Review: Miami New Drama’s Riveting ‘English Only’ Takes Place in the Past but Feels Uncomfortably Current

Andhy Mendez plays future politician Manny Diaz in “English Only,” a world premiere of Nicholas Griffin’s play at Miami New Drama at the Colony Theatre, Miami Beach, through Sunday, Feb. 22. (Photo by Morgan Sophia Photography)

On Friday, Feb. 6, a new Florida law goes into effect, mandating that tests to obtain a drivers’ license must be written in English only.

So, while “English Only,” the latest world premiere at Miami New Drama, feels ripped from the headlines, it’s actually part of the company’s History Series of plays about past events in Miami, in this case, the fight to ban other languages from government documents and civic life, and strip Dade County, as it was called then, of its bilingualism.

The events depicted in “English Only” take place in 1980 during the Mariel boat lifts, in which Fidel Castro sent 125,000 Cubans to Miami. While the local Cuban community scrambled to find sponsors for the immigrants and take care of them, a wave of anti-immigration rose and threatened the vibrant thread Cubans brought to the tapestry of Miami.

The play focuses of Manny Diaz, then a young lawyer working at the Spanish American League Against Discrimination (SALAD). At the SALAD office, Manny and his co-worker, Lucy, listen to right-wing shock jock Stan Rogers, to keep tabs on his remarks on Cubans and the boat lifts. One day, a woman named Emmy Shafer calls into Rogers’ show, voicing her anger at how she couldn’t buy a dress at a local mall because no one who worked there spoke English. Rogers tells her to do something about it, and poof — Emmy forms Citizens of Dade United, and works to get the needed 25,000 signatures to put an English only ordinance on the ballot for the November election.

Playwright Nicholas Griffin, who also wrote “Dangerous Days,” a Miami New Drama world premiere from 2024, has created a comical, thrill ride of a show. “English Only” is a fast-paced 90 minutes, and features, along with the comedy, an even-handed look at the politics involved.

Director Margot Bordelon keeps the action moving, and keeps the energy high and the audience pumped with the music that transitions the scenes.

[RELATED: The beginnings of ‘English Only’]

Andhy Mendez plays Manny Diaz with youthful fervor in a role that is essentially an origin story of the future mayor of Miami and chair of the Florida Democratic Party. Mendez brings poignancy to Manny’s recollections of emigrating to Miami and what it means to become part of a new community while cherishing and keeping alive cultural traditions. He balances his earnestness with a refreshing awkwardness that gives his character dimension.

Rene Granado excels at each of the characters he plays — shock jock Stan Rogers, a Spanish radio broadcaster, the boss at SALAD, a debate moderator, and a slick writer. Granado creates distinct voices and character traits for each character and seamlessly switches from one to the other in a mere second. His standout is his main character, Stan, which he plays with cigar-chomping menace and a dash of swagger reminiscent of Ron Swanson from the sitcom “Parks and Rec.” It’s a delightful, what-will-he-do-next performance.

Carmen Palaez delivers a warm, comedic turn as Lucy, who works at SALAD alongside Manny. Lucy is the grounding force in “English Only,” with a personal stake in the boat lifts. Lucy and Manny have great chemistry and make the perfect work husband-work wife dynamic.

Laura Faye Smith portrays Emmy with steely determination. Nothing flusters her except dogs barking, and as the story unfolds the reason is easily surmised. Her nuanced no-nonsense performance is outstanding.

Linda Mugleston is Barbara Simmons, who seeks out Emmy and works side by side with her to pass the anti-bilingualism ordinance. Barbara, however, is playing a long game, and Mugleston’s performance gives Almira Gulch in “The Wizard of Oz” vibes, just without the bicycle.

The scenic design by Christopher Swader and Justin Swader consists of Emmy’s sunny living room on the right and the workaday SALAD office on the left. The two locales are connected by a large radio broadcast booth window and, overhead, a sweeping curve of airy, decorative bricks, the kind that were once standard in Florida homes and buildings, a nice throwback to the past. It’s an impressive set, with depth and cohesion that ties the story together.

Beth Goldenberg’s costume design plays up the early 1980s and helps to define each character, such as the loud, pushy prints that Barbara wears. Solomon Weisbard’s lighting complements each location, while neon details scream Miami. Salomon Lerner’s sound design is crisp, clear, and vibrant.

“English Only” is another world premiere feather in Miami New Drama’s cap. The sad thing about this vivid play is that if the mentions of the Mariel boat lifts and the Carter/Reagan presidential election were deleted, one would think the events were taking place today, not 55 years ago. It’s a stark reminder that the same battles are still being fought and, in more than five decades, no one has come up with a fair, safe, solution to the broken immigration system.

WHAT: World Premiere of Nicholas Griffin’s “English Only”

WHERE: Miami New Drama, The Colony Theatre, 1040 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach

WHEN: 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday; 3 p.m. Sunday. Through Feb. 22.

COST: $40, $70, and $85 Thursday and Friday; $45, $75, and $90 Saturday and
Sunday, including fees

INFORMATION: 305-674-1040 and miaminewdrama.org

ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.

 

‘How to Break in a Glove’ Gets Its Premiere by City Theatre at the Arsht

The cast of “How to Break in a Glove,” from left, Randy Garcia, Kaelyn A.
Gonzalez, Franco Kiglies, Barbara Bonilla, and Andy Quiroga. City Theatre premieres Chris Anthony Ferrer’s play on Friday, Feb. 6 in the Adrienne Arsht Center’s Carnival Studio Theatre. (Photo by Passion Ward/courtesy of City Theatre)

Picture this: 1999 Hialeah, Florida. In a single house, there’s a set of Cuban-born grandparents who were forced to flee their country; their daughter and her ex-husband; and their 11-year-old, Miami-born, very Americanized grandson. It’s three very different generations with three very different life experiences.

This is the setting for playwright Chris Anthony Ferrer’s “How to Break in a Glove,” receiving its  premiere from City Theatre in the Arsht Center’s Carnival Studio Theater on Friday, Feb. 6.

“The best way to describe the play is that it’s about people who want to love, but don’t know how,” says Ferrer. “They love each other, but they were never taught how to be anything but tough and have self-preservation.”

Ferrer, 37, pulls from his own childhood for his second-ever full-length play. Much like his youngest character on stage, Ferrer was also in little league. “That is the only real way that I was able to connect with my grandfather was through baseball,” he recounts.

The 90-minute play follows a young Tony trying to navigate the awkward time between being a kid and being a teenager all while growing up surrounded different ideologies. In one night, everything changes. Buried tensions arise and a family must learn to come together in a time of crisis.

While the storyline is not autobiographical, Ferrer believes the character and the situations are relatable — especially if you happen to be Cuban-American. “The Cuban culture is very passionate in an angry, declarative way. Love is expressed in how much it upsets you, in how much the passion rises within you,” explains Ferrer.

When he first began working on the play in 2022, he says he was reflecting on his childhood and his relationship with his grandfather. “I saw a lot of similarities between the process of breaking in a glove and a relationship,” says Ferrer. Both require work, commitment, dedication, and a daily choice.

“It takes patience, it takes effort,” says the playwright.

The same can be said of the writing process. Ferrer worked on “How to Break in a Glove” with City Theatre’s artistic director Margaret Ledford, dramaturg Karina Batchelor-Gómez, and executive director Gladys Ramírez. The foursome first started back in 2022 when Ferrer was part of the first-ever cohort of the theater company’s Homegrown playwright development program.

“In this collaborative process, the show has evolved in such a way that feels real. I couldn’t be happier,” says Ferrer.

As part of the Homegrown program, writers work on a short play — what City Theatre is known for producing — and also begin work on a full-length show. The purpose of the program, says Ledford, “is to develop traditionally marginalized voices that don’t get that mainstream opportunity.”

Once Ferrer finished the program in 2023, he continued to work on “How to Break in a Glove” and eventually invited Ledford and Ramírez to a reading. It was that night that the two creatives were hooked.

“We got very excited that we could mentor Chris and work on the world premiere with him,” says Ledford. She adds that City Theatre hopes to continue this new tradition and develop other full length plays from past — and future — Homegrown cohorts.

“Our unsaid motto is always ‘put the city in City Theatre,’” says Ramírez. “We can’t expect these kinds of stories to come without building the infrastructure, adding that “How to Break in a Glove” isn’t just a play from its Homegrown series, but “it’s a homegrown company and we’re very excited to share this with our community.”

In addition to her work as executive director of the theater company, Ramírez steps behind the curtain to direct “How to Break in a Glove.”

