Send Desiree to Chile - Women Playwrights International Conference

Desiree is a Venezuelan-born, New Zealand playwright and poet. Her award-winning play Nuclear Family was selected for a dramatic reading as part of the 11th Women Playwrights International Conference in Santiago de Chile, in October this year. This is a unique opportunity to represent New Zealand and put us on the map of international women playwrights!

After exhausting traditional creative funding avenues in NZ, Desiree needs help to get there. So far, three amazing private sponsors have stepped in, adamant that she is not to miss out on this opportunity! Thanks to their generosity, Desiree is almost half-way there with the costs involved in travel, accommodation and registration, so we have started this Give a Little page.

If you are able to make a contribution, every little bit will make a huge difference towards making this happen! Please send this on to others who may be able to help too, thank you!

For your interest, here is some information about Desiree and her selected play -

As a native Spanish speaker and a Literary Translator, Desiree is in an ideal position to connect with other playwrights and Spanish-speaking theatre practitioners in Chile, both for the development of her own work and also for the work of other New Zealand playwrights she has translated (Dave Armstrong and Ken Duncum among them) and others she may in future translate, with a view to help bring great Kiwi theatre to the Spanish-speaking world.

NUCLEAR FAMILY - Divided we fall apart, united we might blow up.

Winner of the 2011 Moondance International Festival Atlantis Award for Best Stageplay.

Listed in the TOP 100 MUST-SEE shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2011

NUCLEAR FAMILY is a comedic drama set in green New Zealand on the eve of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, following a colourful bunch of Jewish immigrants from the Soviet Union and Venezuela as they swing between the shocks and delights of their new lives. Longing to belong in this upside-down world of Kiwis, while pining for their loved ones left behind, they are forced to question - are freedom and control over one's destiny only illusions?

NUCLEAR FAMILY premiered to 5-star reviews at the 2011 Adelaide Fringe Festival, Australia, performed 'solo' by Yael Gezentsvey and directed by Dushayant Kumar. It had further productions directed by James Hadley at the 2011 London Solo Show, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, London's ETC Theatre, Norden Farm Centre for the Arts, and in New Zealand at Wellington's Circa Theatre and Auckland's Q Theatre (2012).

"A play that deserves to become the talk of the fringe... a beautiful and poised piece that takes a heartfelt look at very complex ideas... rich in humour, emotion and pathos. A charming, sometimes dark, always entertaining exploration of what it means to be a migrant in a foreign world... Intriguing... witty... a warm, friendly, and touching insight into one of the most difficult and least covered issues in the world today.” – EDINBURGH FRINGE REVIEW

“The script (by Desirée Gezentsvey), written with heart, tragedy and a fair balance of true comedy, is remarkable. It veers between calamity and wit so deftly, and the characters are so well drawn, it feels and rings so true… personal and raw, emotional… A riveting performance…” – FRINGE REVIEW

Short Bio - Born in Caracas, Venezuela, Desiree emigrated to Wellington, New Zealand in 1985 with her husband and three daughters. Desiree has an MA in Creative Writing (International Institute of Modern Letters), and an MA in Literary Translation Studies (VUW). She writes for theatre and film, and has published a bilingual book of poetry, ‘Next Time Around / la próxima vez’ (Steele Roberts) which deals with the subject of immigration and separation from loved ones. Her poetry piece ‘Under the Southern Stars’ was recorded and broadcast by Radio NZ. A number of her poems have been set to music by award winning NZ composers Gareth Farr and Dorothy Buchanan. Desiree has also been involved in various projects as script development consultant, and has translated poetry, theatre and fiction from English to Spanish and Spanish to English, including the English translation of the bookNáhuatl Stories: Indigenous tales from Mexico by Pablo Gonzáles Casanova(pub VUP, 2012), through the Mexican Embassy in NZ. Desiree's play 'Nuclear Family' won the Best Stageplay Award (Script) at the 2011 Moondance International Film Festival Competition (USA) and received 5-star reviews in Adelaide (AU), London (UK), Edinburgh (IE), Auckland and Wellington (NZ). Desiree’s latest play, ‘Caging Skies’, based on the novel by Christine Leunens, had its world premiere at Wellington’s Circa Theatre in August 2017.