What's Funny About That?

An interview with playwright/performer Roxana Ortega

By Amy Levinson, Geffen Playhouse Associate Artistic Director

AMY LEVINSON: Can you talk about the process of developing this play, specifically the process of developing a one-person show?

ROXANA ORTEGA: It is a journey. I started writing this piece over ten years ago, when my mother was sick. And I started it in order to make sense of what was happening with my mom, but also to capture it. At first, I was writing stories, and I would go to open mics and tell them. And then, after my mom passed away, I had all these stories, and I thought, I want to turn this into a show. I want to talk about this because it is something that happens so privately; unless you’ve gone through it, you have no idea what it is or what it means. It was like Alice in Wonderland. I fell through a rabbit hole. How had I not known any of this before? I had to tell people about this world. But I wanted to do it in a way that captures all of its dimensions. Meaning sometimes it’s hilarious, and it’s heartbreaking, and it’s frustrating. Also, keep in mind I’m a sketch comedian trying to write a show about Alzheimer’s, which is very challenging, because this is NOT a sketch. So, after so many years of sitting on it, reading it to my comedy friends and struggling with what it actually was, I finally said, this baby needs to be birthed! I saw a play that Bernardo [Cubría] directed, and I knew he was the perfect director for this. I asked him if he would direct the show, and he said, “No. My wife will kill me.” He was way overbooked, as usual. But he was running a playwright’s workshop through Ammunition Theatre Company, which we were both members of. So I asked for a spot in the playwright’s workshop and thought well, he’s going to fall in love with this, and then I’ll have my show written and my director! Which is basically what happened.

AL: Let’s talk about your background in sketch comedy. Because obviously there is an enormous amount of humor in this show. It’s operatic and dramatic and very, very funny. How did you manage to strike a balance between this very serious subject matter and the humor that lives inside of it?

RO: Honestly, it’s just the way my brain works. I have a very dark brain as everyone will learn through the piece. But there is always an equal desire to laugh. It’s essential to my survival. As I was going through this experience, there would be moments just so gut-wrenching that we all had to laugh, because it was just so bad. So, I tried to capture all of that. Once I was really crafting it more, I did have to edit out some jokes. I needed to learn that sometimes a moment needs to just sit in something difficult and uncomfortable. I had to stop making people laugh all the time as a way of making the subject easier. Sometimes it’s okay to say, we’re going to feel this together, and that’s also good. Nobody here, in this moment, is dying, you know? We’re going to go here, experience this, and then we will move on. I don’t want to cheapen every tough moment with a laugh. I don’t want to diminish the gravity of it at times. Because in the context of the gravity, humor and play feel much more defiant and spiritually triumphant. And I knew if I could open the audience up from the beginning, connect with them through laughter, then they’ll be willing to go into some of these dark spaces that honestly, our culture generally expertly avoids.

AL: You play a number of characters in this piece. How did you decide who would populate the piece, who would be part of the story?

RO: Well, I chose the characters based on who was really there. I mean, I think there are only two characters in the piece that don’t exist. I knew that the tías had to be there. My tías are actually my comedic inspirations. And, of course, my mom. There are people who were very involved in the true story who aren’t in the play. I have siblings who are not in the show, which I’ve warned them about. And siblings who are in the show, which I’ve warned them about. But I chose other people who were pertinent, and also people who were just fun for me to play. Then I invented a couple of characters to help with the narrative, but every character is inspired by someone. I always use real life to create my characters. Sometimes they are a combination of different people.

AL: Although this is based on your life and your relationship with your mother, there are elements of the play that are fictionalized. How do you choose when you want to fictionalize something?

RO: This has been a very long learning process for me as a writer who likes to use my own life for material. I am so inspired by the people in my life, and I have had a tendency to try and stick with the absolute way things happened. And then I remember this is not a documentary. I remind myself to let things go, to have fun and to fictionalize. And sometimes you HAVE to do it to help the audience follow the story or to make things funnier or to give things a little more structure. Sometimes that means reordering events for greater fluidity in the storytelling—because real life is disjointed and messy and doesn’t follow rules of dramatic storytelling. I always try to differentiate between facts and truth. The play is true; even if it’s not always the facts, it’s still true.

Am I Roxie?

SEPT 3 – OCT 5, 2025
WORLD PREMIERE
GIL CATES THEATER

Written & Performed by Roxana Ortega
Directed by Bernardo Cubría

In this fiercely funny one-woman tour-de-force based on her own life, writer/actor Roxana Ortega (The Casagrandes, The Groundlings) navigates the chaos of her mother’s mental decline with outrageous humor and unbreakable spirit. Playing everything from a mermaid-obsessed aunt to a prickly sherpa, Roxie takes us on a wild ride into an opera house, up a killer mountain, and through the doomscape of her own mind. Heartfelt and hilarious, Am I Roxie? explores duty, destiny, and how facing your darkest fears can reveal who you truly are.

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