“I’m very grateful that Margaret asked me to direct, because even though I’m not Cuban, I was in Hialeah in the ‘90s and I understand the culture,” says Ramírez. “People might not recognize the title, but they’ll recognize the characters. They’ll recognize the story.”

The play features an all-Hispanic cast from Miami, which includes Barbara Bonilla as Aleida, Andy Quiroga as Francisco, Randy Garcia as Carlos, Kaelyn A. Gonzalez as Carmen, and Franco Kiglies as Tony.

“If somebody leaves the theater and wants to call their mom, then I did my job,” says Ferrer.

WHAT: “How to Break in a Glove” by Chris Ferrer

WHERE: Carnival Studio Theater at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami.

WHEN: Opens Friday, Feb. 6 through Sunday, Feb. 22. Performances 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday; 2:30 p.m. Sunday. 2:30 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 7 and Feb. 21.

COST: $66.69 and $72.54 (includes fees)

INFORMATION: (305) 949-6722 or arshtcenter.org

ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.

 

Review: Poetry Resounds in Nilo Cruz’s ‘Sotto Voce’ at GableStage

Sara Morsey, Claudia Tomas, and Gabriell Salgado in Nilo Cruz’s “Sotto Voce” at GableStage through Feb. 15 (Photo by Magnus Stark, courtesy of GableStage)

Nilo Cruz is, first and foremost, a poet. Though he rose to prominence as a playwright when he won the Pulitzer Prize for drama for his play “Anna in the Tropics,” a play commissioned by Miami’s now-defunct New Theatre, poetry permeates everything Cruz writes, including “Sotto Voce” now at GableStage in Coral Gables through Sunday, Feb. 15.

The GableStage production, lovingly directed by Cruz, begins with a full moon casting its light on a shimmering, undulating ocean, the first of many breathtaking projections by Jamie Godwin. The main setting is the apartment of Bemadette Kahn, an 80-year-old writer in New York City in 2000. Bemadette is haunted by her lost love, Ariel Strauss, who, along with his sister, Nina, boarded the doomed M.S. St. Louis in Germany in 1939.

The ship set sail carrying Jewish refugees seeking safety in Cuba from Nazi persecution. When Cuba denied them entry—followed by the United States and Canada—the vessel was turned back to Europe. There, an estimated quarter of the passengers were killed in concentration camps or by other Nazi methods.

Bemadette is contacted by a young Jewish-Cuban researcher, Saquiel, who wants to speak with her about Ariel. Saquiel has his own connection to the doomed voyage, which has left him with a collection of love letters from Bemadette to Ariel. He travels to New York to meet her, but she refuses, and will only speak to him by phone and through email, where they address each other as Writer and Student.

The term “Sotto Voce” means to speak in a hushed tone so as not to be overheard, and it’s a fitting title for a play in which the central relationship is played out mostly through telephone conversations.

Though “Sotto Voce” premiered in 2014, its exploration of immigration remains strikingly current. The failures of a broken system feel as real today as they did in 1939 and in 2014. When Saquiel encounters visa trouble, Bernadette exclaims, “I can’t believe this is happening all over again,” a line that feels ripped from the headlines yet proves, unfortunately, to be timeless.

Sara Morsey, who appeared in GableStage’s production of “Summer, 1976” last year, plays Bemadette. Morsey beautifully portrays Bemadette’s passion, longing, and loss in a visceral way. She moves about the stage with a dance-like grace and poise as the decades-long grief and despair rise within her and explode onto the stage and into the audience, raw emotion everywhere.

Gabriell Salgado portrays Saquiel with a sweet, earnest quality. While he’s flustered by Bemadette’s reclusiveness, his persistence – and voice – endears him to her as their unusual relationship deepens. It’s a challenging role, but Salgado wisely portrays Saquiel as a young man with an old soul, which is key to making the story work.

Claudia Tomas portrays Lucila, Bemadette’s personal assistant. Throughout much of the play, Lucila hides her insecurities with conservative clothing and a mousey demeanor. But over the course of the story, Lucila blossoms, like a caterpillar to a butterfly. Tomas delivers a quiet, nuanced performance that evolves as her character grows, and is key to one of the best scenes in the play, when Lucila invites Saquiel to Bemadette’s apartment when the writer is not home. While it’s a tense, playful, intimate scene between two people with chemistry, Tomas, with her funny, tender, awkwardly sexy performance, is especially memorable.

Cruz directs “Sotto Voce” with a sure hand and a tenderness toward the material, never slipping into the cloying sentimentality that can plague playwrights staging their own work. His sense of visual poetry echoes throughout the way the production is staged. Every element provides cohesiveness to that theme. Tony Galaska’s moody lighting design enhances the warmth of the story. Erik T. Lawson’s sound adds to the depth and emotion of the play. Frank J. Oliva’s scenic design is deceptively simple but sets the stage for surprises.

“Sotto Voce” has a palpable feeling of loss and longing, but also of new love that rekindles old flames. It is ultimately a play filled with hope, and the joy of understanding that love, even if only for a short time, is worth it.

WHAT:  “Sotto Voce” by Nilo Cruz

WHERE:  GableStage, 1200 Anastasia Ave., Coral Gables

WHEN: 7:30 Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday; 2 p.m. Wednesday and Sunday through Feb. 15.

COST:  $40, $60, $70 with additional $10 fee.

INFORMATION: 305-445-1119 or gablestage.org

ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.

 

Miami New Drama Revisits Miami’s ‘English Only’ Fight Over Spanish

René Granado in a scene from Miami New Drama’s “English Only,” an original play having its world premiere at at the Colony Theatre, Miami Beach.(Photo by Morgan Sophia Photography)

Miami New Drama will premiere its second collaboration with journalist-author-turned playwright Nicholas Griffin with “English Only.” Directed by New York–based director Margot Bordelon, the production takes on one of Miami’s most fraught political battles — the fight over language and power that followed the Mariel Boatlift.

“English Only” runs Thursday, Jan 29 through Sunday, Feb. 22 at the Colony Theatre in Miami Beach.

Set in 1980, the play is rooted in the turbulent months after more than 125,000 Cuban refugees arrived in South Florida. Pushes for the Spanish speakers to adopt English only as their language gained traction nationwide. Citizens of Dade soon followed, organizing an English-only campaign aimed at dismantling Miami-Dade’s bilingual policies.

The proposed changes called for eliminating Spanish from government documents, public communications, and civic life threatening to redraw who held power in a city shaped by immigration. Opposing the effort was Manny Diaz, then a young attorney with the Spanish American League Against Discrimination (SALAD) who framed the language fight as a civil rights issue with lasting consequences for Miami’s identity.

For Griffin, the writing of “English Only” began soon after his first partnership with Miami New Drama Artistic Director Michel Hausmann. Griffin’s book, “The Year of Dangerous Day: Riots, Refugees, and Cocaine” about Miami in 1980 seemed ripe for a stage adaption.

Griffin arrived in Miami to research the book with his Venezuelan-born wife, Adriana, and their two children, 11 years before it was published in 2020. He sold the screen and television rights, unaware that stage rights had also been included. So when Hausmann first approached him about adapting “Dangerous Days,” Griffin declined. Once he realized the stage rights were available, he quickly changed his mind. The result was the world premiere of “Dangerous Days,” drawn from the book’s deep dive into Miami’s McDuffie riots, which opened at Miami New Drama in April 2024.

“I guess towards the end of ‘Dangerous Days’ Michel said he wanted to do something together again, and he pointed towards a paragraph in the book, recalls Griffin.“It was a paragraph about Emmy Schaefer and the English only campaign. It was merely a paragraph in the book; Griffin said that he had more material that got left on the cutting room floor.

“The editor had whittled that down and there had been many more pages, so I knew quite a bit about it. We started talking about it, and Michel was adamant that he thought there was a play there.”

Hausmann saw not just a historical episode, but a way to talk about the present. “We’re really telling the story of 1980 with the mirror to 2026,” he says. “It’s impossible not to. Maybe had we done this play in 2015 it would have read completely different. Hopefully in 10 years, this is not an issue we have anymore, but it sure as hell is an issue we have right now.”

Griffin had originally met and interviewed Diaz for the book. “And so I went back to him again and Michel joined me the second time around and we had a long lunch digging up stories about him and Emmy Schaefer,” he says, “and how virulent things had been during those months between the two communities”

He did not have a chance to speak with Schaefer. “From what I could gather she is in a memory care facility in Central Florida and is 98 years old.”

Hausmann says talks went on about the play. “This all began before Trump won again,” he says. But then there was the timeliness of it, the urgency. “It became more evident in this anti immigration, this sort of nativism that we’ve had for the past year. I pushed faster its development.”

