Bees and Beasts and the Horrish FishTales is a live art psychological tragicomedy exploring themes of pain, pollination and captivity. Set to Verdi’s Rigoletto, this spectacle follows an endometriosis surgeon who, after surviving a nightmarish shipwreck, finds herself trapped on an island with menacing beekeepers who want to use her womb to bring back an extinct species of bees. The absurd tale invites audience members to imagine Gilda’s dreams and nightmares as she stage manages her own death(s).
Upcoming: Resolution Festival 2025, The Place, London, UK — January 23. 2024. You can purchase tickets here. With performing artist Ruby Antonowicz-Behnan.
Previous Performance: Bees and Beasts and the Horrish FishTales Draft 1, Emergency 24, Contact Theatre, Manchester, UK. Maria was joined by performing artist Ruby Antonowicz-Behnan.
Residency: Spill Think Tank Summer 2024
Gal Musette - Je vois le ciel (Official Video)
Song by: Gal Musette
Performed by: Gal Musette
Directed and Costume Designed by: Maria Garcia
Cinematographer: Wes Cardino
Colorist: Matt Wallach at Company 3
Makeup and Hair: Mayera Abeita and Mac Amato
Actors: Rhoda Pell and Gary M Black
Animal Handler and Horse: Ashlynn Lawrence and Jason
Production Assistants: Jono Evans and Brandon Howard
Sisters (short)
Premiered at SXSW 2021 and nominated for the Grand Jury Award.
Comedy/Drama
Writer / Director: Jessica Brunetto
Executive Producers: Jorma Taccone, Ryan Cunningham, Michael Sagol
Producers: Christian Baker, Jessica Brunetto
Production Company: Caviar, Devil Tree Films
Cast: Sarah Burns, Mary Holland, Florence C.M Klein, Jorma Taccone, Angelina Spicer, Rob Huebel
Julia Official Music Video
Artist: Gal Musette
Featuring: Gal Musette
Director and Costume Designer: Maria Garcia
Cinematographer: Wes Cardino
Awards — Winner: Best Music Video; Best Director; Best Solo Artist or Band, International Music Video Underground 2022. Winner: Best Drama; Best Costumes, Munich Music Video Awards. Honorable Mention: Best Overall Video, Munich Music Video Awards 2022. Best Art Video, Prague Music Video Awards 2022, Director, Costume Designer:
Press:
“Gal Musette drops morbid visuals for “Julia” - EARMILK
“Singer and songstress Gal Musette takes us on an oceanside pagan pilgrimage with the video for her new song Julia. The indie folk artist pieces together dark imagery that exists somewhere between Terrance Malick and Robert Eggers, featuring a montage of Gal on a scenic beach landscape in ceremonial costume, performing various acts of metaphorical prose. […] Like a character possessed, the video wonderfully projects the complicated world of Julia in all of her frantic glory. […] Gal assembled a strong team to bring Julia to life, including Director Maria Garcia and Cinematographer Wes Cardino. There is one telling scene in the video where two Gal’s lay in beach graves on the beach. Is Julia really Gal’s mischievous alter ego? See for yourself. “ - The Wild is Calling Us
Laocoön with Cabiria at 9 premiered at REDCAT’s New Original Works Festival in January 2021.
Semi-Finalist, London International Web and Shorts Film Festival, 2021.
Official Selection, International Fine Arts Film Festival 2022.
Maria Garcia’s Laocoön with Cabiria at 9 is a one-woman show led by Vatican Museums tour guide Cabiria, who in a nightmare, is confronted with a Trojan Soldier sharing her reflection. Brought to life by choreographer and performer Samantha Mohr, Cabiria’s obsession with the story of the Trojan Horse and the priest Laocoön sends her on a liminal journey of humiliation, pain, banishment, death, and love. Stuck between history and myth, Cabiria’s investigation of the Trojan war explores the designation of “foreign” bodies as dangerous, devious, and in need of discipline.
