Creating the Dream that is ‘Disney’s Tarzan’ at Area Stage

Siena Worland as Jane and Coby Oram as Tarzan in Area Stage’s “Disney’s Tarzan” opening in previews July 17 through Aug. 10 at the company’s performance space in the Shops at Sunset, South Miami. (Photo by Chase Wells, courtesy of Area Stage)

Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, is singing and swinging his way into South Miami.

The character has been a staple of pop culture since 1914, when Edgar Rice Burroughs published the first of 24 novels about an orphaned British boy raised by apes in the jungles of Africa. Many movies about Tarzan followed, including a 1999 animated feature from Disney, which became the basis of a Broadway musical with a book by David Henry Hwang and music and lyrics by Phil Collins.

Area Stage, located in the Shops at Sunset, has had great success with its productions of other Disney musicals, including “The Little Mermaid” and “Beauty and the Beast.” Much of the inventiveness is through the vision of director Giancarlo Rodaz.

Rodaz pushes the boundaries of how musicals have traditionally been staged. For “The Little Mermaid,” audiences sat on benches, immersed in the under-the-sea realm of Ariel, while the story sprung to life around them.  For “Beauty and the Beast,” the company’s black box space was transformed into the Beast’s castle, and the audience sat at long banquet tables as the characters sang and danced in the aisles and on tabletops.

The director’s cohesive, immersive experience extends to every detail, including the show’s program. A scroll unfurled to reveal a treasure map for “The Little Mermaid” and for “Beauty and the Beast,” the playbill was fashioned as an elegant, oversized menu reminiscent of one presented at a fancy restaurant.

Rodaz says he’s received feedback from audiences who have been entranced by their immersion in the musicals.

“It makes them very happy to escape the world for a little bit and be able to go out . . . with the whole family,” says Rodaz. “And then there are adults that come and step back into their childhoods.”

Not A Theater Kid

Despite growing up in a theater family, Rodaz was not a theater kid.

“I’m the biggest tale of ‘force your kids to do things they don’t want to do’ because I wanted to stay home with my video games when I was a kid.”

He says when his parents, John Rodaz and Maria Banda-Rodaz, launched the theater and a theater school, their coaxing led him to discover theater.

“Like all the best things, the conservatory comes from a place of, what would I do for my own child? What would be the thing that I would make for my child? And my dad said, ‘This is what you’re doing this summer. We’re opening this conservatory and you’re going to be part of it.’ I think arts programs like the conservatory genuinely wake up something in kids.”

A summer at the conservatory at Area Stage changed everything for Rodaz, who was 13 years old and caught the theater bug. He played Motel Kamzoil, the tailor, in “Fiddler on the Roof,” but decided he’d rather use his talents behind the scenes and direct. He helped out at the theater, taking time to learn all the jobs needed to produce a show.

“I always tell people who want to start directing that you should at least have done every job once to fully understand the scope of what you’re asking the people to do,” he advises.

Rodaz directed his first show when he was 15, a production of “Winnie the Pooh Jr.,” which he said he took very seriously. Years later, his focus is still on family entertainment, which has become his oeuvre.

“I really love doing those types of stories,” says Rodaz. “I feel like not many people take those stories super seriously or try to do what Walt Disney himself tried to do, which is not make stories for children, but make stories for everybody. That’s very valuable, and that’s something that fuels a lot of what I do.”

Rodaz grew up watching the animated film “Disney’s Tarzan” and has wanted to produce the musical for some time.

“It’s such a fun Disney story to do because it’s not a fairy tale,” says the director. “It’s got fairy-tale elements, but it’s really rooted in the old kind of pulp, serialized fiction of Edgar Rice Burroughs stories. I really love that aesthetic and I haven’t done anything like that before.”

He says that his production of “Disney’s Tarzan” is a bit more “intimate” than the last two immersive musicals he’s helmed for Area Stage.

“It’s very up close and personal. “For ‘The Little Mermaid’ and other Disney shows, we always aimed for this massive scale of things. But we have a small cast to make the show very intimate and brought the story back to a more personal place, so it’s a good fit.”

Rodaz, a big Disney fan, says he used the Disney World theme parks as part of his inspiration for the current summer show.

“This show is fun because it’s digging into that Adventureland aesthetic,” he says. “We have all the expedition equipment. It’s very inspired by Jungle Cruise and the Tiki Room. That’s a lot of the stuff that we looked at for the show.”

‘Tarzan’ Dreams

 For Coby Oram, playing Tarzan is a dream come true.

“Tarzan has been a dream role of mine for a while,” said Oram. “I saw it when I was a kid at Tuacahn Center for the Arts in Utah, which is a beautiful, gorgeous, gigantic, outdoor theater space. I saw the regional debut of ‘Tarzan’ with a great family friend playing the titular role. I thought it was amazing. I’ve been keeping an eye out for it ever since I was 12.”

The actor who played Tarzan in the production that captivated Oram was James Royce Edwards, who encouraged Oram toward his theater dreams. When Oram booked the lead at Area Stage, he texted his old friend.

“The first thing he said was, ‘Man, I’m so proud of you. You’re going to crush it and you’re going to sing it better than I ever did.’ I don’t know if that’s true, but it was nice of him to say,” said Oram.

