Actor Yaritza Pizarro Revved Up from Expending
and Exploring her Creative Energy
By Robert Waddell, August 25, 2009
 Early Sunday morning in August and actor, dancer and singer Yaritza Pizarro woke up bone tired from easing on down the road a little too hard the day before. Not from partying all night but from dancing in the Harlem Repertory Theatre’s current production of “The Wiz” and from rehearsing for the HRT’s upcoming production of “Flahooley” by Yip Harburg.
“If you don’t take care of your body – your instrument – you won’t be able to get up tomorrow,” said Pizarro. “You have to rest, stretch and relax…I’m an actor overall. When you’re dancing you’re telling a story. Acting is my main thing but I love to do everything else.”
Pizarro grew up in Puerto Rico and came to the United States when she was 7. At the Schomberg Satellite high school, a teacher encouraged Pizarro’s class to write poetry, which Pizarro performed at the Wow theatre in Greenwich Village. At 19, Pizarro attended City College in New York City where she took acting classes but had not yet declared a major. When she got her transcript, a major was already declared as “theatre” and to Pizarro it was a positive omen.
“You want to connect to people, get them to reminisce,” said Pizarro. “I get to connect with people.”
Pizarro earned her B.A in theatre from the City College of New York. She has appeared in “Klub Ka” at La MaMa, toured with Don Quixote De La Mancha with the National Theatre for Arts and Education. Pizarro appeared in films “August the First” and “The Scrolls the Book of Life, 1, 2 and 3.” As a member of Pregones Theatre, Pizarro contributed her efforts to plays as varied as “365 Days/365Plays,” “Betsy,” “La Caravana,” “God’s Creatures,” “The Phone Call” and “Migrants.”
Now Pizarro dances in the HRT’s production of “The Wiz” as well as rehearses for their next musical “Flahooley,” which will be presented this October.
“She’s full of energy,” said Natalia Peguero, who attended City College’s theatre program with Pizarro. They perform together in both HRT productions.
“Yari is raw, a frenzy,” said Peguero. “She’s edgy when she dances and takes a lot of risks….an intense firecracker of an actress and dancer.”
Each year Pizarro works on an educational and audience interactive play called “The Phone Call,” which deals with issues of domestic violence, at Pregones Theatre in the Bronx. When the producers were looking for an actor capable enough for the title role in the play “Betsy,” Artistic Director and one of the founders of Pregones Theatre, Rosalba Rolon, said that Pizarro was the perfect choice to play the lead.
“Yaritza is a really multi-talented artist,” said Rolon. “She did a beautiful job in ‘Betsy.’ She’s very disciplined and dedicated. She’s a real asset to any Pregones production.”
In 2008, Pizarro appeared in “I Never Even Seen My Father” by Nicholasa Mohr at the Clemente Soto Velez cultural center in the Lower East Side.
“As Yolanda, in my one act play, ‘I Never Even Seen My Father,’ Yaritza Pizarro gave a stunning performance,” wrote Mohr via email. “Her understanding of the young woman raised by an impoverished single mother, had a depth and freshness that captured audiences. Onlooker’s comments were unanimous in praising Yaritza Pizarro for her convincing and outstanding presentation in this production."
 When Pizarro was younger she always liked Spanish language novellas, she said, and she still wants to act in a soap opera eventually playing a strong good girl or a juicy villain.
“When I was younger,” said Pizarro. “I had no clue what to do. I wasn’t focused, not thinking about school seriously like I should.
“Now I perform and I feel better….This is an intense career. You have to have the chops, the strength. You want to reach. You tried and did it before you leave this world.”
For Pizarro, a rising Latina star, it is the emotional intensity that drains her and at the same time when she uses her deep energy, that exhausts her, acting also keeps her energized and coming back for more. The intense physical and emotional energy she expends also makes acting attractive for Pizarro. And for her, she said, making real human connections to audiences who have seen themselves in characters she has portrayed is very rewarding for her, she said.
“When I’m dancing, singing and acting,” said Pizarro, “I’m actually where I need to be so I keep exploring. Its how I feel connected.”
This story was developed through the Education Beat Writing Fellowship at the New York Community Alliance. |
