Since far too often we only publicly say nice things about people when they are dead I’ve decided to randomly pick a Facebook friend every day and say something nice about them.
June 23, 2019
Today’s person: Lisa Ramirez!
I’ve never worked with Lisa. We went to San Francisco State University at the same time, but she was already a pro at that point. “Lisa’s in a show at the Magic!” was the word in the building, and no one was surprised. She was the intense, badass rock star of the department.
And so, of course, she moved to New York.
Years later I went to see her in a tour of her show “Exit Cuckoo,” and was blown away not only by her acting and writing but by her commitment to being a voice for the unheard. Social justice and theatre were inextricably intertwined, and her determined, passionate, relentless demand for a better, fairer society was the sword she wielded with every word she wrote - even when those words were whispered.
Then she left again.
Then she kinda moved back here for a while, and for the past few years we’ve both been in the Resident Playwright Initiative of the Playwright’s Foundation, but I never saw her there, either. Just like our time “together” at SFSU Lisa is too busy being a badass rock star, but now she’s a rock star of theatre and justice.
So she moved away again, and is back to kicking ass in New York.
One day, maybe, we’ll actually be in the same place at the same time.
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