Octavio Solis

Octavio Solis

Octavio Solis is a playwright and director living in San Francisco. His works Hole in the Sky, Quixote Nuevo, Alicia's Miracle, Se Llama Christina (an NNPN Rolling World Premiere), John Steinbeck’s The Pastures of Heaven, Ghosts of the River, Quixote, Lydia, June in a Box, Lethe, Marfa Lights, Gibraltar, The Ballad of Pancho and Lucy, The 7 Visions of Encarnación, Bethlehem, Dreamlandia, El Otro, Man of...
Octavio Solis is a playwright and director living in San Francisco. His works Hole in the Sky, Quixote Nuevo, Alicia's Miracle, Se Llama Christina (an NNPN Rolling World Premiere), John Steinbeck’s The Pastures of Heaven, Ghosts of the River, Quixote, Lydia, June in a Box, Lethe, Marfa Lights, Gibraltar, The Ballad of Pancho and Lucy, The 7 Visions of Encarnación, Bethlehem, Dreamlandia, El Otro, Man of the Flesh, Prospect, El Paso Blue, Santos & Santos, and La Posada Mágica have been mounted at INTAR, Cara Mia Theatre Company, the Theatre @ Boston Court, Kitchen Dog Theatre, California Shakespeare Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, Yale Repertory Theatre, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, the Dallas Theater Center, the Magic Theatre, Intersection for the Arts, South Coast Repertory Theatre, the San Diego Repertory Theatre, San Jose Repertory Theatre, Shadowlight Productions, Latino Chicago Theatre Company, New York Summer Play Festival, Teatro Vista, El Teatro Campesino, Undermain Theatre, Thick Description, Campo Santo, Imua Theatre Company, and Cornerstone Theatre. His collaborative works include Cloudlands, with Music by Adam Gwon, Burning Dreams, cowritten with Julie Hebert and Gina Leishman and Shiner, written with Erik Ehn. Solis has received an NEA 1995-97 Playwriting Fellowship, the 1998 TCG/NEA Theatre Artists in Residence Grant, the 1998 McKnight Fellowship, the United States Artists Fellowship for 20012, the 2014 Pen Literary Award for Drama for "Se Llama Cristina", the 2015 Distinguished Achievement Award from the Texas State Black and Latino Playwrights Conference, the the 2018 Imagen Award for his consulting work on "Coco", and the 2019 Distinguished Achievement in the American Theatre Award from the William Inge Theatre Festival. Solis is a Thornton Wilder Fellow for the MacDowell Colony, New Dramatists alum and member of the Dramatists Guild. His new book, Retablos: Stories from a Life Lived Along the Border is published by City Lights Books. His newest play Mother Road premieres at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in March 2019.

