Actors’ Playhouse Relives Its Impossible Dream With ‘Man of La Mancha’

Actors’ Playhouse celebrates its 30th anniversary season with “Man of La Mancha,” the same musical it debuted at the Miracle Theatre in 1995. The cast includes E.L. Losada, Jose Luaces, Corey Vega, Michael Hunsaker, Hugo E. Moreno and Joey Rodriguez. The show opens in previews Wednesday, Nov. 19 and runs through Sunday, Dec. 21 at the Miracle Theatre, Coral Gables. (Photo by Alberto Romeu)

The story of Actors’ Playhouse starts in a dentist’s chair one day in 1987 in Kendall. A practicing dentist at the time, Lawrence (“Larry”) E. Stein, was chatting with one of his patients who had arrived to his office with a toothache. The patient was Wometco Enterprises president Michael Brown.

Turns out Brown had bought a movie theater inside a Kendall mall but his idea of arthouse movies playing there wasn’t working, and he was selling it. Larry Stein followed up, offering to buy the lease and put live theater in the space. Stein had grown up in Philadelphia, where he remembers seeing tryouts of Broadway shows in his hometown, and in Kendall, there was nothing like that.

This was the beginning of Actors’ Playhouse, and the first show in its new Kendall space in 1988 was the musical “Man of La Mancha.” For seven years, the playhouse performed in the former twin cinema, with a 304-seat theater for its mainstage shows and the other 350-seat space for children’s theater. In 1992, Hurricane Andrew arrived and, as David Arisco, Actors’ Playhouse artistic director, says, “messed everything up.”

They rebuilt and continued for two years, until Wometco sold  the Miracle Theatre in Coral Gables to the city of Coral Gables. The Steins thought they could bring excitement to downtown Coral Gables with their theater company and eventually, through a public–private partnership, Actors’ Playhouse signed a 40-year lease to manage and operate the Miracle Theatre.

They opened within six months of signing the agreement and led a $10 million capital campaign to create what is now a three-stage performing arts center.

“It was a big, big move,” says Arisco about the Miracle Theatre undertaking. He has been with the Steins and artistic director of the company since 1988.

Their first production 30 years ago in the newly restored Miracle Theatre? “Man of La Mancha,” a tip of the hat to where the Playhouse got its start in Kendall.

Arisco has directed at least 180 shows for the company since it opened. “I saw their production of ‘La Mancha’ in Kendall,” he says, “but I didn’t direct it. At the time, I was in rehearsal as an actor for Coconut Grove Playhouse’s production of ‘A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.’ That was the only show in Actors’ Playhouse history that I wasn’t involved in.”

But he was involved in the reconstruction of the Miracle Theatre. “We were finishing renovations, securing a certificate of occupancy, and rehearsing ‘La Mancha’ all at once. We were on stage trying to run tech rehearsals with seats still being painted and a sprinkler system being installed.”

For its 30th anniversary at the Miracle Theatre, Arisco will direct “Man of La Mancha,” opening in previews on Wednesday, Nov. 19, and Thursday, Nov. 20, then running from Friday, Nov. 21, through Sunday, Dec. 21.

“It’s not only the 30th anniversary of doing the musical and the Miracle Theatre as a performing arts center, but literally we are opening this show almost to the date of when we opened it 30 years ago,” says Arisco.

For this newly minted production, the director says he is honoring the Spanish roots of the musical inspired by Miguel de Cervantes’ 17th-century novel “El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha.”

“I felt that it was important for me to cast as many Hispanic people in the roles as possible. So all three of our leads… and pretty much 90 percent of the whole ensemble is Hispanic,” says Arisco.

South Florida-based actress Gaby Tortoledo, who plays Aldonza, the musical’s female lead, grew up in Venezuela and says she has a personal and meaningful connection with Cervantes’ book.

“I came to the United States when I was 24 years old. So my entire high school experience, my education—well, Cervantes is our Shakespeare. And because we learn it at such a young age, it is ingrained in your own DNA. The minute those arrangements start playing in ‘La Mancha’ and the story begins being told, it resonates with me on such a level.

“I’m sure I won’t be alone—the audience coming to see the show, seeing a majority Latino cast on stage, and calibrating our dialects to be a bit Spanish Castilian. We’re really trying to give this the specificity that our audience now, because of the melting pot that is South Florida, will be expecting.”

Inspired by Cervantes’ classic, “Man of La Mancha” is set during the Spanish Inquisition as a man, imprisoned and awaiting trial, leads his fellow inmates in a play within a play.

E.L. Losada, who plays Miguel de Cervantes/Don Quixote, describes what has been going on in rehearsals to get the authenticity. “We have been consciously looking for phrases in the script and things that we can say in Spanish as opposed to English that will still be very understandable,” he says, adding that plot points are not being changed. “But things that make you understand that this world is in Spain.”

Losada, who was born in Santa Fe, Cuba, and grew up in Kendall, says his decision for a career in theater began with Actors’ Playhouse. “When I was in high school at Southwest Miami Senior High, I auditioned for the children’s theater show they were doing, ‘Anne of Green Gables,’ and I was cast with a bunch of friends,” says the actor.

Now, as Don Quixote, Losada is donning the armor that Jerry Gulledge, the actor who played the role in the Actors’ Playhouse production 30 years ago, wore.

“It’s really, really cool. I put it on two days ago for the fitting and it was incredible. The same breastplate he wore 30 years ago.”

Losada recalls seeing Gulledge in another production of “Man of La Mancha”—“this tall, skinny man with this gorgeous, gorgeous voice.”

While Actors’ Playhouse and Arisco do delve into some challenging works—mostly in its balcony theater upstairs—the mainstage theater is where he says the “big musicals” shine.

“What’s going to be exciting for audiences is that they’ve seen the big musicals here in the last few years like ‘Jersey Boys,’ ‘Waitress,’ ‘On Your Feet,’ and ‘Escape to Margaritaville,’ to name a few. And they’ve been contemporary shows, but ‘Man of La Mancha’ is a classic. I want people to be transported, especially at this time,” says Arisco.

Tortoledo believes that staging “Man of La Mancha,” a show that made its debut in 1965, has messages that still resonate with 2025 audiences. Her character, which the actress says was written in the ‘60s, could be played as a brassy caricature of a woman wronged by the world. But in her portrayal, audiences see something deeper.

“There’s a moment where you see hope in Aldonza,” says Tortoledo. “And I think in 2025, when it’s so easy to fall into hopelessness, it’s powerful to have a story about characters who find hope again. That’s what makes it so beautiful.”

WHAT:  30th anniversary production of “Man of La Mancha”

WHERE:  Actors’ Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre, 280 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables

WHEN:  8 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday; 3 p.m., Sunday. Special weekday matinee at 2 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 26. Through Sunday, Dec. 21.

COST:  $40, $50, $60, $65, $70, $75, $85, $100

INFORMATION: 305-444-9293 or actorsplayhouse.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: Bringing Complexity to Life, Zoetic Stage Reveals a Masterful ‘The Mother’

Jeni Hacker as The Mother and Davis Parks as The Son in a scene from Florian Zeller’s play “The Mother” at Zoetic Stage at the Adrienne Arsht Center through Sunday,  Nov. 23. (Photo by Justin Namon/Courtesy of the Adrienne Arsht Center)

“The Mother” by French playwright Florian Zeller is the story of a woman, Anne, whose empty nest syndrome has mentally gotten the best (or worst) of her.

Stuart Meltzer, artistic director of Zoetic Stage and director of the regional company’s 16th season opener, has long wanted to stage a play by Zeller —one of the most frequently produced contemporary playwrights today, known for his domestic trilogy “The Mother,” “The Father,” and “The Son.”

During his opening speech, Meltzer asked for a show of hands from the audience of how many had seen the film “The Father,” which won two Oscars at the 2021 awards for Anthony Hopkins as Best Actor and Zeller and Christopher Hampton, for adapted screenplay. Many had. If Hampton’s name is somewhat familiar, he’s best known for his translation of “Dangerous Liasons” and for Yasmina Reza’s play “Art” (now in a revival on Broadway) and “God of Carnage. He has become Zeller’s most trusted collaborator and the playwright himself credits Hampton with preserving the emotional integrity of the original French in the English versions.