Oram was in Kansas City, alternating the lead role of Frankie Valli in “Jersey Boys” with his twin brother, Chris, when he was cast in Area Stage’s production of “Disney’s Tarzan.” Oram never auditioned for Rodaz in person; he was cast through video auditions and callbacks. Oram performed his final show as Frankie Valli and 90 minutes later he was on a plane headed for Miami. He joined the “Disney’s Tarzan” cast, who had already been rehearsing for a week, at 10 a.m. the next morning.

Much like Rodaz, Oram grew up immersed in the arts. He loved theater and performing but was dissuaded from making it his career. He studied engineering in college but dropped out because his true passion was for the arts. He and his brother moved to New York from their native Utah in 2022 and he soon booked his “Jersey Boys” contract.

Before rehearsals, Oram knew Area Stage by their reputation only and had heard about the immersive stagings of other Disney shows.

“When I started seeing the word ‘immersive’ thrown around, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect,” says the actor. “I was very intrigued. And since I’ve gotten here, it’s been such a privilege to see what that all means. The audience is up close. They’re just as up close as we are on stage because they’re sharing space with us.”

Oram says he’s drawn to challenging roles, and Tarzan presents unique role requirements.

“It’s very physically demanding. Rolling all over the floor, jumping up and down, climbing up and down steps, swinging, and doing all that in a loincloth,” he admits.

 Rodaz and Oram each have ideas about what they would like audiences to take away from “Disney’s Tarzan.”

“Tarzan’ is a beautiful show that has a beautiful message,” says Oram. “Sometimes people are different. Sometimes people look different, or they act different, or their brains seem to develop in different ways, like a human growing up in a jungle. And the beautiful thing to me in this script is that regardless of how different Tarzan is, he’s family. He’s not just accepted, but he’s loved he’s given a place, and he’s allowed to grow into the person he is rather than forced to become someone who fits.”

Rodaz sees “Disney’s Tarzan” as the next step in his journey of getting people excited about theater and entertaining them for a while.

“Kids come up to me, and they tell me it was their first show ever. They’re like, ‘I didn’t know it was gonna be this cool.’ And that’s what makes me want to keep doing it.”

WHAT:  “Disney’s Tarzan”

WHERE: Area Stage at Sunset Place, 5701 Sunset Dr., Suite 286, South Miami

WHEN: 7 p.m. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Previews, July 17 and 18, then July 19 through Aug. 10.

COST:   $88.75, general admission; $124.75, premium seating.  $52.75, general admission for children and students with ID, $83.75. premium seating. Lap seating permitted for children under 3.

INFORMATION: 305-666-2078 or areastage.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.

Music, stories and a shared soup the recipe for Miami New Drama’s “¡Viva La Parranda!”

Singer Betsayda Machado is a commanding presence in “¡Viva La Parranda!” The musical transports the audience to El Clavo and is staged as a backyard get together. Produced by Miami New Drama, the show opens Thursday, July 10 and runs through Sunday, July 27. (Photo by Xavier Lujan, courtesy of Miami New Drama)

“Paint your village and you will paint the whole world” is advice attributed to Nobel Prize winner Leo Tolstoy. Few theatrical experiences in recent memory make the point as vividly or successfully as the immersive music-driven production, “¡Viva La Parranda!”

The musical, commissioned by Venezuelan-born theater director, writer, and producer Michel Hausmann, co-founder and artistic director of Miami New Drama, and produced by Miami New Drama, returns to the Colony Theatre featuring the original ensemble, a revisiting of its premiere in 2019. The show opens Thursday, July 10 and runs through Sunday, July 27.

Staged as a backyard get-together around a typical sancocho, a traditional stew that cooks (for real) throughout the show in a large pot, “¡Viva La Parranda!” transports the audience to El Clavo, a small town in Barlovento, a region in the center north of Venezuela. With an approximate population of 1,500, El Clavo “is not in Wikipedia,” deadpans lead singer Betsayda Machado in one of the on-stage moments.

Barlovento has deep, centuries-old African roots, and the ensemble plays its music on ancestral instruments such as the mina (a large drum with roots in what is now Benin), the culo’e puya (small drums of Kongo origin), and the quitiplás (bamboo drums). In between songs, there are moving personal stories told by the performers, all neighbors of El Clavo. They aren’t professional actors but their grace and emotion come from authenticity.

Born in Caracas but raised in El Clavo, where her mother still lives, Machado was already a leading voice in Afro-Venezuelan music when an inquiry by producer Juan Souki led to the idea of capturing the experience of la parranda, a genre of Afro-Venezuelan music, but also the name of the ensemble that plays it and the party around the music.

Souki was an admirer of Machado well before he met her.

“I just knew her voice from a recording. It was a large vocal ensemble, so I didn’t even know her name, but I recognized her voice. Betsayda has such a universal voice that it feels like she can sing to you about the pulse of the earth,” he says.

Souki had collaborated with Machado on a bolero project and wanted to do more with her, so he asked her to show him something of interest from her hometown.

“And I told him, ‘Well, from my house, for as long as I can remember, there is a parranda every January first.’ The parranda in the pueblo de El Clavo is older than me, and I’ll be 52 in August,” says Machado in Spanish, during a telephone interview.

“So I took him to the town one weekend,” she says. “I brought all the parranderos up to date; they prepared as if Juan were a visiting mayor, and he was welcomed with a sancocho.”

The encounter, and hearing Machado perform in place with the group, led to a recording featuring her with La Parranda El Clavo: “Loé Loá (Rural Recordings Under the Mango Tree).” The title was no marketing cutesy.