The play is anchored in a city whose past is often quickly forgotten and Hausmann says that’s  why these stories belong onstage. He points to Miami New Drama’s Miami History series, which includes projects like “Elián,” “Dangerous Days,” and “Confessions of a Cocaine Cowboy.”

“Even when we were doing ‘Dangerous Days’ about the McDuffie riot, which was sort of like the event of the decade, very few people had any idea what all that was. We’d go to schools, or we’d go to the teachers — they had no idea. Even Elián, which I think was such a pivotal moment in American history, many people didn’t know about Elián González. We have that extra responsibility in a city, in a community that has very little institutional memory, that we have to be the ones to bring it, to help craft that community collective memory.”

In “English Only,” that memory takes the form of a political battle with real stakes. “Within the play, it’s basically the battle of whether she can or can’t raise her 25,000 signatures to get the English only ordinance on the ballot,” explains Griffin. “She does it. She actually gets, I think, 147,000, so it was remarkably oversubscribed. She just tapped into something no one even knew existed in America at that point, this huge resentment against an immigrant community.”

That November, when it goes on the ballot, Schaefer wins easily.

“Emmy Schaefer gets almost 60 percent of the vote, and that means that the original ordinance for Miami-Dade being a bilingual county is rescinded, and for 13 years we are not a bilingual county. It’s not until 1993 that we flip back again,” says Griffin.

Griffin also draws a through-line from Schaefer’s campaign to later efforts to defend bilingualism. “That was interesting later on,” he says. “SALAD, who are represented in the play as, you know, the sort of flip side of Emmy Schaefer’s Citizens of Dade United, they then come up later on with, instead of English only, they come up with English plus, which was the defense of bilingualism. But obviously, you know, we’re in this unique spot in America here, where the argument, one of the arguments, was: if any city could build its fortune on being bilingual, it should be Miami. And that’s kind of the way things have gone.”

For Hausmann, what matters is that the play makes room for those arguments without lecturing the audience. “We’re very careful not to be preachy,” he says. “Both sides of the argument have intellectual merit. Nick allows Emmy Schaefer to give her point of view — ‘I’m an immigrant, I came to this country not knowing English, it was important for me to become part of this country, so I learned English. If I could do it, why can’t you?’ And then you have Manny saying, we’re a nation of immigrants, and Miami was transformed because of bilingualism, not in spite of it. I want the audience to be presented with those arguments and to decide where they stand.”

“English Only” also continues Miami New Drama’s broader commitment to creating new work rather than importing established titles. Over the past decade, the company has developed original plays that have moved to larger stages, including “It’s a Wonderful Life,” which transferred to Broadway and another, “Birthright,” which is headed to MCC Theater in New York with an eye toward a future Broadway run. The company’s trilingual version of “Our Town” is now published and produced nationwide, and “The Cubans” and “7 Deadly Sins” have drawn national attention.

Hausmann says he has little interest in simply remounting proven hits. He sees Miami New Drama as the place where major works begin. “I wouldn’t want a more relaxed life doing repertory of shows that have already been figured out on Broadway,” he says.. “What excites me is that Miami New Drama is the first draft of the next major American work. I like us to be the first, and I think, the most important step in the creation of new work.”

WHAT: World Premiere of Nicholas Griffin’s “English Only”

WHERE: Miami New Drama, The Colony Theatre, 1040 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach

WHEN: 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday; 3 p.m. Sunday. Through Feb. 22.

COST: $40-$90

INFORMATION: 305-674-1040 and miaminewdrama.org

ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.

 

Key Biscayne’s Film Festival Expands With a New Cinema on the Island

Key Biscayne’s new arthouse-like cinema, Paradise Cinema, is one of the main venues for the Key Biscayne Film Festival, which enters its third year with a full program starting Thursday, Jan. 29 through Sunday, Feb. 1. (Photo courtesy of Village of Key Biscayne)

The Key Biscayne Film Festival was an idea that emerged during the planning of what would probably have been a hit with television audiences — a reality show about life on Key Biscayne. Isabel Custer and Maite Garrido wanted to make a documentary reality series starring the characters that live on the island.

“Maite was a producer for news for many years, and we wanted to do a documentary style, reality series of what it’s like to live on Key Biscayne,” says Custer, a filmmaker and producer.

As they were in the midst of casting calls and production meetings, Garrido mentioned that the island should have its own film festival.

The reality series never materialized – the production company “felt it needed more star power to carry the show,” says Custer. So the pair dropped the idea and became fully immersed in creating the Key Biscayne Film Festival.

The Key Biscayne Film Festival (KBFF) opens Thursday, Jan. 29, with Peruvian feature film “Mistura” directed by Ricardo de Montreuil. Custer, who is Peruvian, says that the movie seems like something that would resonate with a lot of Key Biscayne’s Latin American community. “I thought it would be nice to include a feature film along with our documentaries. It’s from Latin America and so much of Key Biscayne is Latin American.”

Released in Peru in 2025, the story is set in 1960s Peru and stars Bárbara Mori as a wealthy French-Peruvian woman whose life falls apart after her husband leaves her for another woman. She embarks on a culinary journey that transforms her life.

“It is a beautiful film,” says Custer.

In this, its third year, the festival has a new addition. Screenings will be shown in the newly transformed Paradise Cinema inside the Village Council Chambers. In the past two years, Custer says, films were shown in one of the rooms of The Community Center – not the best setting for a movie theater experience.

 

“We’re lucky enough that the village council set aside a budget to create the mini cinema, sort of the size of an art house cinema,” says Custer, the festival’s director and programmer. “Now we have ideal surroundings, at least, and it’s growing in the sense that we also have more directors or filmmakers coming than ever, which is extremely exciting; producers and directors and actors coming to talk about their films.”

For the first time, the festival is crossing the causeway to UM’s Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science (RSMAS) .including a Friday screening of films with an environmental focus. The headlining film is Sasha Wortzel’s “River of Grass.”

In the documentary, Wortzel in voiceover says, “Marjory came to me in a dream,” speaking about Marjory Stoneman Douglas. “I knew she was a celebrated environmentalist, but I wanted to know more, so I went looking for her.”

The film takes its title from Douglas’s 1947 book “The Everglades: River of Grass” and is guided through the writings of Douglas and looks at the people who live in and protect the region today.

 “Sasha’s film is very important and very beautifully executed,” says Custer, adding that the auditorium at the RSMAS can accommodate a few hundred filmgoers. 

“We thought that it would draw a crowd and well deserved… we’re opening it up to not just Key Biscayne residents, but also university students or grad students that are already interested in marine biology and nature and the environment.”

“River of Grass” has earned awards in Florida and across the country including the Florida Filmmaker Award at the Tallahassee Film Festival and the Florida Film Critics Circle’s Golden Orange Award as well as winner of the International Documentary Association’s IDA Award.

On Saturday, Jan. 31, the festival heads outdoors to Paradise Park for its awards ceremony and a screening of Herschel Faber’s “Ethan Bloom.”

While Faber’s comedy feature has some casting choices out of Hollywood –Mindy Sterling who played Frau Farbissina in the “Austin Powers” movie series, Joshua Melina known for his role as Will Bailey on “The West Wing” and Hank Greenspan from the television series “The Neighborhood” as Ethan Bloom – the film is set in Coconut Grove and Coral Gables. The director says he got his first job as a production assistant when Mike Nichols was filming “The Birdcage” in Miami Beach. “This is where I got my start. My roots are here.” He also made his first movie in Miami, “Chasing Pavarotti,” a short film shot in Miami Beach. 

“Ethan Bloom” is about a 13-year-old Jewish kid who secretly wants to become a Catholic. Although he spent his growing years in New Smyrna Beach, Fla., Farber says his childhood was spent in Miami Beach where his father grew up. “I had a real nostalgia for the Grove and the Gables,” he says. “This is a uniquely Miami movie.”

At the beginning of the year, distributor Menemsha Films acquired the rights to Faber’s film, and it is expected to launch it in movie theaters across North America. 

Faber will be at the screening to discuss his film on the festival’s closing night.

Other films showing at the festival include documentaries “Blue Zeus,”  about a wild horse and the fight to save him and his family from a flawed government system, “News without a Newsroom,” which explores journalism’s uncertain future, “Marlee Maitlin: Not Alone Anymore,” about the Oscar winners breakthrough in Hollywood as a deaf actress, and local filmmakers Dennis Scholl and Kareem Tabsch’s documentary “Naked Ambition” about Miami Beach-based model-turned photographer Bunny Yeager. Scholl will lead a question and answer after the screening for the festival’s final day on Sunday, Feb. 1. 