Meltzer retained the British dialect (Rebecca Covey’s dialect consulting helps with the authenticity) used in Hampton’s translation. The director’s choice keeps the cadence of Zeller’s dialogue, which is essential to the play’s rhythm and emotional precision.

It is the right call. A bit jarring and unexpected at first, it proves essential, heightening the tension and capturing these people’s lives, where everything looks fine on the outside but the mess underneath is hard to ignore.

Jeni Hacker, veteran South Florida actor and a favorite of Meltzer’s, plays The Mother, Anne. We’ve seen her venture into this “unraveling mind” territory before in the company’s 2023 “Next to Normal” as Diana, a mother battling bipolar disorder. Here as Anne, Hacker explores similar territory – another complex portrait of a women grappling with identity dependent on family and the maternal.

While they share some commonalities, Hacker’s Anne unravels inward – most indicative is when she mumbles things under her breath, side swipes about her husband, Pierre (Stephen B. Anthony) — knowing that he is within earshot. Many of the murmurings allude to her believing he is cheating on her.

The long white couch is an important element in “The Mother” as Anne almost never leaves it. Barefoot and curled up with her feet under her, she seems physically and emotionally stuck — the couch becomes a marker of isolation. It also defines the space of the play, with much of the action revolving around it. When Pierre sits with her, he positions himself at the far end, emphasizing their emotional and physical distance.

Zeller has a clear stylistic choice in his plays, especially the trilogy: scenes often play out and then repeat with small changes. The repetition doesn’t push the plot forward but draws the audience deeper into Anne’s spiraling thoughts.

This looping structure recalls the existential absurdity of Samuel Beckett and the way Harold Pinter blurs reality and perception. Meltzer understands both Beckett and Pinter and his deft direction allows for satisfying shades of these influences.

Anthony as Pierre is constantly under Anne’s scrutiny, as she questions whether he might be unfaithful. The actor balances her emotional rollercoaster with a calm, often deliciously snide demeanor, playing up their daily routines and highlighting the distance between them while acting as the steady calm to her sudden storms.

The object of Anne’s obsession is her son, Nicolas, now 25, out of the house, and in a relationship with “The Girl,” whom Anne blames for taking him away. She recalls, “Before he used to drop by the house. On Sundays. Not every Sunday… but some Sundays… I leave him messages, he doesn’t answer.” When Pierre tells her “he’s growing up,” she snaps back, “You call that growing up? I call it being cruel…” Anne also admits she’s always loved Nicolas more than her daughter, Sara: “It’s never been a secret, I’ve always preferred Nicolas.” She adds that she remembers the day her daughter was born she felt “strangely repelled.” We never see Sara.

Davis Parks, as Nicolas, The Son, skillfully embodies the weight of his mother’s obsession — sometimes comforting her and other times losing patience with her smothering. Parks makes us feel the claustrophobia.

Allie Beltran as The Girl (her name referenced in the play as Eloide), the outsider who adds more fuel to Anne’s obsession with her son, has a demanding role. She must shift between different facets of the character – the sobbing ex who shows up at the door, then having to step into flirtier and sometimes even sinister personas. Through her changes in tone and movement, she makes the distinctions while also conveying how Anne sees her – both real and a projection of The Mother’s fears.

Meltzer consistently heightens the anxiety throughout the 100-minute, no intermission play. At two points, the back wall opens to reveal a pianist (Jeff Hess) playing “Für Alina” and “Variationen zur Gesundung von Arinuschka,” but only when Anne is alone. The musician, behind a scrim, bathed in color yet dressed in white and almost angelic, creates an eerie, dreamlike effect. These interludes deepen the sense of disorientation and isolation, while the haunting music mirrors and amplifies Anne’s emotional spirals.

Jacob Brown’s scenic design of the main playing area — the living room — centers on the long white couch, which acts as the anchor of Anne’s world. The space is neat and stylish, signaling an upper-middle-class household, but small details like the liquor cart stage right remind us of Anne’s coping mechanisms and add to her sense of isolation.

Costumes by Laura Turnbull highlight the generational and emotional contrasts in the play. At one point, The Girl shows up in a red dress — the same one Anne covets and dreams of wearing for a night on the town  — emphasizing the age divide and Anne’s jealousy. Pierre’s suit and tie look reflects his composed, down-to-business presence, while Anne wears Ann Taylor–style shirts and pants, neat and put-together, which contrasts her inner turmoil.

Lighting design by Rebecca Montero reflects shifts in moods and times of day. A scene where two characters have direct white lighting beaming down on them while the rest of the stage is bathed in a deep blue highlights the isolation. Bailey Hacker’s sound design helps shape the emotional world of “The Mother.” Subtle ambient sounds and well-placed cues reflect Anne’s shifting moods, while the piano interludes start quietly and build to an almost maddening pitch, amplifying the sense of her spiraling, out-of-control thoughts.

Tying everything together in a subtle choice and likely to be missed except for the keenest of ears, Meltzer chooses English singer Kate Bush’s “Mother Stands for Comfort,” which plays at the curtain call. The song, about a mother’s willingness to protect her child at all costs, is indicative of the attention to detail that makes Zoetic Stage’s production of this psychological dramedy challenging and satisfying theater.

WHAT: Zoetic Stage’s “The Mother”

 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. Additional matinee Saturday, Nov. 22. Through Sunday, Nov. 23.

 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.

 

‘Here There Are Blueberries’ Comes Home To Miami New Drama

Marrick Smith (as Rainer Höss) and Delia Cunningham (as Rebecca Erbelding) appear in the 2025 tour of “Here There Are Blueberries.” The two appear in the Miami New Drama production, which runs Thursday, Nov. 13 through Sunday, Dec. 7 at Miami New Drama’s Colony Theatre, in Miami Beach. (Photo by Kevin Parry Photography)

Eight years ago, inside Miami Beach’s Colony Theatre, a group of actors and researchers gathered around a reproduction of a strange object: a photo album filled with images of Nazi officers smiling, picnicking, and eating blueberries at Auschwitz. That first workshop, then titled “The Album,” marked the quiet beginning of a play that would go on to travel the country, earn critical acclaim, break box-office records, and become a 2024 Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Drama. Now, the play returns to the very stage where it was born.

“Here There Are Blueberries”—co-written by Moisés Kaufman and Amanda Gronich and directed by Kaufman—will run Nov. 13 through Dec. 7 at Miami New Drama’s Colony Theatre. This time it arrives not as a work-in-progress, but as an award-winning production with a national tour, a CBS “60 Minutes” feature, and an audience already primed to attend.

“The DNA of the play was born in Miami,” says Kaufman, the Venezuelan-born creator of “The Laramie Project” and “Gross Indecency.” “Amanda and I always say it wasn’t just workshopped at Miami New Drama: it was built there. The architecture of the play was created in that rehearsal room.”

Some of the original cast members who helped build it are returning to perform it again, including Barbara Pitts McAdams and Grant Varjas—a rare instance of actors re-inhabiting roles they helped shape from the ground up.

The play begins not with a battlefield, but with an envelope. In 2007, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum received a package containing a private photo album belonging to SS officer Karl Höcker. The images, never meant for public view, showed officers eating fruit, decorating Christmas trees, singing, relaxing with their dogs. All of it at Auschwitz.

Kaufman, a child of Holocaust survivors, had long wanted to write a play on the subject but resisted adding to what he calls “the most documented event in modern history.” The Höcker album changed that.

“When I saw the photographs, I thought: this is new. We’ve never seen the perpetrators like this,” he says. “I became obsessed with the idea that photographs could carry the narrative, that a play could ask the audience to look, to decode, to become investigators themselves.”

The core storyline—museum archivist Rebecca Erbelding receiving the album and slowly decoding the faces—was already in place in the 2018 Miami workshop. What has evolved is a second dramatic thread: the descendants of the perpetrators reckoning with what they inherited. “That wasn’t there at the beginning,” says Kaufman. “Now it makes the play land in a deeper way.”

That shift also sharpened the play’s relevance.

“Whenever there is man’s inhumanity to man, the play is relevant,” he says. “The dictatorship in Venezuela could not have happened without accomplices, without people who participated, and without people who looked away. That is the same question the play is asking: where do we fall between culpability, complicity, and complacency?”