“No sir. It was recorded under a mango tree,” says Machado. “And we invited the whole town so that they could experience what it was like to record an album. Because this was the first time that the group was called to do a recording.”

It was also Souki’s first recording.  “And my last,” he quickly adds. “It’s not what I do. But that album ended up on the New York Times’ list of the best albums of 2017.”

The reception of their recording opened the world to Machado and La Parranda El Clavo and led to international touring and appearances at events such as WOMEX and Global Fest, leading World Music gatherings, and venues such as the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

“The farthest the group had gone was the town of El Guapo. Our first trip [after the album] was to Canada,” says Machado, adding that “of course” the group on stage is only a small representation of the actual parranda. “The parranda is the whole town,” she says. “But I couldn’t bring the whole town onto the stage.”

Hausmann and Souki have known each other since they were teenagers in Caracas, and, as Hausmann puts it, “precocious theater directors.” However, at some point, Souki transitioned to music production and world music, recalled Hausmann. When Hausmann learned about the Parranda El Clavo project, he was moved. “Juan was posting videos about it, and I called him and told him, ‘We got to do a play with them . . . So we spoke about the idea of a documentary play.”

The result is a one-of-a-kind, profoundly moving theatrical documentary.

The backyard staging allows for the personal storytelling and the music to unfold naturally. “I remember that I said that we were going to prepare a sancocho,” says Machado. “And that’s how we have it in the play. Our first experiences as parranderos were born with a sancocho.” Naturally, at the end of the performance, the audience is invited onstage to share the experience and taste the food. That is no showbiz, that is the way of El Clavo.

In addition to Machado, members of the ensemble are Blanca Castillo, a retired nurse; Youse Cardozo, a firefighter; a founding member of the parranda, Asterio Betancourt, is a former basketball player and a drummer; and Nereida Machado, Betsayda’s sister, is a singer, dancer, and insurance analyst.

The stories they tell speak of family and community but also violence, death, single parenthood, drug use, and the back-breaking work in cocoa fields.

“They tell their stories in anecdotes,” says Souki. “At the end of the day, it’s soup, a beer, rice, and telling stories. The text is the literal anecdotes from them and their experiences as they were told to me in a very informal context, not from interviews, but long days of conversation.”

In 2019, when Hausmann first introduced “¡Viva La Parranda!”, he had yet to cultivate an audience that included mainstays, Miami’s predominant Venezuelan community.

“. . . Part of the reason we are bringing it back is because we might have done that show a little too early in our company’s career. . . This is our way of reminding this community that there is something intrinsic in the Venezuelan spirit that allows for […] continuing at it in the face of adversity.”

The foundation of the musical also brings something to the stage that resonates.

“The emotions are so powerful because they are raw and they are real. It is impossible not to connect with what they feel because we all recognize those emotions. And I think that that is the power of theater: to remind us that we are all made of the same emotional DNA and to some degree, every story is a universal story,” says Hausmann.

WHAT:  “¡Viva La Parranda!”

WHERE:  Miami New Drama at the Colony Theatre, 1040 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach.

WHEN: 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday; 5 p.m. Sunday, from July 10, previews, opening night, Saturday, July 12. Through July 27.

COST: $46.50, $66.50, $76.50

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.

Spanish Language Theater Company Presents Powerful ‘The Passage’

Guillermo Cabré , Caleb Casas, Elba Escobar, Juan David Ferrer, Rachel Pastor star in Josep María Miró’s “The Passage” (“La Travesía”) opening Friday, July 11 at the Westchester Cultural Arts Center. The play is in Spanish with simultaneous English translation. (Photo courtesy of Arca Images)

There’s a reason Catalan author Josep María Miró’s “The Passage” (in Spanish, “La Travesía”) has been translated into more than five languages.

The play, with its universal message, deals with the origins of human actions and why we do what we do.

Arca Images is presenting the Miami premiere of “The Passage” directed by Carlos Celdrán and, for the fourth time, the return of a work by the multi-award-winning Miró to the Miami stage.

In collaboration with Ajedrez Eventos de México, Roxy Theater Group, and the Miami-Dade County Auditorium, performances are at the Westchester Cultural Arts Center from Friday, July 11 to Sunday, July 20. The play will be presented in Spanish with simultaneous English translation.

“I was interested in talking about a conflict that takes place in ‘no man’s land’, where the protagonists go to help and realize there are also flaws in their work,” says Miró, about the work written in 2015.

In the plot, Sister Cecilia, the main character played by Elba Escobar, undertakes an ethical journey after a girl dies in her arms as a result of being brutally assaulted. The event forces her to reflect her work with a humanitarian project located in a war zone.

For Celdrán, resident director of Arca Images, Miró’s work “delves into a complex and unprecedented landscape.” He was seduced by the story, Celdrán emphasizes, because it is “material that allows us to think about the present, the current situation, the dilemmas of contemporary beings from a very personal perspective.”

Miró observes the strength of the piece in its discourse and its characters, who likes his writing to be a challenge for the actors on stage as well as the audience. “It’s a work,” he says, “above all, of actors, which is very attractive because of what it presents in terms of acting and theatricality.”

Escobar is joined by Arca Images’ actors Juan David Ferrer (Rai), Caleb Casas (Oscar), Guillermo Cabré (Isaac), and Rachel Pastor (Sister Isabel).

