User:Alinamarrero

ALINA MARRERO Playwright, Theater and TV Director, TV and Radio Scriptwriter, Media Commentator, Acting and Scriptwriting Professor, Wardrobe Designer, Theater Producer, Journalist.

Born in Santurce, Puerto Rico on August 19, 1953. Alina has formal studies in Music and Dance (violin, saxophone, and voice, as well as in ballet, modern dance, and jazz). Her high school studies occurred at the Escuela Libre de Música (Free School of Music), from where she graduated to enter the University of Puerto Rico. There, her BA with honors included Majors in Theatre and Literature. She has studies at the post-graduate level from the renowned Centro Estudios Avanzados de Puerto Rico y el Caribe (Puerto Rico and the Caribbean´s Center for Post-Graduate Studies). Her rich experience spans the totality of facets concerning theatre and television. She has worked as radio and television scriptwriter and artistic director.

In 2002, she was nominated for an ACE award in New York for directing the comedy Divorciadas, Evangélicas y Vegetarianas (Sex: Female / Status: Divorced, Evangelical, Vegetarian) by Venezuelan Gustavo Otts. In that same year, she directed the satire Confesiones del Pene (Confessions of the Penis) by Argentine Jose Montero. In 2003, she directed Puerto Rican actress extraordinaire, Johanna Rosaly, in Venezuelan Ciro Acevedo´s monologue She Sang Boleros. In 2004, she directed two pieces for Raul Mendez Productions, El Principito (The Little Prince) and Una Taza de Te para Una Mujer Casada (A Cup of Tea for a Married Woman). In 2006, she directed Mujer en Rojo Empecinado (Woman in Fire) by Venezuelan Jose Gabriel Nuñez, which won First Prize at Chile´s International Theater Festival in Puerto Montt. In 2007, she directed the highly commented Prision (Prison) by Puerto Rican Lino Hernandez. This same year, she became the first director in the world to use star sonification for the world premiere of a play, Alcanzar el Unicornio (Trapping the Unicorn) by Mexican Guillermo Schmithuber. Also in 2007, she directed Divorciarme Yo (Me, Get a Divorce?) and Mujer en Negro Tenaz (Woman in Tenacious Black), two plays with which she travelled overseas. In 2008, Alina became the first writer and director in the world to use star sonification in a radio dramatic program. Also, in 2008, she directed Ricardo Talesnik’s play Las quiero a las dos (I love them both). In 2009, she became the editor and co-creator of the First Ballet with stars sonification, Andanza Cósmica. She also wrote the script for this ballet (April 17, 18, 19, Centro de Bellas Artes, Luis A. Ferré). In 2010 she directed Lo que me jode de ti by Norberto Vieyra, and Espermatozoide para tres by Carlos Rubio. In 2011 she directed Tortita de Manteca by Martin Marcou and Jazmina Rezza’s God of Carnege.

The Twentieth Century saw Alina reach lofty heights. 1983, her play Un Hijo (A Son) was awarded the INTRE Prize. In 1987, her production Las Cartas de Mozart (Letters from Mozart) by Emilio Carballido won the Best Production of the Year Award, granted by Puerto Rico Drama Critics Guild. In 1989, her piece The Critic was honored by The Puerto Rican Athenaeum. In 1994, her play Culpable o Inocente, La Flor se fue en Abril (Guilty or Innocent, the Flower Left in April) was selected to represent Puerto Rico in a Festival of Monologues held at the Dominican Republic. In 1995, her Vecinos (Neighbors) merited an award from Puerto Rico´s Institute of Culture and became part of the Puerto Rican Theatre Festival repertoire. In 1998, her monologue La Mujer Ancla (The Anchorwoman) was selected to represent Puerto Rico in the anthology Women Playwrights of Latin America, published by the Latin America Media Society, Theaterstücke Lateinamerikanischer Autorinnen. Alina´s play was staged in Deutschland. In 1997, she wrote La Boda del Ángel (The Angel´s Wedding) a seven chapter miniseries dealing with the nuptials of a mentally challenged young man, inspired in her mentally challenge son. In 1999, as part of a writing team, she co-wrote Cuando Despierta el Amor (When Love Awakens) a Puerto Rican soap opera. In 2000 she wrote and directed Notas del Corazón (Notes from the Heart) starring Puerto Rican Flutist and Grammy Award winner, Nestor Torres, and in 2001 she directed the miniseries Papa Mendigo (Father Beggar). From 2004 to 2006, she wrote two scripts for Producciones el Dorado (Fernando Allende), Qué familia más normal #1 and Qué familia más normal #2. She also wrote 13 scripts for the TV series of the same name.