For Venezuelan Michel Hausmann, Miami New Drama’s founding artistic director, the play’s return is more than a booking. It is a mirror held up to a city built by people who fled authoritarian states.

“Miami is full of people who escaped surveillance, repression, propaganda,” he says. “This play will not feel foreign here. We know what it means to watch a country collapse because too many stayed silent.”

Hausmann invited Kaufman and Tectonic Theater Project to develop the work in Miami in 2017, at a moment when nationalist populism was rising globally, at home and abroad.

“None of these regimes succeed without collaborators,” he says. “It’s not just the people who do the harm, but the people who allow it.”

In “Here There Are Blueberries” there are no reenactments, no camp scenes, no actors playing victims. “The horror lives in the silence, in the gap between what the photographs show and what the audience knows was happening just beyond the frame,” says Kauffman. “The play reveals not the brutality of genocide, but the comfort that coexisted with it.”

The title comes from a handwritten line in the album, casually noting a plate of blueberries served after lunch. An ordinary pleasure inside a death camp.

Kaufman describes the audience response the same way in every city: “I’ve never heard a theater so quiet. People stop being spectators. They lean forward, scanning the projected images, trying to solve them. They become witnesses.”

Since leaving Miami, the play has been produced at La Jolla Playhouse, where it was named one of the Los Angeles Times’ Best Plays of 2022; at Washington D.C.’s Shakespeare Theatre Company, where Kaufman won the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Director; and at New York Theatre Workshop, where it became the highest-grossing production in the theater’s 45-year history. CBS’ “60 Minutes” profiled the play earlier this year.

Still, the Miami return carries a different weight.

“This is the room where it started,” says Kaufman. “To bring it back—with Amanda’s name on it, with the actors who built it—that feels like completion.”

WHAT: Miami New Drama’s  “Here There Are Blueberries”

WHERE: Colony Theatre, 1040 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach.

WHEN: Opens Thursday, Nov. 13 through Sunday, Dec. 7.

Hours: Opens 7 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 13. Shows 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Matinees, 2 p.m., Saturday and Sunday. 6 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 7.

COST: $35-$99

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.

Something to Chew On: 2 Miami Regional Theaters Small, But Mighty With New Works

 Lena Marie Gonzalez stars in “Here, Chew, Chew,” Armando Santana’s original psychological thriller that made its world premiere with Main Street Players in Miami Lakes. (Photo by Gabriel Medina)

In South Miami and in Miami Lakes, those looking for challenging, original works got what they were looking for with two recent productions.

At True Mirage Theater, Ricky J Martinez’s “With the Swallows”—which ran through October—is a compelling drama about a grieving widower who returns to the woods of Idaho to scatter his wife’s ashes, only to face plenty of complications along the way. The play, rich with family dynamics, was directed by Martinez, the former artistic director of New Theatre.

Running through early November, Main Street Players in Miami Lakes staged the world premiere of Armando Santana’s edge-of-your-seat psychological thriller “Here, Chew, Chew,” directed by Emalie Belokon. The story follows Perdita (Lena Marie Gonzalez), who is mourning the loss of her husband after a tragic accident. When his twin sister, Max (Thiana Berrick), arrives unexpectedly, reality takes a strange turn.

 

With “Here, Chew, Chew,” Santana delivers a gripping horror thriller that draws its scares from a smart, layered script rather than slasher clichés, leaving the fright lingering long after the lights come up.

As the audience enters the intimate Main Street space, Perdita is already seated on the couch—a strong choice that establishes the world before the first line is spoken. The living room around her is a mess: garbage scattered everywhere, plastic bottles and crumpled bags on the floor, no electricity. The couch she’s perched on is ripped on both sides—as if a dog had clawed or chewed through it—and black splatters stain the doors. The place looks filthy, lived-in, and unsettling.

This two-hander demands both physical and emotional endurance from its actors, and Gonzalez and Berrick fully rise to the challenge. A highly physical fight scene unfolds in near darkness, with Perdita nearly striking Max with a baseball bat—a shocking moment that drives the tension to a breaking point. Gonzalez is spellbinding as the seemingly innocent widow caught in a downward psychological spiral following her husband’s death. She never overplays the limp caused by her hip injury from the accident; instead, she uses it to underscore her character’s physical and emotional deterioration.

Berrick provides the perfect counterbalance to the fragile, birdlike Perdita, portraying Max as the no-nonsense family protector. And Berrick does well bringing the audience along in her shoes as Max, everyone caught up in Perdita’s spider web of confusion.

Santana builds a “Misery”-type thriller where the suspense grows through storytelling rather than spectacle. Max learns that her brother’s dog, Hershey, has disappeared—but later, Perdita claims the dog is dead. Why has Max really shown up? To check on Perdita’s well-being, or to find out whether she had something to do with her brother’s missing remains? And perhaps the biggest question of all: is Chew Chew a sinister figment of grief, or a real and vengeful hound?

While Santana’s world dives deep into psychological dread and blurred realities, Martinez’s “With the Swallows” offers its own kind of haunting—an emotional one. Where “Here, Chew, Chew” plays with fear and illusion, “With the Swallows” turns inward, examining love, loss, acceptance, and the ache of memory.

The cast of “With the Swallows” includes veteran actor Bill Schwartz, who brings a lived-in, take-no-crap quality to Randall Winning. Alice Rodriguez, as Dante Trejo—the young companion who affectionately calls his older lover “Daddy”—adds just the right touch of sass to the role.

Dante has a job as a fashion photographer, perhaps working for a fashion magazine (this probably could be a bit clearer in the script), a detail that complicates assumptions about his motives. Winning’s bitter, homophobic son, Bryce, alludes to Dante’s potential interest in Winning’s money, but it seems that Dante isn’t looking for a sugar daddy. In one memorable moment, Dante takes “Daddy” shopping and insists on paying for everything, leaving the question of who really holds the power between them open.

 

Enrique Galan plays Bryce, now the mayor of the small town, who has some of his own skeletons in the closet, and newcomer Derrick Quiles portrays Young Bryce.

Martinez weaves connections across generations, including a beautifully crafted scene where the two older figures — Randall and Dante’s mother, Laura Trejo (portrayed with captivating authenticity by Evelyn Perez) — share wine, get a little tipsy, and bond over the experiences and reflections that come with age.

The play first unfolds in a Best Western hotel room, which then transforms—almost magically—into a forest setting anchored by two Shibari rope trees, an inspired design choice that works beautifully in the small True Mirage space. Set design and construction is credited to Daniel Gil and Martinez. Both settings place the audience close to the characters, bringing the emotions close — and a credit to the actors and the director for how they move within the space to take advantage of the intimacy. Martinez skillfully allows each character moments that draw the audience into their point of view, creating a multi-faceted storytelling experience much in the framework, and done so well here, in the model of the Great American Family Drama.

“With the Swallows” and “Here, Chew, Chew” were world premieres written by Miami-based playwrights.

Miami’s regional theater scene continues to thrive with bold, original works—some tucked just out of plain sight. Seek them out.

True Mirage Theater is located at 8846 SW 129^th Terrace, Suite B, Miami. Info at www.truemiragetheater.com. Main Street Players perform at the Main Street Playhouse, 6812 Main St., Miami Lakes. Its next production is “Medea by Euripedes” opening Feb. 28. Info at www.mainstreetplayers.com.

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. 

A Diary and A Dream: Miami New World Alumni Develop ‘Rutka’ Musical

Lana Schwartz as Rutka in the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park production of the world premiere of “Rutka.” Two Miami natives created and are producers of the project, while the playwright is also originally from Miami. The producers will host “Behind the Scenes of ‘Rutka’ ” at South Florida JCCs throughout November. (Photo by Mikki Schaffner, courtesy of Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park)

Anne Frank’s diary has been synonymous with a true account of what life was like amid the horrors of the Holocaust. But two New World School of the Arts graduates, who came across another teenage diarist from the same era, are hoping to get her voice heard.

Rutka Laskier was living in the Będzin Ghetto in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II, where she documented her experiences in a school notebook, ultimately hiding it beneath a floorboard before she was taken to a gas chamber in Auschwitz.