Celdrán emphasizes that “unraveling the keys to the text is a fundamental exercise. He is an essential author who meticulously focuses on every word, every detail, and every pause. His text is a living, breathing, and complementary organism. It is a form of writing of the utmost rigor that forces you to pay attention, to listen to the silences, the smallest hints.”

Connoisseurs and admirers of their respective works, the creative exchange has been a “different journey” for both artists, in which Miró’s theatrical language and Celdrán’s theatrical vision intersect.

“It’s a dialogue born of admiration, respect, and friendship. I find Celdrán to be a highly stimulating person. If we shared the same geography, I would surely have sneaked into a rehearsal to see the process, to see how the actors make the journey, but always from a place of respect,” says Miró.

Miró will attend performances of “The Passage” in Miami after the Barcelona premiere of his most recent work, “The Monster” (“El Monstruo”), in early July.

“What do I expect from the Miami audience? I like to see how they breathe, what questions they have, and how they read it. It’s exciting to come back and see how the audience receives it,” says the playwright.

Alexa Kuve’s company, Arca Images, receives a nod from Celdrán regarding the types of work selected to bring to Miami audiences. In response to Miró’s play, Celdrán comments, “It’s always worth investing in the theater that speaks to the present.”

Following the Miami performances, “The Passage” will travel to the El Círculo Teatral in Mexico City for a show at 6 p.m. on Sunday, July 27.

WHAT: Premiere of “La travesía” by Josep María Miró (in Spanish with simultaneous translation into English).

WHEN: 8 p.m., Friday, July 11 and 18, and Saturday, July 12 and 19; 5 p.m., Sundays July 13 and 20.

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

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

INFORMATION: www.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.

 

City Theatre makes a move, changes format for annual ‘Summer Shorts,’ here’s why

City Theatre will present a four-show event, script-in hand readings of 20 short plays from Thursday, June 26 through Sunday, June 29 at the Sandrell Rivers Theatre, Miami. Four of the original plays are from writers who are part of City Theatre’s “Homegrown” Playwright Development Program; some members of the group are pictured above. (Photo by Morgan Sophia Photography, courtesy of City Theatre)

It was 29 years ago when City Theatre premiered its first edition of “Summer Shorts,” which has become a staple of summer theater in South Florida.

The short play festival started at the University of Miami’s Ring Theatre in June 1996 with eighteen plays in two programs.

“Shorts” moved to the Carnival Center in 2007 (now the Arsht Center), where it has played ever since in the smaller black box Carnival Studio Theatre.

Now facing a financial shortfall after losing $50,000 as one of the casualties of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ vetoing of more than $32 million in state arts grants for 2024-25, City Theatre’s “Summer Shorts” producers say they had to get creative in how to present its annual short play festival. Canceling it wasn’t an option.

“The cost of producing theater has gone up over the years, especially since the pandemic,” says Gladys Ramirez, City Theatre’s executive director. “And then, last year, when the state of Florida cut funding to hundreds of organizations, including ours for general operating support, one of the realizations was that we could no longer afford to present ‘Summer Shorts’ at the Arsht Center. So, we needed to pivot.”

And along with the cuts from the state of Florida, Ramirez says there was a reduction in funding from Miami-Dade County as well as funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. “We were just getting hit from all directions, so looking at the budget, we couldn’t afford six-week contracts with artists to do a full production.”

The pivot was a new venue, the Sandrell Rivers Theater in Liberty City, and a new format: A four-show event, script-in-hand readings of 20 short plays. “So right now we’re still working with 30 actors, nine directors, and 20 playwrights, and we still have new works by local playwrights as part of the lineup,” says Ramirez. Different than in past years, each show will have a different mix of five ten-minute plays.

Four of the plays are from writers who are part of City Theatre’s “Homegrown” Playwright Development Program: Bianca Utset, Nick Valdes, Cristina Marie Pla-Guzman and JC Gutierrez. Other plays in the festival were selected from the Susan J. Westfall National Short Playwriting Contest, which is a nationwide call for playwrights to submit short scripts of any style or genre.

Pla-Guzman, whose play “I. You,” will be performed at 3 p.m. on Sunday, June 29, says that when she first met with the Homegrown group, she knew the directive was to work on a short play for the festival.

“A lot of things in my life personally were happening at the same time. I had just lost my grandmother whom I loved very much, and I was dealing with my oldest daughter’s autism diagnosis. You know, they say writers should write what they know, so I started capturing moments in my life.”

She says the play is very closely autobiographical about a mother and her two daughters dealing with an autism diagnosis and being “pushed and pulled to grow through love, and under that, unconditional love is there all the time.”

Pla-Guzman brought in a prop for her reading, yellow roses. “My grandmother loved yellow roses.”

She says in her short play, yellow roses fall from the sky as a symbol to the mother signaling that her grandmother is always with her, guiding her.

An educator and an actor, Pla-Guzman says she’s accustomed to performing her own work, so this will be the first time she’ll be seeing someone else’s interpretation of what she’s created.

“I’m excited about that and nervous,” she admits. Next up for the Homegrown playwright is the directive to write a full-length script. “I already have an idea,” she says.

JC Gutierrez’s short “Burn Book” takes on banned books. He’s also directing two of the short plays in the festival.

“I feel like City Theatre is always good at coming up with stuff that’s funny, relevant, and topical, and it hasn’t lost that part of its charm,” he says about the new format.