There are plenty of other films showing throughout the weekend.

See the complete program here. 

But the festival isn’t only about watching films—it’s about nurturing the next generation of storytellers, according to Custer. “One of the other important pillars for us is education. Every fall, I organize a workshop called the Youth Filmmakers Workshop to make sure that students, mostly middle and high school, learn the craft of storytelling through film,” says Custer. Young filmmakers from Key Biscayne’s “It Takes a Village” will show their films in the “Spotlight on Youth Showcase” on Sunday, Feb. 1 along with those from Custer’s workshop. “Its an important part of this youth film roster to have those with learning disabilities or on the spectrum – those with different abilities making films and having them seen.”

Custer doesn’t want film in Key Biscayne to be relegated to once a year. With the new Paradise Cinema, she says there are opportunities to show more movies throughout the year — and to keep the festival’s momentum beyond a single weekend.

“Maybe not every single week, but at least once or twice a month — get screenings like a movie theater would and grow our film festival audience that way. That’s how we’re going to find the people who really love film, who are going to come to the festival.”

WHAT: The Third Annual Key Biscayne Film Festival

WHERE: Paradise Cinema, 560 Crandon Boulevard, Key Biscayne; Paradise Park, 530 Crandon Boulevard, Key Biscayne; UM RSMAS, 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway, Virginia Key.

WHEN: Thursday, Jan. 29 through Sunday, Feb. 1.

COST: Costs vary from free admission to $20 general admission and $50 reception and cocktail party tickets.

INFORMATION: kbfilmfestival.org/

 ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com

Review: Powerful Gay Drama ‘The Inheritance’ at Zoetic Stage Is Everybody’s Story

The cast of Zoetic Stage’s production of Matthew López’s “The Inheritance, Part 1,” playing at the Adrienne Arsht Center in the Carnival Studio Theatre, Miami, through Sunday, Jan. 25. (Photo by Morgan Sophia Photography, courtesy of the Adrienne Arsht Center)

Pay attention to “The Inheritance” and don’t judge a book by its cover. While at the center of this sprawling play is about the lives of 12 gay men, it doesn’t harp on identity or representation.

Under Stuart Meltzer’s smart direction, Zoetic Stage’s production conveys the deeper meaning of Matthew López’s title, revealing its full weight. “The Inheritance” is less literal than it may appear on the surface — there is an emphasis on acquisitions like money, houses, rent-controlled New York apartments—but the layers underneath are a message of insecurity, mortality, grief, and history in peril of being forgotten. Also, what comes through clearly in López’s text and Meltzer’s choices is that inheritance is not only what we are born into, but also the family we create for ourselves.

Zoetic Stage at the Carnival Studio Theatre in the Adrienne Arsht Center is staging the first part of the two-part epic, “The Inheritance, Part 1,” through Sunday, Jan. 25.

López openly borrows its DNA from E.M. Forster’s “Howards End,” even building Forster into the play as a guiding presence, both for the characters and the audience.

There are shades of Armistead Maupin’s “Tales of the City”—the communal characters, the entwined relationships—here trading San Francisco for New York. It’s the mid-2010s and decades after the height of the AIDS epidemic.

At its center is Eric Glass, played by Alex Weisman, who fully engulfs the character with a mix of emotion and quiet intensity. He’s social but awkward and lives in a rent-controlled apartment surrounded by friends who he frequently invites over for dinners and parties. His grandfather was a veteran, helping to liberate Dachau; his grandmother a refugee from Germany. The three-bedroom apartment, bought in 1947, “was the first place Eric’s grandmother felt safe in the world.”

Now, he lives there, protecting it as part of his identity.

Eric’s boyfriend is Toby Darling, played by Anthony Michael Martinez. He’s immediately compelling—good-looking, charismatic, and brooding. Martinez imbues Toby with energetic charm and ambition, making him magnetic and complex. But underneath, he’s wounded from a difficult childhood.

Their lives intersect with an older couple Walter Poole (McKeever, who doubles as Forster) and the astute businessman Henry Wilcox (played with just the right amount of confidence by Tom Wahl). Poole describes their relationship as a “succession of dinners.” Eric befriends Walter while Toby is in Chicago preparing his book-turned-play for Broadway. Toby begins pursuing the younger Adam, played brilliantly by Aidan Paul, whose cast as the star of his play. Young Adam comes from a wealthy family and lives in his parents’ palatial New York apartment. Later in the play, Paul appears as Leo, a male escort, showing a very different side of life in New York. In both roles, Paul captures the contrast between privilege and vulnerability, making each character fully realized and multi-faceted.

In one of the play’s most gripping moments, McKeever, with the utmost care and emotion, delivers a long, revealing monologue as Walter – it is truly captivating. He lets out a deeply held story about a longstanding rift with Henry over the years he took in friends dying of AIDS and cared for them in their final hours in the couple’s upstate New York house. Meltzer stages the moment so that the rest of the cast is in low light, watching silently along with the audience as the story unfolds. Weisman as Eric is tuned in to every word, his quiet reactions carrying the weight of the stories he had only heard about but didn’t live through.

The strong ensemble in “The Inheritance” brings López’s intricate text to life with precision and energy, each fully engaged in both intimate and tense moments. Angel Dominguez and Imran Hylton are the Jasons, Sam Lantz is Young Man 5/Charles Wilcox, Randall Swinton is Tristan, Larry Toyter is Jasper/Paul Wilcox, Alberto Blanco is Young Man 3, and Caio Fereira Santos is Young Man 4.

The staging is sparse giving way to the characters and their dynamics. Michael McLain’s set is a single block with three levels, used dynamically to convey perspective and power, with a chandelier looming overhead throughout and acting as a visual anchor. Props—champagne bottles, jackets, cheese plates—are not simply sitting on the stage; actors enter from offstage carrying them, handing them to the character who needs them in the moment. This small, deliberate choreography keeps the action fluid, making each gesture feel purposeful.

Lighting designer Becky Montero enhances the storytelling with subtle cues: a rich blue wash evokes the energy of a club scene, while delicate shifts mark the change in geography to three hours north of New York. Dario Almiron’s costume design and Bailey Hacker’s sound design round out a production in which every element serves the narrative, deepening both character and environment.

Everyone in the ensemble is barefoot except Forster, Walter, and Henry, a staging device that underscores the older characters’ grounded presence and authority, contrasting with the naivete of the younger men as the narrative unfolds.

The three-hour running time (with two 10-minute intermissions) moves briskly—a pace López insists on in his script. He writes that “The Inheritance, Part 1, is written for speed and has got to go faster than you think it should,” explaining that the play’s momentum is essential to how the story unfolds: “It’s how the machine works.” Meltzer heeds the playwright’s direction, and the cast sustains that energy, keeping scenes moving seamlessly from intimate exchanges to larger ensemble moments.

By the time “The Inheritance” reaches its conclusion, the question is no longer who deserves what, but what anyone truly owns. Houses can be gained and lost, stories can be retold, and love is fleeting. Zoetic Stage’s production leaves a lasting impression especially in today’s atmosphere — that true inheritance lies in preserving the struggles of those who came before and guarding their memories to ensure that the past doesn’t suffer erasure.

WHAT: Zoetic Stage’s “The Inheritance, Part 1”

WHERE: Carnival Studio Theater at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami

WHEN: Performances 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Through Sunday, Jan. 25.

COST: $72.54, $66.69 (includes fees). Ages 18+. Patrons under 18 will not be admitted.

INFORMATION: (305) 949-6722 or arshtcenter.org

 ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com

Miami Jewish Film Festival Brings ‘Made in Florida’ Stories to the Big Screen

Leading the slate of the Miami Jewish Film Festival’s “Made in Florida” is the world premiere of Jerrod “Jerry” Levine’s “From Cuba to America,” a Miami-made portrait of entrepreneur George Feldenkreis and his journey from Havana to building the Perry Ellis fashion empire in Miami. (Photo courtesy of the filmmaker)

The Miami Jewish Film Festival Made in Florida segment, unveiled during the festival’s 29th edition, reflects the event’s continued growth in both the number of films it presents and the South Florida venues it fills.

The focus is on movies that are rooted in Miami’s community and crafted by filmmakers who either call Florida home or whose subjects have a place in South Florida.

Leading the slate is the world premiere of Jerrod “Jerry” Levine’s “From Cuba to America,” a Miami-made portrait of entrepreneur George Feldenkreis and his journey from Havana to building the Perry Ellis fashion empire in Miami.