David Schwartz and Amy Langer, both Miami natives, are the creators and lead producers of “Rutka,” an original musical with a book by another Miamian, playwright Neena Beber, set to an indie-rock score. After its world premiere at the Cincinnati Playhouse, Schwartz and Langer, now living in New York, are hosting a series of events that will offer a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the show, and will feature current students from New World School of the Arts performing selections from the original musical.

“Behind the Scenes of ‘Rutka’ “events are at Michael-Ann Russell JCC in North Miami on Wednesday, Nov. 5; Alper JCC Miami, on Tuesday, Nov. 18, and the Miami Beach JCC, on Wednesday, Nov. 19. The producers will also be on hand for a discussion and question-and-answer session.

The road to “Rutka” began, Langer recalled, about seven years ago, with a two-year delay due to everything coming to a halt during COVID-19.

With anti-Semitism on the rise, Langer started thinking about finding voices who might resonate with a younger generation.

“I was wondering if there were any other diarists. And I knew there were, but who were they?” And there, after a hunt on Amazon, was the answer: “Rutka’s Notebook: A Voice from the Holocaust.”

The couple was immediately hooked and felt like they were onto something. “As soon as we read it and heard her words, she just sounded like any teenager,” said Langer. “We thought, ‘this could be a way to bring audiences that could connect with a younger generation.’”

The notebook, recovered after the war by the only person Laskier confided to about the diary—her childhood best friend, a Polish girl named Stanisława Sapińska – was publicly unveiled in 2007 at Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust museum, and was published in English as “Rutka’s Notebook.” (Sapińska is one of the characters in “Rutka.”)

What struck Langer and Schwartz was the stark contrast within Rutka’s pages—between the everyday worries of a teenage girl and the unimaginable horrors surrounding her. “All of those things were juxtaposed with the horrific events happening around her in the world,” explained Schwartz.

The creators found the composers for “Rutka” after searching for a sound that fit Rutka’s voice. Initially imagining a punk rock style, they spent several days listening to music on Spotify. Langer discovered the band Pearl and the Beard. “I thought that their sound was cinematic and visceral, and it just felt right.”

Schwartz said that after setting their sights on and planning to approach the band, he discovered they had broken up. But an email address he discovered on the defunct band’s website was the ticket.

A meeting was set for a Starbucks in Brooklyn with Jeremy Lloyd-Styles and Jocelyn Mackenzie, the two founders of the band. “They spent two hours with us that day and asked incredibly smart, insightful questions,” said Schwartz. In the end, they said, “We’re in. We want to do this,” she recalled.

Now they needed a writer. Someone already involved in the project recommended looking at Beber’s work. “We did and thought her writing was really insightful and powerful.” She, too, agreed to meet with them. Quickly, the three discovered that they had a connection – Beber, who had recently been a writer and executive producer on the hit television show, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” was a Miami native, too.

She also had knowledge of the Holocaust, which the playwright said helped to fill in some of the gaps. Rutka’s diary is only 60 pages long. The producers, who had secured the rights to the book from Rutka’s half-sister, Dr. Zahava Scherz, had been speaking with Holocaust survivors and learning about Bedzin, where Rutka lived. Beber said that she talked to Zahava, describing her as an “amazing woman who discovered, when she was about 14, that her father had another family that had been killed in the Holocaust.”

Insights like those from Zahava and the producers have helped inform the script, while the playwright said she has drawn from her own experiences.

“We are writing a show that isn’t historical journalism, said Beber, “so we’ve had to imagine things. My own story as a Jewish person is (that) I remember my parents talking about it, but they didn’t experience it. But on my husband’s side, both of his parents were Holocaust survivors who came to the U.S. as children as refugees. My children, who are now young adults, know that their great grandmother was killed in Poland by Nazis. So, there are stories, but I think it’s becoming more distant in time.”.

The musical started as a one-week workshop at the Professional Performing Arts High School on West 48^th Street in New York.

“It’s sort of the New World analog here where a lot of the professional Broadway teens go to high school. We thought it would be a perfect fit for the show, both because it gave us an opportunity to see how the next generation would connect with the piece and the music and because it gave them an educational opportunity to be part of a professional workshop,” said Schwartz.

The students continued for weeks after the workshop was supposed to be finished. And then there was the offer to do a pair of concerts of the music at the New York Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center in January of 2023.

“Those sold out instantly and had long standby lines, and it was the first opportunity for industry professionals to hear the music and get familiar with the piece. And then we quickly got an offer from the Cincinnati Playhouse to present the musical’s world premiere.

It’s not a pie-in-the-sky idea that the musical could end up on New York’s Great White Way and London’s West End. The playhouse has garnered a track record of being a launching pad for musicals, including “Ragtime,” and “The Last Five Years.”

The married collaborators, who met while performing in Miami’s Southwood Junior High/South Center for the Arts production of “The Music Man,” said they are determined to bring this show to as many people as possible.

They want “Rutka” to be a catalyst for community, education, and healing. Langer, who is a teaching artist as well as a performer, said that in talkbacks and workshops with students, “many had never heard of the Holocaust.” Following a student matinee in Cincinnati, kids from parochial schools, public schools, and from diverse backgrounds, wanted to know more: “Where can I read the diary? Where can we learn more? Listen to the music again?” Langer said the cast received fan art and impromptu letters from the students recounting their experiences.

(WATCH: “Rutka” World Premiere)

Beber said she has found immeasurable satisfaction in being part of continuing Rutka’s story and introducing her to a new generation.

“Rutka wanted her story to go on, and she very much wrote, and hid this diary, with the hope that even if she did not live – and this we know from her friend who did survive and who retrieved the diary – that people would learn what had happened to them.”

For Schwartz and Langer, bringing “Rutka” home is a chance for the community to be part of the musical’s next chapter.

“We don’t want it to be just another show; there’s a bigger mission and we would be beyond thrilled to have as many South Floridians be a part of this process and this journey as possible.”

WHAT: “Behind the Scenes of ‘Rutka’’’

WHEN AND WHERE: 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 5, Michael-Ann Russell JCC, 18900 NE 125^th St., North Miami. $15, general admission, $10, members, students and seniors; 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 18, Alper JCC Miami, 11155 SW 112 St., Miami, $10 members; 7:30 p.m., Nov. 19, Miami Beach JCC, 4221 Pinetree Drive, Miami Beach, $10 members.

INFORMATION: www.rutkathemusical.com

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: Unmasking Gablestage’s ‘Harry Clarke’: One Actor, Endless Personas

Mark H. Dold stars in GableStage’s production of David Cale’s “Harry Clarke,” through Sunday, Nov. 2 at the Coral Gables theater. (Photo by Magnus Stark, courtesy of GableStage)

Mark H. Dold returns in his third production with GableStage — a one-man tour de force, David Cale’s “Harry Clarke.”

Dold, so memorable playing dozens of characters in producing artistic director Bari Newport’s 2024 “The Lehman Trilogy,” performs his shapeshifting magic again. This time, he’s Philip Brugglestein, a shy Midwestern man, emotionally stunted by an abusive childhood. He invented a bolder character as a youngster — a cocky Englishman — and now as a grown man and living in New York, he finds that people, as well as a himself, seem to like the seductive persona of an alter ego. Harry Clarke, unlike Philip Brugglestein, can be (and bed) virtually anyone.

In the 80-minute play, Dold brings to life 19 characters and believably portrays not only Philip and Harry, but is father and mother, a closeted boyfriend, the boyfriend’s folk-singing sister and their parents, and some others along the way – each are distinct.

Frank J. Oliva’s set is purposefully sparse with an Adirondack chair and table on stage left, and six-cylindrical lights in different corners of the stage.

There’s a large LED screen that covers the entire back wall that changes color to create the different atmospheres that Philip/Harry inhabits – a small New York studio apartment, a lavish loft, luxury yacht, a Cherry Hill, N.J. backyard, and late-night gay bar. The lighting design with hues of pinks, blues, and violet, are impeccable by David Lander, making sure the changes are sharp but not intrusive to the character’s world.