Gutierrez, who majored in theater performance at FIU, and is now the artistic director at JCAT, a theater at the JCC in North Miami, and an arts educator, says getting into the Homegrown program was a way for him to get more serious about playwrighting.

“I had always written but never really received guidance and structure. It’s the one thing in my theater wheelhouse that I hadn’t developed as much, so I wanted to take the opportunity to work alongside other developing playwrights.”

The idea for his short, performed at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 28, came from his background of teaching ancient studies and world history to middle and high schoolers. “It’s essentially about the last literate man on Earth who is a former professor. He’s been hired, well, forced, to burn books and only keep the ones that are safe for consumption, according to the government. He’s taking too long to do it, so they enlist a ‘dreg,’ an illiterate person and the lowest member of the social class in this dystopian world. Together, they discover a book of all of the sacred texts of humanity and they have to decide whether they need to burn it or not. That’s where the conflict happens.”

Adding a throughline to festival is actress/comedian Jannelys Santos who will be the emcee, an original character Santos created for the production. She’s the chief operating officer of Little Haiti’s Villian Theater and has been performing with Villain since 2015. “Summer Shorts” is a co-production with Villain Theater this year. Additionally, Peter Mir of Villain is the partner in crime to Santo’s Sanchez as the bandleader in an original role he created.

“We definitely wanted to give this more of a production value than a reading series,” says Margaret Ledford, City Theatre’s artistic director. “Villain Theater are experts in the short form, such as improv and stand-up comedy. So when we put our heads together we thought that they would be the perfect partner.”

Santos will play an original character created for the festival, emcee Rhonda Sanchez (say the name aloud for the riff on Florida’s governor).

“The show is fully produced in the sense that we’ve created this fictional character as a host and we’ll have live music with a few musical numbers, and a projection component. So it will feel more elevated than a staged reading in black box,” says Ramirez.

Continuing “Summer Shorts” at a different venue and using the staged reading format took some consideration before it was finally settled on, reveals Ramirez.

“People were like, ‘Why are you doing this?’ It was a very difficult decision that took a lot of conversation between Margaret and I and our board. We have this duty as a nonprofit and as artists to be creative and continue creating opportunities for our community, and to laugh. Because what else can we do, you know? And so that’s why the device of using Rhonda to create this awareness in a parody format is really what we’re going for,” says Ramirez.

There’s a bit of a comfort level, too, for Ramirez and Ledford working at the Sandrell Rivers Theatre. Fantasy Theatre Factory, who mostly perform, and tour works for young audiences, is the company that manages and operates the theater.

“Both Gladys and I cut our teeth with Fantasy Theatre Factory. We were both actors, at different times, with FTF. I think this is a great move for us,” says Ledford.

WHAT: City Theatre’s Summer Shorts Festival

WHERE: Sandrell Rivers Theatre, 6103 NW 7th Ave., Miami

WHEN: 7:30 p.m., Thursday, June 26, Friday, June 27, Saturday, June 28 and 3 p.m., June 29

COST: $25, general admission, $40 VIP tickets include up-front cabaret-style seating and a signature cocktail. Tickets at ftfshows.thundertix.com/events. Free parking.

INFORMATION:  (305) 284-8872 and www.citytheatre.com/summershorts

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 Workshop Seeks To Answer The Question ‘What’s Really Immersive’?

Juggerknot Theatre Company and Live Arts Miami are hosting the first annual “Miami Immersive Intensive (MMI)” Thursday, June 26 through Sunday, June 29. Pictured is “La Medea” by Yara Travieso presented by Live Arts Miami. (Photo by Darren Philip Hoffman, courtesy of Live Arts Miami)

Projected renderings of the works of Van Gogh, Monet, and Michelangelo surround the museumgoer. Bubbles release cloud forms covering participants at another museum. A theater performance in a motel brings the audience in as part of the play’s world putting them in active role that furthers the story. Dancers create choreography in step with the ocean communing with the environment.

These are the new wave of arts experiences and the buzzword is everywhere — “immersive.” Some are true to form while others merely borrow elements from the immersive playbook but don’t fully deliver.

Tanya Bravo, who began Juggerknot Theatre Company in 1999 in Miami, has been focused entirely on producing immersive theater for the past 10 years. Now she’s hoping to make Miami a center of learning for the future of the arts genre.

From Thursday, June 26 through Sunday, June 29, Juggerknot Theatre Company and MDC’s Live Arts Miami will co-produce the first annual “Miami Immersive Intensive (MMI)” with most programming taking place at The Idea Center on Miami Dade College’s Wolfson Campus.

“We want to position Miami as a global hub for immersive training,” says Bravo. “That’s not happening anywhere else. We have the people here who want to learn it, but you also have the people here who want to teach it.”

While workshops and speakers are mostly relegated to those participating in the MMI conference, there are some opportunities for the public to get a feel for what true immersion is about.

On opening night, Thursday, June 26, a multimedia experience, created by the French transmedia collective Le Clair Obscur, places the audience in a suspended space-time at the Frost Museum of Science in collaboration with another “putting Miami on the map” organization, FilmGate, who each year produces a convergence of the latest happening in film and technology during Miami Art Week.

