Meet Esther Almazán of ASU Herberger Film Dance & Theatre in Tempe

Today we’d like to introduce you to Esther Almazán.

So, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I have been a theatre artist for most of my life. Tucson was my artistic home until moving to the Phoenix area three years ago to pursue an MFA at ASU. It is a second master’s degree for me. I came to theatre as an actor and a director, but I now consider myself a playwright.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I spent most of my life being afraid to take big risks so I muddled along doing theatre only if it fit around my day job. I was treating it like a hobby, which it never was. Theatre is in my soul. It describes me. It turned out that I was my own obstacle, but in 2017, I left my job and dove into pursuing theatre with all of myself. Making theatre my 24/7 pursuit was a little like jumping off a mountain and hoping to land safely in a new and interesting land. That kind of describes what actually happened. After so many years, I came to a place when I didn’t deliberate. I started the Dramatic Writers Program at ASU and now I get to live my life of a theatre artist. It’s been very hard work, but it’s work that I love.

We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I have written a play, “Indian School,” that was inspired by a song written by Teodoro Ramirez called “Look to Baboquivari.” The song is about a boy who is taken from his mother’s arms and put into a government run industrial boarding school. I started my work at ASU researching the horrors of the boarding schools, which gave me the content for the play. I was particularly struck by the graveyards which lay next to each of the schools lined with the graves of children. After digging in and beginning to write a children’s play with music, I know this sounds kooky, but I was visited by the spirit of an old man, Charlie, who wanted me to tell his story. The play adjusted itself from a children’s story to the story of how the Indian School experience created generational abuse for families of boarding school survivors. The play is seen through Charlie’s return to his village and the audience witnesses his healing facilitated by his return to traditional, Indigenous life. “Indian School” is being produced at ASU in February 2020 and has won The Kennedy Center Latinx Theatre Award for Distinguished Achievement.

What were you like growing up?
I was an Air Force brat so my family traveled a great deal. While we were stationed all over, we had a tether to our family in Ajo Arizona, the tiny town where my mother grew up. When we were stateside, we spent holidays there. When my father retired, we ended up in Tucson where I’ve spent most of my life. I left Tucson to study theatre in Santa Fe and got pulled back by the vortex that always seems to call Tucsonans home. I recently returned to Santa Fe to see a reading of “Indian School” by the students and faculty at The Institute of American Indian Arts. It was an emotional return and a beautiful production.

As a child, I had a deep love of reading and enjoyed storytelling and fiction writing. Happily, none of that has changed and it has informed my work as a playwright.

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