Alexander Sovronsky is sound designer and audio engineer Hector Martinez makes sure that the echoes of waves crashing on a Caribbean beach, music by Sade (there’s a story that goes along with that in the play), an a capella singer in a folksy bar along with the cacophony of New York City is crisp.

Harry Clarke is the devil on Brugglestein’s shoulder. At first, it all starts off innocently enough, but one day, when staring into the mirror, Clarke tells Brugglestein, “Give me 90 days.” And the whirlwind of the double life begins. While Philip is quiet, socially awkward, almost invisible, Harry is everything he’s not—confident, suave, and fearless.

Cale has said his writing is inspired by film noir and crime movies and wanted elements of a thriller in his play. In fact, when Bruggelstein is alone in his apartment, he plays noir soundtracks. When a visitor comes to the apartment, they point out the number of the genre films on the shelf. When Bruggelstein decides to follow a stranger, he exclaims, “This must be what a stalker feels like.”

The playwright’s words offer glimpses of someone who could be on the verge of mentally unraveling—but, the choices it seems in this production, hold back just as things could become uncomfortably intense.

There’s a particularly tragic moment when Bruggelstein tells the story of his drunken father getting run over by a mower, which the young boy witnessed. He describes it almost casually, as if watching from a distance, and here, Cale’s words give us the insight the disassociation that has led to Bruggelstein’s emotional fracture.

Might the delivery and direction have been more raw, more disturbing — maybe the choice for a hint of maniacal ? There are other places that were ripe for edge-of-your-seat impact: when Harry Clarke approaches a young boy in a gay bar late at night – the boy tells the man he still lives with his parents. Will Harry Clarke take advantage?  When he travels to New Jersey for a tryst with his boyfriend’s mother, there’s something cagey, but here it’s played on the surface. There are pieces of Bruggelstein that are off kilter here simmering beneath the surface, never fully realized, and lacking in any sort of tension except that his true identity might be revealed.

The interpretation does give us other ways to relate to Harry Clarke – the different faces we all wear in daily lives, to impress, to find a piece of ourselves that might cover our own insecurities.

Regardless, what’s left is an undeniably skillful and often thrilling performance, wrapped in a clever script. It’s also pure magic to be taken on the journey with Dold who, along with director Julianne Boyd, has created full-fledged personas in the individual characters present yet played by one man.

There’s an intriguing backstory, too, which GableStage’s audiences unknowingly part of something bigger.

This production was to have been performed at Boyd’s Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, Mass., indoors in its 2020 season during the pandemic, becoming the first theater in the United States to put on an indoor show featuring an Actors’ Equity performer since the outbreak, according to the New York Times. But Massachusetts’ government, despite allowing museums and indoor dining establishments to allow patrons, would not say yes to indoor theater.

Boyd moved Dold and “Harry Clarke” outdoors, performing the show with a seated audience of 60 maintaining social distancing from each other and from the stage. Five years later, the production, now opening GableStage’s season, allowed for the director, actor and lighting designer, as Newport said “to fully explore the play’s uniquely titillating story in a controlled environment, with all the visual and technical sophistication that couldn’t have been achieved under a tent.” The team rehearsed this version in New York and finalized the updated production in Miami.

It’s a good example as to why GableStage, under Newport’s leadership, presents such satisfying theater – it’s her willingness to take on challenges and put interesting works on stage.

WHAT: “Harry Clarke” by David Cale

WHERE: GableStage at the Wolfson Family Theatre in the Biltmore Hotel, 1200 Anastasia Ave., Coral Gables 

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. 2 p.m. Wednesday (with a performance talkback) and Sunday. Also, 2 p.m. performance on Saturday, Nov. 1. Through Sunday, Nov. 2. On Sunday, Oct. 26 after the 2 p.m. performance, MOSAIC Miami: Can We Talk: “To Thine Own Harry Clarke Be True.”

COST: $60, $70, and and $80 includes $10 service 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. 

Review: Loxen Entertainment’s ‘Young Frankenstein’ Is Alive At The Colony Theatre

Loxen Entertainment revives its “Young Frankenstein” at the Colony Theatre in Miami Beach through Sunday, Oct. 19. They previously produced the musical in 2023 at the Manuel Artime Theater. (Photo courtesy of Loxen Productions)

An old favorite gets a fresh treatment with Loxen Entertainment’s production of “Young Frankenstein,” now at the Colony Theatre in Miami Beach.

“Young Frankenstein” is a musical adaptation of the 1974 Mel Brooks beloved, classic comedy, which was written by Brooks and Gene Wilder, who played the title role. It’s a hilarious send-up of not only the cinematic Frankenstein franchise, but the genre of monster movies made by Universal Pictures in the 1930s.

Brooks brought “Young Frankenstein” to Broadway in 2007, six years after his success with “The Producers,” hoping that his monster musical, too, would be a hit.

The plot follows the movie closely, but the musical numbers, written by Brooks, give the story bounce and buoyancy. The original Broadway production garnered mixed reviews and earned four Tony Award nominations. The show is now a popular choice for regional theaters, especially around Halloween.

Young Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (pronounced Frankensteen by the good doctor) has a brilliant career as a medical professor in New York City, along with a narcissistic bombshell of a fiancé named Elizabeth. And while he’s not above singing a rousing, rhapsodic tribute to the human brain in the delightful and linguistically challenging opening number, he is definitely the straight man in the lunacy of the world around him.

Frederick goes to Transylvania to settle his notorious grandfather’s estate – Grandpa Victor was the one who brought a dead man back to life, an act that Frederick abhors. He meets Igor, grandson of Victor’s trusty servant; Inga, a comely, curvaceous lab assistant, and Frau Blucher – cue horse whinny – the castle’s housekeeper. And even though Frederick is disgusted by his grandfather’s obsession with playing God, he soon follows in grandpa’s footsteps, determined to prove that he can reanimate a dead man as an intelligent being.

Loxen’s production of “Young Frankenstein” is impressive. They use the Colony Theatre’s large stage to great effect, with scenic designers Pedro Balmaseda and Jorge Noa creating a spooky, cavernous castle that looks as if it goes on forever.  Special kudos to the designers for the creative, floaty pillars at the start of the second act. And Loxen must have spent a small fortune on dry ice to create the foggy atmosphere needed to ground “Young Frankenstein” in the right place and time.

That all literally sets the stage for the talented cast to do their stuff. Benjamin Leon IV plays Frederick Frankenstein with wit and charisma. Leon is a likable everyman plopped in the midst of unusual circumstances and displays physical and theatrical agility. Leon makes it fun to watch his Frederick go from mild-mannered professor to mad scientist.

Corey Vega shines as Igor, Frederick’s loyal servant. The handsome young actor disappears under Igor’s cloak and hump, creating a lovably creepy character, who delivers some of the best lines in the show with wicked glee.

As Inga, Daniella Alexis Santos beautifully balances her character’s innocence and overt feminine charms. She also has a lovely, soaring voice, and amazing gymnastic prowess, both of which are used fully on her first act song, “Roll in the Hay.”

As Frau Blucher. Irene Gonzalez achieves the near impossible – she takes a classic character indelibly associated with the original actress – the film’s Cloris Leachman – and makes it her own creation. Gonzalez’s methodical, robotic movements, her grimace every time she hears a horse whinny, her performance of Frau Blucher’s big number, “He Vas My Boyfriend,” are all glimmers of brilliance.   In real life, Gonzalez sports a shaven head and the decision to leave it bare was an inspired choice, one that imbues Frau Blucher with a greater sense of mystery and turns a mundane moment toward the end of the show into a hilarious sight gag.

Javi Cabrera is terrific as The Monster. Cabrera has a tough job – not only must he act under heavy makeup and other accoutrements that create The Monster’s look, but his character must evolve in a very short time. Cabrera’s halting walk, his emotive grunts, and later, his impressive tap-dancing moves add up to one endearing monster.

Fabiana Cueto plays self-absorbed Elizabeth to the hilt, reinterpreting all the typical bombshell cliches to great effect, especially on her first act number, “Please Don’t Touch Me.”

Craig Dearr is impressive in dual roles, as that Inspector suspicious of the goings on now that a Frankenstein is back in the castle, but especially as the lonely blind man who offers hospitality to The Monster. The large ensemble is a hard-working bunch, whether they are playing angry villagers or tap dancers.

