Gasping: A Nicaraguan Fever Dream

SYNOPSIS

This play is an imagined and surrealist retelling of the history of a powerful and eccentric woman in Nicaragua who is at the end of her life. This work, infused with rum, limes and sunsets follows the journey of a brazen, barefooted little girl who is searching for the future only to encounter a wild haired, old woman reminiscing on love, country and her desire for a perpetual Christmas.

PLAYWRIGHT BIO

Claribel Gross is a theater maker, director and teaching artist who has lived, worked and made art in the United States, Germany, Nicaragua and Ecuador. Claribel currently lives in Chicago where she is teaching and making theater with young artists. Claribel's artistic work is inspired by her own multi-ethnic and multilingual upbringing. Themes of revolution, searching for home and how we understand when we don't understand language often come up in her work. As a teaching artist, Claribel works with Steppenwolf Theatre, Lookingglass Theatre and Mudlark Theater. She is an adjunct professor at Aurora University. Claribel is a founding member of THE MIDWIVES ARTISTIC COLLECTIVE, whose mission is to nurture the public creative spirit. Claribel holds an MFA in Theater Arts from Sarah Lawrence College and a BA in Theater from the University of Minnesota.