Mara Elissa Palma

Mara Elissa Palma

Mara Elissa Palma is an playwright, performer, producer, and teaching artist. She graduated from Wellesley College with a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Studies and Political Science. As a feminist, first-generation Filipina-American, she seeks to interweave all the parts of her identity together in her work and on projects she collaborates on. Prior writing residencies include the Company One PlayLab 2016 (...
Mara Elissa Palma is an playwright, performer, producer, and teaching artist. She graduated from Wellesley College with a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Studies and Political Science. As a feminist, first-generation Filipina-American, she seeks to interweave all the parts of her identity together in her work and on projects she collaborates on. Prior writing residencies include the Company One PlayLab 2016 (Boston, MA) for her play OCTAVIA AND KLEOPATRA and the 5th Avenue Theatre First Draft: Raise Your Voice Story Summit 2018 (Seattle, WA) for her musical TIDES OF FORTUNE in collaboration with Rheanna Atendido.

Plays

  • Steady as She Goes - a new musical by Mara Elissa Palma
    Cast: 
    5–15
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama + 2 more
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    Keyword: Filipino American, loneliness and isolation + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, movement/physical, musical
    Keyword: Filipino American, loneliness and isolation, cruise ship
    Reyna Guinto doesn't realize what she's gotten herself into. As one of the newest entertainment crew members on board a cruise ship, she's gotta learn the rules on-board... and fast. But her past keeps creeping up, and she's torn between going back and making a new home for herself. Inspired by OPM - Original Pinoy Music - from the Philippines, this musical follows a young Filipina-American...
    Reyna Guinto doesn't realize what she's gotten herself into. As one of the newest entertainment crew members on board a cruise ship, she's gotta learn the rules on-board... and fast. But her past keeps creeping up, and she's torn between going back and making a new home for herself. Inspired by OPM - Original Pinoy Music - from the Philippines, this musical follows a young Filipina-American performer as she gets her sea legs.
  • Echoes of Empire by Mara Elissa Palma
    Cast: 
    7–14
    ·
    Genre: adventure, comedy + 2 more
    Genre: adventure, comedy, drama, political
    Two leaders, Octavia and Kleopatra, meet with the fate of their countries at stake. Who will triumph in bringing power and influence to their land, without sacrificing everything they stand for? The personal and the political clash in this revisionist, feminist historical account of two powerful, influential women.
  • ALPHA FEMALE by Mara Elissa Palma
    Cast: 
    5–10
    ·
    Genre: comedy, parody/spoof + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, parody/spoof, political, satire
    A wolf pack initiates its new member, and reinforces how wolf packs survive.
  • HIDE by Mara Elissa Palma
    Cast: 
    2–5
    ·
    Genre: drama, political
    Genre: drama, political
    A woman must decide whether to run or hide.
  • Civil Hands (an excerpt) by Mara Elissa Palma
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: adventure, docudrama/historic + 4 more
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    Keyword: royalty, gender as performance + 2 more
    Genre: adventure, docudrama/historic, drama, movement/physical, period, political
    Keyword: royalty, gender as performance, Shakespeare, elements of The Lion in Winter
    A king and his commander encounter a knight in an open field. A negotiation ensues in which two countries' fates hang in the balance. All is not as it seems.
  • Octavia and Kleopatra [podcast excerpt] by Mara Elissa Palma
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    1–3
    ·
    Genre: adventure, docudrama/historic + 2 more
    Genre: adventure, docudrama/historic, drama, political
    Octavia, Empress of Rome, receives Gaius Marius into the Roman palace after a 3-month mission to Egypt, and he presents a gift from Kleopatra, Pharaoh of Egypt. The visit launches a series of tactics and maneuvers that will decide the fate of both women and the countries they rule.
  • BOSTON*: A Mortality Play by Mara Elissa Palma
    Cast: 
    4–8
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, experimental + 3 more
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    Keyword: Surreal, audience engagement + 3 more
    Genre: dark comedy, experimental, fable/folktale, movement/physical, tragedy
    Keyword: Surreal, audience engagement, Beckettian, absurdism, people of color
    *This play will change titles to reflect the cities it will be produced in to reflect the shared humanity in each community.

    An exploration of the ways in which love and pain are so intertwined, and why. Of course, hope and time play a part in it too, for better or for worse. It's a love story, but whose?
  • Love Told Pain, Pain Told Love (an excerpt) by Mara Elissa Palma
    Cast: 
    2–100
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 4 more
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    Keyword: abstract, morality + 3 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, experimental, fable/folktale, political, romantic comedy
    Keyword: abstract, morality, absurdism, dark, Beckettian
    An exploration of why love and pain coexist so closely in our lives. It is a relationship that is at the core of so many different relationships. What does that mean for our humanity?