The talented cast is matched by a team of designers who bring the show to life. Beth Fath’s costume design, especially her BDSM-inspired look for Frau Blucher, are inventive and playful. Amanda Enriquez’s hair and makeup design, so crucial to “Young Frankenstein,” are spot on. Imran Hylton’s choreography throughout the show, but especially on the showstopping “Puttin’ On the Ritz” tap number, keeps the action moving and adds the needed razzle-dazzle.

Loxen Entertainment’s production of “Young Frankenstein” is a delightfully raucous romp through and old classic story.

WHAT:  “Young Frankenstein”

WHERE:  The Colony Theatre, 1040 Lincoln Rd., Miami Beach

WHEN:  8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday; through Oct. 19.

COST:  Friday and Sunday: $50, $60, and $70. Saturday and Sunday: $35, $71, and $83.

INFORMATION: 305-674-1040 or loxen.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: ‘Spitfire Grill’ at Actors’ Playhouse a Tender, Sugar-Coated Musical

Emily Van Vliet Perea, Laura Turnbull, Nate Promkul, Kimberly Doreen Burns, and Heather Jane Rolff in “The Spitfire Grill” at Actors’ Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre, Coral Gables, through Sunday, Nov. 2. (Photo by Alberto Romeu, courtesy of Actors’ Playhouse)

The fish out of water story begins when a woman, fresh off the bus from prison, shows up in the small town of Gilead, Wisconsin.

The sheriff told his warden friend he’d find a place for Percy Talbot (Emily Van Vliet Perea), and so he does – at Hannah Ferguson’s (Laura Turnbull) diner, the Spitfire Grill.

The musical, now playing at Actors’ Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre as the kick off to its season through Sunday, Nov. 2, got its inspiration from the 1996 movie “The Spitfire Grill.” Watching the film almost 30 years later, the movie —a star vehicle for Ellen Burstyn as Hannah and with a very young Marcia Gay Harden as Shelby Thorpe — plays like a Hallmark Channel movie.

It got mixed reviews when it opened for being dark and dramatic. James Valcq and Fred Alley kept the drama (most of it anyway) but lightened up “The Spitfire Grill” when they decided it needed a folksy musical score with the underpinnings of country, bluegrass and blues influences. The musical opened off-Broadway in 2001.

Still, the redemption story, second chances and finding a home in the comfort of strangers, even as a musical, has its Hallmark moments. So, how to overcome that? Dive in with earnestness and commitment, and your audience will excuse and maybe even love some of the hokey moments.

Director David Arisco had his heart set on “The Spitfire Grill” for some time and believed the small-scale musical would be a mighty nice fit for the intimate space in the theater’s 300-seat second-floor Balcony Theatre. Brandon Newton’s set is certainly what creates the immersion into the world of Gilead – Hannah’s porch on stage right and the rest of the space filled with the kitchen and main diner area, along with Sam Sigler’s props that give the Spitfire genuineness.

The musical opens with Percy waxing poetic about turning the page on a new life. “What seems like fifty years, or maybe it was five. It’s hard to count the days when you’re buried alive.” And then Alley’s lyrics use the familiar phrase of a children’s hide-and-seek game, which signals it’s safe to come out without a penalty – it’s a metaphor that Percy sings as she gets ready to face the townsfolk – “Ready or not, here I come, olly olly oxen free.”

Van Vliet Perea is fetching as Perchance “Percy” Talbot, the rough and tumble parolee from Detroit, who brings along with her a Southern accent from growing up in the mountains of West Virginia. It even more so entrenches the character as an outsider in the small midwestern town, and Van Vliet Perea’s accent is spot on. Her strong vocals are a perfect fit for the country-style folk. The simple lyrics sometimes belie the complicated structure of the songs with Van Vliet Perea and standout Kimberly Doreen Burns as Shelby wrapping the notes so seamlessly that the storytelling, which could get lost, remains front and center.

In the second act, Burns’ perfect soprano soars in the interpretation of the beautiful “Wild Bird.” The actress has the task of making convincing one of the most classic of character arcs: shy wallflower comes out of her shell. Here, tragically meek Shelby finds strength through her sisterhood at the Spitfire Grill.

Laura Turnbull as the owner of the Spitfire, brings the right feisty energy to the role of the widow ready to hang up the towel. She’s particularly convincing when she has a change of heart about the outlier when she realizes Percy may be the exact infusion needed to give the sleepy town a reason to wake up. But Turnbull’s Hannah is loud and clear in the first strains of their meeting singing: “Smart mouthed girl, fresh outta jail, can’t tell a skillet from a garbage pail.”

For comic relief, there’s nosy postmistress Effy Krayneck, with Heather Jane Rolff playing the self-appointed town crier with deft coming timing.

While the authors have given their female characters plenty to work with, the two male characters, Hannah’s nephew, Caleb Thorpe, played by Jim Ballard, and Sheriff Joe Sutter (Nate Promkul) are not as dimensional.

The talented Ballard makes the best of down-on-his-luck Caleb, who isn’t given many redeeming qualities. He’s lived in the shadow of Hannah’s son, Eli, who went missing in action in Vietnam. Married to Shelby, the former foreman of the town’s quarry, is bitter and frustrated about everything. Ballard’s solid baritone soars with the chain-gang rhythm of “Digging Stone” – “A man is more than blood and bone when he’s shoulder to shoulder digging stone.”

Sheriff Joe is a more difficult character to dig into. Promkul certainly tries but the swiftness in which the writers have the character fall head over heels for the stranger in town, wanting to settle down and create a family, has too little time to seem realistic in its development. The character seems to only serve as a vehicle to allow for Percy’s big reveal.

Tom Wahl drifts in and out as The Visitor and finds a way for his character to speak volumes without uttering a word.

Kudos to the five-piece band, led by Nick Guerrero, with Alvaro Bermudez on guitar/mandolin, Tatiana Semichastnoval playing accordion, Tony Seepersad, violin, and Marcel Krasner on cello, whose musical artistry brought out the best in the score.

As a side note, the band was hidden only somewhat behind a black curtain stage left, creating a distraction with the conductor’s light just visible enough to pull focus and interrupt immersion into the story. Since the music is so integral, perhaps a better choice would have been to have the small band of players visible.

Eric Nelson’s lighting, using clouds that changed colors on a large backdrop projection, created mood changes and helped signal passages of time. Reidar Sorensen’s sound design was crystal clear, and Ellis Tillman’s costumes – from Hannah’s coveralls to Effy’s blue postal sweater with logo and matching logo bag added authenticity.

With “The Spitfire Grill,” Arisco delivered on his promise of a heartfelt love letter, guiding the production with sensitivity and an eye for the musical’s subtle nuances.

While the sugar coating may be too thick for some tastes, “The Spitfire Grill” takes you a million miles away from Miami and from all of the noise of the constant news cycle. And, right now, that’s as satisfying as apple pie.

WHAT:  “The Spitfire Grill”

WHERE:  Actors’ Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre, 280 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables

WHEN:  8 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday; 3 p.m. Sunday through Nov. 2.

COST:  $45, $55, $65, $75, 80, $85, and $100.

INFORMATION: 305-444-9293 or actorsplayhouse.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.

The Journey of Sergio Blanco’s Unique Play ‘Kassandra’ To Miami

Ysmercy Salomón stars in “Kassandra” at Westchester Cultural Center, produced by Arca Images, opening Thursday, Oct. 16 through Sunday, Oct. 26. (Photo courtesy of Arca Images)

Sergio Blanco wrote “Kassandra” in a single day while in Athens, Greece.

“I had gone there for the premiere of another one of my plays, and since I had a few days to wander, I thought, ‘Why not write a piece in Athens so I can have something in common with Euripides, Socrates, and Aeschylus,” said the French-Uruguayan playwright.

“Kassandra” is being performed by South Florida Hispanic theater company Arca Images, opening Thursday, Oct. 16 through Sunday, Oct. 26 at Westchester Cultural Center.

The result was a monologue – with the titular character named from Greek mythology, a Trojan princess fated by Apollo with the gift of prophecy, but then cursed when she rejected his advances. Blanco’s heroine is a transgender immigrant who tells her story in broken English.

