Marfa Live Arts

Marfa Live Arts is a performing arts nonprofit with a strong educational component. They collaborate with Marfa ISD, and teach several in-school arts programs that would otherwise not be available to Marfa youth, such as: One Act Plays, Playwriting, Monologues, Vocal/Theater Workshops, and La Banda Summer Camp. These workshops, along with other Marfa Live Arts programming throughout the year, provide an opportunity for students to interact with  professional musicians, dancers, actors and writers. In addition to allowing for creative expression, other proven outcomes of these programs include increased self-confidence and improved critical thinking skills.

The One-Act Playwriting Program is the cornerstone of Marfa Live Arts’ education programming at Marfa Independent School District. In its tenth year, each spring the Marfa Live Arts’ Playwriting Program hosts a Latinx playwright-in-residence. This guest playwright leads Marfa High School students through a series of writing exercises that are meant to cull from students’ memories, senses, imagination, emotions and life experiences. Guiding students to develop unique characters, plots and stories, the playwright opens the door for students to write about their own heritage, families, and cultural background. This in-class playwriting program results in each student writing their own original one-act play. The work that emerges is powerful and honest, and it increases the student’s self-confidence, literacy and critical thinking skills. To date, the annual high school playwriting workshop has resulted in over 775 one-act plays written by Marfa students.