←Recommendations of MISFIT, AMERICA

I was recommended this play years ago and it shot right up to being one of my favorite texts I've never seen -- a brutal/tender collision of epic and intimate, a future-oriented explosion of the Western genre into its most human parts then carefully reconstructed into a wide-ranging ensemble drama dripping with magic, character, grit, and yearning. This is one of those plays you'd write sign ten petitions and call your congressman to see performed. A script that really soars.

A powerful look at freedom, identity, and belonging that will stay with you. Emotional and well done.

To write a play whose theatricality screams out to you, that belongs so firmly on the stage - that is hard. To write a play that is firmly rooted in place, that lives and breathes and loves its setting - that is also hard. To do both at once - that is an astonishing feat, and Misfit, America does it beautifully.

Diaz-Marcano presents America in microcosm, a desert town called Slab City in which a reformed Nazi skinhead and his Afro-Carribean Latinx lover live on the outskirts of Western civilization, caring for their two-spirited Native and adopted child Támit. Striving to create a new future, the past returns for revenge and though there is great loss, the younger generation are able to escape and move into a New America, to be two of those the character named Roberta calls those “great people in between the stars and stripes.” It is fiercely urgent and a great read. Highly recommended!

An epic tale that made me question whether I like westerns more than I think I do. The answer is yes- especially when written with an inclusive world such as this one! A radio version/podcast of this play already exists, and I can't wait to see a full production.

Oh, my heart! A beautiful, epic, Latinx Western. Diaz-Marciano shies away from nothing and brings us everything. The longing for connection and belonging that runs deep in our souls is brought out though the playwright’s brilliant dialogue.

A wildly theatrical, unabashedly political, and daringly poetic piece of theatre that takes traditionally American myths and gives them a uniquely queer angle. The centerpiece of the play is Tamit, a young Native American gender non-conforming individual who is coming to terms with their identity. Around their emotional journey, the play deftly explores our relationship with our heritage, our history, and the very definition of "family." I can imagine a director having a field day working with the Magical Realism elements in Diaz-Marcano's script, and actors having a great time delivering his bold and profound dialogue.

A classic western with modern values. Diaz-Marcano weaves an electrifying web set in a lawless town founded on forgotten land. A search for freedom, identity, and a sense of belonging that reminds us no one is unworthy of redemption and that chosen bonds are thicker than blood.

This is a gorgeously rendered, fantastical story that takes genres and tropes dominated by white voices--coming of age, the Western, revenge--and queers and diversifies them. Tamít is a compelling protagonist, but their story is but one fascinating element of this multi-layered work. Diaz-Marcano creates an eclectic yet cohesive theatrical world populated by humans with potent motivations both hidden and public. Despite the epic scope of the world, Diaz-Marcano wisely centers these characters' journeys above all. The dialogue vacillates between the poetic, the spare, the profane, and the (sometimes darkly) humorous. I'd love to see this realized onstage!

With "Misfit, America," Diaz-Marcano crafts a story that only theatre can tell. One plot, several stories; of the quest for identity and belonging, of revenge and redemption, of greed and selflessness, of standing your ground and looking to the future. This is epic, this is intimate, and this is a script that will challenge and reward everyone involved, including an audience.