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By: Chloe Rabinowitz
Latine Folklore, Queer Identity, and a Dark Exploration of PERSONAL DEMONS mixed in a cauldron of Goat Blood! October 18, 19 and 26, Under St. Marks, 94 St Marks Pl, New York. Written by Mark-Eugene Garcia and directed by Rodrigo Ernesto Bolanos, "Goat Blood" is a supernatural thriller infused with Latine folklore, queer identity, and a dark exploration of personal demons. At its core, the play follows Pablo and Owen, two coworkers waiting in the woods for a casual double date. What begins as lighthearted banter turns into something much deeper as Pablo's haunted past resurfaces in the form of a terrifying Chupacabra-an ancient monster tied to his roots. The cast includes Sergio Caetano, Gabriel Rosario, Hraban Luyat and Coyote Caliente
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 (New York, NY) – Goat Blood, an exciting new play, will have a staged reading at The Tank as part of the highly anticipated MexFest on September 19th. Directed by acclaimed director Rodrigo Ernesto Bolaños (Eight Tales of Pedro), and penned by award-winning playwright Mark-Eugene Garcia (Eight Tales of Pedro, Shining in Misery: A King-Size Parody), the reading will star a talented cast including Sergio Caetano, Billy Peck, and Gabriel Rosario.
Set on the outskirts of town in the back of a pickup truck, Goat Blood tells the story of two coworkers, Pablo and Owen, who find themselves waiting for their dates. What begins as a lighthearted conversation about tacos, friendship, and heritage soon deepens into something more—a potent attraction sparking beneath their playful banter. However, their connection takes a chilling turn with the arrival of a menacing Chupacabra, an unsettling presence that threatens to shatter their peaceful evening. Owen's fear of the creature is nothing compared to the revelation that the Chupacabra has been a dark part of Pablo's life all along.  In the very first opening number of Shining in Misery: A King-Size Parody, which enjoyed a one-night-only performance at New York City’s famous venue 54 Below on Wednesday, May 8, I had already envisioned a new drinking game: Take a shot of something (Perhaps a gin martini, in homage to Jack Torrance…) for every reference to Stephen King’s vast canon, starting with “Miss Desjardin”, to meeting Danny Torrance, to a 1958 red and white Plymouth Fury, and MANY more… But it soon became apparent that any King fan would suffer from alcohol poisoning before the hooky finale of the bombastic first song, A Greener Mile. The audience that night, which ranged from garden variety theater lovers to Stephen King megafans, clearly appreciated the seemingly infinite number of Kingly references– some of which were SOOOO subtle that only the hardest of hardcore “Richard Bachman” fans would pick them up. Shining in Misery, featuring music by Andrew Abrams, lyrics/book by Mark-Eugene Garcia, and book by Colleen Duvall, also fulfills some long-gestating “Constant Reader” fantasies.
 Shining in Misery, A King-Size Parody is Children of the Corn-y in all the best ways.BY
By: Nathan Johnson When Shining in Misery took over 54 Below, it was packed tighter than the ball room of the Overlook Hotel on July 4, 1921. The May 8th show started with a delightfully ominous number (with killer harmonies and orchestrations) as Jack, Wendy, Danny Torrance and their nanny Annie Wilkes head to the Overlook Hotel. This quickly set the tone and, within seconds, the audience was laughing. The madcap adventure took us on a tour de force celebration of some of Stephen King’s most beloved characters, brimming with so many references that even the biggest King aficionado would have their work cut out for them. And it’s not only King who earns the honor of a parody—no musical theatre show or pop culture icon was safe (watch out Annie and Hamilton, IT is coming for you)!  Bear World Magazine Award nominee for Best Bear Artist, Mark-Eugene Garcia, is part of the creative team behind Shining in Misery: A KING-Size Parody which will be making its NYC debut at 54 Below on May 8th. Shining in Misery is a unique, musical parody of Stephen King’s most treasured works. Five people are drawn to the “shining” lights of the Overlook Hotel during one “misery” of a blizzard! The group includes Jack: the hotel’s new caretaker, Wendy: his unhappy wife, Danny: their clairvoyant son, Annie: a quick to anger nurse, and Paul: the mysterious unconscious man she drags up to room 217. As the storm grows, so do the mysteries of the hotel and the new guests sing and vocalize while hacking an onslaught of visitors — human, animal, and supernatural. Get your tickets now to see if the group will be able to harmonize through “it”, take a “stand”, or perhaps even fade into “the mist”! Written during the pandemic, the show is a love letter to the horror master and is an unforgettable celebration of the works of Stephen King with music by Andrew Abrams (But I’m a Cheerleader, the Musical), direction from Donald Garverick (Off- Broadway: The Office!- a Musical Parody and 90210-The Musical), musical direction by Evan Lange (Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 regional premiere) and a book cowritten by Colleen DuVall (White Zombie) and Mark-Eugene Garcia who also wrote the show’s lyrics which includes songs such as: “Greener Mile,” “Squint Through The Shining,” “Number One Fan,” (and many more). 
This week Josh got the chance to sit down with Colleen Duvall, Mark-Eugene Garcia, and Andy Abrams. The team that brought to life the Stephen King musical parody of our dreams. Tune in as we discuss “Shining in Misery: A KING-size Parody”. The ups, the downs, and all the hilarity in between! For everything “Shining in Misery” www.shininginmisery.com To support their next performance https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/sh...  Mark-Eugene Garcia is a a Mexican/Honduran playwright and actor. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild and A.S.C.A.P. Bear audiences will recognize him as one of the lead actors in Sidekick Productions’ Demon Doctor. He has also guested on Skeleton Crew and is slated to star in the upcoming A Taste of Youth.
(sexy photo after break)
 It’s time to vote for the 2nd Annual Bear World Magazine Awards, presented by BIKE! After the massive success of last year’s awards ceremony, we decided to do it all again this year! However, this time the Bear World Magazine Awards will be presented LIVE on July 15th as part of Provincetown Bear Week (time to be confirmed) at the Crown & Anchor and later streamed on our social media channels. This year’s ceremony will be sponsored by BIKE Athletic who have all the gear a bear could need for both on and off the field. Our trophy cubs and gogo bears will be decked out in their BIKE brand finest to entice the crowd during the ceremony and the official BIKE Strap afterparty taking place at the Crown later that evening. Favorite Bear Artist Which of these artists, writers or actors is your favorite? Mark-Eugene Garcia Benjamine Lester Glenn Quigley Bear Pad Art Joshua R Pangborn Polleiro Vote Here
Un escritor que se reconecta con su latinidad a través del teatro Mark-Eugene, el subgerente del The Drama Book Shop en Nueva York, escribe historias en las que se sienta representado. Por: Max Martínez Mark-Eugene comenzó a trabajar en The Drama Book Shop después de su reapertura en el 2020. El dramaturgo Mark Eugune García publicó su obra Eight Tales of Pedro en el 2022, después de trabajar en ella durante una década. Este proyecto está basado en las historias folclóricas de la tradición oral de Pedro Urdemales, un personaje recurrente en varias culturas latinoamericanas, quien es reconocido con diferentes apellidos, dependiendo del país (por ejemplo en Puerto Rico se llama Pedro Animala, mientras que en Brasil lo conocen como Pedro Malasartes). Este año se realizó una producción de la obra en el Queens Theatre.
García ha ganado una variedad de premios como dramaturgo a través de los años.Miembro del Gremio de Dramaturgos y A.S.C.A.P., García ha estudiado en algunos de los programas y universidades más prestigiosos, como la Universidad de la Ciudad de Nueva York, la Academia de Nuevo Teatro Musical y el Taller de Teatro Musical BMI Lehman Engle.
Con una inclinación natural hacia la escritura y la representación de otros mundos, García ha logrado hacer realidad sus historias en el escenario con sus obras “Standby”, “The Holy Cows of Credence South Dakota”, “Facing East: A New Musical”, “(Un)missed Connections”, “Shining in Misery: A King-Sized Parody”, y muchos más.
In this interview, Mark tells us about the Queens Theatre’s production of his play, Eight Tales of Pedro. While that production has since closed, the script to Eight Tales of Pedro is available here.
This week, we ask you to consider making a charitable donation to Destination Imagination. To learn more about how to give the gift of creativity through DI, visit our website.
Directed by Rodrigo Ernesto Bolanos and now playing at Queens Theatre, Garcia’s intensely entertaining play gives a vivid look inside a piece of the Mexican and Mexican-American experience, weaving both past and present. The production is brought to life by the playwright’s full-blooded characters and by his loving reverence for Spanish and Latin American folklore. (It is worth noting that the stories of “Pedro Urdamales” and “Juan Bobo” [More about him later…!] have been told for hundreds of years.) Adorned by live music by Luis D’Elias, Garcia’s play not only reminds us that these tales of inspiration will be with us for eternity, but also that these precious stories serve as MORE than just entertainment or as a conduit for family bonding. As we see with the characters in Eight Tales of Pedro, storytelling can also serve as a survival mechanism in increasingly uncertain times.
