Tanya Marquardt is an award-winning performer and the author of ten plays, which have been produced across Canada and the United States. Transmission was published in the Canadian Theatre Review, and Some Must Watch While Some Must Sleep was the subject of an episode of NPR’s Invisibilia. A Hertog Fellow and graduate of the MFA creative writing program at Hunter College, Marquardt splits her time between Vancouver, British Columbia, and Brooklyn, New York.Here she dreamcasts an adaptation of Stray: Memoir of a Runaway, her first book:
Stray begins the day I ran away from home, and this inciting incident sparked two chaotic years, including life with my father, a traveling vacuum cleaner salesman; my first attraction to a girl and witnessing her self-cutting; being in a BDSM bar as an underage virgin and exploring my burgeoning queerness; a writing teacher’s praise, which saved me from suicide; and, how art sustained me throughout, helping me to begin the journey back to myself. Which would make it an amazing role for a young actress. The sexuality would make it necessary to cast a someone who was older than I was at the time, and right now I am super into Elle Fanning. We don't look totally alike, but after seeing 20th Century Women, I don't think it would matter. I was basically Elle Fanning's character in that movie, playing at being tough, chain smoking cigarettes, sneaking out of the house, but underneath that, terrified and uncertain. That kid is a powerhouse.Visit Tanya Marquardt's website.
--Marshal Zeringue
Posts
