Category: Blog

a poem for new year

csvich21
midnight tear
by caridad svich
(December 2012)
the cries of innocents
resound
midst the lingering stains of fresh blood
a hill made of chalk is built to start anew
but what new, here
when memories take hold?
hard spell of fire
for those left
to find reason
when there is none found
despite the crawl through
the evidence of a life
*
today we mourn
the distant day
not so distant now
the lessons un-learned
of arms taken
for the mere price
of a bag of groceries
here we sit
awaiting the new
anxious over the coming doom
brought upon by a soaring cliff
we wrap our arms around each other
we watch the snow aghast
as another winter bears down
furious in its rage
*
earth sounds a bell of hope;
earth sounds a plaintive cry
what weight is here
centuries old
of others who
waited too
for an end seeming nigh?
wait no more
says one
cast another sigh
we are here
in earth’s hold
wrecking damage
toward some unseen prize.
*
it is said
reason prevails
in times such as these,
but what reason this
that swiftly condones
dark terror
in the guise of fiscal bliss?
roll on the day, one says,
hold up your sign
the faint sound of Occupy
o’ertaken now
by rallying cries too many to discern –
weary rage unbound.
*
a few months ago
seeming ages now
we called for peace
for battles waged
on air and land
midst the ancient, dirty sand
how soon forgotten –
can it be?
or would we rather live a lie?
bloodshed there
is the same as here
politics decry
yet we pretend
and walk through our days
buoyed by a strange kind of forgetting
it’s easier to talk of smaller ills
and the constant lure of shopping
*
say no more
what you will
as we hold our arms round together again
expectant for
the blessed promise of doubt
the frost chills
the bloody glass
our voices
a distant shout

a poem for new year

Behind the Curtain Interview With Caridad Svich

csvich21

Philip Hernandez (PH): In regards to starting out in writing, you stress the importance of continually writing and editing; “editing is a way of continually trying to discover the core of the work itself: what needs to be there.” What is the next most important thing for budding artists?

(CS): Listening to the work is the next most important thing. Really listening. Not only to others read it aloud, but speaking it out loud yourself and listening to the heartbeat of the work. Every theatre text has an essential pulse, tempo, rhythm – something essential that carries through the various dynamics at work over the course of a play. This is why many people say “What is a play about?” I don’t think the question has to do with a “message” or “issue.” The “about” has to do with its heartbeat – where does the piece want to go, where does it want to touch the audience and how (if it does) sensually? Theatre is about the senses being awakened as much as it is about the perceptual shift(s) mentally that being open to a three-dimensional event in space demands from an audience..

 

Read the full interview

News: Five Uneasy Pieces by Caridad Svich in Howlround

csvich21
Just published in Howlround
December 9, 2012
Five Uneasy Pieces
by Caridad Svich
An essay editor Polly Carl calls “one of the more insightful pieces about how an artist thinks about adventures in form and content, and the artistic journey through the popular and the impossible. Every playwright and theater artist for that matter must read…”

Scheduled Premieres in the 12-13 Season

csvich21

Scheduled world and area premieres  for OBIE-winning playwright Caridad Svich in the 2012-2013 theatre season:

Her new play GUAPA will receive an NNPN rolling world premiere at Borderlands Theatre in Arizona, Phoenix Theatre in Indianapolis, and Miracle Theatre in Oregon; her play based on Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ Love in the Time of Cholera will receive its Spanish language world premiere at Repertorio Espanol in the fall in New York City, and her play The Tropic of X will receive its English language premiere at Single Carrot Theatre in Baltimore, MD.

There will also be regional premieres of her bilingual version of In the Time of the Butterflies (based on the novel by Julia Alvarez) at Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis and The House of the Spirits at Gala Hispanic Theatre in Washington D.C.

Academic productions in 2012-2013: 12 Ophelias (a play with broken songs) at USC-Los Angeles, and Chico State in California; The Archaeology of Dreams at University of Nebraska-Omaha.