Other open-to-the-public activities are a virtual workshop from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. on Friday, June 27, with Lauren Storr, senior producer at Punchdrunk, the creators of the groundbreaking “Sleep No More.” The reimagining of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” invited audiences to explore a story at their own pace wandering throughout New York’s McKittrick Hotel. After a 14 year run, “Sleep No More” closed in January but it is legendary for how it attracted return audiences in a true-form immersion experience where no two experiences were alike.

At 6:30 p.m., Saturday, June 28, in The Art Lab at MDC Wolfson Campus is a screening of the documentary “Meow Wolf: Origin Story,” about the mind-bending art collective that has become a phenomenon. With its flagship installation “House of Eternal Return” in Santa Fe, which combined art, technology and storytelling, they’ve now expanded to Las Vegas, Houston, and Denver, with more exhibition spaces on the way.  Alexandro Renzo, “Meow Wolf’s” creative director will be part of a question-and-answer session.

“They were a group of scrappy visual artists in Santa Fe who were creating these immersive walk-through visual experiences that have completely blown up. This is the story of how the collective started,” says Bravo.

It was from her own experience in New York participating in the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s LAByrinth Theater Company’s week-and-a-half-long workshop that the idea of an intensive such as MMI brewed for years.

Bravo had taken a break from theater, working in corporate America, when she attended LAByrinth’s intensive. She ended up being in a show produced by PopUp Theatrics, run by the now Yale School of Drama program chair Tamilla Woodard.

“It was this one-person-at-a-time immersive show that took place in the Lower East Side in Manhattan, and you would go through retail locations and different spaces and learn about them. And when I experienced that, I was like, this is what I want to do. This is the future of theater. This is what we need right now.”

She returned to Miami, connected with an old friend Juan C. Sanchez, who had written a play called “Paradise Motel” and they turned it into the immersive real-time theater experience, “Miami Motel Stories.” Woodard was enlisted to direct.

“It was the first immersive piece that we did and then after that it was five years of non-stop Miami motel stories,” says Bravo.

She believes that now is the time to present a deep dive for presenters to get to the core of what constitutes an immersive production.

“We are at a point where everyone wants to create ‘immersive.’ So, then there’s a responsibility, as an organization, to train (them), we need to understand what immersive really is,” says Bravo.

While there are events open to the public, the intensive is focused on those who are interested or working in the field of immersive work.

“I’m hoping that we take that buzzword and we make it a little bit more concrete for creators on how they actually do immersive,” says Bravo.

For the first MMI, Bravo says about 85 percent of participants are local but they’ve already started planning for next year.

Plans are for the MII to be held each summer to grow it into a training ground for those who want to work, or who are already working, in the immersive space.

“We are hoping it can be a magnet for people to come to Miami from everywhere,” says Kathryn Garcia, executive director of Live Arts Miami, who is co-producing the MMI with Juggerknot. “We want to create that next level for people who are working in this field, who are trying new things and deepen their skill sets.”

In additional to national speakers including keynote speaker and workshop leader MiKhael Tara Garver, founder of Culture House Immersive and director of Disney’s groundbreaking “Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser” experience,  local “experts” including Octavio Campos, choreographer and director of intermedia performance, Pioneer Winter, artistic director of Pioneer Winter Collective, France-Luce Benson, playwright, “Miami Bus Stop Stories,” Natasha Tsakos, known for live performance in microgravity and Bravo, will be presenting workshops.

Garcia stresses that with the breadth of speakers and presenters they’ve enlisted, there’s an opportunity for variety.

“That’s intentional because there’s something great that happens when you let go of the borders of discipline and just bring artists together for a common purpose. Everyone who will be involved is interested in this particular way of storytelling, whatever the form may be,” says Garcia. “But I also think that this genre is still growing and defining itself and maybe that’s what we learn, which ultimately keeps things exciting for audiences.”

WHAT: Miami Immersive Intensive: MMI

WHERE: Miami Dade College Wolfson Campus, 315 NE 2nd Ave., Building 8, Miami

WHEN: Begins at 2 p.m., Thursday, June 26 through 5 p.m., Sunday, June 29.

COST: $350, MII four-day pass, $40,  Punchdrunk Live Stream, $10, “Meow Wolf Film Screening and Q&A. Does not include fees.

INFO: Complete program guide at www.miamiimmersiveintensive.com/program; tickets at https://www.squadup.com/events

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.

Musical ‘Chicago’ In Its 50th Anniversary at the Arsht has Miami stories

The cast of the national touring company of “Chicago” coming to the Adrienne Arsht Center opening on Tuesday, June 17 through Sunday, June 22. It’s the final stop for the current tour. (Photo by Jeremy Daniel)

Michael Vita remembers when the musical “Chicago” opened on Broadway in 1975. He remembers because he was there as part of the dance ensemble. 

The former Miami Beach resident was on stage with Gwen Verdon as Roxie Hart and Chita Rivera as Velma Kelly.

He was there when it premiered at the 42nd Street Theater. 

He was there when they cut a number from the production, one that would have given him a speaking part. “I was to play the prosecutor and it was a nice scene with Gwen. It introduced a song that was cut called ‘Ten Percent.’ It was superfluous so they cut that and they cut my lines going into it.”

Needless to say, he was disappointed. 

Vita was also there in August of 1975 when leading lady Verdon left the show for five weeks for throat surgery and Liza Minnelli became her understudy.

“They announced at the beginning of the show that Gwen Verdon would not be in the performance and the audience did a disappointing ‘ooooh.’ And then it was announced that the role of Roxy would be played by Liza Minnelli and when the audience heard that they went wild,” he said. 