The film began initially as a personal film for the Feldenkreis family, projects Levine had done many times previously for others. “They were nonbroadcast projects I did quietly for different people – influential families.” Oscar, George’s son, knew of one that Levine had done about his best friend’s parents. So a family film about his father was begun.

Levine started interviewing George for what was to be a six-part series. “And while getting all these interviews, I said to George, ‘You know, some of what you are saying here is so incredible, why don’t we turn this into a documentary, a broadcast documentary, so other people can see it.’”

Levine said it took a while for George Feldenkreis, born in 1935 in Havana to Cuban-Ukranian-Jewish parents, to “wrap his mind around it.”

The filmmaker began in 2020 interviewing the entrepreneur and completed the family project in 2022. Levine has spent the last few years working on what is now “From Cuba to America.” “We added other interviews and stories. We essentially took six hours of finished material and turned it into an hour and 20 minutes and it was very challenging.”

What’s emerged is a narrative that captures not only Feldenkreis’s rise in business and the transformation of his company into a family endeavor with his son Oscar and daughter Fanny, but also his high-stakes acquisition and battle to revive the Perry Ellis brand. At the same time, the film chronicles his personal journey and illuminates the broader story of Cuban immigrants building new lives in America.

The film also features an original track by Grammy-winning Emilio Estefan, who has a long-standing friendship with Feldenkreis. One piece of archive video given to Levine for his film by Estefan features a very young pre-Miami Sound Machine playing at Fanny Feldenkreis’s wedding.

“Whoever was the videographer at that wedding decided to turn the camera around photographer. So, we don’t have some random cut. We have the cut that Emilio talks about in the film, remembering the party he was at.” Estefan contributed an original track for the film that Levine says “has never been in a movie before.” “Por Si Acaso No Regreso,” performed by Celia Cruz and written by Anjeanette Chirino and Estefan, closes out the film.

There is also a poignant time caught on film as Levine follows the family traveling to Havana, where George says, “We went to Old Havana to where I used to live and then I decided to go to the second floor.” Levine captures him and his family in front of the apartment, knocking on the door and speaking to the person who lives there now and who lets them in. “I lived here since I was born. Here is my room that I shared with my grandfather and my sister,” he tells his family traveling with him.

And then a party in Havana for George’s birthday. “There was a guy who was a cook for Fidel Castro. The guy can do anything you want. I told him I want wine, I want this, and get me a group of singers. He got me musicians. My Cuban friends from law school were there. We had a great time.”

He didn’t live to see his legacy on film. Levine’s end notes of the film read, “George Gidalio Feldenkreis passed away peacefully on Feb. 20, 2025.” He died in Miami Beach at the age of 89.

“From Cuba to America:” 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 24, Miami Theater Center, 9806 NE 2nd Ave., Miami Shores; Monday, Jan. 26, Temple Menorah, 620 75th St., Miami Beach; Wednesday, Jan. 28, Michael-Ann Russell JCC (sold out).

Marty Lurie, the Major League Baseball broadcaster whose voice is synonymous with San Francisco’s Giants, traces his remarkable journey from Brooklyn and Miami Beach to becoming the voice of sports in the Bay Area, in the documentary “Baseball Mensch: The Marty Lurie Story,” by Randy Field.

“I came from Brooklyn to Miami in the sixth grade,” says Lurie. “I went from a school that looked like a penitentiary to a ranch house school in Miami Beach, and I met all my lifelong friends at that point—Joel Brown, who became the chief judge of Dade County; Ricky Perillo, a major flower importer; Bobby Flam from Jumbo’s Restaurant; Seth Werner, the entrepreneur. We’ve been friends our whole lives.”

After high school, Lurie attended the University of Florida and University of Miami Law School, then co-founded a legal practice in Miami that provided representation to those who couldn’t access legal aid. “We opened a little storefront office; it used to be Henry’s Imperial Steakhouse. The waiting room could hold 200 people, and our office was the kitchen. We would sit under the exhaust fan and talk to people. That’s the way we started the practice,” he recalls.

Miami Beach, he emphasizes, was the foundation for his later success. “Without Miami Beach High, without the Gators, without the University of Miami, I never would have been anybody. From Brooklyn, my father had died, and my mother and sisters and I were moved to Miami Beach by my uncle. Life all of a sudden—green grass in North Shore Park, beautiful people—it was so different. My mother became part of Temple Menorah, which was started in Miami Beach, and I was the second bar mitzvah there in 1958. Miami really made me the man I am today.”

While he tells of many highlights of his broadcasting career, one of the pinnacles came in the form of a World Series ring. “The president of the Giants was on the radio with me. After the show, he said, ‘What’s your ring size?’ I told him, and six months later, they called me in and gave me a World Series ring. For me, it meant a lot because it was the first time I got validated. Being a criminal lawyer, you never got validation. No one ever called you up and said, ‘Hey, great job.’”

Beyond the accolades, Lurie’s story is about the connections between his Jewish upbringing, his Miami Beach roots, and his lifelong mission to fight for the underdog. “It talks about the influence of Judaism on me, and what it meant to me, and how it connects to baseball, fighting for the underdog. I’ve always tried to do right, and I’ve mentored people in criminal law. It’s all connected to my Jewish background,” he says.

At 80, Lurie continues broadcasting Giants games and hosting his YouTube channel, “Marty Lurie & Friends, Talking Baseball.” We all followed our passion, and we still do at this age,” he reflects.

7:30 p.m., Monday, Jan. 26, “Baseball Mensch: The Marty Lurie Story,” Miami Beach JCC, 4221 Pine Tree Drive, Miami Beach. East Coast Premiere. Tickets are $16, $15 for seniors 65 and older and students.

In “Sheitel: Beauty in the Hidden,” documentary filmmaker Lynda Mejuck-Suissa explores the centuries-old spiritual practice of Orthodox Jewish women covering their hair as a sign of modesty, privacy, and marital practice.

Mejuck-Suissa’s curiosity begins close to home. Living in Nova Scotia, and dividing her time between Toronto and Halifax, the film balances historical context with contemporary voices from rabbis who explain religious laws to their wives who reflect on their own views of the “sheitel.” An interview with a judge, the first Hasidic woman elected to public office in Canada, and other professional women from Los Angeles to New York highlight the balance of tradition and their personas in the modern world. Among the most poignant moments is following a young bride as she goes for her first wig fitting, marking the Orthodox practice that married women begin covering their hair publicly immediately after marriage. “It’s not just about putting on a wig,” says Mejuck-Suissa. “It’s part of a committed lifestyle.”

Sheitel machers (wig makers) figure prominently in the film from Jerusalem, Montreal, Toronto, Brooklyn, as well as an inside look at Yaffa Wigs in Bal Harbour and Yaffa Tenami’s decades-long dedication to wigmaking and wig fitting.

“I love Bal Harbour because it’s fashionable, but it’s also deeply religious. It really shows how tradition and self-expression aren’t opposites.”

Throughout the film, Mejuck-Suissa challenges assumptions about religious women. “People say, ‘Jewish women are so oppressed,’” she said. “But when you actually talk to these women, they’re not oppressed.”

Mejuck-Suissa grounds the film in history using archival photographs and advertisements that trace how wigs moved from European courts into Jewish communities. Images of Marie Antoinette, alongside photographs of Russian Jewish women in the early 20th century, place contemporary practice with the long lineage of the spiritual practice. “Jewish women always wanted to look as good as possible and as current as possible,” says Mejuck-Suissa. “Style is relative—it depends on where you live and when you live.”

7:30 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 15, “Sheitel: Beauty in the Hidden,” Miami Beach JCC, 4221 Pine Tree Drive, Miami Beach. U.S. Premiere. The premiere event will feature director Lynda Medjuck-Suissa in attendance for an introduction and post-film conversation. Tickets are $16, $15 for seniors 65 and older and students.

Sergio Maza, the director of the documentary “The New Yorker Theater: Talbot Legacy,” discovered the legendary Dan and Toby Talbot, a visionary Jewish couple from the Bronx, almost by way of Argentina.

“My first education in cinema came from a neighbor who programmed independent films on cable TV. Those movies were so important that I decided I didn’t want to be an architect—I wanted to immerse myself in film.” Moving to New York brought Maza into contact with the world the Talbots had helped create, and the story of their pioneering work inspired him to make the documentary.

“For me, this is a very important story, also because they were able to revolutionize film exhibition in the 1960s. And right now, we are in a very complex moment of movies and we need to find different ways to connect the world of different directors to audiences.”

The Miami connection in the film is Nat Chediak, Miami Film Festival co-founder and former executive director, who appears in the film and who championed independent and art house cinema in Miami for decades.

