Migdalia Cruz - Math Major Turned Playwright

In case you've wondered about penning your own play, I thought this a most appropriate time to reach into my vault and share an interview that I did with playwright Migdalia Cruz earlier this summer when her play El Grito del Bronx premiered at the Goodman theatre and was produced by Collaboraction and Teatro Vista.

Diana: I read somewhere that you were originally a math major. How did you go from math major to playwright?

Migdalia:I was also a History minor, and took a class about Beckett. I thought it was about the English historical figure "Thomas A Becket, but instead it was about Samuel Beckett. When I saw how beautifully and poetically Beckett rendered the most horrible of human conditions, I thought becoming a playwright could be an incredible gift. So I dropped the Calculus. When I get stuck on my plays, I sometimes add big numbers. I figure anything on paper is good. It also relaxes me. Strange, huh? Math stresses a lot of people, but not me. But once I faced the fact that writing was what would truly make me happy, I remembered that I had written my first play when I was six years old—a puppet play about Civil Rights. So I suppose I was really just acknowledging what I always knew in my heart. Math was fun, but writing was life.

Diana: What advice do you give to emerging women playwrights?

Migdalia: Respect your history, listen to your ancestors, tell the truth, and write your own story—or someone else will write it and get it all wrong.

Diana: Can you give us a sneak peek at some of the other plays you might be working on?

Migdalia: Hmmm...I'm not sure how much I should tell you— I have been working for a while on an adaptation of Petronius' Satyricon, which will include both reggaeton & the music of Nino Rota. And I have recently started thinking about a play about real Puerto Rican Pirates to whom I am related. Enough said.

'Finding a Method to Your Own Madness.' For more details contact: Megan from Chicago Dramatist at msmith@chicagodramatists.org, or call at 312-206-8959.

Interview by Diana Pando