After training as an actor in Bogotá, Mariana came to the UK for her Masters degree, created a theatre company - MarianaMalena, in collaboration with Argentinian designer Malena Arcucci - and has been settled here ever since: "We wanted to tell our stories in a way that we couldn’t find in the UK.”
“I never thought I’d be able to live on doing theatre, and I am doing that, so that’s amazing,” she says, although she supplements her acting with work behind the scenes in order to pay the bills. “I would love to stand on stage 24/7. I love acting so much, so I thought that if I earn my living as a creative, I could become more selective about my acting options.”
Mariana plays with extremes: "On the one hand I'm interested in designing theatre for children, making things in the most magical way. At the same time, I am really curious about death, and our relationship with death, and how we cope with it.” Exploring theatre through these symbiotic lenses — by questioning what it is to bring something to life, and by interrogating how we deal with the loss of it - encapsulates Mariana’s approach to the art form.
In her never-ending labrynth of creative pursuits, Mariana finds yet another endeavour: creating “horizontal spaces” which challenge notions of what leadership looks like. “You don’t need to be a boss, in the way white men need to be.”
Mariana’s experience, both as a performer and as a creative is one that has led her on a winding path, to a collaborative, personal theatre-making practice, which will undoubtedly take her from success to success.
Mariana wears her own dress. Makeup by Dayana Jerez. Hair by Deborah David
