Marga Gomez
Encyclopedia
Marga Gomez is a Puerto Rican
/Cuban
-American
comedian, playwright, and humorist. She is openly lesbian
.
Gomez got her start in the gay comedy club
s of San Francisco in the mid 1980s, including the Valencia Rose Cafe founded by Ron Lanza and Hank Wilson
. She tours nationally in concert, at universities, nightclubs, cruiseships, and political events. She has appeared on HBO's Comic Relief, Showtime's Latino Laugh Festival, Comedy Central
's Out There and the PBS series In The Life. Marga's comedy recording, Hung Like a Fly, is available on Uproar Records. She is profiled in the 2003 award winning documentary Laughing Matters along with Kate Clinton
, Suzanne Westenhoefer
and Karen Williams
.
Gomez won a GLAAD award for Off-Off Broadway theater in 2004 and is the author/performer of numerous theater pieces:
Her seventh and most recent solo performance, Los Big Names, was presented by Woolly Mammoth Theatre at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC in 2004 and opened Off Broadway at the 47th Street Theater in April 2006 receiving nominations for the Drama Desk Award and New York Outer Critics Circle Award. The work was inspired by the lives of her entertainer parents Willy Chevalier and Margo the Exotic.
Marga has been produced Off-Broadway, nationally and internationally, and has appeared at San Francisco's Theater Rhinoceros. In 2002 Marga co-wrote and co-starred with Carmelita Tropicana
in Single Wet Female for a three week sold out engagement at New York's Performance Space 122 under the direction of David Schweizer. She has also joined the casts of The Vagina Monologues several times, sharing the stage with Rita Moreno
, Jobeth Williams
, Barbara Bush
and others. Gomez’s film and television credits include HBO's Tracy Takes on, Sphere, and Batman Forever. She is featured in indie festival hits Rosa Negra, The D Word, Desi’s Looking for a New Girl, and Fabulous.
Selections from her solo plays have been published in several anthologies including Extreme Exposure (TCG Books), Out, Loud & Laughing (Anchor Books), Contemporary Plays by American Women of Color (Routledge
) and Out of Character (Bantam Books
). Marga was one of eight playwrights to be commissioned by the Mark Taper Forum
's Latino Theater Initiative as part of the 2005 Amor Eterno project. Marga is the recipient of Theater LA’s 'Ovation Award' for her collaboration with Culture Clash
at the Mark Taper Forum.
Puerto Ricans in the United States
Stateside Puerto Ricans are American citizens of Puerto Rican origin, including those who migrated from Puerto Rico to the United States and those who were born outside of Puerto Rico in the United States...
/Cuban
Cubans
Cubans or Cuban people are the inhabitants or citizens of Cuba. Cuba is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds...
-American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
comedian, playwright, and humorist. She is openly lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
.
Gomez got her start in the gay comedy club
Comedy club
A comedy club is a venue, typically a nightclub, bar, or restaurant where people watch or listen to performances, including stand-up comedians, improvisational comedians, impersonators, magicians, ventriloquists and other comedy acts...
s of San Francisco in the mid 1980s, including the Valencia Rose Cafe founded by Ron Lanza and Hank Wilson
Hank Wilson
Henry "Hank" Wilson was a longtime San Francisco LGBT rights activist and long term AIDS activist and survivor. The Bay Area Reporter noted that for "over more than 30 years, he played a pivotal role in San Francisco's LGBT history." He grew up in Sacramento, and graduated with a B.A...
. She tours nationally in concert, at universities, nightclubs, cruiseships, and political events. She has appeared on HBO's Comic Relief, Showtime's Latino Laugh Festival, Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
's Out There and the PBS series In The Life. Marga's comedy recording, Hung Like a Fly, is available on Uproar Records. She is profiled in the 2003 award winning documentary Laughing Matters along with Kate Clinton
Kate Clinton
Kate Clinton is a American comedian specializing in political commentary from a gay/lesbian point of view.-Early life:...
