- Martice’s ‘Heaven Forbids’ from 2007 won the D/FW Theater Critics Forum award for Outstanding New Play.
Martice Enterprises will be ending their theater presence the same way they came in. Eight years ago, they debuted with Rick Najera’s “Latinologues,” a hilarious look at Latino life in the U.S. that went on to big success here garnering a 2002 Best of Dallas award by the Dallas Observer and then headed off to Broadway. It’s only fitting that they end their theatrical endeavors with another Rick Najera play. In August, they’ll have the southwest premiere of “Daddy Diaries: Diary of a Dad Man” that examines padre-hood in a “very white world.” Najera will star in the production as well.
Producer Marco Rodriguez spoke with me about Martice’s latest development. “We’ve been doing this for eight years and now we’re kind of moving on. We are moving more into expanding our creative endeavors. Who could ask for more? We’ve done award winning shows, brought people in from all over. We’re excited about this new chapter,” he says.
Martice isn’t saying goodbye to Dallas though. They are sticking around but instead will be focusing on writing and filmmaking. “It was heading in this direction. We started to feel like it was time to be more adventurous and not just do theater. Sort of like a natural order of things,” he said. They’ll also help promote shows coming through like “Hot Tamales Live” at the House of Blues in August but that will be the extent of their stage work.
So is it a sad time? No way. He said, “There is no sadness here. Some bittersweet memories but we are also happy and excited to end it with Rick. So many wonderful things are on the horizon that are going to happen. Plus, we’ve brought a lot of good quality latino theater to the area.”
Some of those wonderful things are already in the works but the prize-winning screenwriter was a little reluctant to head there. “I’m superstitious so I don’t want to mention anything but hopefully we’ll know more in the next year. I’ll be crossing my fingers,” he said.
