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The Panza Monologues
The Panza Monologues is an original solo performance piece based on women's stories about their panzas—tú sabes—that roll of belly we all try to hide. Written, compiled, and collected by Virginia Grise and Irma Mayorga and fashioned into a tour-de-force solo performance, The Panza Monologues features the words of Chicanas speaking with humor and candor. Their stories boldly place the panza front and center as a symbol that reveals the lurking truths about women's thoughts, lives, loves, abuses, and living conditions.
This second edition of The Panza Monologues presents the performance script in its entirety, as well as a rich supporting cast of dramaturgical and pedagogical materials. These include a narrative history of the play’s development by the playwrights; critical materials that enhance and expand upon the script’s themes and ideas (a short introduction to San Antonio, where the play was developed; playwright autogeographies; and a manifesto on women of color making theater); and a selection of pedagogical and creative ideas, including guidelines and advice for staging a production of the play and for teaching it in the classroom, community-making activities (screenings, hosting “Panza Parties,” community/group discussions), and creative writing activities connected to the play.
This second edition of The Panza Monologues presents the performance script in its entirety, as well as a rich supporting cast of dramaturgical and pedagogical materials. These include a narrative history of the play’s development by the playwrights; critical materials that enhance and expand upon the script’s themes and ideas (a short introduction to San Antonio, where the play was developed; playwright autogeographies; and a manifesto on women of color making theater); and a selection of pedagogical and creative ideas, including guidelines and advice for staging a production of the play and for teaching it in the classroom, community-making activities (screenings, hosting “Panza Parties,” community/group discussions), and creative writing activities connected to the play.
- GenresPlays
292 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
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78 people want to read
About the author
Virginia Grise
8 books12 followersFrom panzas to prisons, from street theatre to large-scale multimedia performances, from princess to chafa – Virginia Grise writes plays that are set in bars without windows, barrio rooftops, and lesbian bedrooms. Her play blu was the winner of the 2010 Yale Drama Series Award and was recently published by Yale University Press. Her other published work includes The Panza Monologues co-written with Irma Mayorga (University of Texas Press) and an edited volume of Zapatista communiqués titled Conversations with Don Durito (Autonomedia Press).
Virginia is a Time Warner Fellow Alum at the Women's Project Lab, a recipient of the Whiting Writers' Award, the Princess Grace Award in Theatre Directing, the Playwrights’ Center’s Jerome Fellowship, the Loft Literary Center’s Spoken Word Fellowship and Pregones Theatre’s Asuncion Award for Queer Playwriting. Her work has been produced, commissioned and/or developed at the Alliance Theatre, Bihl Haus Arts, Company of Angels, Cornerstone Theatre, Highways Performance Space, New York Theatre Workshop, Playwright’s Center, Pregones Theatre, REDCAT, Victory Gardens and Yale Repertory Theatre. She has performed both nationally and internationally at venues including the Jose Marti Catedra in Havana, Cuba and the University of Butare in Rwanda, Africa.
As a curator, artist and activist she has facilitated organizing efforts among women, immigrant, Chicano, working class and queer youth. Virginia has taught writing for performance at the university level, as a public school teacher, in community centers and in the juvenile correction system. She holds an MFA in Writing for Performance from the California Institute of the Arts and currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Virginia is a Time Warner Fellow Alum at the Women's Project Lab, a recipient of the Whiting Writers' Award, the Princess Grace Award in Theatre Directing, the Playwrights’ Center’s Jerome Fellowship, the Loft Literary Center’s Spoken Word Fellowship and Pregones Theatre’s Asuncion Award for Queer Playwriting. Her work has been produced, commissioned and/or developed at the Alliance Theatre, Bihl Haus Arts, Company of Angels, Cornerstone Theatre, Highways Performance Space, New York Theatre Workshop, Playwright’s Center, Pregones Theatre, REDCAT, Victory Gardens and Yale Repertory Theatre. She has performed both nationally and internationally at venues including the Jose Marti Catedra in Havana, Cuba and the University of Butare in Rwanda, Africa.
