Written and performed by Marga Gomez
Directed by David Schweizer
In her 12th solo play Latin Standards Marga Gomez performs the loving, funny and true story of perseverance and creative addiction passed down from immigrant father to lesbian daughter. Mixing nostalgia, urgency, and comic edge, Gomez portrays herself as a driven adult child of a Cuban entertainer. Defying reason she attempts to produce a hipster comedy night at a struggling Latino drag queen club during San Francisco’s gentrification crisis. Between vivid portrayals of characters from 1960’s Manhattan to present day San Francisco, Gomez ponders the ballads (or Latin Standards) penned by her late father Willy Chevalier: a comedian/producer/entrepreneur and composer of dance tunes that reveled in jealousy and obsession. Latin Standards premiered at the Public Theater’s Under The Radar Festival in 2017.
BIO
Marga Gomez is the GLAAD Award and LA Theater Ovation Award winning writer/performer of 12 solo plays which have been presented at The Public Theater, La Mama ETC, Dixon Place, Highways, Bootleg Theater, nationally and internationally.
The SF Weekly named Gomez one of “2016’s Artists To Watch.” Huffpost named her an “Agent of Change” in 2015. She has been described as “deliciously cheeky and incendiary” by The New York Times. She was an original member of the Latino ensemble Culture Clash. Her acting credits include Off-Broadway and national productions of The Vagina Monologues with Rita Moreno and Vicki Lawrence and roles in HBO’s “Tracey Takes On…” and Warner Brothers film’s “Batman Forever” and “Sphere.” Gomez can be seen in season two of the Netflix series “Sense 8.”
Marga Gomez also tours nationally as a stand-up comedian and is known for being one of the first openly lesbian performers in the business. She has appeared on LOGO’s “One Night Stand Up,” Showtime’s “Latino Laugh Festival,” Comedy Central’s “Out There” and HBO’s “Comic Relief” at the invitation of Robin Williams who called her “Amazing… a lesbian Lenny Bruce.” She has been a guest on leading comedy podcasts Marc Maron’s “WTF,” “The Keith and The Girl Show” and Kevin Allison’s “Risk.” She has been featured at numerous comedy festivals including SF Sketchfest, Montreal’s Just For Laughs, South Beach Comedy Festival, Vancouver Comedy Festival and The Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Marga also teaches solo performance in classes and online and is a tenured Artist-in-Residence at Brava Theater, San Francisco. Selections from Gomez’s work have been published in several anthologies including Extreme Exposure (TCG Books), HOWL (Crown Press), Out Loud & Laughing (Anchor Books), Contemporary Plays by American Women of Color (Routledge), When I Knew (Harper-Collins) and Out of Character (Bantam Books.) She was born in New York City to entertainers in the Latino community and currently resides in San Francisco. Her website is margagomez.com.
