MARISOL MENESES: LIVING THE GREEN DREAM

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”2288″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]By Anel Carmona

After years of hard work, long restless, yet inspirational days and several callbacks, Marisol Meneses is now playing the role of Nessa Rose in the Original Mexican cast of Wicked!

It is known by everyone that most of the young (and not so young) performers all around the world, dream of being part of such a thrilling musical phenomenon as Wicked.

How hard is it to get this dream? Is it something that anyone can achieve? Let´s take a look at the story of this Mexican girl that is now one of those talented ones who gets to inhabit the Land of Oz for 2 hours and 50 minutes every night, plus some matinées.

Marisol has always been an artist, she is a composer, a singer and an actress. But more than that, she is a person of values. She thinks that she would never work in a project that doesn’t leave a positive message with society and this is why she started working for a Catholic Theatre company back in her hometown in Puebla, Mexico. This company works very hard to spread their message by touring their plays to different places of North and Central America such as Denver, Detroit, New York and Honduras as well as several cities in Mexico, This is how she has had the opportunity of traveling and inspiring people in all different cities.

The story of how she got to play “The Wicked Witch” of the East is closely related to her experience with R.Evolución Latina and she strongly believes that she would have never gotten this job without having the experience of the Beyond Workshop Series in 2013.

It all starts when she gets the audition notice for the BWS a little bit too late to apply, as well as for planning a trip to New York. One way or another, not only did she get the chance to submit her application form, but she got someone to sponsor her plane ticket!

Simultaneously she had just found out that some weeks later OCESA (A very important Theatre company in Mexico) would be having auditions for the first Mexican production of Wicked the Musical and she wished she could be part of this, but on the other hand she thought it would be really hard to get in.

A couple of days later, she is in the big city, and with a mix of nerves and excitement goes to the most unique audition she´d ever been to, in this one, every other auditionee was your friend. She was surprised to find out that they’d audition in front of each other, and she was even more surprised to find out that this wasn’t scary at all. “Everyone was so supportive and even if you knew that they were competition, you wouldn’t feel it that way”. The audition was over and later on that week she got the notice of having been accepted.

Because of BWS, Marisol´s life changed for good. It marks an after and before in her as a person and as an artist. She was challenged, she was forced to leave her comfort zone when she got in the dance group. “I would always think of myself as a singer and an actress, but never a dancer. What was I going to do?” Dare to go beyond was the answer.

Every day she would work not only in being a better dancer in all the styles included in the program, but to believe in herself and overcome the fears that as the poet wrote “is that we are powerful beyond measure”. By the end of the workshop, she confessed her fellow classmates that she was interested in auditioning for Wicked and all of them encouraged her to do it and gave her all their support.

Some weeks later, she found herself in the audition holding room which was surrounded by actresses of all kinds, from all the new young ones to the fierce famous ones. As she was waiting, she remembers going through the poem by Marianne Williamson over and over again as well as recalling all the positive comments from her friends and teachers at BWS. And so she did for the rest of the very long audition process until she finally found out she would be the chosen one to play Elphaba´s little sister.

“I’m really thankful to R.Evolución Latina, I don´t think I could’ve made it without their empowerment and inspiration. I would like to tell everyone that Dreams come true. You only have to work very hard and you´ll see.”

Fun Facts About Marisol:

  • Her favorite part of the show is The Wicked Witch of the East
  • She is a very devoted Catholic
  • She Opened Marc Anthony´s concert in Mexico as a solo singer
  • Stephen Schwartz personally congratulated her for her performance as Nessa

Well, this was a long one right? But with such an interesting story I didn´t have other option but write and write and write… anyway. Go, rest your eyes for two minutes and then, open them again to defy gravity by inspiring people![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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