Director, Writer, Designer, Creator: Maria Garcia
Choreographer, Perfomer, Deviser: Samantha Mohr
Cinematographer: Wesley Cardino
Sounds:
Waltz by: Grace Freeman
Dance Track by: Wesley Cardino
The Wilds
Performances: Lied Center for Performing Arts, Lincoln, NE; Mahaney Center for the Arts, Middlebury, VT
Co-Creator, Choreographer, Performer: Laurel Jenkins
Co-Creator, Emerging Media Director: Jess Fleming
Co-Creator, Composer, Performer: Lewis Pesacov
Performer: Devika V. Wickremesinghe
Performer: Miguel Alejandro Castillo
Dramaturge: Claudio Medeiros
Costume Designer: Maria Garcia
Technical Lead: Shane Bolan
Lighting Designer: Michelle Harvey
Audio Reactive Designer: Jinku Kim:
Photo Credit: Francisco Hermosillo
Emergency Use Only Official Music Video
Artist: Abby Posner
Director: Georgia King
Performed by: Abby Posner, Megan Ketch, Danny Dolan, Arun Stores, Raymond Dejiofor
DP: Vaughn Greve
Produced by: Chloe Dykstra, Georgia King
Choreographer: Danny Dolan
Editor: Sam Rushgeer
Colorist: Mikey Rossiter
Makeup and Hair: Mayera Abeita
Premiered at BFI Southbank, London, UK
Director: Rupert Jones and co-directed and written by Emma Bernard
Produced by: Streetwise Opera
Performed on, and around, an inflatable plastic living room set, “Inflatable Trio” questions the ways we attempt to orient ourselves within ever-changing domestic, social and environmental landscapes. As the elements of a family room are repeatedly deflated, dismantled and re-organized, three dancers poignantly persist, react and cope.
"Why not, as Maria Garcia’s costumes proved as quirky as the concept: Mohr wore a plastic, see-through rain coat, shedding it to reveal a body-hugging brown knit dress; Hall slunk around in a sleeveless crushed blue velvet jumpsuit and Popkin sported an argyle vest, maroon red pants and top. Until, that is, they all rocked boxer shorts and argyle sweaters, locking and popping in unison to a neo-waltz." -Victoria Looseleaf, Fjord Review
Performances: Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA, The Wilson Center, Wilmington, NC, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH
Choreography: Lionel Popkin
Performed by: Carolyn Hall, Lionel Popkin, Samantha Mohr, with Tom Lopez
Photo Credit: Isaac Obuka
Concept and Direction: Alexx Shilling
Brought to life by: Madison Clark, Carol McDowell, Daniel Miramontes, Justin Morris and Alexx Shilling
Performed at Pieter Performance Space in Los Angeles
Photos by: Charles Han
For Cardboard Citizens
Forum Theatre productions and fundraiser performances:
Life Ain't No Musical
Up on the Roof
Secret Beauty
Choreographer: Sarah Levinsky
Premiered at Rich Mix, London
Choreographer: Laurel Jenkins
Photo Credit: Taso Papadakis
Performed at Automata, and Highways Performance Space in Los Angeles.
Elise Kermani's Iphigenia Book of Change
MiShinnah Productions
Performed by: Laurel Jenkins
Photo credit: Taso Papadikis
By: The Gold Collective
Photo credit: Taso Papadakis
Dance by: Laurel Jenkins and Chankethya Chey
Presented as part of REDCAT’s New Original Works Festival, 2016. Photos by Steve Gunther © CalArts.”
Written and directed by Robert Gillespie
Produced by Jane Nightwork Productions
Co-designed by Mamoru Iriguchi and Maria Garcia
First performed at The New Diorama Theatre and revived at The Courtyard in Hoxton and Tabard Theatre Chiswick, all in the UK.
By Viver Brasil
‘“Peace Transcends” pays homage to Nancy de Souza e Silva aka Dona Cici, wise elder of the Candomblé and Afro-Brazilian culture. Viver Brasil honors Dona Cici’s long life as a peacemaker, bringing balance, love, spirit to all. “Peace Transcends” was inspired first by the deaths of Bahian Black youth, and celebrates the ultimate triumph of safety and peace over pain and chaos in Brazil, the U.S. and all over the world.’ -Viver Brasil
Premiered at the Aratani Theater in Los Angeles
A short film in collaboration with “A Life in Three Acts” live show which premiered at the Soho Theatre in London.
Performed by Bettte Bourne and Mark Ravenhill
By: Mamoru Iriguchi
Co-Costume Design: Mamoru Iriguchi and Maria Garcia
Premiered at Mousonturm’s Plateaux Festival (commission) in Frankfurt Germany
