- Shows and Tickets
- Plan Your Visit
- Other Programming
- Support Us
- Arts Engagement
- Get Involved
- MFA Program
- About The Globe
- News and Media
Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre
Conrad Prebys Theatre Center
Melinda Lopez in Mala, 2022. Photo by Rich Soublet II.
May 7 – June 12, 2022
Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre
Conrad Prebys Theatre Center
By Melinda Lopez
Directed by David Dower
She was always the good daughter. But now her mother, in the twilight of her life, calls her “mala”—bad to the core. Melinda Lopez’s funny, brutally honest, and ultimately cathartic solo play is an irreverent exploration of how we live, cope, and survive in a challenging moment, and what happens when we strive to be good but don’t always succeed. Theatermania calls it “deeply affecting,” while The Boston Globe named it “one of the best plays of the year. Piercingly honest and exquisitely moving.”
In our commitment to provide access to the widest San Diego audience, The Old Globe will present Mala in Spanish on the selected dates below.
Thursday, May 19 at 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, May 21 at 8:00 p.m.
Tuesday, May 24 at 7:00 p.m.
Saturday, May 28 at 2:00 p.m.
Wednesday, June 1 at 7:00 p.m.
Sunday, June 5 at 7:00 p.m.
Friday, June 10 at 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, June 12 at 2:00 p.m.
Spanish translation licensed by Audible.
Running time: Eighty minutes. There is no intermission.
Mala is supported by production sponsors the Globe Guilders.
Mala is a recipient of a 2022 Social Impact Theatre Grant from The Sheri and Les Biller Family Foundation.
Vicki and Carl Zeiger Insights Seminar: Tuesday, May 10, 2022 at 6:00 p.m.
Saturday, June 4 at 7:00 p.m., Craig Noel Garden
Saturday, June 11 at 7:00 p.m., Craig Noel Garden
Organized in partnership with The Sheri and Les Biller Family Foundation.
David Dower (Director) Boston: Artistic Director of ArtsEmerson; as director: Kiss, Mala, Mr. Joy, Breath and Imagination, Emergency. Washington DC: Associate Artistic Director of Arena Stage; as director: Citizen Josh, Andy Warhol: Good for the Jews?; as producer Tony- and Pulitzer-winning Next to Normal, Tony-winning revival of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Tony-winning 33 Variations. Co-Founder: HowlRound. San Francisco: as Executive Director and Producer of Club Fugazi: Dear San Francisco; as director: over 20 productions at Z Space, Magic Theatre, Berkeley Rep, ATJT, Marin Theatre Company. Founder and Artistic Director of Z Space.
Alexander V. Nichols (Scenic Design) Broadway: Hugh Jackman: Back on Broadway, Nice Work If You Can Get It, Wishful Drinking, Latin History for Morons. Off Broadway: Ernest Shackleton Loves Me (Second Stage), In Masks Outrageous and Austere, Bridge & Tunnel (Culture Project), In the Wake, Taking Over (Public), Through the Night (Daryl Roth), Los Big Names (PRTT), Horizon (NYTW). Regional: Berkeley Repertory Theatre, American Conservatory Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Mark Taper Forum, La Jolla Playhouse, Arena Stage, Huntington Theatre, Guthrie Theater. Dance: San Francisco Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Alvin Ailey, Joffrey Ballet, Hubbard St. Opera/music: San Francisco Opera, LA Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Philip Glass, Kronos Quartet. www.alexandervnichols.com.
Faith A. James (Costume Design) San Diego Repertory Theatre: The Great Khan. MOXIE: Sapience, The Niceties. Diversionary Theatre: Azul. New Village Arts: Beehive – The 60s Musical. Native Voices at the Autry: Lying with Badgers (puppet design). Fort Lewis College: Chief Tenderfoot, Wild Horses (puppet design). Education: M.F.A. in Design and Technology from School of Theatre, Television, and Film at San Diego State University. faicreative101@gmail.com, @faith.a.james on Instagram.
Jason Lynch (Lighting Design) The Old Globe: debut. Off Broadway: You Are Here: An Evening with Solea Pfeiffer (Audible Theater/Minetta Lane Theatre). Regional: Alley Theatre, Alliance Theatre, American Players Theatre, Arkansas Repertory Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, City Theatre, Dallas Theater Center, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Geva Theatre Center, Goodman Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Victory Gardens Theater, among others. Honors: 2019 Michael Maggio Emerging Designer Award for emerging theatrical designers within the Chicago area. www.jasondlynch.com, @jasonlynch.design on Instagram.
Arshan Gailus (Original Music and Sound Design) Mala: Original composer and sound designer for world premiere at ArtsEmerson (also at Guthrie Theater, Huntington Theatre Company). Selected credits: world premiere of Mr. Parent, Hold These Truths (Lyric Stage Company of Boston), Lobby Hero, The Royale (Capital Repertory Theatre), world premiere of House of Joy (California Shakespeare Theater), Twelfth Night, As You Like It, The Tempest (Shakespeare & Company), Kiss (ArtsEmerson). Other: productions for Huntington Theatre Company, Contemporary American Theater Festival, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Actors’ Shakespeare Project, Company One, more. Education: B.S. in Music from MIT, candidate for M.F.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts at Goddard College. www.arshangailus.com.
Caparelliotis Casting (Casting) The Old Globe: Shutter Sisters, Hurricane Diane, Noura, They Promised Her the Moon, Tiny Beautiful Things, Barefoot in the Park, The Wanderers, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Skeleton Crew. Select Broadway: Macbeth, The Minutes, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, King Lear, Hillary and Clinton, Ink, The Waverly Gallery, The Boys in the Band, Three Tall Women, Meteor Shower, A Doll’s House Part 2, Jitney, The Glass Menagerie, Blackbird, Fish in the Dark, Disgraced, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. Additional theatre: MTC, Signature, Atlantic, McCarter, Goodman, Berkeley Rep. Television: “New Amsterdam” (NBC), “American Odyssey” (NBC).
Jynelly Rosario (Production Stage Manager) Tours: Oklahoma! (Broadway National Tour). Off Broadway: Killing Time, Posting Letters to the Moon, Square Go (59E59 Theaters). Regional: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, I Hate Hamlet (Maltz Jupiter Theatre), In the Heights (Puerto Rico), Anything Goes in Concert (New London Barn Playhouse), Hand to God (Florida Studio Theatre), Passionata (Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse). www.jynellyrosario.com, @jynellyrosario on Instagram.