Daria Miyeko Marinelli

Daria Miyeko Marinelli

Daria Miyeko Marinelli (they/she) is a Japanese-Italian playwright, screenwriter, and climate storyteller who delights in using the heist genre, stories of wildness, and bifurcating narrative structures to challenge current and construct new cultural mythologies. 

Daria’s work has been performed at Victory Gardens, Ensemble Theatre Company, La Jolla Playhouse’s WOW Festival, Atlantic Theatre...
Daria Miyeko Marinelli (they/she) is a Japanese-Italian playwright, screenwriter, and climate storyteller who delights in using the heist genre, stories of wildness, and bifurcating narrative structures to challenge current and construct new cultural mythologies. 

Daria’s work has been performed at Victory Gardens, Ensemble Theatre Company, La Jolla Playhouse’s WOW Festival, Atlantic Theatre Company, The Flea, and HERE Arts Center, among others. Mx. Marinelli has developed work with Cirque du Soleil, Roundabout Theatre Company, The Playwright’s Realm, Fault Line Theatre, SPACE on Ryder Farm, The New Harmony Project, Jackalope Theatre, pseudonym productions, Ensemble Studio Theatre-LA, and The Kennedy Center’s MFA Playwrights Workshop and TYA/USA’s New Visions New Voices at The Kennedy Center. 

Playwriting accolades include being a three-time Finalist and a two-time Semi-Finalist for The O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, a Bay Area Playwrights Festival Finalist and Semi-Finalist, and a showcased writer at the Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists. Daria serves on the Board of Directors for The New Harmony Project (Vice-Chair) and Fault Line Theatre.  

Mx. Marinelli is currently developing a TV series with Hill District Media and their original pilot (We are Your Villain) was a Finalist for The Black List’s NRDC Climate Storytelling Fellowship. 


Based in LA, Daria is a forever New Yorker at heart.  | BA: Brown University. MFA: University of Texas at Austin.

Plays

  • Beautiful Blessed Child by Daria Miyeko Marinelli
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: adventure, comedy + 2 more
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    Keyword: road trip, Non-Binary + 5 more
    Genre: adventure, comedy, experimental, movement/physical
    Keyword: road trip, Non-Binary, mother and daughter, cranes, adventure, love, failure
    I thought you checked your car-fluids / I did ?
    Professionally ? / No.
    Mm.

    Aimiko has never taken a road trip with t/her Mom. Sharon has never seen nor heard of any sort of mother-daughterchild road trip. And so, our brave pioneers take to the road, driving West, 10 miles per hour above the speed limit, with tales of cannibals (The Donner Party), crane wives (The Decemberists),...
    I thought you checked your car-fluids / I did ?
    Professionally ? / No.
    Mm.

    Aimiko has never taken a road trip with t/her Mom. Sharon has never seen nor heard of any sort of mother-daughterchild road trip. And so, our brave pioneers take to the road, driving West, 10 miles per hour above the speed limit, with tales of cannibals (The Donner Party), crane wives (The Decemberists), and samurai children (the mythic family lore) buzzing over the airwaves, offering avenues of survival, all of which are only moderately helpful when Aimiko’s car radiator suddenly goes dead.

    This is their story.
  • This is Not What I Expected When I Imagined a Republic by Daria Miyeko Marinelli
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    6–12
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    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama + 2 more
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    Keyword: usonian, History + 4 more
    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama, movement/physical, political
    Keyword: usonian, History, Constitution, Republican, millennials, cultural mythology
    This is Not What I Expected When I Imagined a Republic is a historical triptych following the development of our nation from courageous nomads to cash-strapped IKEA millennials.

    Part dance-theatre, part card game, and part good old kitchen drama, This is Not What I Expected When I Imagined a Republic challenges the Usonian* mythologies of what it means to be a republic(an), how that's...
    This is Not What I Expected When I Imagined a Republic is a historical triptych following the development of our nation from courageous nomads to cash-strapped IKEA millennials.

    Part dance-theatre, part card game, and part good old kitchen drama, This is Not What I Expected When I Imagined a Republic challenges the Usonian* mythologies of what it means to be a republic(an), how that's changed over time, and what to do when you discover your supposedly future life partner has just voted Republican. And you are not “a Republican.”

    *Usonian: Of, and or related to The United States. Because American refers to the whole continent, like, literally.
  • Ravenous by Daria Miyeko Marinelli
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: adventure, docudrama/historic + 1 more
    Genre: adventure, docudrama/historic, drama
    You don't understand how hungry I am / Trust me I do

    Adri’s come home for her gun and Cian just wants to be left alone. And both of them know that without a gun they surely will die. Set in Post-World War II Italy, Ravenous examines what it means to be hungry and what we will do to become satisfied.
  • A Departure by Daria Miyeko Marinelli
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    7
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    Genre: drama
    Genre: drama
    They say you are leaving / Yes

    Do you even know what love is? / No but I know what it is not

    Ume has fallen in love, again. This time, with a woman. In Japan. And what about her family in The States? Who is the woman she has become and who is the woman she thought she would be? Taking place on the eve of World War Two in both The United States and Japan, A Departure follows Ume as...
    They say you are leaving / Yes

    Do you even know what love is? / No but I know what it is not

    Ume has fallen in love, again. This time, with a woman. In Japan. And what about her family in The States? Who is the woman she has become and who is the woman she thought she would be? Taking place on the eve of World War Two in both The United States and Japan, A Departure follows Ume as she negotiates her duties as daughter, mother, and lover as she decides between loyalty or love in the great war of her heart.
  • this is what i chose and no i'm not sorry and yes if you'd ask i'd do it again by Daria Miyeko Marinelli
    Cast: 
    11–22
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    Genre: adventure, drama + 2 more
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    Keyword: choice, action + 2 more
    Genre: adventure, drama, experimental, young audiences
    Keyword: choice, action, high school, agency
    Even after William’s death, high school life has trudged on. But when Sara & Aimée start planning “Alive Together” to honor William, his sibling Vivian finally takes a stand and ask-demands Sara to cancel the event.