She has participated in festivals and presentations abroad, such as the New York Latin Festival, venues such as Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and La Luna Festival in Washington, DC, the Spanish Repertory Theatre in New York, as well as a number of festivals in Mexico, Chile, Venezuela, and Argentina, among other Latin American countries.

Alina began performing as actress and dancer in 1970, and working as theatre director in 1977 when she created the Equinoccio, Inc. Theater Company. Also in 1977 she began writing scripts for La Hora del Niño (The Children´s Hour) for WIPR-TV, the longstanding government TV station. In 1981, Alina worked as a radio journalist. In 1982, she was the anchorwoman of a special cultural TV Network, WIPR TV, Noticiario Cultural. In 1983, she twice was granted the coveted Alejandro Tapia y Rivera Award for Theater Wardrobe Design for Mariana o El Alba (Mariana or Dawn) by Rene Marquez and for the Spanish operetta, La del Manojo de Rosas (The Girl with the Rose Bouquet). In 1984, she became acting teacher at Ofelia D´Acosta Acting School where she remained until 1986. In 1985, in joint effort with four comrades, she founded the Reto Inc. Theater Company, which succesfully staged a number of works. In 1987, Alina was the creator of Teatro Rodante Comunal, for BREGA program in the city of Ponce. For eight years, she was acting mentor young people residing in public housing projects and at risk of delinquency. Alina supervised and staged plays written by these youths. In this vein, she has worked in diverse summer projects for young people as professor of scriptwriting for television. Additionally, her wide ranging experience spans creating television commercials and documentaries.

Presently, she is correspondent and co-editor for Tribuna del Mundo and Esperanza, newspaper and magazine respectively, official Spanish publications of SGI-USA, a lay Buddhist American organization headquartered in Santa Monica, California. (Alina is an active member of Soka Gakkai International, a lay Buddhist worldwide organization that is an official UN non-governmental entity. SGI´s mission resides in working for the happiness of every single human being, irrespective of religion or any other defining consideration, which eventually shall lead to achieving the grand goal of everlasting World Peace).

For more than seventeen years, she has been working as a writer and director of programs and radio soap operas for Puerto Rico´s Corporation for Public Broadcast. For radio, she has adapted a number of literary masterpieces such as Les Miserables, The Man in the Iron Mask, My Diary (Anne Frank), Maria (Venezuelan Jorge Isaac´s masterwork), La Dame aux Camellias, and Anna Karenina.

At present, she is a member of the Board of Directors of Puerto Rico’s National Theater Alejandro Tapia y Rivera. Until December 2009, Alina was a member of the Board of Directors of The Shirohisa Ikeda Project, created and headed by Astrophysicist and Professor, Dr. Wanda Diaz. Along with a diversity of facets, this project aims to integrate the arts and sciences as a single discipline. In September of 2009, Alina represented Shirohisa Ikeda Project in the Heliophisics Workeshop, held in South Korea, sponsored by the United Nations Office of Outer Space. Alina’s participation in this Workshop was related with Andanza Cósmica. The International Committee of Artists for Peace published her experience in the Web Page. (www.icapeace.org)

She also creates theatrical events geared to advance the project´s educational goals and, along this path, she collaborated with SIP (Shirohisa Ikeda Project), sponsored educational programs for students at all levels.

At the moment, she belongs to station Radio 9.40´s Dramatic Workshop, where she writes. In her free time, what little there is of it, Alina voluntarily organizes and offers workshop and symposia of non-violence with Victory Over Violence SGI-USA Program.