Marisela Treviño Orta

A sequel to the Spanish Golden Age play LIFE IS A DREAM by Pedro Calderón de la Barca, ROSAURA continues the story with the titular lead rejecting the ending devised by the men in the previous play. Defying a royal decree to marry the man she despises, Rosaura flees and is quickly followed by the new king Segismundo. A royal assassination plot complicates matters and Rosaura uses familiar ploys to escape to a happier future.

[commissioned by the Old Globe in San Diego, CA]

When college poetry instructor Carolina and her student Benjamin first meet an attraction blossoms, but the possibility of romance is halted by Carolina who cannot overlook the age difference in good conscience. Spanning twenty years, this May-December romance follows Carolina and Benjamin as they meet at three different moments in their lives. DECEMBER is a meditation on love, poetry, and timing.

Three days before a wedding a handsome and mysterious man is fished from the Amazon River. Set once upon a time in a small Brazilian fishing village, THE RIVER BRIDE is a tale of true love, regret and two sisters who struggle to be true to each other and their hearts.

2016 Oregon Shakespeare Festival World Premiere

THE RIVER BRIDE is part of a cycle of fairy tales Marisela is writing inspired by Latinx folklore and mythology.

THE RIVER BRIDE was developed in residency with AlterTheater Ensemble, San Rafael, CA.

Isadora finds the strength to stand up to her abusive husband Septimo when he forces the very pregnant Yolot to stay against her will. While Septimo makes plans for the baby, Isadora and Yolot devise one of their own. And as a pack of wolves closes in on the hacienda, Isadora must decide what price she’ll pay for her own freedom.

WOLF AT THE DOOR is part of a cycle of fairy tales Marisela is writing inspired by Latino folklore and mythology.

With almost all the insects gone, the world is beginning to fall apart as crops fail and people struggle to hold on to their ways of life. Cassandra and her brother Alexander are tracking the last monarch butterflies in the world as they head to the west coast. Their path intersects with a truffle farm where a small group of people are hunkering down for the on-coming collapse of society.

When a world-wide virus threatens healthy pregnancies, WMB (pronounced “womb”) clinics are created to provide a virus-free environment for those who can afford the expensive nine-month residency. WMB trainee Claudia faces her final evaluation just as tensions between the have’s and the have not’s reach a boiling point. The only thing standing between all-out revolution is whether Claudia will remain loyal to the WMB corporation and protect their technology with her very life. [work-in-progress]

SPARC Science@Play commissioned play addressing climate change, BASILOSAURUS follows Grace, a paleontologist finally realizing her professional goals, and Lorena, a young sculptor who accepts a dubious commission. Grace's online lectures about the evolution of whales inspire Lorena's creative process as each woman navigates the complicated consequences of personal choices.

Currently undergoing a major overhaul.

A mysterious woman finds herself under an asylum doctor's care in 1900 Mexico City. Claiming to be over 800 years old, Alcira and psychoanalyst Dr. Castro navigate her memories to determine her true identity.

[work-in-progress]

THIS BEATING HEART (formerly ALCIRA) is part a cycle of fairy tales Marisela is writing inspired by Latine folklore and mythology.

When the hospital calls her husband back to work, Karla finds herself stuck with her step-daughter on a camping trip with no way of contacting anyone. With each day that passes, they begin to realize that something has happened back in San Francisco and it’s heading straight for them. If they can keep their cool and work together, maybe they’ll make it out alive. [work-in-progress]

In the sixteen years since her father left, Marta has felt trapped in her family's double-wide in Texas. She gave up college and stayed home to take care of her siblings and mother. Just as a secret online relationship reignites Marta's dreams and curiosity about the world outside, her siblings each decide they will do anything it takes to escape their home lives - even if it means leaving Marta behind.

Set in Argentina during the Dirty War and drawing inspiration from the Greek myth of Persephone and Demeter, Ghost Limb plunges the world into winter when Consuelo’s son is disappeared by the military dictatorship. Injured during her son’s abduction, Consuelo uses a psychic connection between her injured arm and her tortured son to find his location before it’s too late.

"Your love is an anomaly. It defies logic, time, and space." On the anniversary of a tragic accident, Miqueo travels to the desert town of Tonopah, known for having the darkest skies with an abundance of stars. He has come to let go of his grief, but the Universe seems to have other plans. In comes Amara, a rebellious teenager who is more than she appears to be. With an aura of magical realism, Heart Shaped Nebula, explores the mysteries of the universe and the human heart.

2015 Shotgun Players World Premiere

This snapshot of a day in the life of Bay Area teens explores the impact of gentrification, LGBTQ+ intolerance, mental health stigmas and systemic discrimination on our youth. Through the power of technology, photography and spoken word, A PLACE TO BELONG questions what it means to be Bay Area bred and feel like you don’t belong. Inspired by the real-life stories of teens from rapidly changing neighborhoods in Oakland and the Mission, Bayview and Fillmore districts of San Francisco

[Adapted from the young adult novel by Julia Alvarez and commissioned by Nashville Children's Theatre] After Tyler’s father is injured in a tractor accident, his family is forced to hire migrant Mexican workers to help save their Vermont farm from foreclosure. Tyler isn’t sure what to make of these workers. Are they undocumented? And what about the three daughters, particularly Mari, the oldest, who is proud of her Mexican heritage but also increasingly connected to her American life. Her family lives in constant fear of being discovered by the authorities and sent back to the poverty they left behind in Mexico. Can Tyler and Mari find a way to be friends despite their differences?

This adaptation of Charles Dickens' Little Dorrit—a sprawling six-hour piece of theatre—follows the intertwined lives of Amy Dorrit and Arthur Clennam. With Amy's father in debtor's prison for over twenty years it has fallen on Amy, his youngest daughter, to maintain the family's affairs. Upon the death of his father, Arthur returns from living abroad to find Miss Dorrit working for his strident and reclusive mother. As Arthur investigates how to assist Amy's family, fortunes rise and fall for all involved in this critique of material culture.
[work-in-progress]

Note: Cast size has not been fully determined as the second half of the play is currently being written.

Set in 2002 under the specter of the 9/11 terror attacks, WOMAN ON FIRE is a re-imagining of Sophocles' ANTIGONE set along the Arizona/Mexico border. The ghost of a woman who died while crossing the border haunts the unwilling heroine Juanita, the wife of a U.S. Border Patrolman. Juanita finds herself torn between the law of man and a higher law when she must decide whether or not to put her husband's career and their marriage at risk in order to give the restless spirit the proper burial it demands.

Teens Lalo and Fatima struggle to keep their family and faith in tact when their parents are deported after immigration raids sweep through their city. But when Lalo turns to his guardian angel for help he sets into motion events that threaten to further fracture his family.

Drawing on both poetic and naturalistic techniques BRAIDED SORROW tells the story of a young girl, Alma, who comes to Juarez, Mexico to find work, but instead becomes enmeshed in the series of lethal traps awaiting young female workers for which that city is now infamous.

BRAIDED SORROW draws a parallel between the conquest of the Americas and the impact of economic policies of the United States.

In death Rebecca gets to revisit her biggest regret--the girl she drove away.

THE EMPTY NEST was written for The 24 Hour Plays: Bay Area which took place in September 2018 and was produced by 24 Hour Plays and Playground.