issue here is the recurrent clash between generations, the traditional and the new; between a burned out culture struggling to be reborn and an often vulgar contemporary one. Cara, despite the serious differences between her and Beatrice, emerges as the one among the children to best represent the values and spirit of their mother. As the family members wrangle, recriminate and stumble toward rapprochement, Buddy, the "visitor from another planet" as one character describes him, is able to pick up and follow the thread of truth as it unravels. And, of course, it is left for Beatrice to have the last word. October 15, 2013

-----------------------------------------------------------

 A LUCID DREAM:

First Private Reading - Friday, September 23rd, 2011 @ 8PM & Saturday 24th at 2PM - La Nacional: 239 West 14th Street (btwn 7th & 8th avenues)

                                         

Jackie Shark is the Host, the Joker, and God, as she chats in this interview setting with Hispanic historical characters: Eva Perón, Simón Bolivar, Dolores Ibarruri, and Antonio Machín.  As these guests flaunt their heroism, humbling secrets are also unveiled that lead them back to a path of true realization.  

Antonio Machín, 1903 - 1977 - One of the most recorded Cuban singers of the 20th century who in 1930 became a hit wonder in New York with the song, El manisero (The Peanut Vendor), becoming the first Cuban song to sell over a million copies around the world, presaging the rumba explosion of the 1930s.   Died in Sevilla, Spain where he lived most of his life.

 PLAYED BY:  Rick Reid

 

 

 

 

 Maria Eva (Ibarguren) Perón  “Evita” (1919-1952)    Argentinian leader and 2nd wife of Juan Perón.  In her time Evita  was the most powerful woman in the world.

 

       PLAYED BY:  Elizabeth Inghram

 

 

 

 

 

                                                     

Simón Bolivar (1783 – 1830)
Liberator of the Americas, leading the independence movement for 6 nations in northern South America.  The George Washington of Spanish America.

PLAYED BY:  Dar Riser

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                           

 

 

 

 

  

Dolores Ibarruri “Pasionaria” (1895 – 1989)

A Basque woman of indomitable spirit and a great Spaniard who founded the Spanish Communist party, and won international renown during the Spanish Civil War for her courage defending Republican Spain against Franco.

                                                                                    

    PLAYED BY: Dana Jacks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HOST / JACKIE SHARK / JOKER & GOD 

 PLAYED BY: Diana Oh

                 

 

DIRECTED BY:   Alberto Bonilla

 

 

 

American Hero

Written, & directed and starring Begonya Plaza

opposite James A. Lee 

Contemplating the ravages of war. A helpless Iraqi Veteran with PTSD attempts to rebuild his life with the support of his sister who struggles to understand the depth of his brokenness. 

Their sibling bond of love is his saving grace in the end as he awakens to the toxic consequences he's endured.

Devastated and concerned for how violent we are turning due to our fears and delusions. Offensive war is self-destruction 

American veterans return demoralized, dehumanized, physically wounded, mentally ill, and ashamed of the betrayal. To find themselves at home marginalized, systematically abandoned, forced to end up homeless on the streets of our cities, in prisons, psychiatric hospitals or dead. This brother/sister relationship represents the two worlds colliding at home. With effort and love their blood bond redeems them with a healing forgiveness.

TRT: 14:45 –Shot on: HiDef HVX 200A Panasonic   © izar productions, April, 2009

BUY DVD

UNIVERSITIES & COLLEGES • DVD licensed with lifetime public performance rights (PPR): $100

PUBLIC LIBRARIES, HIGH SCHOOLS & NON-PROFITS • DVD licensed with lifetime public performance rights (PPR): $30

PERSONAL/HOME USE * DVD: $20

Purchase any 4 films: American Hero, Gernika Lives, The Real Gernika, Souvenir Views, & Gero Arte for $80.00, shipping included.

Download AMERICAN HERO credits

I wanted to explore the meaning of family love in moments of extreme hardship when finding it incomprehensible and unforgivable, we can still try to stand strong to find a way towards compassion.

 

Director of Photography: David Lang and Director: Begonya Plaza

Bobby Harris played by James A. Lee

Cinematographer: David Lang,  First Assistant Camera: Suren Karapetyan 

Script Supervisor: Ryan Kane, Gaffer: Donavan de Cesar

 

.

Assistant Director: Robert Kolodny, Director of Photography: Dave Lang, First Assistant Camera: Suren Karapetyan

 

Still Photographer: Caterina Armenter, Gaffer: Donavan de Cesare

A profound thanks to Chris Newman at School of Visual Arts, Charlie Feldman of BMI records, Jeremiah Hawkins of Postworks NYC, Reeves Lehmann, Chair of School of Visual Arts and Michael Plaza for the inspiration.

 

======================

2016

Short Play Lab
The Midtown International Theatre Festival
Jewel Box Theater, 312 W. 36th St., NYC (between 8th & 9th avenues) October 29 & 30, 2016 @ 9:PM & Sunday, 30th @ 2:PM

LAMENT is a ten minute play inspired by the death of ballet dancer, Rudolf Nureyev.

