 Antonia Marrero, Boricua Bettie Page
Relishes Success and Sweet Adversity
By Robert Waddell, May 26, 2009
Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
---“As You Like It” by William Shakespeare
If a thing is worth doing,
It is worth doing slowly
…very slowly.
---Gypsy Rose Lee, Burlesque Queen
Bronx-born actress Antonia Marrero’s life has not always been easy. She grew up with an abusive father, escaped home with her mother when she was nine after the domestic violence became untenable. The family was homeless for two years, living in shelters and hotels. Hers has not always been a charmed life. Marrero spent most of her formative years alone so it’s not surprising that Marrero found a positive creative outlet and a career in the theatre.
“My mother went through a lot,” Marrero said. “If there’s any one I look up to in this world…One day she couldn’t take it any more and packed us up. She ran to save her life.”
In one of the shelters, Marrero remembered performing in a fashion show. The family would eventually settle in an apartment of their own in the Bronx. Marrero would go on to attend John Jay College where she performed in a play and was bit by the acting bug. She didn’t finish college because she was too busy pursuing a theatrical career, which has served her well.
To date, Marrero’s credits include the independent film “Life’s Passing Me By.” Marrero performed on stage in “Yo Soy Latina,” “Dancing in the Mirror,” “Jose Can Speak” and “Pink: The Chronicles of BC Jenny” and she has directed Linda Nieves-Powell’s “Jose Can Speak.” She has also appeared in an episode of “Law and Order.”
“She's one of the most dedicated actors I know. She's so committed to her roles,” said Jenny Saldana actor and author of “PINK: The Chronicles of BC Jenny” about the playwright’s struggles with cancer.
“I've never worked with someone who actually learns every line for a show,” said Saldana. “…She knows every comma, period and exclamation point….Antonia plays me in the show when I'm not available. She's so good at it that I hate performing it.”
Recently, Marrero created “Sexy Shakespeare” for The Ultimate Latina Theatre Festival, which will be performed at the Nuyorican Poets Café on Friday June 12th. The show combines her love for Shakespeare and burlesque. In Marrero’s imaginative hands, it’s a combination worth experiencing.
“Antonia is not only obviously gorgeous but she is one of the most talented actors I know and am privileged to work with,” said playwright Linda Nieves-Powell who wrote “Yo Soy Latina” and came up with the idea for the Ultimate Latina Theatre Festival. “She has a great work ethic….incredible focus on stage.”
Powell said that of all the women she has given opportunities to in Latino Flavored Productions, she has seen the most growth in Marrero. Powell dared Marrero to direct and produce.
“She was very afraid of taking that leap but when she did, I saw her confidence going through the roof,” said Powell.
Gregory Paul Segarra studied acting with Marrero at the Harlem Theatre Company Acting Program. He remembered she was full of energy and they were the only Puerto Ricans in the class. Working on acting scenes together, Segarra is not surprised at Marrero’s talent and success.
 “That girl is driven,” said Segarra. “She always gave her best. It’s nice to work with someone like that.”
To be sure, on stage Marrero is dynamite. Sporting long curly hair and a wide smile, Marrero has the devil’s twinkle in her bright eyes. Personally, she’s up beat and positive about everything. As an actress, she possesses a formidable edgy stage presence, and maybe it’s just acting, but an innocent and tough blend of Marilyn Monroe, Pamela Anderson and Iris Chacon. Antonia Marrero is the Boricua Bettie Page with a reminiscent dash of cult film star Kitten Natavidad.
“Linda told us she wanted us to produce,” Marrero said. “When I started with her three years ago, I wanted to prove myself as an actor.”
With this opportunity to produce came Marrero’s creation of “Sexy Shakespeare.” She said that many American actors are intimidated by his plays. In “Sexy Shakespeare,” women will play the men’s roles, opposite in Shakespeare’s time when men performed women’s roles. And in a strange way, Marrero finds burlesque to be both sexy and empowering for women.
“There was a time,” Marrero said, “I really thought people of color were not accepted into playing Shakespeare.” After studying and performing Shakespeare, Marrero realized that she could perform calling “the language” of Shakespeare “quite beautiful but very intimidating.”
With these two distinct reinterpretations and a synthesis of the Bard and Burlesque, Marrero wants her audience to “feel something,” and understand Elizabethan language.
Marrero added: “I want them (audience members) to see that there are these women who put this show together and say ‘look what they were able to make.’ Most of all I want people to feel very sexy and say ‘that was hot.’”
Having to produce has become a daunting but positive collaborative experience, rounding up actors, dancers and a director. Still, for Marrero it has been a long road from Bronx homeless shelters, living on Southern Boulevard near the Bronx Zoo and to producing and performing in her own conceptualized vision at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe.
“There’s something in my heart and soul that I’ve always been connected to but maybe I thought I never thought it was attainable,” Marrero said. “…at this point in my life, I feel super confident about who I am as an actor….I took a longer path to get where I am today.”
This story was developed through the Education Beat Writing Fellowship at the New York Community Alliance. |