“From the moment I decided to choose a character from Greek mythology, mythology inevitably entered the text. I found it fascinating to mix Greek mythology with our contemporary world,” said the playwright.

Blanco said he went out walking along the streets of Athens. “(I) started saying the monologue out loud. As I spoke and ideas came to me, I wrote them quickly and succinctly on a map.”

When he returned to the hotel where he was staying, he said the map was covered with hundreds of words and ideas, which he then transferred onto paper. “Little by little,” he said, the text developed. “That same night, when I went to bed, the play was finished.”

Alexa Kuve, executive and artistic director of Arca Images, said there were many reasons to choose the play to open the company’s 25^th season, including working with Blanco on a successful production of his work “Tebas Land” in a past season. But there was another compelling factor that would assure “Kassandra” coming to life, according to Kuve. It was the actress she had in mind to take on the tour de force role.

“When I read the play, I loved the script. But the reason why I am doing ‘Kassandra’ is because I have Ysmercy Salomón. I wouldn’t want to do this monologue without her,” said Kuve. There was also Salomón’s association with Carlos Celdrán, who is directing “Kassandra” and is a longtime collaborator with Arca Images.

Kuve said that Salomón had a “great career in Cuba” and that Celdrán was her teacher.  The actress worked with Celdrán at his Argos Teatro, the award-winning Havana-based theater company he founded in 1996. She went on to appear in film and television roles in Cuba, including 2012’s “Penumbras,” where she starred as Tati, a dancer living during the island’s post Soviet crisis in 1991.

“ ‘Kassandra’ is something that I was always interested in working on,” said Salomón, who now lives in Miami, about the one-character play, where she is on stage for 90 minutes. “She is the possibility to express everything that we have as an actor inside of us.”

The actress said she shares much in common with her character she portrays. “I was born in Cuba, so English is my second language, just to let you know” she confided as she apologized during the interview for her own ability to communicate “without a mistake” in English. “And it’s the same for Kassandra. She’s an immigrant and she’s trying to express herself with the audience with broken English, with the few words she knows.”

In the opening scene, the character is sitting inside of what Blanco describes as a “truly squalid and extremely marginal bar located on the outskirts of a city.” She tells a would-be buyer that she does not speak Spanish.  “I’m not speak Spanish. . . . .Very little. Hombre… Casa… Sexo… Dinero… Caro… Muy caro… Hola… Señor… Muy señor amigo… I’m sorry… It’s not ok… It’s very difficulty for me… But I speak English… Little English… Sorry… Disculpe…”

To those who want to produce “Kassandra,” Blanco is emphatic in the preface of the play that it not be translated.  “This piece was written in the precarious English of its character, Kassandra, who barely knows it, and in the insufficient English of its author, who is completely ignorant of it. It is a language of survival for both,” he writes.

His purpose, he said, is that audiences must make their own investment in understanding the character.

“I also love the idea that Kassandra refuses to be translated — it’s her way of asserting her identity. No one has the right to translate her, to understand her, we have to make the effort of understanding her language.”

Salomón said it isn’t only speaking the lines but having to be fully involved in the way the character communicates.

“It’s very interesting for an actress because you have to find different ways to express everything. It isn’t just verbally, it’s with your body and with the emotions.”

And while she says that character is not “living a very good life,” what’s refreshing is her positive outlook.

“She says, ‘I have hope in the future.’ And this is wonderful. Sometimes we are playing characters that are not very optimistic. So for Kassandra, living for the day and hope in the future, that is her dream.”

Since he released “Kassandra,” it has been performed on five continents in more than 30 productions.

Last year. an operatic version premiered at Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, with music composed by Argentinian musician Pablo Ortiz. “He translated Kassandra’s world into the musical realm with great fidelity to the spirit of the play. The roles was magnificently sung by trans soprano Maria Castillo de Lima.” The production, with the same soprano in the role, then played the Greek National Opera.

Blanco wrote his play about a transgender immigrant in 2008 who states, “I am not a man, I am not a woman, I am Kassandra.” And while times for LBGTQ+ individuals and their rights has always been a divided issue, in 2025, there were 1,000 anti-transgender bills introduced across 48 states in the United States, according to the independent research organization Trans Legislation Tracker.

The playwright hopes that his character’s story helps people understand what he considers to be three important issues.

“First, that gender identity is something that’s constructed. Second, that each person is free to create their own construction. And third, that as a society we must respect each other’s choices. ‘Kassandra’ is a text that defends freedom — not freedom as a slogan or motto, but freedom as an inalienable right.”

WHAT:  “Kassandra” by Sergio Blanco

WHEN: 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 16, Friday, Oct. 17, Saturday,Oct. 18 and 25. 5 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 19 and 26.  (Sergio Blanco will be performing a U.S. premiere of his one-person show “Memento Mori” in Spanish with English translation at 8 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 23 and Friday, Oct. 24.)

WHERE: Westchester Cultural Arts Center, 7930 SW 40th St., Miami

COST: $30, $25 for seniors, students with valid ID.

INFORMATION: (305) 934-5103 and arcaimages.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: In Absurd ‘Art Duty,’ An Examination of Art, Life, Death and Stuff in Between

Jeff Burleson, left, as Tobin and Marla Lopez as Asher in Art Duty” at LakehouseRanchDotPNG in Miami Lakes through Oct. 5. (Photo by Richard Lewis, courtesy of LakehouseRanchDotPNG).

There’s a piece of art on a tall white pedestal. A sculpture. It is two piles of folded clothes, each with a worn sneaker atop and tied with twine. Many times, throughout the play, “Art Duty” by Daniel Prillaman at LakehouseRanchDotPNG, those who come in to sometimes admire, sometimes abhor the work, comment on its appeal – mostly its shiny, gold

One visitor asks how much the installation has cost the government, setting up the boundaries of what’s identified as Art Plaza, not being just any museum.

The guards are not to reveal the information, but after the person shouts that he is a “taxpaying citizen,” the amount is revealed. Guard 1 Tobin refuses to answer, Guard 2 Asher says 15. “As in $15 million.” the person identified as Eggs asks? “No, 15 percent.” That would be 15 percent of the nation’s capital. What? Eggs is stunned. It’s just one of the kernels of information set forth to put the action in motion in the newly produced play running through Sunday, Oct. 5 at Main Street Players in Miami Lakes.

Much in the same vein as Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” (currently on Broadway, by the way, starring Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter), the two guards pass the time with conversation – none of it really deep. At one point, Asher talks of a dream about searching a grocery store for a can of tuna.

Characters drift in and out in an effort to provide commentary, each with a desire to see the work – either to admire it, to scorn it, or, in one case, to sketch it.

The pedestal has a label affixed to it. The playwright does not give direction on what the art should look like.

The work is attributed to LakehouseRanchDotPNG’s Indy Sulliero, who created the set, and Richard Lewis, the scenic paint artist/charge. They’ve titled it “It’s Not Subtle.”

Michael Font and Luis Otamendi play seven characters each. The two other characters are Jeff Burleson as eye-patch wearing security guard Tobin, and Maria Lopez as Guard No. 2 Asher. The guards are not depicted as male or female – their language doesn’t speak to gender per se.

LakehouseRanchDotPNG did Sandusky, Ohio-based Prillaman’s piece as a reading during its 2024 DotPDF series of new works from playwrights across the country. This is the first time it is receiving a full production.

The set of gray walls with white conveys a claustrophobic, stark space. It also relays the idea that this is the only piece of art within Art Plaza.

Sound by Alex Tarradell has wind whistling outside – there’s a coldness to all of it. A clock chimes in between scenes, suggesting the passage of time, which also serves as the introduction of a new scene and new characters all played by Font and Otamendi.

The characters are mostly absurd – we’re introduced at first to the Vomiter. He is offstage and his wretching goes on for quite a while. Asher (Lopez) wants to help but Tobin (Burleson), the more seasoned guard says they are unable to leave their post.

There’s Leopold Caldwell, the correspondent of the government run TV station, who must gush on air  about the artwork. The Sketcher comes to admire the piece with sketchbook in tow, but life interrupts his art ending in a loud shouting match with a love interest over the phone. Snobbish Rich Lover #1 and Rich Lover #2 come by to talk about their absolute love for the golden art. “I would have this Art’s babies,” says Rich Lover #1. The two end up in an obscure conversation about eyeballs and freakish rituals. It’s a bit difficult to follow.