Plays

  • Mother Road by Octavio Solis
    Recommendations: 9
    ·
    Cast: 
    9–20
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    Genre: adventure, drama
    Genre: adventure, drama
    Terminally ill William Joad needs to find an heir to his sprawling Joad ranch in Sallisaw, OK. He is mortified to find that the only surviving descendant of Tom Joad who came to California with the "Okie" migration in the 1930's is a young Mexican-American named Martin. Together, they ride the Mother Road from Bakersfield, Ca to Oklahoma and forge the new character of the nation inside each other...
    Terminally ill William Joad needs to find an heir to his sprawling Joad ranch in Sallisaw, OK. He is mortified to find that the only surviving descendant of Tom Joad who came to California with the "Okie" migration in the 1930's is a young Mexican-American named Martin. Together, they ride the Mother Road from Bakersfield, Ca to Oklahoma and forge the new character of the nation inside each other and in the people they encounter along the way. An epic work inspired by John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath.
  • Man of the Flesh by Octavio Solis
    Recommendations: 4
    ·
    Cast: 
    10–20
    ·
    Genre: adaptation, comedy + 2 more
    Genre: adaptation, comedy, fable/folktale, fantasy
    A modern comic adaptation of the first Don Juan play, The Trickster of Seville. Juan is dispatched by his father who owns Pronto Lawn and Garden to work off his sins of the flesh. But at the Downey estate, on the eve of Day of the Dead, he meets the love of his life. But contrary to all the women before her, Anna Downey spurns him. He is determined to declare his love to her, even if he has to seduce all the...
    A modern comic adaptation of the first Don Juan play, The Trickster of Seville. Juan is dispatched by his father who owns Pronto Lawn and Garden to work off his sins of the flesh. But at the Downey estate, on the eve of Day of the Dead, he meets the love of his life. But contrary to all the women before her, Anna Downey spurns him. He is determined to declare his love to her, even if he has to seduce all the women of the house to get near her.
  • El Paso Blue by Octavio Solis
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: adventure, dark comedy + 3 more
    Genre: adventure, dark comedy, drama, experimental, musical
    Al has to take the rap for his pal Duane's botched robbery, but before he goes, he leaves his drunken ex-beaty queen wife Sylvie in the care of his father Jefe. In the year he is gone, Jefe and Sylvie fall in love, and when Al is granted early parole, he enlists Duane in a mad and murderous hunt for the fleeing lovers. In the course of their search, they meet China, a weird changeling who wields a water...
    Al has to take the rap for his pal Duane's botched robbery, but before he goes, he leaves his drunken ex-beaty queen wife Sylvie in the care of his father Jefe. In the year he is gone, Jefe and Sylvie fall in love, and when Al is granted early parole, he enlists Duane in a mad and murderous hunt for the fleeing lovers. In the course of their search, they meet China, a weird changeling who wields a water gun filled with ammonia and purports to know where his wife has been taken. (Contact Agency for score by Michael "Hawkeye" Herman.)
  • Dreamlandia by Octavio Solis
    Cast: 
    9
    ·
    Genre: adaptation, drama + 2 more
    Genre: adaptation, drama, fable/folktale, fantasy
    Loosely based on Calderon's Life Is A Dream, this play recounts the adventures of Blanca and her demented little brother Pepin as they cross the Rio Grande in search of their true father. They encounter a chained manchild in Lazaro who is fed on a diet of Happy Meals and Fashion Magazines. He is brought back to his father's estate and groomed to take over his family business, which involves...
    Loosely based on Calderon's Life Is A Dream, this play recounts the adventures of Blanca and her demented little brother Pepin as they cross the Rio Grande in search of their true father. They encounter a chained manchild in Lazaro who is fed on a diet of Happy Meals and Fashion Magazines. He is brought back to his father's estate and groomed to take over his family business, which involves facilitating the smuggling of narcotics across the river. Overseeing the fateful chain of events is Dolores, the ghost of Blanca's mother, who brings her own retribution with her.
  • Bethlehem by Octavio Solis
    Cast: 
    6–7
    ·
    Genre: drama
    Genre: drama
    Lee, an investigative reporter for a national journal, interviews Mateo Buenaventura,a recently released murderer of a teenage girl who spent his sentence in a mental hospital. In the course of several days of questioning in which Mateo insists on his innocence, Lee falls under the spell of his dark mind and tumbles headlong into the heart of Evil. A subplot involves a lone protester outside Mateo's house...
    Lee, an investigative reporter for a national journal, interviews Mateo Buenaventura,a recently released murderer of a teenage girl who spent his sentence in a mental hospital. In the course of several days of questioning in which Mateo insists on his innocence, Lee falls under the spell of his dark mind and tumbles headlong into the heart of Evil. A subplot involves a lone protester outside Mateo's house who demands the return of her deceased daughter's donated heart, which was transplanted into Mateo some time before his terrible murder.
  • Gibraltar by Octavio Solis
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    8
    ·
    Genre: drama, experimental
    Genre: drama, experimental
    In the most suicidal dimension of her grief over the death of her husband, Amy brings a stranger into her house who is on his own epic search for his wife. Through the recounting of three separate but interrelated accounts of couples at the end of their love, they come to terms with their own complicity in their devastating losses.
  • Se Llama Cristina by Octavio Solis
    Recommendations: 3
    ·
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, experimental
    Genre: dark comedy, experimental
    A man and a woman awaken in an empty room with an empty crib and drug paraphernalia before them. They panic as they realize they can't remember their own names, nor anything that has transpired. But they intuit that their missing baby has something to do with it. They put themselves through a grueling process of active recollection, remembering their way back to their relationship, their shifting...
    A man and a woman awaken in an empty room with an empty crib and drug paraphernalia before them. They panic as they realize they can't remember their own names, nor anything that has transpired. But they intuit that their missing baby has something to do with it. They put themselves through a grueling process of active recollection, remembering their way back to their relationship, their shifting identities and personal wounds as they desperately struggle to find their Cristina.
  • John Steinbeck's The Pastures of Heaven by Octavio Solis
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    11–20
    ·
    Genre: adaptation, dark comedy + 3 more
    Genre: adaptation, dark comedy, drama, experimental, pageant
    An adaptation of Steinbeck's novel of short stories. A collection of 12 tales centered around the people living in the rich but troubled valley called Las Pasturas Del Cielo. The Munroe family intersect with each of the principle characters in the stories in such a fashion that shatters their illusions and either dooms to defeat or raises them to a new awareness.
  • El Otro by Octavio Solis
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    9
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, fantasy
    Genre: dark comedy, fantasy
    A simple ride to retrieve a birthday gift sends a young teenage girl named Romy and her two fathers on a phantasmagoric ride through a harrowing night. Lupe, her birth father, forces her to choose between him and Ben, the fresh-faced Ft. Bliss soldier whom recently married her mother. The winner gets to live.
  • Lydia by Octavio Solis
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    7
    ·
    Genre: drama, period
    Genre: drama, period
    A family saga about the Flores family in El Paso in the 1970's. A maid is hired to take care of a young girl with severe brain trauma, but their relationship is the crucible on which many painful secrets and lies are revealed.
  • Santos & Santos by Octavio Solis
    Recommendations: 3
    ·
    Cast: 
    13
    ·
    Genre: drama, political
    Genre: drama, political
    A crime saga about the Santos Family Law Practice in El Paso of the 1970's. When one of the brothers is tried for murder, the family conceive an elaborate plot to assassinate the presiding judge in the trial.