Today we’d like to introduce you to Karen Cecilia.
Hi Karen, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I think I was always a writer. However, I grew up as a dancer (ballet and theater dancing) and went to the theater regularly. I saw the emotional impact it had on people and that’s where I found my love for storytelling. Even though spent most of my early life as a performer, when I started writing everything seemed to click in. Then when I started getting serious about my career, I saw the roles for women were lacking in depth and truthfulness. I began to write roles for women from their point of view with more complexity, shying away from cliches. Now, I’ve been writing for decades. Artists are always exploring and reinventing themselves. So when everything shut down, I thought this was the opportunity to use all my experience and create a new venture because artists were struggling to figure out where and how to continue their passions. So, I started hosting and producing poetry events and from that success, I decided it was time to start an indie theater company. That has opened the doors for even more opportunities. Now I’m directing and teaching workshops that afford me the chance to travel, and I have started to play music again. I look forward to where my artistic future will bring me.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Balance! Trying to balance my writing, my work, business aspects, producing, directing, playing music, and oh yeah…a personal life, feels like I’m always juggling time. Even though I’m organized by nature, I have times where I can’t get to everything I need to. But on the flip side, this seems like a good problem to have. This means that I’m using my creative energy to its fullest and I couldn’t ask for more.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m a playwright, poet, professor, producer, and performer. Only jobs that start with ‘P’. No…but really, I also recently started playing music (playing starts with a ‘P’ so it counts). I think I’m known for my plays that have really great roles for women. I may be known for my writing, but I’d like to think it’s the way that I try to connect with people. Also, when I started producing, everything seemed to be the right time to use my experience. I want to help elevate other narratives. All these endeavors, I hope, will help shape the arts community to be more open to all voices.
How do you define success?
This question may be the most difficult one to answer…I think for myself and anyone in any artistic field. It feels like what I should say is what we’ve come to know as success as defined by financial earnings, prestigious awards, and cultural popularity. But whenever I’ve really felt successful in my life, it was when the work I’ve created fulfilled the vision that I had for it and the process of getting there was one that I grew as an artist and was challenged by. That, to me, is what success is. But maybe if you ask tomorrow after I get a rejection for something that I submitted for, I may have a different answer.
Contact Info:
- Email: thecalltheatre@gmail.com
- Website: www.karencecilia.com
- Instagram: @thecalltheatre.brooklyn
- Other: Insta: @karen.cecilia6