Brandon Urrutia’s direction finds its way to keep the two guards planted in place while the other characters come in and out creating a swirl of mayhem. The action moves swiftly in what is a complicated piece filled with entrances and exits. Urrutia also is the lighting designer, using muted hues to depict the cold environment of the two guards, and brighter tones for the characters who are juxtapositions of the guards –whirling much of the time in contrast with monotony of the two central characters.

Prillaman’s piece is an expose on art and the meaning of life but some of the scenes could use better segues in order to feel as if the “visitors” connect in an overarching way. That they are representations of different societal sects makes a statement, for sure, but there could be more cohesion.

Erin Proctor’s costumes go from realistic to outlandish and are perfect for a play that has no specific time of past, present or future.

For the one dimension that is meant for the guards, both Burleson and Lopez breathe life into their guards. Lopez as Asher, the younger more inexperienced guard, bringing out Asher’s naiveté is a wonderful choice. And Burleson’s Tobin, just waiting for retirement, creates the complete opposite of the co-worker who has been assigned to join him on art duty.

In a scene where Burleson’s Tobin is struck by something funny, the actor’s ongoing and utterly believable laughter is one of the high points of the 90 minute, no intermission play.

It’s a lot of maneuvering for Font and Otamendi to play the many different characters but whether paired up or in single roles, each of them rise to the occasion. Font, with his long locks, grabs a lot of the attention with his outlandish depictions of Sketcher and one of the later characters who enters, Sandy Daniels, who says she has not arrived for the art, but has a “degree in talking.”

Prillaman has a gift for artful dialogue and comedy and has given his actors and the director much to work with. If there were a bit more information about what was outside of the four walls these characters inhabit – the world in which exists that creates what goes on inside – it might add a bit more context.

“Art Duty” does fulfill its absurdist, satirical mission especially during fraught times when the U.S. government is making decisions on what constitutes art, and the more recent and current debate over free speech.

WHAT:  Daniel Prillaman’s “Art Duty”

WHERE:  LakehouseRanchDotPNG, Main Street Playhouse, 6812 Main St., Miami Lakes

WHEN:  8 p.m., Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday through Sunday, Oct. 5

COST:  $20.

INFORMATION: 786-427-4721 and lakehouseranchdotpng.com

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.

There’s no place like home for two South Florida natives in the national tour of ‘The Wiz’

The ensemble of the North American touring company of the Broadway revival of “The Wiz” performs the Emerald City scene. The cast includes Miami native Amitria Fanae’ and Fort Lauderdale’s Kameren Whigham. The show opens at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts on Tuesday, Oct. 7. (Photo by Jeremy Daniel)

When the 50th anniversary tour of “The Wiz” opens at the Adrienne Arsht Center as the first show in the center’s Broadway in Miami season, two cast members will be performing on a stage where, as youngsters, they watched from the seats.

Amitria Fanae’, who plays Addaperle, The Good Witch of the North and understudies the roles of Aunt Em and Evillene, the Wicked Witch of the West, is a native of Miami; Kameren Whigham, a member of the ensemble, is originally from Fort Lauderdale. Both grew up immersed in South Florida’s performing arts scene.

“My very first stage experience was going to see a production of ‘Tambourines to Glory’ at Miami Northwestern Senior High School,” said Fanae.’   “I remember being so captivated by it. There was something so mesmerizing about seeing the arts and the actors being able to tell a story and it being so real,” said the graduate of Booker T. Washington Senior High School in Miami.

Whigham, who said he “came out of the womb dancing,” first getting into hip hop and ballroom, then ballet, jazz, modern and musical theater—was also shaped by South Florida’s arts programs.

“I used to go to the Arsht Center and watch the Miami City Ballet, and I saw shows like ‘The Lion King’  at that very theater,” said Whigham, a graduate of Dillard High School’s performing arts program.

“Now I get to perform on that same stage.”

The tour makes a stop at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts opening Tuesday, Oct. 7 and running through Sunday, Oct. 12.

After a 2024 Broadway run as of revival of the groundbreaking 1975 all-Black cast retelling of “The Wizard of Oz,” it’s the reimagining of the Frank Oz tale for a new generation, weaving in soul, R&B, gospel-rock, and ’70s funk. In its first national tour of the revival, Whigham said there are a few updates.

“The heart of “The Wiz” stays the same, but the heartbeat changes—a more modern sound, with contemporary fusion movement,” said Whigham.

Both performers followed their own yellow brick roads out of South Florida. Now living in Atlanta, Fanae’ went on to star as Celie in “The Color Purple,” a performance that earned her Broadway World’s Best Actress in a Musical award. She has also appeared in “Dreamgirls,” “Ain’t Misbehavin,’” “Godspell” and Disney’s “Festival of the Lion King.”

Whigham, a graduate of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, has danced with PHILADANCO! and appeared in Tyler Perry’s “A Jazzman’s Blues.” For both actors, this is their first Broadway national tour. For them, bringing this milestone production home feels like a full-circle moment.

“It’s a blessing. Growing up, I knew I wanted to inspire and give back to people, so I’m honored that my family, friends, and community get to see me perform on that very stage,” said Whigham.

Fanae’ echoed the sentiment, noting the pride she feels representing Miami as part of a national tour.

“I’m excited for my community to see the work that I put in and to know that there is beauty that comes from Liberty City and Overtown — and that no dream is too impossible to achieve with good work and faith,” said Fanae’.

That homecoming is framed by the vision of choreographer JaQuel Knight, who grew up in North Carolina where his Southern roots shaped his creative approach.

“I grew up in church, so the foundation of my artistry is rooted in Gospel, in the soul of the South,” he said.

Knight, the creative force behind Beyoncé’s dance moves on “Single Ladies,” has choreographed a long list of headline-making performances—from Shakira’s Super Bowl halftime show to Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP” video. But for him, “The Wiz” stands apart.

“It’s something about the story, how it’s told in this version, that feels like it’s a piece for everyone — regardless of your age range, regardless of where you come from,” he said. “There’s a little piece of music, a little piece of song, a little piece of story that everyone can lean into, and that makes this version very important for now.”

Knight described the cast as joyful, with “so much love and chemistry, which is magical to see on stage.” He added that he is eager for Miami audiences to experience that energy and he hopes they leave feeling “the sense of love, the sense of community, and the sense of joy that has been poured into this.”

It’s a vision Knight says extends beyond the stage, especially for young audiences. And inspired by his two South Florida performers, he also wants the production to be an inspiration.

“Especially the kids who will get to see themselves on stage, see themselves in these characters, and know they can dream just as big,” he said.

Fanae’ also spoke about the impact of young audiences seeing characters that feel representative of them on stage.

“For little Black and Brown kids to be able to sit in the audience and see themselves in these characters — that’s everything. It says,  ‘You can do this too, and your story matters,’ ” she said.

Whigham said some of the most powerful moments have been when he’s performed for young audiences.

“The most rewarding is hearing the audience clap, cry, scream — even 3,000 kids at a matinee who didn’t stop cheering,” he said. “Sometimes I have to pinch myself and be thankful I get to carry the torch of this legacy — that I get to inspire the next generation, just like I was inspired growing up watching ‘The Wiz.’ To now be a part of this cultural phenomenon is…honestly speechless.”

As “The Wiz” marks its 50th anniversary, the show’s themes may be as timely as ever.

“Right now, this story is what we need. Dorothy finding her tribe — people who don’t look like her — and choosing community,” said Knight.

For Fanae’ , it’s also an opportunity for audiences to look within.

“‘The Wiz’ shows us that we already have everything we need. Dorothy didn’t have to go searching far and wide — she had courage, love, and wisdom within her all along. That’s the kind of reminder audiences need right now.”

WHAT: Broadway in Miami’s “The Wiz”

WHERE: Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami

WHEN: 8 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, Oct. 7 to 10, 2  and 8 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 11, 1  and 7 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 12.

COST:  $47.97, $83.07, $118.17, $141.57, $159.12, $176.67  (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.