Huascar

This is Huascar Medina. Huascar is a writer, an artist. Recently, his play “Theodore’s Love” was chosen for the 5th annual Ad Astra Homegrown Playwright Project. This is his story.

“I have this constant existential anxiety about my place in the world. I need to know that I’m not wasting my time and that my art is taken seriously. I want to be seen as an important voice, for whoever is reading my work. Whatever my “group” ends up being, whether that’s the Hispanic community, or lower-middle class American, first-generation immigrants, whatever those voices are that I’m speaking out of; I want them to hear it and be sincere about what they feel. I want them to pick up my work and say, ‘I’m about to experience something and I need to be ready for it.’ I want to create change with my work.

For me it’s always about significance. Does you work compel other people to do better in any aspect of their lives? Does it lift up their spirits or does it shed light on something that needs that light? Are you capable of creating a story that allows people to be vulnerable or to put themselves in someone else’s place?

We are limited with the day-to-day lives that we live with the number of experiences that we have and that’s where art comes in. It gives us those avenues of experience.

Art grounds me. Art keeps me in the place I need to be and I stay focused and the outside stressors don’t affect me as much because I’m creating something. I’m a maker. I’m a craftsman. I’m not just me. I’m not just a person. I’m not just a father, or a brother, or a son. I’m an artist. That’s a very safe place to be.”

“What’s one piece of advice you want the people reading this to know?”

“Write, feel, and create, at all costs. Do it because it’s who you are and what you want to do. Don’t let anyone deter you from that, ever. If it’s something you’ve always wanted to do, do it. Don’t just put it on a list. Set it as a destination or point to meet and get there.”