On May 5, Mark-Eugene Garcia’s award-winning play, “Eight Tales of Pedro,” will begin its run with music by Luis D’Elias. The play will feature music by Luis D’Elias, who has been with the play since its inception. The cast consists entirely of Latino actors, four of whom were part of the original cast at the play’s 2018 premiere. That same year, the play won the UnFringed Festival Best of the Festival Prize. Most recently, he won the 2021 Jerry Harrington Award for Outstanding Creative Achievement in Musical Theatre.
You can’t successfully send something up if you don’t know it and love it, and it’s clear that writers Mark-Eugene Garcia and Colleen Duvall, as well as composer and Cap City Artistic Director Andrew Abrams have been steeping in King’s particular brand of horror for decades. This show has more clever puns than “It” and “The Stand" have pages, and almost all of them land directly on your bag of (funny) bones.
We can only see one such ghoul, but no matter. When reading Stephen King – or, in the case of Shining in Misery, watching a parody of Stephen King – the underland we’re afraid to see is always teeming with vampires and ghosts, demonic clowns and monstrous pets, the beasts we fear we are and the terrors that keep us awake.
“There’s more of them,” the devilish Randall Flagg says of his ghouls. “I can’t bring them over here because of limits of actors and costuming but trust me when I say, they’re there.”
The show begins with the Torrance family from The Shining, Stephen King/Stanley Kubrick's enduring tale of a haunted Overlook Hotel, checking in to the apparently deserted hotel. They are to look after it over the winter. There are Jack, the father (Jonathan Wagner); mother Wendy (Madeline Glenn Thomas); son Danny (Benji Heying); and Nanny Annie (Gail Becker).This musical is so over the top it hurts. The top line is that the family take in the burned-out novelist kidnapped in Misery, King's tale (and Rob Reiner-directed film) of a writer kidnapped by his biggest fan. He (Cody Gerszewski) inhabits Room 217, where Nanny Annie keeps him captive so she can get him to write a new novel in his "Misery" series, which he has abandoned in favor of a new idea, one that doesn't include Annie's favorite character. (He also plays the vampire Barlow, with a pasted-on face and lovely prosthetic fingers.)
This fun frolic (Book by Colleen Duvall, Music by Andrew Abrams and Book and Lyrics by Mark-Eugene Garcia) takes a look at the goings on in the famed Overlook Hotel. Here we find our caretaker Jack (Jonathan Wagner), his wife Wendy (Madeline Glenn Thomas), their son Danny (Benji Heying) and Danny's nanny Annie (Gail Becker) have just run a 1958 Plymouth Furry off the road and rescued its occupant, Writer Paul Sheldon (Cody Gerszewski).
Having to deal with everything from a cat that keeps reanimating to a rambunctious St. Bernard, this cast takes you on a romp through so many Stephen King references even this die hard fan lost count. And all the while never taking itself too seriously. The show pokes fun at itself and its own campiness numerous times, giving just enough of a knowing nod to the audience to not quite break that fourth wall.
Sure, there’s Pennywise the clown and Cujo the dog, but when “The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon” made an appearance, I knew the show was created by the sort of obsessed people who read “Christine” cover to cover in the school library when they were supposed to be doing their homework. (Not that I'm speaking from personal experience, of course.)
But even if your only encounter with Stephen King is watching half of “Carrie” through your fingers, “Shining in Misery” is a broadly accessible good time at the theater, more bawdy than bloody. You can very easily see this show going on the road like other parody musicals, or becoming a staple of late-night theater. “Shining in Misery,” written by Colleen Duvall and Mark-Eugene Garcia with music by Andrew Abrams and lyrics by Garcia, runs through Sunday, March 5 in the Playhouse.  MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) - It’s a new festival that celebrates Wisconsin’s active theater scene.
World Premiere Wisconsin is a statewide festival that is celebrating new plays and musicals. NBC15′s Leigh Mills sat down with Jen Gray, the artistic director of Forward Theater Company, and Andrew Abrams of Capital City Theatre. To watch the full interview and learn more, watch the video attached to this story. “Shining in Misery” will run Feb. 23 through March 5 in the Playhouse at Overture Center. For more information, visit capitalcitytheatre.org. For more click here
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Mark-Eugene GarciaWriter/Actor/Storyteller. Theatre Maker. Husband. Bad Hombre. Cat Taunter. ContentsArchives
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