There are 50 years of history in the Broadway musical “Chicago” and with the Broadway national touring production coming to Miami’s Arsht Center, the musical’s history, past and present, has Miami connections.

Vita, now 84 and a South Floridian who lives at the Court of Palm Aire in Pompano Beach is proud to have been a part of Broadway history. 

“The theater never leaves you,” he said. 

But “Chicago” wasn’t his first Broadway show.

Growing up in the Bronx, he began performing while attending the High School of Performing Arts in New York. “I was 17 years old, and a friend called to tell me they were auditioning for a new show ‘Bye Bye Birdie.’ “

‘Birdie’ opened on Broadway in 1960 and starred Dick Van Dyke and Rivera, who he would work with again in “Chicago.”

And almost a decade before he’d dance with Verdon in “Chicago,” he’d be cast in the ensemble of “Sweet Charity” in 1966, where she was the lead.

Vita says in all of his time as a Broadway performer he was a feature player. “I never wanted to be a star; that was too much pressure.”

He left Broadway and the theater at age 50 to “try something else,” moving to San Francisco to work with AIDS organizations.

While in New York, he helped in the creation of the Equity Fights Aids Committee to “assist and support [Actors’ Equity Association] members afflicted with AIDS.” This then became Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

He’s never given up the urge or the love to entertain.

“I do two performances a year in the Fall and in the Spring here at the Court of Palm Aire. I don’t sing Broadway showtunes, though, I sing songs that have meaning to me. There are about 125 people that come and it’s amazing.”

The Miami connection for the original “Chicago” starts with Vita and comes full circle with Christopher Cline as the final performances of the current national Broadway touring production concludes at the Adrienne Arsht Center The show opens on Tuesday, June 17 and runs through Sunday, June 22.

Cline, a University of Miami graduate, has been with the production for its 2024-25 season of the 50th anniversary tour of the show.

Originally from New Jersey, he graduated from University of Miami “exactly two years ago” with a BFA in musical theater.

“I’m in the ensemble and I also play Sergeant Fogarty and this is my national tour debut.”

Just after graduation from UM, he joined the cast of “Mamma Mia!” on the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line.  “I was on the ship about seven or eight months but worked for Royal Caribbean for a year on land,” he says, adding that Royal Caribbean’s studios for rehearsals are on the campus of Florida International University.

“I was happy to be in Miami. There are people from all over the world in those studios. I have friends I’ve made from just about every country,” says Cline.

Being a part of the “Chicago” tour has been an experience for the performer, he says, on many levels.

“There’s maybe an additional responsibility and a bit of pressure to really honor the show, but I also remember that I am just a small piece in this large puzzle that was created much before I was even here.”

Cline believes that the show is still playing on Broadway because it’s “timeless.”

“There’s one moment I hear every night in the show that always kind of makes me chuckle to myself and it’s when Roxy and Velma sing, ‘In 50 years or so, it’s going to change, you know.’ And the irony of it is that it’s been 50 years and ‘Chicago’ hasn’t’ changed. And I think that it will be around for another 50 years; it will resonate with a whole different generation.”

WHAT: “Chicago”

WHEN: 8 p.m., Tuesday, June 17 through Saturday, June 21. 2 p.m. Saturday, June 21 and 1 and 7 p.m. Sunday, June 22. 

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

COST:  $41 to $182 (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.

American Black Film Festival Finds Its Muse in Miami Beach

“The Reject,” inspired by the life of Miami-Dade County Commissioner Kionne McGhee, screens at the American Black Film Festival (ABFF), which takes place in various locations throughout Miami Beach beginning Wednesday, June 11 through Sunday, June 15.  (Photo courtesy of Florida Film House)

The American Black Film Festival (ABFF) is once again set to highlight its strong connection with Miami, a city whose rich diversity is central to the festival’s identity. More than just a host city, Miami’s vibrant culture and multicultural landscape are deeply woven into ABFF’s mission to celebrate Black storytelling and talent.

Miami is also recognized for a notable history within the film industry. During the 1980s and 1990s, the city emerged as a prominent filming location for Hollywood productions. Miami was featured prominently on television, notably with “Miami Vice,” and in movies such as “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective,” “True Lies,” and “Bad Boys,” demonstrating its appeal as a cinematic setting.

Building on that legacy, the American Black Film Festival (ABFF) returns for its 28th edition from Wednesday, June 11 to Sunday, June 15, bringing together filmmakers, actors, industry professionals, and audiences for five days of celebrating cinema, innovation, and cultural dialogue. This year’s program includes a diverse lineup of films and a range of discussions on topics from immersive storytelling to wellness. 

[ See the full schedule here.]

“This year features one of our most well-rounded programs to date,” says Jeff Friday, founder and CEO of Nice Crowd, the company that produces ABFF. “We’re screening more than 70 independent films from across the globe, including the debut of our new South African Stories section. We’ve also expanded our Talk Series to explore a broader range of topics, spanning sports, immersive storytelling, finance, and health and wellness.”

Friday says the festival closes with “ABFF Remembers ‘Love Jones,’ a special tribute to the iconic film starring his “dear friends Larenz Tate and Nia Long.” The film will be screened on Saturday, June 14 at 8:30 p.m. at the New World Center Performance Hall.

