From stilt-walking performances to stage roles and a semi-autobiographical play about caregiving, Suarez says her work centers “her-stories” and culture.
San Antonio performer and multidisciplinary artist Lisa Suarez works across theater, music, dance, visual art, and physical performance, often blending English and Spanish. She traces her love of
bilingual theater to a high school Spanish Club poetry contest in McAllen, where she took second place with a telenovela-inspired dramatic reading.
Her Spanish teacher offered a deal: enter the Spanish Club’s poetry declamation contest and skip final exams. Suarez participated in the statewide competition and placed second, performing a poem about a soldier who dies at war, singing part of “Soldado Razo,” and leaning into telenovela-style drama. Suarez credits that moment with cementing her devotion to teatro bilingüe.
She calls herself a performing artist: she plays guitar, sings, writes, crafts, and has performed stilt-walking and fire-eating. “I used to say I just dabble,” she said, “but there’s some method to my madness.”
Suarez said her biggest hurdles have been internal, “insecurities, laziness, or procrastination”, though she’s also seen how uneven systems can be, especially for women and marginalized communities.
She credits her mother for shaping her confidence and sense of fairness, urging her to learn the rules before trying to change them. Suarez said she’s found spaces where her identity is celebrated, and that speaking Spanish fluently has opened doors.
Lisa’s body of work is a tapestry. Her stage credits span San Antonio and beyond, including playing adult Lydia Mendoza in the Guadalupe Theater’s Lydia Mendoza: La Gloria de Tejas by Anthony J. Garcia, a role that had her learn basic guitar chords.
In the late 1990s, she also appeared at the Guadalupe Theater in two short plays staged the same night: Las Nuevas Tamaleras by Alicia Mena and Frontera by Sterling Houston. “I don’t think I slept much back then,” she said. Last year, she performed as Juana in Las Comadres de Morales Street to rave reviews.
Additional credits include Joe Minjares’ touring play Minnecanos (Mixed Blood Theater Company, Minneapolis); La Carpa Aztlan’s I Don’t Speak English Only by Anthony J. Garcia (El Centro Su Teatro, Denver); and Lisa Loomer’s ROE, about the origins of Roe v. Wade. On screen, she has appeared in Lone Star, From Mexico With Love, HBO’s The Leftovers, and Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series.
Yet, amongst all of the work, she’s most proud of her own semi-autobiographical play, I’ll Remember For You (Yo Me ‘Acuerdo Por Ti), about caring for her mother through Alzheimer’s and dementia. The script drew local attention, including a review by Deborah Martin, and was named to the San Antonio Express-News “Best of 2010” stage list.
Suarez gravitates toward work about domestic relationships and “her-stories” with an emphasis on loss, resilience, and healing. “These roles are often missing from mainstream culture,” said Suarez.
Offstage, she’s motivated by a desire to learn and to be useful and compassionate in the projects she joins. Sometimes the goal, she said, is simply to try something fully and see how it connects. She recently joined Seniors in Play as a teacher to do just that.
For now, Suarez said Facebook is the best place to follow upcoming work. “I’ve never been great at promoting my work,” she said, crediting theaters and collaborators with helping amplify projects. For women pursuing arts careers, she emphasized persistence: “Hay que echarle un chingo de ganas!”
