Focus on the Family

In Karen Zacarías's Mariela in the Desert, this year’s nod to the Latino community by the Denver Center Theatre Company, a young woman artist returns to her desert home in Mexico to visit her father, also an artist, under the assumption that he’s dying. It’s a story of how they...

By Susan Froyd

April 1, 2010

Audio By Carbonatix

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In Karen Zacarías's Mariela in the Desert, this year’s nod to the Latino community by the Denver Center Theatre Company, a young woman artist returns to her desert home in Mexico to visit her father, also an artist, under the assumption that he’s dying. It’s a story of how they come to terms with one another and with the meaning of a mysterious unfinished painting of the father’s. The result is essentially a family drama, notes DCTC spokesman Chris Wiger, and not necessarily one with a strictly Latino perspective. Adding to the experience, Wiger adds, is Vicki Smith’s downright “stunning” set design, inspired by the works of Mexican artists from the ’50s, when the play takes place.

Mariela opens for previews tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the Ricketson Theatre, Denver Performing Arts Complex, and continues with shows daily except Sundays through May 15. For tickets, $18 to $54, visit www.denvercenter.org or call 303-893-4100.
Fridays, 7:30 p.m.; Saturdays, 1:30 & 7:30 p.m.; Mondays-Thursdays, 6:30 p.m. Starts: April 2. Continues through May 15, 2010

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Susan Froyd started writing for Westword as the "Thrills" editor in 1992 and never quite left the fold. These days she still freelances for the paper in addition to walking her dogs, enjoying cheap ethnic food and reading voraciously. Sometimes she writes poetry.

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