“Before the New Yorker, he [Dan Talbot] wanted to run a bookstore,” recalls Chediak, who says he had a lifelong friendship with Talbot. “I’m glad he chose film instead. He wasn’t after blockbusters—he was passionate about discovering films that broke new ground, that saw reality in a different way. And he inspired me to do the same here in Miami.”

6 p.m., Sunday, Jan. 18,  “The New Yorker Theater: Talbot Legacy,” O Cinema South Beach, 1130 Washington Ave., Miami Beach. Florida Premiere. $16, $15 seniors 65 and older and student. Also included will be a screening of Robert Bresson’s “A Man Escaped,” a film which the Talbots championed and distributed. Maza and Chediak will be in attendance to introduce the film and participate in a conversation following the film with former Miami Herald Film Critic Rene Rodriguez.

Also included in the “Made in Florida” programming are “Parting the Waters,” 6 p.m., Jan. 15 at Miami Theater Center, an inspiring portrait of Florida native Michele Kupfer’s journey to the Maccabiah Games and Justin Schein’s acclaimed “Death & Taxes,” 6 p.m., Jan. 21, O Cinema South Beach, featuring Robert Reich, Paul Krugman, David Stockman, and Grover Norquist in a probing examination of wealth, tax policy, and inequality.

WHAT: The 29th edition of the Miami Jewish Film Festival

WHEN: Wednesday, Jan. 14 through Thursday, Jan. 29

WHERE: Bill Cosford Cinema, 5030 Brunson Drive, Coral Gables; Coral Gables Art Cinema, 260 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables; Michael-Ann Russell JCC, 18900 NE 25^th Ave., North Miami Beach; Miami Beach Bandshell, 7275 Collins Ave., Miami Beach JCC, 4221 Pine Tree Drive, O Cinema South Beach, 1130 Washington Ave., Miami Beach; Miami Theater Center, 9806 NE 2^nd Ave., Miami Shores; The Hub at Temple Beth Am, 5950 N. Kendall Drive, Pinecrest.

COST: $25- $54 for special events; $16 general admission for all other films, $15 seniors 65 and older and students with ID; $350 for all access.

INFORMATION: 305-503-5182 or miamijewishfilmfestival.org/

ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com

Zoetic Stage Premieres Bold, Epic ‘The Inheritance Part 1’ at Miami’s Arsht Center

The cast of Zoetic Stage’s production of Matthew López’s “The Inheritance, Part 1,” which opens in previews on Thursday, Jan. 8 and then runs from Friday, Jan. 9 through Sunday, Jan. 25 in the Adrienne Arsht Center’s Carnival Studio Theater, Miami. From left, Angel Dominguez, Sam Lantz, Aidan Paul, Anthony Michael Martinez, Imran Hylton, Larry Toyter, Alex Weisman, and Randall Swinton. (Photo courtesy of Zoetic Stage)

Growing up in Panama City, Fla., playwright Matthew López first encountered the film adaptation of E.M. Forster’s 1910 novel “Howards End” while he was in high school when his mother took him to the movies. At 16, a Puerto Rican teenager in Florida’s Panhandle, López was captivated by the story of three families navigating class, social convention, and relationships in turn-of-the-century England.

After moving to New York, López picked up Forster’s novel in a bookstore and learned that the author was a gay man. That discovery, combined with his early fascination with the film, ultimately inspired “The Inheritance,” a sweeping epic that explores similar themes through the lives of gay men across generations.

Zoetic Stage is premiering “The Inheritance, Part 1” as part of the company’s Theater Up Close series at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, opening in previews Thursday, Jan. 8, then running from Friday, Jan. 9 through Sunday, Jan. 25.

Zoetic Stage Artistic Director Stuart Meltzer said he has wanted to produce and direct “The Inheritance” since first reading the script in 2020.

Meltzer sees López’s play as taking on what Forster could not openly do in his own time. “It picks up the written word of gay men across decades,” he said, tracing a lineage from sexual liberation to the devastation of the AIDS crisis and its aftermath. “It’s about learning from the past in order to move forward.”

The play is meant to be presented in two parts, “The Inheritance, Part 1, and “The Inheritance, Part 2,” unfolding over two evenings or in a marathon same-day presentation and roughly running seven hours.

“Early on, we tried to figure out how to produce both parts,” Meltzer said, a format widely recommended so audiences could experience the full work, but “the costs were exorbitant. It’s such a large piece of theater; it was just too much.”

“Part 1” establishes the characters, their relationships, and their inheritance.

While Meltzer said he always understood the significance of the work, its impact deepened as he began working on Zoetic Stage’s production.

“I don’t think I fully realized and recognized the importance of the play until really working on it. Seeing it now, it serves as a lesson of generations of gay men coming together and telling their story to resist erasure and pass on the torch to the next generation. It is a piece of theatrical literature that transcends audiences.”

For actor and South Florida native Alex Weisman, who stars as Eric Glass, one of the central characters in “The Inheritance,” seeing the play in its opening night on Broadway and now performing the character himself has been profound.

“So, we’ve got Eric Glass, you know, this gay Jewish guy in New York, and there I am—a gay Jewish guy in New York. The thing that really was most impactful for me was the exploration of this lost generation. You know, you have all this culture, all this creation, all this art from gay men from around 1900 to 1980, and then it just stops,” said Weisman, who grew up in Davie, Fla., before heading to Chicago to study theater at Northwestern University.

“And then in the late ‘90s, we start to see it again. But you think about these 20 to 30 years of stories of history, of culture that were just lost to the AIDS epidemic and realizing my generation of gay men having to start from scratch in some ways — having to reach farther back to find a foothold in culture because of this.”

Weisman recalled that during his work on Zoetic Stage’s 2022 production of Michael McKeever’s “American Rhapsody,” Meltzer was curious if he was familiar with “The Inheritance.” “He asked me then, ‘Have you seen or read this play.’ And I said, ‘I’ve read, seen and love this play. It is one of the most important plays of my generation of theater makers. And Stuart sort of planted the seed years ago that we’re now getting to grow into this beautiful tree.’”

South Florida native Anthony Michael Martinez, who grew up in Plantation Acres, graduated from Fort Lauderdale’s St. Thomas Aquinas High School “many moons ago,” and Florida State University, plays Toby Darling, Glass’s partner.

“Toby is this charismatic, ambitious young man who’s achieved some success… and he wears his heart on his sleeve, and he represents an aspect of the play that is someone who is just . . .  dying to break through and achieve gain and fortune and success.”

For Martinez, the heart of the play lies in connection, honesty, and the truth Lopez has imbued in the characters’ lives. “There’s this spirit of honesty, transparency and just unapologetic, raw truth telling and storytelling and community building.”

The Shakespearean-trained actor said that while the writing is contemporary, “it feels like Shakespeare  . . . poetic. I call it magical realism, it feels like the language speeds through like a bullet and then it suspends and the rhythm of it all feels like one big heartbeat.” He believes audiences will “get a good laugh and a good cry”  as well as a deeper appreciation for their own lives, families, communities, and the causes they care about. “This piece, in many ways, is not saying you have to believe in something particular, but it does invite us to believe in each other. And I think that message could hit really hard right now.”

Meltzer agreed that the writing of the play has a rhythm. “I connect to it. It’s a very sort of New York rhythm. The characters are an array of gay men and it is a fully gay cast – men from all different kind of backgrounds.” “The Inheritance, Part 1,” even on its own, runs three and a half hours with two intermissions and the ensemble includes a dozen actors.

The plan for the director is that “The Inheritance, Part 2” will be added to next season but Meltzer acknowledges that presenting works with LGBTQ+ themes is not without its challenges in Florida. “The Inheritance” can only be attended by those 18 years or older. [Zoetic’s site has this disclaimer: This show contains mature themes and content, including depictions of nudity and explicit material as part of the play’s storytelling.] In 2023, Florida’s legislature passed a law that prevents venues from allowing anyone under 18 to attend a show that depicts “nudity, sexual conduct, or specific sexual activities that are deemed offensive or without serious value for children.”

While the law does not specifically mention plays about LGBTQ+ life, it can restrict minors from attending works that may be deemed inappropriate. The law has sparked debate about censorship and LGBTQ+ expression.

“We didn’t get any money from the state specifically, but we have our relationship with the Adrienne Arsht Center, who does, so it’s important that we adhere to these stipulations,” said Meltzer, talking about funding and the state’s provisions.