Starring: Rolando Chusan, Solonje Burns, Cooper Lawrence, directed by Jonathan Libman

Not long ago in New York same-sex marriage was illegal. While a world famous dancer is dying in a hospital room, his life partner, waits outside on the street as he is not admitted by his lover's side. The homophobic family take advantage of this, to exclude him, and the legal wife who agreed to pose as a cover, now greedily exploits the situation for her own selfish benefit.

A progressive journalist secretly watches the scene unfold, and reports on it.

Still, there are many states, and countries that ban LGBT rights.

Call Ovation Tix toll-free: 866-811-4111

or visit: TICKETS

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                Rolando Chusan

                                                                 Cooper Lawrence

 

Writingmasterthesis.com

TERESA'S ECSTASY at Cherry Lane Theatre

En route to Avila Spain, Carlotta, and Becky, (her New York magazine publisher) stopover in Barcelona for the night to visit Carlotta's estranged husband Andrés.

The women's luggage has gotten lost in flight so they now are forced to return after Avila for their luggage.

A delusional Andrés attempts to reconcile with Carlotta in the comforts of his studio/home but finds Becky to be a defiant challenge to his temperamental misogynist contrarian posturing’s. Through humorous teasing, pseudo intellectual sparring, and cultural Spanish pride that includes traditional dishes he proudly presents to Carlotta, yearnings are exposed, and truths revealed.

Carlotta and Becky return transformed from Avila. Carlotta's article on Saint Teresa of Jesus' mysticism now is ready for publishing, and the two women are also ready for swearing allegiance to their love for each other having felt the ecstatic blessing of Saint Teresa.

                            

Saint Teresa of Avila was an empowered Sixteenth Century mystic, and a heroine of the highest order. During a time when the Inquisition was in its fervor, and the Saint’s spirituality could easily have been interpreted as heresy, she single-handedly reformed a branch of the Catholic church; the Discalced Carmelite Order, returning to its strict original intentions of fraternity, silent prayer, and service.

This story is of the collective unconscious, searching for the female, intuitive, caring mother. Through this triangular dynamic truth is uncovered. Language, culture, gender, religion nor political beliefs can resist for the heart has no boundaries.        

Teresa's Ecstasy is about the female archetype (caring, nurturing, creator), versus the male archetype (destroyer, deserter, punisher). We all have both archetypes, and it's not about man against woman. Inspired by Saint Teresa of Avila, Carlotta and Becky transform as they begin to look at love from a wider perspective. While Carlotta explores the Saint's life as a writer, she evolves in parallel.

Starring:

Shawn Elliott, Linda Larkin and Begonya Plaza

Directed by Will Pomerantz

Produced by Jack Sharkey & Jim Weiner

CHERRYLANETHEATRE
under the direction of Angelina Fiordellisi
Avila Productions LLC presents By Special Arrangement with The Cherry Lane Theatre

Featuring music by Albert Carbonell 

TERESA'S ECSTASY had an Off-Broadway production from March 4 through April 1st, 2012

Teresa's Ecstasy at the Cherry Lane Theatre NYC

“Beware of having unintended spiritual epiphanies. Begonya Plaza’s new play, TERESA’S ECSTASY, is about the unexpected influence of Saint Teresa of Avila, a 16th-century Carmelite nun, on modern-day Carlotta, a Spanish writer… The well-written, touching and often funny drama…” Jennifer Farrar, Associated Press

“…TERESA’S ECSTASY, a sumptuous three-person comic drama about sex, love and spirituality…” Erasmo Guerra, New York Daily News

 

AGENT: Lawrence Harbison - [email protected] 
PUBLISHER: Broadway Play Publishing, Inc. Tel: 212-772-8334  www.broadwayplaypubl.com
    

Becky: "St. Teresa says that God defends true love, above church, and worldly justice."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photographs by Anya Garrett and Teresa Plaza 

   Linda Larkin, Jack Sharkey, and Begonya Plaza

 

                

 

 

 

                                                                    Albert Carbonell & Jim Weiner

 

 

Barry Gifford, Begonya Plaza & Willem Dafoe

 
 

Darmia, Donna Murphy, Begonya, Robert Rose, Shawn Elliott, Linda Larkin, & Yul Vazquez

 

David Grossman, Ashley Fellman, Xanthe Elbrick, Begonya Plaza & Jack Sharkey

Links to reviews & interviews:

CAT RADIO CAFE interview with Begonya and Albert March 12, 2012

PLAYBILL.COM

THE JEWISH WEEK - TERESA'S ECSTASY

PHOTOFLASH/BROADWAYWORLD.COM

THEATRELIFE/PHOTOS

T&B ON THE AISLE A THEATRE DIARY

NEW YORK PRESS

ZACKCALHOON PEOPLE YOU SHOULD KNOW

ADAM SZYMKOWICZ INTERVIEW WITH PLAYWRIGHTS

ZACKCALHOON INTERVIEWS SHAWN ELLIOTT 

 

Opening Night Reception is sponsored by Socarrat Paella Bar Nolita

A letter from our Executive Director: 

"There's a little miracle about to be worked March 4th through April 1st at New York City's historic, magnificently renovated Cherry Lane Theatre in the form of a world premiere comedy/drama entitled TERESA'S ECSTASY, penned by and co-starring Begonya Plaza.  She sharing the stage with Shawn Elliott and Linda Larkin, the esteemed Will Pomerantz at our directorial helm.

TERESA'S ECSTASY stands among some twenty theatrical endeavors I've been honored to help make possible since donning my "angel wings" in late middle-age, that once-pastime quickly evolved into a most gratifying second career, one which you've enthusiastically and graciously supported in recent years by means of your attendance and/or prayers and well-wishes.

This project bodes my most ambitious commitment to date, a beautiful, bold creation whose journey I've been proud to walk from developmental infancy to full fruition.

Beyond your valued presence as audiencemembers, I'm privileged to extend an invitation to join me as full participants in this worthy venture.

Kindly visit TERESA'S ECSTASY, there meeting our phenomenal cast and creative team, there likewise linking to our IndieGoGo wherein you may make a tax-deductible contribution, qualifying you as a full-fledged member of "Team Ecstasy," perks included, the ultimate benefits of which you'll realize, deeply so, in mind and heart when the curtain rises on a much-anticipated four-week run, your role as benefactor as vitally essential as the those played out on stage.

Additionally, please search "Avila Productions" and "like" our Facebook fanpage entitling you to updates and behind-the-scenes information as we progress.

With heartfelt wishes, I thank you in advance while welcoming you to the magic which is TERESA'S ECSTASY."

Most warmly...
Jack.

 

 

 

First developed with the support of Eduardo Machado and INTAR

 

 

Had a"29 Hour" workshop reading at INTAR

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AUDIENCE RESPONSE:

"I will keep in mind ways that i can keep word out about your play, "Teresa's Ecstasy, which was simply phenomenal: it is about so many things, but what really struck me is the way it speaks to tensions both past and present, for instance those between physical and spiritual, feminine and masculine, lesbian and straight, Christian and Jew. But in speaking to them, it never does so in an abstractly explicit way, it hints at them, speaks them, plays with them, lets these tensions push in whatever directions they need to go, such that one sees something both intellectually intense and absolutely personal. It was, in any case, a pleasure to watch."  Daniel Barber PhD - professor at Marymount Manhattan College and La Guardia CC

 

"Stunning play, full of wit, fire, and most especially, revelation: in relation to the other, the past, one's heart, and the divine.  A must-see!!!"  Naomi Stone PhD Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Columbia University

 

"The Play will be on Broadway - evokes emotions like Pinter's "Betrayal".  Dana Blanchard

 

"What a wonderful play you've written!  Thought provoking, stimulating!  Really enjoyed myself last night. Your actors were terrific too.  Continued success tomorrow night so people can spread the word about "Teresa's Ecstasy".  Good luck and God bless!  xo  Mercedes Hall - Cabaret Singer

 

"Shawn: “Teresa’s Ecstasy” stands as probing a psychological treatment as it is thoroughly engaging entertainment. In the reading experience one bonded instantaneously with each of the characters, actually projecting far forward envisioning a full production featuring “these very actors, please God.” The lead question the play poses for me is “When a man loves a woman unreservedly, how much of himself is he willing to sacrifice to ensure her happiness to the detriment of his own?” What touched me throughout was the consistently limitless depth to which Andres worships Carlotta and the absolute extremes he’ll employ in an effort to win her back despite, in truth, never having lost her… not really.  I look forward to Teresa’s Ecstasy’s eventual fully-staged realization, one in which the visual artistic imagery can only beautifully complement the magnificence of the words we heard so vividly brought to life by means of your exceptional, and generous talents.  Peace,  Jack"  Jack Sharkey - theater producer and our first generous supporter.

THEMES AND REFERENCES:

SCULPTURE- Bernini is praised for his synthesis of sculpture, painting, and architecture. The church was extended so that a hidden window could be added to cast light upon the sculpture, as if from the Holy Spirit. Cherubs painted on the entrance arch bear a banner inscribed with the words Jesus spoke in one of Teresa's visions: "If I had not created heaven, I would create it for you alone."

ANGEL - "He was not tall, but short, and very beautiful," related Teresa of her vision, "his face so aflame that he appeared to be one of the highest types of angel who seem to be all afire."

SWOON - Bernini brings all the passion and rapture of Teresa's story to represent, perhaps for the first time, the now-immortalized image of a swoon: head thrown back, eyelids half-closed, mouth slightly open as she moans in ecstasy.

GARMENTS - Teresa is covered in monastic habit, yet through Bernini's genius, the heavy garments reveal rather than conceal Teresa's internal state.

FOOT - Her dangling bare foot is emblematic of the Disclaced ("Shoeless") Carmelites, the reformed religious order Teresa founded (from Matthew 10:10, "no sack for the journey, or a second tunic, or sandals, or walking stick").

CLOUDS - In translating Teresa's mystical vision into stone, Bernini first captured Teresa's reports of levitation by having her borne on a bank of marble clouds. (The clouds are hollow, to decrease the weight of the wall-mounted sculpture.)

For inquiries regarding "Teresa's Ecstasy"

E-mail: [email protected]