, Suzanne Westenhoefer
Suzanne Westenhoefer
Suzanne Westenhoefer is an out lesbian stand-up comedian. She starred as a panelist on GSN's 2006 remake of I've Got a Secret, which featured a panel of gay celebrities who had to guess the various guests' 'secrets' through a series of timed questions...
and Karen Williams
Karen Williams
Karen Williams is an American concert and opera soprano. In 1985 she won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions; making her stage debut at the Metropolitan Opera later that year as Serena in George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. She sang that role at the Met again in 1989-1990...
.
Gomez won a GLAAD award for Off-Off Broadway theater in 2004 and is the author/performer of numerous theater pieces:
- Los Big Names,
- A Line Around The Block,
- Memory Tricks,
- Marga Gomez is Pretty, Witty & Gay
- jaywalker,
- The Twelve Days of Cochina and
- Marga Gomez’s Intimate Details.
Her seventh and most recent solo performance, Los Big Names, was presented by Woolly Mammoth Theatre at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC in 2004 and opened Off Broadway at the 47th Street Theater in April 2006 receiving nominations for the Drama Desk Award and New York Outer Critics Circle Award. The work was inspired by the lives of her entertainer parents Willy Chevalier and Margo the Exotic.
Marga has been produced Off-Broadway, nationally and internationally, and has appeared at San Francisco's Theater Rhinoceros. In 2002 Marga co-wrote and co-starred with Carmelita Tropicana
Carmelita Tropicana
Alina Troyano , better known as Carmelita Tropicana, is a Cuban-American stage and film actress.-References:* * -External links:...
in Single Wet Female for a three week sold out engagement at New York's Performance Space 122 under the direction of David Schweizer. She has also joined the casts of The Vagina Monologues several times, sharing the stage with Rita Moreno
Rita Moreno
Rita Moreno is a Puerto Rican singer, dancer and actress. She is the only Hispanic and one of the few performers who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony, and was the second Puerto Rican to win an Academy Award....
, Jobeth Williams
JoBeth Williams
JoBeth Williams is an American film and television actress and director, and current President of the Screen Actors Guild Foundation.-Early life:...
, Barbara Bush
Barbara Bush
Barbara Pierce Bush is the wife of the 41st President of the United States George H. W. Bush, and served as First Lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993. She is the mother of the 43rd President George W. Bush and of the 43rd Governor of Florida Jeb Bush...
and others. Gomez’s film and television credits include HBO's Tracy Takes on, Sphere, and Batman Forever. She is featured in indie festival hits Rosa Negra, The D Word, Desi’s Looking for a New Girl, and Fabulous.
Selections from her solo plays have been published in several anthologies including Extreme Exposure (TCG Books), Out, Loud & Laughing (Anchor Books), Contemporary Plays by American Women of Color (Routledge
Routledge
Routledge is a British publishing house which has operated under a succession of company names and latterly as an academic imprint. Its origins may be traced back to the 19th-century London bookseller George Routledge...
) and Out of Character (Bantam Books
Bantam Books
Bantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by Random House, the German media corporation subsidiary of Bertelsmann; it is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter B. Pitkin, Jr., Sidney B. Kramer, and Ian and Betty Ballantine...
). Marga was one of eight playwrights to be commissioned by the Mark Taper Forum
Mark Taper Forum
The Mark Taper Forum is a 739 seat thrust stage at the Los Angeles Music Center built by Welton Becket and Associates on the Bunker Hill section of downtown Los Angeles...
's Latino Theater Initiative as part of the 2005 Amor Eterno project. Marga is the recipient of Theater LA’s 'Ovation Award' for her collaboration with Culture Clash
Culture Clash (performance troupe)
Culture Clash is an Chicano American performance troupe composed of the writer-comedians Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas, and Herbert Sigüenza. Their work is of a satirical nature....
at the Mark Taper Forum.