Name: Monessa Maria Esquivel
Age: Do I have to? Okay, 30
Occupation: Fashionista Artista

What exactly is a fashionista artista?

I enjoy using of the word “art” loosely to express myself. I try to make a statement in all realms of my world, covering all avenues, performance, fashion and revolutionary work.

You have played a psychotic punk rocker (May Joon from “The Methane Sisters”). Now you are playing Saddam Hussein. Why are you drawn to surreal parts?

I really want something I can sink my teeth into, complex in its character and physical layers. I think the challenge draws me toward what I decide to work on. Since my recent work has been nothing but gender-f**k, I am really limitless when I perform. I will take it there and make no excuses. I have played “regular” roles before, but I'm drawn more toward the roles that are harder to master. Since coming to Jump-Start Performance Co., the theater has really given me a wonderful opportunity to perform these opposite sex characters I wouldn't have thought of playing.

You've said you like drag queens and that every woman has manly qualities inside them. And now you are playing Saddam. Can you explain your gender-bending tendencies?

Well, I think every woman can bust some balls if she needs too. Playing a man such as Saddam takes work. I still forget sometimes how to stand, and my mentor Paul Bonin Rodriguez who is also on the company gives me notes: “Walk like you have a big dick and square your hips out!”

Do people on the street ask you to act like your characters? If so, what do you do?

When May Joon was created, which everyone became familiar with, that was the one most people gravitated toward. I like to party, but she's f***ing crazy. When Annele and I went to promote at bars dressed in our characters for the 2007 show, I think it was 30 degrees in the middle of winter and I had on a black vinyl skirt, leopard shirt with no sleeves and bright-ass orange fur boots. No one recognized us back then. But when we walked in dressed in the gear, people freaked! Someone at one point called me Lil' Kim and there was a group sitting at a table who bought us shots for no reason because they thought we looked important. I try to leave my characters on stage, but sometimes my real life and surreal life mix together.

What assumptions do people make about your personal life based on your characters?

I get the feeling because of the many different roles I've played on stage, (a drag queen, a dictator, a femme fatale) people think that I'm a very “out there” kind of individual. I am in a sense, but I'm really a very reserved private person. I still get taken back when I meet people after my shows because I'm not too sure what to say at times, but I am forever grateful for their love and support.

Tell us about your first acting role. What was it?

Whew ..... OK. It was in 5th grade, and our class was divided into three students each. Each group was in charge of coming up with a skit based on important events in American history. I remember our group got The Battle of Bunker Hill, and I really wanted to be in the group that had the Boston Tea Party. When I was a child, I was really shy and didn't say much. I played soon-to-be-dead soldier #3. I was so lame, I think it was a minute long and my cheeks were so red from embarrassment.

How would you describe the theater community in San Antonio?

Needs more support. We are over stimulated as a society, too many distractions. Jump-Start has been trying to deal with this issue for some time. But it's hard to compete with the Spurs or the new comic-book-turned-movie release.

Can you make a living from acting in San Antonio?

So far I'm doing OK for myself, but I had to work very hard to get where I'm at right now. Having an acting career has been a blessing in my experience, but usually, like most artists, you have to work another job to support yourself.

What do you do to pay the bills?

I'm the Community Relations Director at Jump-Start, and I also do art education. I never thought I'd work with youths, but it's been very rewarding. Thank goodness I don't have to work retail or food service anymore. That's a road I will not walk down again. When I have time, I helped out San Angel Folk ArtÖ, a gallery next door from us. Hey, I hustle, I make it happen!

Shakespeare or Oscar Wilde?

Shakespeare, I like to keep it old school.

Dustin Coleman | 210SA