STATEMENT
As an artist whose background is in performance I am interested in exploring a creative independence, away from the established theatre conventions, finding new ways to activate consciousness by constantly searching for new processes that will enable me to express and reflect on what means to be human.
I have been working as a professional actor for fifteen years. For the last six years I have been focusing my energies into the area of active theatre research. After co-founding the international Dublin-based theatre-laboratory nervousystem and as part of my process of exploration, I travelled to Russia, Italy and Poland to collaborate with various theatre practitioners including The Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards and actress and director Gey Pin Ang.
The remit of my work is the systematic building and development of a daily practice that will enable me to confront my own independent creative impulses; challenging, in this way, the role of the actor by combining the independent creativity and solitude found in other art forms — such as visual arts, with the endless possibilities of the pure language of theatre (body, voice and imagination). By placing myself at the central axis of the creative act and working from the organic impulses one has in a given moment I intend to explore and understand more our human condition in an ever changing reality.
BIOGRAPHY
Originally from Spain, Marián began her acting career at the age of fifteen working for the theatre company La Ventanita. Her professional debut with the group was in 1993 with the play Talk to me Like the Rain by Tennessee Williams. In 1997 she graduated from The Drama School of Valladolid after which she toured Spain with Life is a Dream by Calderón de la Barca. She also worked in Italy performing in the Elias Canetti play Vite a Scadenza directed by the artistic director of The Piccolo Theatre, Milan; Franco Brambilla and designed by scenographer, Josev Sboboda.
In 1998 she moved to Ireland where she took a three-year performance course at The Liberties College (Dublin). On completion, Marián started to work for various Irish theatre companies including: Randolf SD/the company with their production Eeugh!topia for the 2003 Dublin Fringe Festival and the 2004 Irish premiere of The Drowned World by Gary Owen in which she played Tara. She also performed in The Balcony by Jean Genet (Andrews Lane) playing Chantal and ‘The Horse Girl’ and played the title role in Aistear Theatre Company’s production of Angelene by Pearse Lehane (The Crypt Arts Centre).
Since 2002 her work has been concentrated within the theatre company nervousystem, where she has been exploring the language of theatre through the company’s deep research on actor’s training and composition. Within the nervousystem Marián has developed a detailed and comprehensive actor-training program that it has been shared with actors from Ireland and abroad. This daily training has been of key importance to her evolving working practice and performative structures as well as on her own progression as an actor. With nervousystem Marián has performed in Fire Face, The Cuchulain Plays by W.B. Yeats; and has created and performed individual scores for Aversion, an original work composed by the company; Aversion the Eye I, a reworking on Aversion and Park/Malta Action, the culmination of a one year project on Theatre Haiku.
Presently, Marián is continuing her exploration into the actor’s craft and the nature of performance through the creation of a solo piece entitled The Myth and The Flesh. Through her practice within the domain of actor as a writer, she intends to keep questioning and challenging what actors do in order to keep the art of performance alive.
In November 2005 Marián was invited to participate in a one month Worksession led by The Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards in Moscow as part of their project Tracing Roads Across. In May 2006 she went to Italy to work with Gey Pin Ang, a former member of the Workcentre, establishing a working relationship with her and other European theatre practitioners.
Her credits in film include the Irish feature films Dead Meat where she played the lead character (Horrorthon Productions); Three Crosses playing the female lead (October 11 Productions) and Thomas Cosgrove’s Dead of Night. She also played in the Mexican film In Love. In TV Marián has appeared in the RTE’s series Proof, Fair City, The Clinic (Allegro Productions for RTE) and the RTE comedy The English Class.
