Raquel Almazán is from Madrid , Spain and is also of Costa Rican descent, she's lived most of her life in the States and is now an emerging interdisciplinary artist. She holds a B.F.A. in Theatre from University of Florida and is a graduate of the New World School of the Arts Conservatory where she developed work as a writer, director, actor and dramaturge.
Almazán has been writing for over ten years, coming from a playwriting background, she has been developing her own performance work throughout the last seven years. At PS 742, she recently served as dramaturge and performed in Anomie . Almazán also directed a political comedy Zap! at the Green Door Gallery and a New World studio production of The Vagina Monologues . At the Louis O Gerrits Theatre, her play Junkyard Food was produced and also directed Heller's Portrait of My Brother for the New Playwrights Festival. For a Women's Forum moderated by Hilary Clinton, she wrote and performed a monologue in collaboration with dancer Stephanie Bastos. Almazán served as dramaturge and performed as Margaret in the multi- media production of Ur- Faust that toured to Hyterio Theatre in Athens, Greece. She has received grants from The Ford Foundation, Manhattan Coummunity Fund, Tropiculture Miami, Miami Dade Cultural Affairs, Florida Arts and The Artist Access Grant for her original writing/performance / residency development in playwriting.
In addition to writing, Almazán is also an accomplished actor. Some of her noted roles include Lady MacBeth in MacBeth , Mrs. Papov in Chekov's The Bear. She has also performed in her self written, one person shows, Death of the Doll and her multi-media project as the Alpha Wolf where she plays a variety of female archetypes in She Wolves: Women in Sex, Death and Rebirth , recently part of the NYC Fringe Festival. As a performance artist she participates at social- political conferences and events to bring awareness to current female issues, including The National Women's Studies Conference, P.S. 122 and the Los Angeles Scope Arts conference.
Almazán has participated in acting workshops including Susan Grace Cohen, Lee Michael Cohen, Shakespeare with Peter Craze, Laban, Growtowski, Movement and Directing. She has also trained in Butoh, Biomechanics, Suzuki, Improv and Mask Work. Raquel has also participated in writing development workshops with David Mamet, Horton Foote and Julie Harris. She has work shopped her playwriting material with Edward Albee and Jose Rivera. Albee noted that Almazán “…sure can write.” She was selected as part of the Latino Writers Lab with the National Association of Latin Independent Producers for her screenplay Death of the Doll, the short film that screened at the first annual Boyle Heights Latina Independent Film Extravaganza in L.A. Raquel is directing and acting in short films based on her performance pieces and has played a variety of characters in independent films, screened at Cannes, HBO NYLIFF and Urban World Festivals.
Almazan workshops original work with writers/ performers, including as a facilitator with Art Spring organization to incarcerated women in prison. As a teaching artist with LEAP she directs short plays with NYC Public school students off Broadway at New World Stages. With Manhattan Theatre Club and Educational Play Productions she performs throughout NYC Schools. She teaches acting for theatre/ camera at John Robert Powers Studios where she is also training director. Almazán is also the artistic director of La Lucha Arts Group, dedicated to producing diverse new work in theatre / film / dance / visual art / media. At (El Museo del Barrio) she played the lead in Escaping Juarez and is now performing in Deviant Borders as the male Chamuco , a production set to tour. Her new plays as writer/ performer are Glossy Page Pimps commissioned by Miami Light Project as a staged reading, and the Hopefulness/Esperanza in the 4 Caminos Festival at the Latino Cultural Center in NYC. She is a proud member of The Dramatist Guild , The Playwrights' Center, NALIP, Alternate Roots and the Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors.
As a writer, director, actor and dramaturge for theatre/media/film, my aim is to use a full spectrum of approaches on creating new work within an interdisciplinary process. My work is text based, in fusion with physical and ritualistic stage elements from Butoh dance, Growtowski, Laban, Biomechanics and Suzuki techniques as well as visual-media, choreography, sound and stagecraft. I strive to create original pieces with arts-collaborators, material that is provocative, humorous, startling, political and challenging.
I write and perform solo and ensemble theatre pieces, which explore the influence of myth and history on modern female sexuality and social power. More specifically, I am interested in the ways which female archetypes and traditional female roles have influenced our modern notions of womanhood as well as the exploitation of the female body in our media-driven culture. My original work delves into the social political factors that affect women globally; part of my ongoing process is to perform/ participate at social- political conferences and events to bring awareness to current female issues.
My characters in “She Wolves” range from a mythical wolf-woman, who embodies female wisdom and an 18 th Century girl, who is trapped in a bourgeois world of self-starvation, to the robotic C.E.O., who rallies for her plastic surgery empire and the Virgin Stripper, who shouts back out to cat calling men. In developing my other productions, Death of the Doll, The Hopefulness, Alive Dead Baby, Glossy Page Pimps and Junkyard Food, these plays take on themes of myth, culture, society, power, violence, sex and abuse. I hold to the idea of using my life experiences combined with the drives of the women and men that tell me their stories. Direct contact those who are not given the opportunity to be heard, marginalized by society, creates a feedback session that is vital to my process as an artist.
I create like a scavenger; hungry for knowledge of the past, for a ceremony of the earth that still demands our attention now. It is all too common to hear that theatre is dying from our culture, from our method of communicating. The experience of art can be the ultimate modern ritual to communicate ideas and exchange; that art is what unifies us all.
Theatre and Media can be a very practical tool, serving heavy purposes. Brecht and Artaud have aided my methodology towards theatre and it's possibilities on opening minds and propelling action. How art can serve as a tool for social change, in awakening individuals about themselves and how the characters in stories relate to the world. As an arts facilitator to children, teens and institutionalized women, my art programs promote personal growth, develops life skills through art-making and self- expression.
As the artistic director of La Lucha Arts Group, I am dedicated to producing new works, in contribution towards transformational arts participation between audiences and artists. As I look to a future where my work will be a part of aiding organizations, movements and individuals in exploring a more informed reality.
“A virtuosic physical performer, a powerfully visual production, strong, intriguing characters” (she wolves)
Li Cornfeld , offoffonline.com newyork city
"Makes you laugh, makes you think, performance art in it's purest form"
Jessica Sick The Miami Herald
"A white hot performance, challenging, compelling, and a bold imagination"
The New Times, Miami
“Almazan sends her audience on a startling, provoking, perhaps cathartic journey, no one leaves unchanged”
Carolyn Raming, Closer Magazine
“Your ear is splendid, characters speak without a false note, you sure can write” (Blood Bits)
Edward Albee / Playwright – Theatre Director
“Delivered a “tour de force” performance that left some of us speechless, a unique and talented performance artist, were able to experience the emergence of a powerful voice in their midst” (She Wolves)
Jose Torres Tama / Performance Artist
“Prolific, bold, talented, and insightful” (Diverse Works)
Jorge Guerra / Theatre director
“Theatrical vitality that was truly electrifying” (Junkyard Food)
David Kwiat / Theatre actor-director
“These are strong plays, you have a powerful voice… blessed with an original vision and the courage to stick to your worldview.”
(Alive Dead Baby, Death of the Doll, Junkyard Food)
Jose Rivera / Playwright