As a curator, artist and activist she has facilitated organizing efforts among women, immigrant, Chicano, working class and queer youth. Virginia has taught writing for performance at the university level, as a public school teacher, in community centers and in the juvenile correction system. She holds an MFA in Writing for Performance from the California Institute of the Arts and currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 18, 2024
In all honesty, I did not read this book in its entirety. During my undergraduate schooling, I was introduced to this play in a Latine Studies course. We did not get to read it in its entirety, so I sought this book out to finish the play, and I’m glad I did!
This time around, I read the play or the monologue in its entirety and thoroughly enjoyed it! Besides the mentions of my hometown, San Antonio, Texas, the food, restaurants, and familiar speech/phrases, I loved the execution and manifestations of the theory, spirituality, politicization, and humanity of the women within this work.
I loved the exploration of the lives of these women. I felt swathed in their lives, language, panzas, and very existence. It was as if I had entered their wombs, their eyes, slithered between their sweaty lonjitas, climbed into their tacones, heard their prayers, cried, and laughed with them. This deep emotional dive was not sexual but provided an experience that enveloped me in their bodily essence, cultural expression, feminine power, frailty, human pain, and robust joviality. This provided me with a supreme experience of empathy. I sense this was their goal and I find this is where the play’s power lies.
The tales they tell run the emotional gamut. They were inspiring, heart-wrenching, brutalizing, informative, life-affirming, and funny. The book embraces a sense of body positivity while also serving as an affirmation of an agential sense of sexuality that makes these women’s stories necessary and empowering.
There were a bunch of Chicana scholarly references and recommendations I appreciated and will take along with me. This book not only comes with the script of the monologues but also comes with a map or topography of San Antonio that seeks to locate and embed the reader within the world they are describing culturally and historically. The book comes with a DIY manual so that one can reproduce the work if one cares to do so. Lastly, the book comes with pedagogical instruction which includes ways to integrate the book into creative writing courses as well as ways to engage students in analytical discussions about this work.
Overall, I highly recommend this gem for all readers curious about Chicana scholarship, and creativity, and those looking for ways to integrate diversity into their syllabi.
This time around, I read the play or the monologue in its entirety and thoroughly enjoyed it! Besides the mentions of my hometown, San Antonio, Texas, the food, restaurants, and familiar speech/phrases, I loved the execution and manifestations of the theory, spirituality, politicization, and humanity of the women within this work.
I loved the exploration of the lives of these women. I felt swathed in their lives, language, panzas, and very existence. It was as if I had entered their wombs, their eyes, slithered between their sweaty lonjitas, climbed into their tacones, heard their prayers, cried, and laughed with them. This deep emotional dive was not sexual but provided an experience that enveloped me in their bodily essence, cultural expression, feminine power, frailty, human pain, and robust joviality. This provided me with a supreme experience of empathy. I sense this was their goal and I find this is where the play’s power lies.
The tales they tell run the emotional gamut. They were inspiring, heart-wrenching, brutalizing, informative, life-affirming, and funny. The book embraces a sense of body positivity while also serving as an affirmation of an agential sense of sexuality that makes these women’s stories necessary and empowering.
There were a bunch of Chicana scholarly references and recommendations I appreciated and will take along with me. This book not only comes with the script of the monologues but also comes with a map or topography of San Antonio that seeks to locate and embed the reader within the world they are describing culturally and historically. The book comes with a DIY manual so that one can reproduce the work if one cares to do so. Lastly, the book comes with pedagogical instruction which includes ways to integrate the book into creative writing courses as well as ways to engage students in analytical discussions about this work.
Overall, I highly recommend this gem for all readers curious about Chicana scholarship, and creativity, and those looking for ways to integrate diversity into their syllabi.
March 16, 2017
Not my cup of tea.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews