MÓNICA SÁNCHEZ
PLAYWRIGHT
For while the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted and how we may triumph, is never new,
it must always be heard. There isn’t any other tale to tell. It’s the only light we’ve got in all this darkness.
~James Baldwin
Among the many contradictions evident in my experience as a older Latina actor is the inverse relationship between the quantity and the scope of roles available for older female actors and the depth of craft and life experience that we offer. Playwriting has been a natural progression of my life as a theatre maker, and as a mature Chicana artist.​
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My work is often discernable by a deep and abiding love of language. I come from a lineage fueled by an oral tradition of story and song; a culture that elevates conversation through “la sobremesa,” “la tertulia,” “la resolana” --all designated times for daily verbal exchange and reflection.
My plays aspire to unveil the varied and underrepresented experiences of Latinidad in the U.S., particularly the complex and unique cultural and historical milieu of the Southwest; not only ripe for dramatic exploration but also sorely missing from the canon of the American theatre.
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I hold an MFA in Dramatic Writing from the University of New Mexico.
​​My current project, Voy
is the psycho-spiritual journey of “Negra”, a Mestiza-Genizara-Chicana 21st century war veteran returned to her ancestral homeland in the Southwest.
Psychotropic plant medicine launches her odyssey through a ceremonial and multi-generational labyrinth where she must confront ancestral trauma and original wounds, making way for the ultimate transformation: her desire to live. Quintessential New Mexican topography, histories and rituals illuminate universal echoes of colonialism, war, and climate crisis. This play is Negra’s “trip”.