TAXI GIRL

by María Velasco

Translated by Jessica Rainey

Max Aub – Ciutat de València Award in 2017

Taxi Girl is an expression which refers to the paid dance partners that became popular at the beginning of the 20th century.

The play is set in a historical love triangle, starring a taxi girl and two heavyweights of universal literature, Henry Miller and Anaïs Nin.

Both writers used obscenity and eroticism to introduce delightful chaos into well-thinking minds. This fiction is the result of the fascination for those artists who fought against censorship, but also of the women who did so with their own vital energy.

What was the name of the taxi girl? This woman of dubious reputation, who rebelled against her paraded and fetishised condition. What did her voice sound like?

Both she and Anaïs, who were lovers in the winter of 1931, were women ahead of their time… and ours.

María Velasco

Playwright and stage creator, has a PhD in Audiovisual Communication from the Complutense University and master’s degree in Scenic Practice and Visual Culture from the University of Alcalá. She has published more than a dozenworks, including Günter (“FirstAct”, 2009), Perros en danza (Marqués de Bradomín Accésit Award 2010), Líbrate de las cosas hermosas que te deseo (SGAE, 2015), Si en el árbol un burka (Ed. Invasoras, 2016), Taxi Girl (Max AubAward – Ciutat de València, 2017), Fuga de cuerpos y Escenas de caza (bothwith Ed. Antígona). Some of them have been translated into Basque, French and Italian.

She is responsible for several children’s and young adult titles: her work for teenagers Triple salto (Pikor Teatro company) was nominated for a Max for Best New Show. She has also done numerous dramatic pieces for contemporary dance (for the Kor’sia company, directed by dancers from the National Dance Company and for the Malditos company, led by Alberto Velasco). Her pieces have been premiered in the most prestigious spaces of the alternative circuit; historical sites such as the Sociedad Cervantina or the Ateneo de Madrid and art galleries and museums, such as the Artium. Also in national festivals (Surge, Frinje and soon Open Scene) as well as international, in Italy, France and the USA.

CERVANTES THEATRE TEAM

Artistic Director Jorge de Juan

Associate Director Paula Paz

House Manager Puerto Baker

Production Manager Santiago Cabrero

Graphic Design José Luis Hidalgo