Editor’s Note: Read the related story – “Jarrott Productions Presents A PORTRAIT OF MY MOTHER Review – An Intimate Story of Motherhood and Sacrifice”
In A Portrait of My Mother, Carlo Lorenzo Garcia paints for his audience a detailed image of his mother’s life. In an intimate theatre experience, the writer-actor tells his audience several anecdotes about his mother Maria Guadalupe- from her struggles with an abusive foster family to her love for Elvis- and reflects back on his own childhood and upbringing with love and gratitude. This production not only shows how theatre can be used as a tool to honor and remember those we love, but also how those stories can be used to inspire those around us. He tells us: “No matter who you are or what you’ve experienced, you do not have to be the bad things that have happened to you, you can be whatever you want. Your own story is not done yet, so keep writing it.”
Here, Picture This Post (PTP) talks to Carlo Lorenzo Garcia (CLG) about the process of creating and recording A Portrait of My Mother, the importance of family and heritage, and theatre’s ability to honor and immortalize.
(PTP) A Portrait of My Mother opens with “Many people say they have the best mom, I believe that to be true. Some people say they didn’t have the best mom, this is also true. Others no longer have their mother, for them I pray that they have stories to help keep their mother's memory. And we have to tell stories. Stories are important.” Why was it important to you to tell your mother’s story and why was theatre the best way to do it?
(CLG): For me, it comes down to whom we remember and why? We know about the significant people in history due to the stories that are told and the books that are written, but what about the everyday heroes? Who oversees telling their stories?
My mother is my hero, she’s an inspiration and constant beacon of support. I’ve always been intrigued by my mother’s life story, her journey, and how she overcame adversity and ultimately, provided me with an opportunity to succeed in this world. I wanted to keep her story alive and this was one way to achieve that. Theatre is all about storytelling and it’s been an important artform for me over the years as I developed as an actor, director, and writer. It seemed fitting that my first foray into presenting my mother’s story be through theatre.
Could you tell our readers about the process of creating this piece?
Due to the pandemic, I was struggling with how to remain active in creating and performing, so I decided to write a few plays to keep my creative mind engaged. I’ve always wanted to tell my mother’s story, so I began the process of putting together a draft of the script. I began by writing down everything that I remembered my mother telling me about her childhood over the years and then I conducted interviews with her to fill in the blanks. There were some things that she experienced that I was unaware of, surprising and heartbreaking revelations. Some of them made it into the script, some of them were omitted for various reasons, whether out of respect for people still living or because they were things about myself I was not ready to reveal yet. Ultimately, my mother had final say and editing rights over the script. If there was anything she didn’t want in the script, I would take it out. It’s her story and it was important to me that she had agency over it.
Throughout the show, you tell several personal anecdotes about your mother and yourself. What were the challenges and advantages of working on an autobiographical piece?
Autobiographical pieces such as this can be very difficult, especially when some of the topics are sensitive. For me, it allowed me to be vulnerable and remain emotionally connected to the material, because it is so personal. With that said, one of the challenges is to not get too precious about every word, so it was important to have an outside eye by way of my director, David R. Jarrott, who was crucial in helping me maintain an honest and natural approach to the material, to keep the flow, and focus on the integral points of the story arc.
In A Portrait of My Mother, you mention your mother used to say you were related to Mexican celebrities such as Emiliano Zapata and Agustin Lara. How have these figures and your mother influenced you as a person and artist?
The legends of those that came before us provide inspiration for me, and it’s this inspiration that encourages me to continue working towards my dream and perfecting my art. My mother absolutely influenced me and supported everything that I did and do. She’s my biggest fan. From an early age, she instilled in me the belief that I could do anything that I put my mind to, and that I could be anything I wanted to be. That freedom to try, whether I fail or succeed, has been monumental to my growth as a theatre artist.
How did you connect to the material differently, as a writer and as an actor?
As a writer, I was focused on the story elements, the format, and the through lines. When I was writing it, it was almost technical and emotionally detached in a way. It wasn’t until I started working on it as an actor that I began to connect myself to the words again, and to discover what worked and what didn’t. It was in performing the piece that the emotions began to hit me, and the importance of why I was telling the story became clearer and clearer.
What was your mother’s reaction to the play?
My mother watched the performance on Mother’s Day, and while I was not able to be there with her while she watched, a couple of my sisters gave me updates. She loved it, she cried. For her, it was at times hard to relive some of the more traumatic moments of her childhood, but it is her story, and she hopes that putting her experiences out there may bring even more attention to the issues of child abuse.
How did developing this piece during the COVID-19 pandemic impact it?
The pandemic and not being able to be in a theatre space for over a year definitely contributed to this piece being offered digitally. Theatre is intimate, immediate, and ephemeral. Digital content can live on forever if you let it. We wanted to make digital theatre and not a film, so we decided to honor the elements of theatre in creating this show. We filmed the performance in one-take with multiple cameras, so the intimacy and immediacy can be preserved, imperfections and all. And for the ephemeral part, the performance was only available until July 31st.
What would you hope audiences take away from this piece?
My hope is that audiences find some connection to my mother’s story, that they are inspired or that maybe it calls to mind an everyday hero in their own life. Every life lived is unique, complicated, and important. No matter who you are or what you’ve experienced, you do not have to be the bad things that have happened to you, you can be whatever you want. Your own story is not done yet, so keep writing it.
For more information about A Portrait of My Mother, visit the Jarrott Productions website.
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Photos courtesy of Jarrott Productions
About the Author: Madalena Martins
Madalena is a young writer and actress based in Chicago. She was born and raised in Lisbon (Portugal- the home of soccer and custard tarts) then moved to Mostar (Bosnia and Herzegovina), and finally made it to the United States! Her international background resulted in a deep love for languages, cultures, travelling, and food. She is also a lover of theatre, cinema, music, and literature. In her free time, she enjoys writing, going to the beach, doing improv comedy and sketches with friends, talking to strangers, and suffocating her dog with love.
Besides this, she is interested in climate activism, feminism, and queer studies, and is interested in the intersections between these fields.
very engaging- loved his answers to your questions.