Virginia Grise Selected Works

An epic poem for the stage, blu traces the explosive after-effects of prison and hunger, desire and war. The play follows a queer Chicana/o family as they try to envision an earth and sky without police and their helicopters. Winner of the 2010 Yale Drama Series Award.

Conceived of and written by Virginia Grise and Irma Mayorga, The Panza Monologues is an original solo performance piece (performed by Grise, directed & designed by Mayorga) based on women's stories about their panzas. Tú sabes—that roll of belly we all try to hide!

A one-woman tour de force as told through the words of women speaking with heart-stopping frankness, these stories create a journey of poignancy, humor, and revelation. The Panza Monologues boldly places the panza front and center as a symbol that reveals the lurking truths about women's thoughts, lives, loves, abuses, and living conditions. With stories contributed by Bárbara Renaud-González, Petra A. Mata, and María R. Salazar.

When Esa finds a box of black and white photographs in the back of her girlfriend Hija’s closet, she doesn'’t know the hidden histories her discovery will unearth. Told in a series of vignettes, this multi-narrative memory play traces one woman’'s history back four generations as we are introduced to a cast of Mexican runaways, Chinese refugees, and fiercely independent women trying to let go of binding gender roles. An intimate story about the fluidity of borders, time and the historic confluence of China, Mexico and the United States. Winner of the 2011 Pregones Asuncion Award for Queer Playwrighting.

A dance theater adaptation of Virginia Woolf's fictional biography “Orlando,” would i then be…... explores the embodiment of feminine and masculine energies and the fluidity of both time and gender. Choreographed & Directed by Stephanie Nugent.

A dance theater piece inspired by Pablo Neurda’'s poem "A Lemon," in which the poet transforms this mundane fruit into a metaphor for passion and sensuality. A single female performer represents the enigmatic lemon, while the male performers take an abstract journey through what Carl Jung calls “Anima Development.”

An experimental monologue that asks the question: who are we when we dream?

Co-adapted with Ricardo A. Bracho. The Mexican as Told by Us Mexicans is a queer theatrical retelling of Jack London's short story, "The Mexican." In it, we follow a young boxer from the killing fields of Porfirio Diaz' Mexico to his menial labor among a group of revolutionists in Texas, and end in a Los Angeles boxing ring. Significantly, while in the ring the boxer recalls the horrific death of his parents at anti-revolutionary hands as his own hands are locked in a battle in which he eventually triumphs, allowing, in London’'s words, for “the revolution to go on.”

The 15 hottest theater artists in NYC bring you this evocative theatrical tapestry. A lost postcard, the ghost of an opera diva and the siren call of the City. Erupting from the shadows of New York City Center, expect history and mystery in this world premiere production. Written by Kara Lee Corthron, Sarah Gancher, Virginia Grise, Dipika Guha, and Lauren Yee.

Commissioned by the Community Arts Partnership to write an original youth theatre piece about the building of the border wall between Mexico and the United States. Developed in collaboration with 50 high school actors and writers, behind barbed wire explores the human impact of the controversial U.S.-Mexico "border fence"—now being expanded into a fully militarized zone at a cost of $3 million per mile.