MONICA SANCHEZ
DRAMATISTA
OEDIPUS EL REY by Luís Alfaro
Directed by Sam Woodhouse San Diego Repertory 2015
As Jocasta, the regal Mónica Sánchez transforms from the cynical and unhappy wife, to widow of Laius to a woman given a second chance before she plunges into tragedy and death.
UNION TRIBUNE
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/mar/17/san-diego-rep-oedipus-el-rey-review/
Mónica Sánchez gave us a compelling cougar in Jocasta. Suffering for years in a loveless marriage to a jealous psychopath, she was the brains to his brawn. Yet, in Oedipus’ tender embrace, she reveals the pain behind her anger. http://www.sdjewishworld.com/2015/03/16/oedipus-in-the-barrio/
Lakin Valdez is an extraordinary Oedipus. His slow rise and Icarus-like fall are unforgettable. As is Monica Sanchez’s Jocasta. Sophocles concentrated on Oedipus. Alfaro gives Jocasta an amazing arc: a miserable human being sparked with joy and extinguished by the unthinkable.
THE SAN DIEGO READER http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2015/mar/17/theater-oedipus-el-rey/
Sánchez has fused smoldering sexuality with a world-weary coat of armor, a defense she gradually relinquishes after she encounters Oedipus.
SAN DIEGO STORY http://www.sandiegostory.com/a-classical-tragedy-reinvented-oedipus-in-the-l-a-barrio/
Jacosta is played by Monica Sanchez as a fierce and tragic tigress who both mocks and admires Oedipus’s view of life. In the end, their mutual attraction and passion doom them.
As for Sanchez, her Jocasta has the thorny outside formed by a suffocating sense of compromise and unfulfilled nights. Sanchez beautifully unwinds her character until Jocasta fairly melts like butter in the love of a younger man who sees her much more clearly than Laius ever could.
VANGUARD CULTURE http://vanguardculture.com/2015/03/19/oedipus-am-i-what-the-lesson-looks-like/
PROSPECT by Octavio Solís
Directed by Octavio Solís
THE MAGIC THEATRE~ San Francisco, CA 1996
The performers are very good in all their sweaty despair and denial, but Sánchez, is head and shoulders above the rest, as she was in the earlier production. Beautiful and austere with high cheekbones, burning eyes and a voice that turns in a trice from smoke to baritone sax at full blast, she is unforgettable as the dying woman who represents hope and home and heritage to Scout.
Judith Green ~ THE MERCURY NEWS
Sánchez (in an eerily compelling reprise of her San Juan Bautista performance) is the wellspring of the unexpected in “Prospect.” Rolling joint after joint and staring greedily at her cherished pornographic videos, Sánchez is and intense enigma as Vince’s wife, Elena.
Steven Winn ~ THE SAN FRANCISO CHRONICLE
Still, the evening belongs to Monica Sánchez, who is absolutely brilliant. There is not a moment in the play when her emotional and physical prowess are not in evidence. One moment She is strong and comforting, the next she is demanding and demeaning, and then later, she is contorted with pain. Such acting is of the highest caliber. Jerry Metzker ~ THE BAY AREA REPORTER
El TEATRO CAMPESINO 1993
The crown jewel of the production however, is Monica Sánchez, tough and vulnerable as Elena, whose strength hold everything together, including her disintegrating body.
Judith Green ~ SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS
A final scene vision of sexuality as a transcendent force is persuasive as it is only because Sánchez plays the scene with such conviction.
Steven Winn ~ SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Each member of the six-person cast is excellent, but Monica Sánchez sears the heart as Elena, a tough but tender young woman dying of cancer.
Matthew Surrence ~ THE OAKLAND TRIBUNE
EL PASO BLUE by Octavio Solís
INTERSECTIN FOR THE ARTS ~ SF,CA 1994
SAND DIEGO REPERTORY ~ 1995
The other repeater, Monica Sanchez (China), is flat-out terrific: physically deft, fluid, stylized, sharp-witted and sharp-tongued, like a West Texas Puck. (Bring this woman back.)
Michael Phillips ~ SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE
Another of Al’s companions in the search for his wife is China, brilliantly played by Monica Sanchez, a dynamic performance as a Generation X, Chicana armed with an ammonia-filled- ray-gun.
Isaac H. Cubillos ~ LA PRENSA
China (played with cool insolence by Monica Sanchez), a jive-talking Chicana loon in Cleopatra eye-makeup, dressed in a psychedelic duster.
G. Weinberg-Harter ~ DRAMA-LOGUE