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Octavio Solis

OCTAVIO SOLIS

  
Nationality:    USA
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Literary Agent:    Bret Adams Ltd  

Octavio Solis is a playwright and director living in San Francisco. His works Man of the Flesh, Prospect, El Paso Blue, Santos & Santos, La Posada Magica, El Otro, Dreamlandia, the 7 Visions of Encarnacion, Bethlehem, the Ballad of Pancho and Lucy, Gibraltar, Lethe, and Marfa Lights have been mounted at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the New York Summer Play Festival, the Dallas Theater Center, the Magic Theatre, Intersection for the Arts, South Coast Repertory Theatre, the San Diego Repertory Theatre, the San Jose Repertory Theatre, Shadowlight in San Francisco, the Venture Theatre in Philadelphia, Latino Chicago Theatre Company, La Compania de Albuquerque, Teatro Vista in Chicago, El Teatro Campesino, the Undermain Theatre in Dallas, Thick Description, Campo Santo, the Imua Theatre Company in New York, and Cornerstone Theatre. His collaborative works include Burning Dreams, cowritten with Julie Hebert and Gina Leishman; Shiner, written with Erik Ehn, and Great Highway, written with Wendy Weiner. Solis has received an NEA 1995-97 Playwriting Fellowship, the Roger L. Stevens award from the Kennedy Center, the Will Glickman Playwright Award, a production grant from the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays, the 1998 TCG/NEA Theatre Artists in Residence Grant, the 1998 McKnight Fellowship grant from the Playwrights Center in Minneapolis, and the National Latino Playwriting Award for 2003. He is the recipient of the 2000-2001 National Theatre Artists Residency Grant from TCG and the Pew Charitable Trust for Gibraltar at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. His new anthology, Plays By Octavio Solis is issued by Broadway Play Publishing. He has also completed Prospect, an independent feature film which he wrote and directed. Solis is a member of the Dramatists Guild and a New Dramatists alum.

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below is a list of Octavio Solis's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

         Ballad of Pancho and Lucy, The         Bethlehem         Cloudlands         Dreamlandia         El Otro         El Paso Blue         Ghosts of the River         Gibraltar         June in a Box         La Posada Magica         Lethe         Lydia         Man Of the Flesh         Marfa Lights         Pastures of Heaven         Prospect         Quixote         Santos & Santos         Scrappers         Se Llama Cristina         Seven Visions of Encarnacion         Shiner         Steinbeck's the Pastures of Heaven

Ballad of Pancho and Lucy, The

Synopsis:
A rollicking ribald romp through the below-radar bar circuit of San Francisco's Mission District. Matt Stryker, reporter for the Golden Gate Gazette, does some investigative reporting inside the El Chisme Bar, where legendary bandits Pancho Pistolas and Lucy One-Eye are due to strike next. Soon the local barflies open up their hearts to him, relating their own encounters with the notorious pair, each one depicting unique versions of the two lover gunsters. Fun and full of song and nastiness.

Notes:
Music composed by Beth Custer. All the characters, except for Stryker, play Pancho And Lucy, making their quick change behind the bar or offstage. the Actor playing Orville plays Eight-Ball Erm, And Also provides the voice for Tiny the dummy. Subtle changes inside the El Chisme bar indicate changes to different bars And locations. If possible, the band should remain on-stage At All times.

1st Produced:
Campo Santo At Intersection For The Arts, San Francisco, Ca     2005

Organisations:
Campo Santo, Intersection for the Arts

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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Genre:
comic musical Musical

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  Ventriloquist's dummy

Further Reference:
-

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Bethlehem

Bethlehem
A dark work about self-knowledge and the nature of evil, where the devil lives in a godless world. Lee, accompanied by his photographer girlfriend Dru, arrives in El Paso to interview Mateo, (a convicted murderer recently released), over a period of a few days. During the intense interview process, Lee so empathizes with his subject's life in the past that he merges his own past with it in order to reenact it. the bloody conclusion draws upon the dangers of defining the nature of evil.

Notes:
Winner of the 2003 National Latino Playwriting Award

1st Produced:
Campo Santo At Intersection For The Arts, San Francisco, Ca     10 Jul 2003

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
-

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Cloudlands

Synopsis:
Desire leads to a transgression

Notes:
Rights for this title only - Bret Adams. Music by Adam Gwon; lyrics and book by Octavio Solis

1st Produced:
South Coast Repertory Theatre, Ca     01 Apr 2012

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
Musical

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Dreamlandia

Dreamlandia
A supernatural look at drugs and border culture on the Rio Grande
- nytheatre.com

Notes:
part of their Big D Festival of the Unexpected. Also produced in 1997 under the title Suenos Suenos Son

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
SF Inc   978-0573697999

Music:
-

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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El Otro

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Thick Description     1998

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in Latino Plays From South Coast Repertory (Broadway Play Publishing),    -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
Tragedy

Parts:
Male:  6            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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El Paso Blue

El Paso Blue
Al has to take the rap for his pal Duane's botched robbery, but before he goes, he leaves his drunken ex-beaty queen wife Sylvie in the care of his father Jefe. In the year he is gone, Jefe and Sylvie fall in love, and when Al is granted early parole, he enlists Duane in a mad and murderous hunt for the fleeing lovers. In the course of their search, they meet China, a weird changeling who wields a water gun filled with ammonia and purports to know where his wife has been taken.

