Hi, my name is Maria I. Arreola and I am a Chicana (Mexican American) playwright podcaster, storyteller, and lover of words. My writing revolves around Chicana teen girls, as such I am most interested in exploring and developing coming-of-age narratives (those darn growing pains are so compelling). It is a time of heightened stakes, rapid change, and dissonance; what is more theatrical than that? In that way, my writing sample is very representative of the type of work I do. Growing up in the Midwest, my characters exist in spaces that are not necessarily associated with their communities. Chicano characters are often placed in the Southwest, locations that range from Bakersfield to El Paso.

At the forefront of my writing are questions of community, belonging, interpersonal relationships, and difference. I create plays centering friendships and families of all sorts. I approach my work from a sociological lens, spurred primarily by one question: why? (Thank you Macalester Sociology Department). The sort of plays that are inspired by my current fascinations (at the moment the Maybe Happy Ending soundtrack) and that are fueled by my various passions. (I enjoy improv and reading novels about morally compromised women [often labeled unlikeable] such as Blob: A Love Story and All’s Well).

Because I believe real life is inherently theatrical. I write plays inspired by what I know. As such, a lot of my work is reactionary, oftentimes in response to where I am in my own life and/or the events happening around me. For me, writing is processing. It is taking what is happening externally (and oftentimes internally) and filtering it through my own thought processes. However, the act of then being able to verbalize, and dare I say theatricalize, those emotions is where the real magic happens. It is, in my opinion, one of the greatest strengths we have as writers.