Home  Entertainment Reviews "Anna in the Tropics" by Nilo Cruz
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"Anna in the Tropics" by Nilo Cruz |
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Written by Barry Gaines
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last updated Wednesday, February 28, 2007, at 13:42:39
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There was an aura of occasion Thursday evening at the beautiful Roy E. Disney Center for Performing Arts for the opening of Cuban-American Nilo Cruz’s “Anna in the Tropics.” And why not? Our own Teatro Nuevo México was performing at the National Hispanic Cultural Center the first play by a Latino playwright to receive the Pulitzer Prize. And the play was exciting audiences in New York City barely two years ago--with the first all-Latino cast in Broadway history.
Cruz’s drama is a complex and lyrical study of the preservation of traditions and relationships, and the local all-Latino production--only four performances--featured some excellent acting. “Anna” is set in 1929 in a small town outside of Tampa where a group of transplanted Cubans hand rolls cigars in the traditional way. One of the traditions is the presence of a lector who reads to the workers to alleviate the boredom and to educate. Santiago owns the factory although his wife Ofelia wears the pants in the family. Their elder daughter Conchita is married to philandering Palomo, while younger daughter Marela is innocent and impressionable. Santiago’s half-brother Cheché, haunted by his wife who left him, wants to modernize the works with machinery. Juan Julian, the suave new lector, dapper in his white linen suit, chooses to read Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina.” Each of the factory characters finds parallels in the doomed love triangles of this novel of illicit and tragic love. The play and novel intertwine in fascinating ways as they move to violent conclusions. James R. Chávez played a tortured Palomo whose wife’s affair with the lector may actually save their marriage. Shawn Mondragon rendered the urbane and seductive Juan Julian with effortless charm. Nick Lopez undertook the role of villainous Cheché in a restrained manner. As Ofelia, wonderful Florangeli Yerxa portrayed a robust Hispanic mother trying to hold her family together with the strength of her will. Christy Lopez brought complexity to Conchita; pretty Gabi Rojas, as slim and straight as a cigarillo, acted Marela beautifully. There were, however, technical problems that diminished the play’s impact. Talented director Michael D. Blum occasionally employed a scrim that was lowered to the middle of the stage, and he therefore placed the simple set (designed by Jorge Andrade) way upstage behind the scrim. Thus most characters spoke from deep within the large stage and were difficult to hear. Marela’s lyrical visions were too often lost. The presence of hidden microphones suggested that the company was aware of the problem, and I am hopeful that it will be solved the next time the company plays in this venue. Teatro Nuevo México and the National Hispanic Cultural Center were made for each other.
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About Reviewers D.S. Crafts (Website) Composer Daniel Steven Crafts came to New Mexico from San Francisco where he had hosted a classical music radio program on KPFA. His first commission from opera star Jerry Hadley, "The Song & the Slogan" based on texts by Carl Sandburg, was made into a TV program for the PBS network and aired nationally in 2004 and won an Emmy for Best Music. His latest opera La Llorona is a collaboration with novelist Rudolfo Anaya based on his play "The Season of La Llorona." Mr. Crafts is currently working on another commission from Jerry Hadley for a piece about the American Southwest which includes texts by Rudolfo Anaya and V.B. Price. Two CDs of his music, Contemporaries (short, satirical keyboard works) and ARIAS (excerpts from his various operas) have been released on the BACAT label in San Francisco.
David Steinberg David Steinberg has covered state government, the courts, city and county government in Santa Fe for the Albuquerque Journal. He's been an arts writer for the past 20 years, and serves as the book editor, for the Journal. Over the years, he's also acted in plays, sung in choruses and played trumpet.
Jennifer Noyer Jennifer Noyer has been writing dance reviews for the Albuquerque Journal for 17 years, as well as contributing articles for Dance Magazine and other art journals. She trained in dance with Hanya Holm in New York City and Colorado Springs, and studied several dance techniques at the graduate level at the University of Michigan. After teaching dance at Wayne State University she entered and completed a Masters Degree in Humanities there. In New Mexico Ms. Noyer has taught, directed, and choreographed contemporary dance for several years. Her writing on dance includes a monograph accompanying the video of choreographer Bill Evens’ ballet “The Legacy.” An overview of Evans’s world wide career, it was written and published during his tenure at the University of New Mexico. Ms. Noyer’s studies in the humanities, and her studio dance work influence her approach to dance as an integrative art form in the United States.
Barry Gaines Barry Gaines has taught Shakespeare in the University of New Mexico English Department for over twenty-five years and has received two outstanding teaching awards. He has written theater reviews for the Journal since 2000. He has attended theater all over the world including Shakespeare productions in Russia, South Africa, Denmark, and Poland. He has also served as literary advisor for two professional theater companies and written performance reviews for Shakespeare Quarterly. Gaines has taken two years of acting with Paul Ford and appeared in small parts in three plays at the Albuquerque Little Theater. He believes that he is probably a better reviewer than actor.
Joanne Sheehy Hoover Joanne Sheehy Hoover, music critic emeritus of the Albuquerque Journal, has written for NPR, PBS, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Symphony, among others. She has also been a music lecturer for the Smithsonian Associates and a music critic and arts writer for The Washington Post. She was director of the Levine School of Music, one of the country’s largest community music schools, in Washington, D. C. 1980-1993. She and her husband moved to Corrales, New Mexico in July 1993. Also a poet, her fifth collection, “Einstein in New Mexico,” was published in 2002.
Marissa Greenberg Marissa Greenberg is a member of the faculty of the University of New Mexico English Department, where she teaches Shakespeare and early English literature. A prior guest reviewer for the Albuquerque Journal, Greenberg will be reviewing theater while Barry Gaines is out of town. She also composed and edited the program notes for last year’s Albuquerque Shakespeare Festival and has written performance reviews for Shakespeare Bulletin. A graduate of Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania, Greenberg has been performing and studying drama for most of her life. She is thrilled to have this opportunity to review for the Journal.
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