Notes:
Music by Michael "Hawkeye" Herman

1st Produced:
Intersection for the Arts in a co-production with Campo Santo in San Francisco, CA     May 1994

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in Plays by Octavio Solis, Broadway Publishing, 2006
Samuel French, Inc - New York (2016) >>>    978-0573705021

Music:
-

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
comic love fable Comedy

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Ghosts of the River

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Teatro Vision     01 Oct 2009

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Gibraltar

Synopsis:
In Gibraltar, chance brings together Palo, a traveler searching for his runaway wife, and Amy, a widow whose husband disappeared in a boating accident. their story is just one in a study of love's bargains, woven together through the landscape of memory. (San Jose Stage composite description)

Notes:
2nd production: Thick Description in San Francisco, subsequently transferred to San Jose Stage (November-February 2006-2007)

1st Produced:
Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ashland, Or, Usa     2005

Organisations:
Oregon Shakespeare Festival

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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June in a Box

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Campo Santo, Intersection For The Arts Sf, Ca     01 Mar 2008

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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La Posada Magica

Synopsis:
Gracie, young girl with little cause to celebrate Christmas, joins a traditional Posada on their march toward Bethlehem

Notes:
music by Marcos Loya

1st Produced:
South Coast Repertory     1994

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in Plays from South Coast Repertory vol. 2 (Broadway Play Publishing),    -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
christmas musical Musical

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Lethe

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Cornerstone Theatre Institute     01 Aug 2006

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Lydia

Lydia
A 1970s Mexican immigrant family is mired in grief, rage and guilt over a daughter's debilitating accident on the eve of her quinceanera. When the undocumented Lydia arrives in El Paso from Mexico to work as a maid for the family, her nearly miraculous bond with the brain-damaged girl elates, then angers, and finally threatens to destroy the troubled family-and Lydia herself.

Notes:
nominated for Best New American Play for 2008 by the Harold And Mimi Steinberg Foundation And the ATCA (American theatre Critics Association)

1st Produced:
Yale Repertory Theatre, New Haven, Ct     06 Feb 2009

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Man Of the Flesh

Synopsis:
Re-imagines the DON Juan legend in the terms of contemporary Chicano culture.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
South Coast Repertory     1990

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "Plays from the South Coast Rep", Broadway Play Publishing, New York,    -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
Myth Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Marfa Lights

Synopsis:
Jorge undergoes a horrific hazing at the hands of his frat brothers and is abandoned near-naked, hog-tied and blind-folded in the stark cold West Texas desert. But when night falls, and the strange Marfa Lights dance around him, a mysterious girl named Meiken finds him, and mistaking him for an angel, takes him though a series of ordeals in preparation for a long-sought miracle. Meanwhile, the other boys and one of their girlfriends feel a nagging need to "finish the job" and begin their hunt for him. Only one pledge brother, Sonny, resolves, with the help of a foul-mouthed Goth girl stranded along the road, to save him before they can do any more damage. Thus begins a magical night of revelations and transformations among the haunted plains of Texas.

Notes:
Also produced At St. Mary's College of California in Moraga, California. November 2006

1st Produced:
West Texas State A&M University     2006

Organisations:
West Texas State A&M University Theatre Department

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Pastures of Heaven

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
California Shakespeare Theatre, Berkeley, Ca     01 Jun 2010

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Prospect

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-     1993

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Contained in: "Theatreforum International Theatre Journal" Issue 5 1994   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Quixote

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Oregon Shakespeare Festival     01 Jun 2009

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Santos & Santos

Synopsis:
Tomas returns to El Paso to find his attorney brothers are deeply in bed with narcotics smuggling. He is torn between honoring the code of his Latino family and the code of American justice.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Dallas Theater Center, TX, USA >>>     1994-1995 Season

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
American Theatre Magazine, NY - November, 1995    -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
crime epic Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Scrappers

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
South Coast Repertory, Ca     1992

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Se Llama Cristina

Se Llama Cristina
A man and woman awaken from an apparent drugged-out night to find their baby missing. The pair relive their history in order to remember their way back to their child and to try to set things right. This haunted, poetic journey moves through time from past to present to future, and from darkness and doubt to the glimmer of miraculous light.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Magic Theatre, San Francisco     2013

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Seven Visions of Encarnacion

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-     2002

Organisations:
Shadowlight Productions

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Shiner

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Written by Octavio Solis and Erik Ehn

1st Produced:
Underman Theatre, Dallas, Texas     1999

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Steinbeck's the Pastures of Heaven

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
the American Voices New Play Institute At Arena Stage will feature full length presentations And readings from the seven inaugural selections of the National Endowment for the Arts New Play Development Program.

1st Produced:

Organisations:
California Shakespeare, Ca

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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