    But should Vivian get to decide, given that William and Sara were “a thing, like romantically” and The Band has been planning their debut for the event? And did anyone think to...
    Even after William’s death, high school life has trudged on. But when Sara & Aimée start planning “Alive Together” to honor William, his sibling Vivian finally takes a stand and ask-demands Sara to cancel the event.

    But should Vivian get to decide, given that William and Sara were “a thing, like romantically” and The Band has been planning their debut for the event? And did anyone think to ask Brett and Aüge who really knew Will, but have been cutting class all year? And what’s going on between Brett and Aüge anyway?

    With three moments of decision and eight play tracks, this is what i chose and no i'm not sorry and yes if you'd ask i'd do it again is a birufcating modular play that explores who has ownership over a tragedy, when to stand by your friends, and what it is to try and make sense of a loss when you still have to show up and survive school every single day.
  • We Are Samurai by Daria Miyeko Marinelli
    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: drama, immersive + 2 more
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    Keyword: cycle of revenge, samurai + 2 more
    Genre: drama, immersive, movement/physical, tragedy
    Keyword: cycle of revenge, samurai, immersive, love
    After Josephine returns home to find her cats brutally murdered for a crime she committed in a past life, she enlists her boyfriend to help her avenge her cats’ deaths. What follows is a series of small, violent acts that are mundane and yet deeply tragic in their cyclical nature. Rooted in both contemporary suburbia and the historical traditions of Japanese Theatre, We Are Samurai uses cats, iPhones, and...
    After Josephine returns home to find her cats brutally murdered for a crime she committed in a past life, she enlists her boyfriend to help her avenge her cats’ deaths. What follows is a series of small, violent acts that are mundane and yet deeply tragic in their cyclical nature. Rooted in both contemporary suburbia and the historical traditions of Japanese Theatre, We Are Samurai uses cats, iPhones, and simultaneous action to explore age-old questions of agency and entitlement.

    We Are Samurai is an immersive suburban revenge tragedy about four twenty-somethings engaging in petty acts of violence in an effort to absolve a millennia-old offense. As the piece unfolds simultaneously across four different playing spaces, it is up to the audience to choose what to witness.
  • 893 | Ya-ku-za by Daria Miyeko Marinelli
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: adventure, drama
    Genre: adventure, drama
    The way to make a person make a decision is to convince everyone around them / Maybe that's what I'm doing / I said win, Aya, not kill

    Set over the course of a business lunch in a unknown Japanese restaurant somewhere in the United States, 893 | Ya-ku-za follows Aya's bid to become the first female member of the infamous Japanese crime syndicate. Exploring themes of ambition, power...
    The way to make a person make a decision is to convince everyone around them / Maybe that's what I'm doing / I said win, Aya, not kill

    Set over the course of a business lunch in a unknown Japanese restaurant somewhere in the United States, 893 | Ya-ku-za follows Aya's bid to become the first female member of the infamous Japanese crime syndicate. Exploring themes of ambition, power, and loyalty, 893 | Ya-ku-za asks what it means to be first and what we're willing to do to get there.
  • Untameable by Daria Miyeko Marinelli
    Cast: 
    10
    ·
    Genre: adventure, drama + 2 more
    Genre: adventure, drama, immersive, movement/physical
    There are things more important than love / Name them / Diamonds

    Pitting diamond heist against museum intrigue, Untameable follows the story of two young women, one trying to steal a jewel and the other trying to keep it safe. The work is an immersive romp between a criminal den and a modern museum; the audience navigates their own experience and much like the characters themselves, must decide...
    There are things more important than love / Name them / Diamonds

    Pitting diamond heist against museum intrigue, Untameable follows the story of two young women, one trying to steal a jewel and the other trying to keep it safe. The work is an immersive romp between a criminal den and a modern museum; the audience navigates their own experience and much like the characters themselves, must decide between love and diamonds, honesty or victory. Untameable is an investigation into what we will do to achieve our magnum opus and what gets lost in the winning.
  • cropt by Daria Miyeko Marinelli
    Cast: 
    6
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    Genre: adventure, drama + 2 more
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    Keyword: Farm workers, impact of the cloud + 3 more
    Genre: adventure, drama, experimental, movement/physical
    Keyword: Farm workers, impact of the cloud, influencers, road trip, connectivity
    Moving from the fig orchards of United Farm Workers to the brunch tables of Instagram It Girls to the data server farms of Instagram itself, CROPT is a connective triptych that investigates the systematic violence inherent in the millennial bourgeois life that some of us have grown into/aspire towards to ask what is the price of that perfect brunch photo.