Playwright Karen Zacarías is Ready to Eat Nuts and Kick Butts
Playwright Karen Zacarías and Squirrel Girl, as illustrated by Kamome Shirahama
For this episode I’m joined by playwright Karen Zacarías for a conversation on playwriting and Marvel’s Squirrel Girl. Zacarías is one of our country’s most produced playwrights. She is known for her plays Native Gardens, Destiny of Desire and Legacy of Light, among many others, as well as a range of musicals for young audiences. Her plays have received many awards and are frequently produced at leading theaters across the country, and the script for her musical Chasing George Washington was also adapted into a book by Scholastic with a forward by Michelle Obama.
Zacarías is also a fan of superheroes, and one of her latest plays is “Squirrel Girl Goes to College: A Squirrel Girl Play,” developed with Marvel as part of their new Marvel Spotlight collection. Marvel Spotlight, which also includes plays by Christian Borle and Masi Asare, is a new collection of short plays from Marvel and Samuel French aimed at students and young adults. And in Zacarías’s play Squirrel Girl, whose real name is Doreen Green, must battle the likes of Doctor Doom and other villains all while trying to maintain a normal life as a college freshman. It’s wacky, thoughtful, and I could see teenagers—and let’s be honest, adults too—having a lot of fun with it.
If you’re not familiar with Squirrel Girl and her super strength, sharp claws, and power to communicate with squirrels—don’t worry. In this interview Zacarías will tell you all you need to know about this powerful and comedic hero who’s always down to “eat nuts and kick butts.” She also describes what it’s like to write a play for Marvel, creating positive role models for young women, and what animal she would command if she, too, could commune with wildlife. Whether you’re into theater—or even if you’re not and just into Marvel and the comic books, movies, or video games—I think you’re really going to like this conversation.
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