“It is unfortunate that in the time that we live, it limits audiences and who can come into the theater, but that’s certainly not going to stop us from pursuing challenging and honest plays — what some people could see as dangerous literature for youth, but which I, with every cell of my body,  disagree with. We’re going to continue creating and presenting art that challenges, that increases empathy, and that encourages understanding. That’s my hope. That’s what I’m doing this year. That’s what I’m doing next year. And as long as I have been producing theater that has been my goal.”

WHAT: Zoetic Stage’s “The Inheritance, Part 1”

WHERE: Carnival Studio Theater at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami

WHEN: Performances 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Through Sunday, Jan. 25.

COST: $72.54, $66.69 (includes fees).

INFORMATION: (305) 949-6722 or arshtcenter.org

 ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com

 

 

Brévo Theatre Builds a Holiday Tradition With Langston Hughes’ Black Nativity’

A scene from last year’s Brévo Theatre’s featuring Mary and Joseph (Jeffery Cason and Keyona Omega) speaking with a villager, Anika Dara. The company presents the show in Miami at the Sandrell Rivers Theater from Thursday, Dec. 11 to Sunday, Dec. 14 and then in the Abdo New River Room at the Broward Center in Fort Lauderdale. (Photo by Trish Rosales, courtesy of Brévo Theatre)

When Brévo Theatre staged “Black Nativity” at the Sandrell Rivers Theater in 2024, the company discovered there was a strong community appetite for its newest holiday production.

“Langston Hughes created a work that is joyful, spiritual and deeply connected to the African American experience and yet it had rarely been produced in this region at the scale it deserves,” says Zaylin Yates, founding managing director of Brévo Theatre, who directs the production.

This year, the company broadens its reach with performances in both Miami-Dade and Broward counties. The season opens with a concert version on Saturday, Dec. 6 at the Pompano Beach Cultural Center, followed by a full run at the Sandrell Rivers Theater in Miami from Thursday, Dec. 11 to Sunday, Dec 14 and additional performances in the Abdo New River Room at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale from Thursday, Dec. 18 to Sunday, Dec. 21.

The decision marks a continued investment in building a seasonal tradition grounded in Black culture and community, according to Yates, who started the theater company along with producing artistic director, Terrence “TM” Pride in 2021. Pride is choreographing “Black Navity.”

What began as an experiment soon revealed itself as an awaited tradition. “The response to our first production was overwhelming. Audiences didn’t just attend, they embraced it,” says Yates. “Families returned with new relatives, and community members shared how healing and affirming it felt to see the Nativity told through a cultural lens they recognized. That demand made it clear: ‘Black Nativity’ wasn’t just a production; it was the beginning of a new holiday tradition for South Florida, and we felt a responsibility to nurture it.”

The work, created 60 years ago, became a perfect addition to its repertoire.

“Brévo Theatre has always been rooted in amplifying Black stories and ensuring that our cultural narratives have a home on South Florida stages,” says Yates. “Black Nativity felt like a natural extension of that mission. Langston Hughes created a work that is joyful, spiritual and deeply connected to the African American experience and yet it had rarely been produced in this region at the scale it deserves.”

Staging across multiple venues also aligns with Brévo Theatre’s commitment to accessibility. “Expanding into multiple venues allows us to bring Black Nativity to communities that may not often experience large scale cultural productions,” says Yates. “It ensures that no one is left out of this holiday celebration.”

Yates describes the show as a “celebration” and a “jubilant, music driven retelling of the birth of Christ.”

“Rather than a quiet, somber reenactment, Hughes gives us a celebration, a blending of gospel, African rhythms, dance, and poetic narration,” says Yates, adding that it is “set within the soundscape, movement and spirit of the Black church.”

Yates sees the retelling not as a departure from the biblical story but as a reclamation of cultural space. “Representation is restoration,” he says. “Retelling the Nativity through our lens allows us to reclaim and re center our place within the narrative of faith.”

Music director Elijah Taj Gee joined the team this year and focused on honoring the legacy of gospel while presenting a contemporary and layered soundscape. “My role is to handle the arrangements of the pieces of the musical as well connect the band with the cast to best convey the story of Jesus’ birth which coincided with the celebration of gospel music,” says Gee.

He approaches the score as a musical journey through African American sacred traditions. “Via the lens of African American Gospel music, we start from the roots with African tribal drumming, morph into spirituals, Cogic gospel, contemporary fusion gospel, and leading to CCM.” For audiences hearing the production for the first time, he says they can expect “an extremely beautiful blend of African Drumming, traditional gospel and Contemporary Christian music. It has music for every generation of gospel music.”

Gee emphasizes his commitment to preserving the integrity of the source material while adding new dimensions. “I respect the original composers of the gospel music and tried not to over complicate the music,” he says. “It’s about ministering the word through the music and adding new elements. African drumming with traditional gospel music was a new territory and has worked beautifully.”

Some numbers were reimagined with a deeper spiritual tone and heavier African influences. Gee says multiple instruments are used to enrich the sound. “You will see on multiple occasions the pianist and bassist will pick up auxiliary percussion to add more African drumming flair,” Gee says. Live instrumentation, he adds, is central to the show’s emotional depth. “The music heavily shifts the tone to joy, sadness, hope and triumph and really transforms the narrative for the audiences to feel the message even deeper.”

For performers returning from last year, the production’s impact remains personal and profound. John Hamilton played a shepherd in the first edition and now is cast as one of the three narrators. “Last year’s atmosphere is really what brought me back,” says Hamilton. “There was something powerful about being in a room full of people who were all focused on telling a story that still matters today.”

The shift from shepherd to narrator broadened Hamilton’s understanding of the story. “This role feels deeper, like I’m not just in the story but helping reveal its meaning to others.” He says delivering scripture onstage last year revealed the show’s spiritual resonance. “As I was speaking it, I could hear people in the audience saying, ‘Amen,’ yelling ‘Glory,’ and I could see others nodding their heads in agreement. That moment reminded me just how deeply this play reaches people.”

For first time cast members like dancer Antonia Scott, entering such an established ensemble has been both challenging and rewarding. Scott says she auditioned after seeing the production last year. “I fell in love with the music and the story and knew I wanted to be a part (of it),” she says.

As a young Black woman raised on gospel music, Scott says performing in “Black Nativity” feels deeply meaningful. “It feels like home honestly,” she says. “To be able to perform songs I grew up listening to onstage feels amazing as well as blending in movement and music from the African diaspora.” She hopes audiences feel her enthusiasm. “I hope my performance brings energy to this production. I hope the audience will feel joy and excitement when they watch me on stage.”

Throughout its evolution, “Black Nativity” remains tethered to the vision Hughes shaped more than six decades ago. Its longevity, according to Yates, stems from its spiritual and cultural honesty. “Young audiences crave authenticity and truth,” he says. “The themes of hope, faith and love are timeless, but they resonate even more strongly in today’s climate.”

For Yates, the aspiration is a long-lasting tradition. “Our dream is for Black Nativity to become a cherished holiday tradition, something families anticipate every year, something children grow up attending.”

WHAT: Brévo Theatre’s “Black Nativity”

WHERE: Pompano Beach Cultural Center, 50 W.  Atlantic Blvd, Pompano Beach (concert); Sandrell Rivers Theater, 6101 NW 7th Ave, Miami (full production), and Abdo New River Room at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 SW 5th Ave., Fort Lauderdale (Full production)

 WHEN: Concert: 7 p.m., Friday, Dec. 6. Miami performances: 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 11 and Friday, Dec. 12, 1 p.m.  Saturday, Dec. 13, and 5 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 14. Broward performances: 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 18 and Friday, Dec. 19; 1:30 p.m. and 7 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 20; 5 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 21

COST: Concert tickets $25 general admission; Miami, $45 plus $6.50 fees; $15 plus $3.50 in fees, children under 12; Broward, general admission, $53.10.

 INFORMATION: 305-542-4841 or brevotheatre.org  

 ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.

 

Review: ‘Left on Tenth’ at GableStage Tugs at All the Right Emotions

Dalia Aleman as Delia and Stephen Schnetzer as Peter  in “Left on Tenth,” based on Delia Ephron’s bestselling novel, now at GableStage in Coral Gables through Dec. 21. (Photo by Magnus Stark/courtesy of GableStage)

Make sure to bring plenty of tissues to “Left on Tenth,” now at GableStage, for all the happy and sad tears it evokes.

“Left on Tenth” is a biographical play by Delia Ephron, a journalist, novelist, and screenwriter whose work includes the screenplay for “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” and “You’ve Got Mail,” which she co-wrote with her sister, Nora Ephron. The play details Delia’s remarkable story of finding new love in her 70s and the devastating cancer diagnosis she received shortly into the relationship.

