Ximena Escalante

Because of her family’s theatrical background, she wanted to become an actress when she was very young, but was told that she did not have the talent for this. However, her upbringing in the upper-class Condesa neighborhood in Condesa shaped her perspective on human relations, having contact with artists and intellectuals and spend time at the movies with the children of Alejandro Jodorowsky. However, despite this and the fact that she has written screenplays, she goes to the movies today infrequently.

How am I? I am obsessed with ideas, with themes, with people: once I have begun with an obsession, I go where it takes me. I am very intense, too. I have taken many risks and I don't care. A sense of humor in myself and in others is important to me. I like food greatly. I don’t like people who do not appreciate eating. I am very sensual, I like pleasure and I share this with my friends and children. I am quite impatient and intolerant, and I like mariachi a lot.

Much of Escalante’s work is based on classic myths and stories from the Classical Greece, (especially those of Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides) either reinterpreting them or working with characters and other elements, especially those she considers to be relevant to contemporary life. Female characters such as Phaedra, Electra, Andromache, Salome and Lilith are often the focus.

In general Escalante’s works are tragedies which touch on love, passion and sexuality and the conflicts they generate. However, she does add touches of humor. Plays of this type include Fedra y otras griegas (2002), Colette (2005), Las relaciones (sexuales) de Shakespeare (y Marlowe) (2012) and Tennessee en cuerpo y alma (2012) . She believes it is inevitable to have plays be at least somewhat autobiographical.

Escalante says she is a slow writer and says only in the later career has she become more productive. However, almost all of her work has been published, and all of her plays have been staged. Her works have been translated into English, French, German, Greek, Dutch, Italian and Portuguese and have been staged in New York, Washington, Ohio, Miami, Montreal, Ottawa, Banff, Paris, Lyon, Cannes, Venice, Rome, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Udine, Athens, Buenos Aires, Santiago de Chile and Madrid. In Mexico, her work has been directed by the likes of Mauricio García Lozano and Francisco Franco. Escalante worked with the Nouveau Théâtre du 8 theater company in Lyon, France from 2011 to 2013 to produce a series of four plays.

Escalante has participated in various workshops in writing and theatrical production and gives classes in dramatic literature in various institutions. She runs a theater workshop open to all ages, with one of her students, Pablo Iván García, winning the Mexicali Fine Arts Prize in 2010, for his play Micro dermo abrasión.

In 2009-2012 period, Escalante was named an “Artistic Creator” of the Sistema Nacional de Creadores. She has been invited on various occasions to the Pen Voices Festival in New York. Her works have been presented at HotInk, the Salon du Livre-Paris, the Miami International Book Fair, the Festival Internacional del Libro in Guadalajara, The Banff Center and at the Rockfeller Foundation.

The playwright has worked on various publications researched theatrical production and theory. She wrote a theater column for the newspaper Reforma from 2000 to 2006 and has written for publications associated with RESAD and UNAM.

Ximena Escalante (born 1964) is a Mexican dramatist who is known for her works reinterpreting ancient Greek and other texts along with those examining the creative process of more modern writers. Born into a theatrical family in Mexico City, she first wanted to be an actress but began writing when she was 16. All of her plays have been staged and most have been published both in Mexico and abroad. Her work has been translated into multiple languages and is regularly invited to events such as the HotInk, the Salon du Livre-Paris, the Miami International Book Fair, the Festival Internacional del Libro in Guadalajara and at The Banff Center and the Rockfeller Foundation. In 2009, she was named an “artistic creator” with Mexico’s Sistema Nacional de Creadores.

Escalante was born in Mexico City in 1964. She is the granddaughter of director and producer Alvaro Custodio, who founded the Teatro Clásico de México in the 1960s.