‘Maricela de La Luz’ set to light up Theatre AUG stage

Hannah Quesada packed up the theater life she’d known since she was 8 and left it in Canton, Georgia, when she moved away from home to begin college at Augusta University. Or so she thought. The first-year criminal justice major is set to take the stage as Maricela in Theatre AUG’s fall production of Maricela de La Luz Lights the World.

“I never pictured myself doing it past high school. I was stage manager last year for my last big production in high school. I had so much fun, but I thought that was my last ride,” said Quesada. “I didn’t expect that I was going to come to college and do a show. But then I saw the poster for the auditions, just two days before. I called my parents, and I was like, ‘I think I’m going to audition.’”

She didn’t know anything about the play, but the words on the poster spoke to her. 

“What drew me to the poster in the first place was that it was in Spanish. I’m Latina, so I was like, ‘This is so crazy.’ I didn’t know what it was, but I looked it up, and I was so excited because I saw the characters are Hispanic, and it talks a lot about the Latino experience here in America. The characters speak in Spanish, and I really love that part,” Quesada recalled. “That is one of my favorite things about the show – that I have the opportunity to speak Spanish. I love being bilingual; it’s one of my favorite and, I think, coolest things about myself – that I can speak two languages. I’m so excited to be able to reach more people by speaking Spanish.”

During auditions, Quesada performed several cold reads of Maricela with different partners and was cast as the lead role. 

“We had a number of talented students attend auditions so casting, as usual, was extremely challenging,” said Melanie Kitchens O’Meara, a professor of performance studies in the Department of Art and Design in Augusta University’s Katherine Reese Pamplin College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. “Theatre AUG is a tight-knit community, but I am always trying to cast my shows with a mixture of students I have previously worked with and new students. We had an exceptional group of both with auditions this year.” 

O’Meara did the lighting design for this same play as a college student at Georgia Southern University. She doesn’t typically choose a play that’s already written and has never done that during her time at Augusta University. She’s more inclined to take a novel and adapt it or write her own script as she did for recent productions, including Wishtree and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

This rehearsal season and lead-up to opening have gone so unexpectedly seamlessly that O’Meara is simultaneously enjoying the magic and bracing for the proverbial other shoe to drop. 

“The process is going so well, I’m like, ‘What am I doing wrong?’ I have a great cast that’s a mixture of veterans and brand new students to campus,” said O’Meara. “They’re not all part of our major, which is Digital and Visual Storytelling, but it’s a good mix of young people studying all different kinds of things, who are interested in theater and want to participate.”

Maricela de La Luz Lights the World is about two siblings at a shopping mall in San Diego, California, at Christmastime. O’Meara reimagined that part and cast two young women to play sisters, Maricela and Riccarda, instead of the original Ricardo, a brother. Ruth Morales, another first-year undergraduate student at AU, is playing Riccarda.

“During auditions, I had the idea to have Hannah and Ruth read Maricela and Riccarda together. After they read together, I couldn’t envision not casting them as siblings. They were so strong playing off each other, so I decided to cast Hannah as Maricela and Ruth as Riccarda, and I have never regretted the decision. They are a perfect pair,” O’Meara said.

In the play, everyone disappears from the mall, and it suddenly starts to snow. The girls’ family had moved from a place where it snowed regularly, but the sisters had been complaining that it didn’t feel much like Christmas in California.  

From that point, O’Meara explains, the play follows the girls’ journey of figuring out the mystery of the sudden weather shift and where everyone has gone. They run into plenty of trials and fantastical creatures along the way but ultimately find the power within themselves to “find the sun” and save the day. 

“The characters the sisters meet along the way basically say, ‘We can’t really rescue you. You have to learn how to be your own hero,’” O’Meara said. “So the girls, through all these trials and tribulations, figure out they can be the heroines of their own story. In the end, they find a way to do that.”  

As rehearsals intensify as opening night nears, O’Meara is feeling confident about the progress of the production and how the performance will be received. She is thrilled to introduce new performers and celebrate seasoned actors in this show, some of whom are graduating this semester. Mia Dickens plays several roles, including a penguin, and can’t believe her time with Theatre AUG is coming to an end.   

“Throughout the years, it’s been so fascinating to see the many different dynamics between everyone within Augusta University’s productions. Getting to see everyone learn and shine in their own different ways as time goes on is one of my favorite things about being a part of the productions,” said Dickens, who says she’s learned important life lessons through theater.

“Sure, we have moments here and there where frustration comes out, but it’s an important experience to be able to bounce back stronger as a cohort,” Dickens said. “I’m going to dearly miss everything from the big moments to the smallest moments as I leave Augusta University.”

Dickens’ sense of growth falls in line with the theme of Maricela, which centers around the idea of taking charge of our own stories and embracing the role of hero in our personal journey. 

“Ultimately, to me, the message is teaching people, reminding them, we hold the power to be the protagonists, the good guys, in our own lives, in our own stories,” O’Meara said.

The play will delight audiences beginning with a show for local school children on Wednesday, Nov. 5, at the Grover C. Maxwell Performing Arts Theatre. Public shows run Nov. 6-9. Admission is free for students of Augusta University and East Georgia State University, as well as AU faculty and staff with a valid JagCard. Ticket prices are $7 for alumni, seniors ages 60+ and members of the military and $10 for general admission. Children and students with valid school IDs are admitted free at the door.  Purchase tickets here.