The play, running at GableStage through Sunday, Dec. 21, begins with Delia on a call with her cell phone company—an exchange so frustrating she writes an article about it. Delia has been widowed for six months, and the adjustment to life alone has been difficult. The publication of the article prompts an email from Peter, a man who went on a date with Delia when they were teenagers that Delia doesn’t remember.

So begins the swoon-worthy romance of Delia and Peter. It’s always wonderful to watch characters fall in love, but it’s especially refreshing to see an older couple confront each other’s baggage, break down their walls, and open themselves to loving someone new.

“Left on Tenth” explores Delia’s insecurities about embarking on a new relationship after her 33-year marriage. Those insecurities deepen when she’s diagnosed with a rare form of cancer—the same cancer that took the life of her sister Nora. A life-threatening illness can test even the strongest partnership, so how does it fit into a burgeoning romance?

Playwright Ephron examines that question and expertly mines the humor and pain of her situation. Even though you know she survived, there are moments when you fear Delia won’t. It’s a moving and beautifully written play.

Dalia Aleman plays Delia, capturing the thrill of unexpected romance, the fear of losing everything to cancer, and the tentativeness of committing to a new man. Several times, Delia expresses her shock and denial of her diagnosis by insisting that something so terrible can’t possibly happen while she’s falling in love. In those moments, Aleman’s voice cracks ever so slightly, and her plaintive denial is heartbreaking.

Stephen Schnetzer plays Peter, Delia’s new love. Peter is something of a unicorn—a rare breed of man who embodies everything anyone could want. His character is one of those truth-is-stranger-than-fiction figures; were Peter not based on a real person, you’d never believe such a man existed. A role like this can be difficult, but Schnetzer’s portrayal invites the audience into the romance and grounds Peter with warmth, charm, and openness.

Margot Moreland and Ban Sandomir play a variety of characters, including Delia’s friends, doctors, and figments of her imagination. Both create delineated characters quickly and add humor and drama to the production. In one scene, Delia tells the audience she fell in love with romantic comedy movies after watching the musical “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” and Moreland and Sandomir hilariously appear in old western costumes as exaggerated characters from the film, teasing each other in a flirty frolic.

There are two other characters in the play: Delia’s dogs, Honey and Charlie. Honey, played by Buddy Dalton, is a trouper—an older pooch unfazed by the lights and audience. Charlie, played by Winston Benjamin Dalton, is a different story. Winston bounds onto the stage with rambunctious energy and a big grin that seems to announce, “I’m a star!” Having both dogs onstage is an absolute delight.

Frank J. Oliva’s scenic design consists of dark bookcases filled with white books, some labeled with titles of novels and screenplays by Delia, Nora, and their other sisters, who are also writers.

The bookcases slide back and forth, becoming a metaphor for Delia’s emotional walls and boundaries in her new romance with Peter. It’s a striking design, enhanced by David Lander’s lighting, which makes the white books glow as if radiating light, complementing the play’s theme of unexpected love.

With all its humor and heartbreak, “Left on Tenth” is ultimately about hope—hope for love late in life, hope for happiness, and hope for survival.

WHAT:  Delia Ephron’s “Left on Tenth”

WHERE:  GableStage, 1200 Anastasia Ave., Coral Gables

 WHEN: 7:30 Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday; 2 p.m. Wednesday and Sunday through Sunday, Dec. 21.

COST:  $85 – $95, including fees

INFORMATION: 305-445-1119. gablestage.org

ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.

‘Clue: On Stage’ Brings Whodunnit Fun to Arsht During Busy Art Week

Murder and blackmail are on the menu when six mysterious guests assemble at Boddy Manor in the whodunnit mystery “Clue” at the Adrienne Arsht Center as part of the Broadway in Miami series opening Tuesday, Dec. 2 through Sunday, Dec. 7. (Photo by Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade)

For theater lovers looking for something to escape the crowd of Miami Art Week, the Broadway in Miami series at the Adrienne Arsht Center has the touring production of the whodunnit “Clue,” inspired by the classic Hasbro board game and the 1985 Paramount movie

And while the international set will be unraveling the mystery that is Art Basel, TJ Lamando who plays Mr. Green and is no stranger to South Florida theater having been a regular when the now-defunct Stage Door Theatre was performing in Lauderhill, says “Clue” at the Arsht Center is perfectly fitting.

“ ‘Clue’ is just unabashedly fun. It’s a show where you can unplug and have fun. And I think that’s what everyone will be craving.”

Its been 76 years since the board game debuted in 1949. Who doesn’t remember trying to deduce if it was Colonel Mustard in the library with the wrench? Or Mrs. Peacock in the study with the knife?

Lamando plays one of the six suspects in “Clue,” State Department employee Mr. Green, despite revealing that when playing the board game as a kid he chose to be Colonel Mustard – “just because he looks so cool on the box.”

But Mr. Green isn’t the cool one in this show.

“He’s this sort of anxious, timid guy. Obviously, if you’re an anxious and timid person, being invited into the middle of a murder mystery is not gonna end well for you,” says Lamando on the telephone from a tour stop in Jacksonville.  “Mr. Green is also sort of the lightning rod for everybody else to rag on at some point during the show.

The actor, originally from outside of Salem, Mass., describes Mr. Green as a “fool.”

“I feel like with whenever you play the fool people are, there’s bound to be surprises. There’s always something new to find out about the character that everybody’s laughing at.”

The actor has some great memories performing in South Florida in the lead of Jimmy Winter in Stage Door Theatre company’s musical “Nice Work If You Can Get It in 2018 – “Michael Small is one of the nicest guys I’ve ever worked with” — and opposite Stage Door Theatre regular Ken Clement in its production of “The Producers” in 2019, both in Lauderhill.

“Clue” is one of the few non-musical plays on the Broadway Across America circuit, but Camille Capers who is playing Miss Scarlet in the current touring production that comes to the Arsht Center opening on Dec 2 and running through Dec. 7, says the show has a musical rhythm to it.

“It’s a comedy, it’s a farce, but there is a lot of musicality to it – the way we maneuver through scenes and we’re searching through the house, and it is set to music,” says Capers, who is a classically trained singer.

Lamando goes so far as to say “Clue” blends the worlds of farce with a musical undertone to form a unique stage hybrid.

“There are some orchestrations that are from the movie and it really adds to the pace of the show.”

Capers, a graduate of Howard University, and who studied abroad at the British American Drama Academy, booked her first regional job after graduating from college in 2020. “The pandemic was definitely a weird time to graduate,” she recalls.

“Clue” is her first national tour.

She has some shoes to fill playing Miss Scarlet who actress Lesley Ann Warren made so memorable in the film, and the role that has made the 1985 “Clue” movie a cult classic. Capers says she’s looked out into the audience and have seen fans dressed as the character.

“I think in the play the character is very different than she is in the movie, but she still maintains her sarcasm and her one liners,” says the actress.

She mentions meeting with playwright Sandy Rustin, who adapted “Clue: On Stage” when the actress was rehearsing the play. “She told me to watch a lot of 1940s and 1950s  movies that have a bombshell, femme fatale type of character and pay attention to how they spoke, how they carried themselves, how they would stand and sit.”

Another dimension of her role is that Miss Scarlet in this production is played by an artist of color. “I think we are starting to see more and more diversity in productions of Clue.” Tiffany Denise Hobs played Miss Scarlet in the Kennedy Center’s 2024 production of “Clue,” for example.

“I love that I have an opportunity to play a role that doesn’t just limit me to my race. It allows me to play and do many different things. And of course, I do want to perform in the amazing roles written for African American women, but I think what’s fun about this one is they were casting based on type, and I get an opportunity to play this really fun character,” she says.

And she promises the audience will have fun, too. “If you’re a fan of the movie, there are so many nods to it in the play.”

Lamardo says it is human nature that everyone wants to be the one to figure out who is the guilty party. “People like to collect the clues and look at the popularity of the series, ‘Only Murders in the Building?” I think it’s a universal truth that everyone has – that they want to be ahead of the game in that way.”

Pun intended.

WHAT: “Clue”

WHEN: 8 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 2 through Saturday, Dec. 6. 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 6 and 1 and 7 p.m. Sunday, Dec 7.  The show has a running time of 80 minutes with no intermission. Special event 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 2, game night, a detective themed photo station and an improv workshop. Admission is free with a ticket to the evening’s performance.

WHERE:  Ziff Ballet Opera House at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami

COST:  $47.97 to $176.67 (includes fees)

INFORMATION:  (305) 949-6722 and arshtcenter.org

ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.