Founded by Friday as the Acapulco Black Film Festival in 1997, the cinematic event was rebranded as the American Black Film Festival and later relocated to Miami Beach with the support of the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Friday reflected on the festival’s evolution, saying, “We’ve grown from a modest independent showcase into a globally respected cultural institution. We’ve helped launch countless careers while providing a consistent platform to celebrate and elevate Black stories. I’m proud of how far we’ve come, but I also recognize there’s more to do. The mission remains as urgent and relevant as ever.”

Integral to that mission is Miami itself. “Miami/Miami Beach isn’t just our location, it’s part of the ABFF story,” says Friday. “The city’s vibrancy, multiculturalism, and energy reflect the very spirit of the festival. After two decades here, ABFF is deeply woven into the cultural fabric of South Florida.”

This year’s program includes free film screenings and a business expo highlighting local entrepreneurs.” Screenings include local films such as “Hoorah 99” and “The Reject,” inspired by the life of Miami-Dade County Commissioner Kionne McGhee.

Produced and co-written by Marco Mall Molinet, “The Reject” draws from real experiences growing up alongside McGhee. “‘The Reject’ was born from real-life pain and perseverance,” says Molinet. “His story, and so many others, inspired this film.” Molinet emphasized the importance of giving a platform to often overlooked youth. “These aren’t ‘bad kids.’ These are future leaders, creators, and thinkers who need support, not punishment.”

Shot entirely in South Miami, including Homestead and Naranja, “The Reject” is deeply rooted in the local landscape. “Miami isn’t just the backdrop; it’s the heartbeat of this story,” Molinet said. “The city’s energy, culture, and struggle gave the film its texture, truth, and urgency.” The movie will be screened at 2 p.m. Wednesday, June 11 at O Cinema South Beach. 

The festival also marks a full circle moment for Miami native Ashley Smith, who, alongside creative partner Brooklynite  Ci Smith, will premiere their film “Hoorah 99!” right across from Ashley’s alma mater, Miami Beach Senior High School. “I spent the first half of my life right here in Miami. My high school graduation was literally in the same building as ABFF, in the Miami Beach Convention Center,” says Ashley Smith, whose film screens at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 14. “To have ‘Hoorah 99!,’ my debut feature world premiere, across the street is a blessing.” 

“Hoorah 99!” blends dark comedy with family drama, inspired by Ash’s father and the challenges the couple faced after a financial crisis. “Before Ash’s father passed away, he was taken advantage of by a reverse mortgage scam,” explains Ci Smith. “To save the home, our family leveraged all our assets. As we stood on the cusp, literally about to lose everything, we asked ourselves, ‘If we’re going to lose everything, what would we want to do before then?'”

The result was a film that the Smiths wrote, directed and financed as a couple. 

 “We’ve worked together since 2007, so this process felt quite familiar, just more intense. Ash and I are exact opposites: Ash is the artist. He’s impulsive and brilliant. I’m the steady one who gets it all done. He has the vision of a genius. I relentlessly make sure it’s executed. We balance each other out,” says Ci.

The collaboration extended to hip-hop icon Ja Rule, who stars in the film as a spirit guide, and played a creative role behind the scenes. “Rule is great,” says Ashley. “Our relationship is honest and true. The thing about Rule, he does what he says he’s going to do.” 

Ci says the couple was hesitant to approach Rule. 

“But I summoned up the nerve, called him up and he responded, ‘You guys are making a feature?’ Without hesitation, he said, ‘Alright, I’m in!'”

For the Smiths, ABFF is the ideal launchpad. “It’s an honor and a privilege to be recognized and welcomed by a platform as respected and culturally vital as ABFF,” says Ci. “Although we know ‘Hoorah 99!’ crosses demographic lines, it is humbling to first stand with the many powerful voices ABFF continues to uplift.” 

“Hoorah 99” will be screened at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, June 14 at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

One of the most anticipated elements of the 2025 edition is the City of Miami Community Day, set to take place at the Historic Lyric Theater in Overtown on Sunday, June 15, the last day of the film festival. Created through partnerships with the City of Miami and organizations such as the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau, the initiative is designed to spotlight South Florida creatives and local entrepreneurs. It also serves as a platform for filmmakers based in the region to present their work.

“City of Miami Community Day is one of the most important activities of the week,” said Jeff Friday. “It’s our way of giving back to the community that’s embraced us for so many years. It’s part of our ongoing commitment to supporting the regional film community.”

As the festival enters its 29th year, its Miami home remains central to both its identity and impact. “The Greater Miami region is dynamic, international, and unapologetically diverse, making it the ideal setting for a global celebration of Black culture and creativity,” says Friday.

WHAT: American Black Film Festival (ABFF) 2025

WHERE: New World Center, 500 17th St., Miami Beach; Miami Beach Convention Center, 1901 Convention Center Drive, Miami Beach; O Cinema, 1130 Washington Ave., Miami Beach; New York Film Academy (NYFA), 420 Lincoln Rd #300, Miami Beach; Bass Museum, 2100 Collins Ave., Miami Beach; The Lyric Theater, 819 NW 2nd Ave., Miami

WHEN: Wednesday, June 11 through Sunday, June 15

COST: Tickets range from free admission to $52.72 for some events. Click here for tickets. 

INFORMATION:   abff.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: Actors’ Playhouse takes audiences on a thrill ride with ‘The Girl on the Train’

Gaby Tortoledo, Gregg Weiner, Krystal Millie Valdes and Iain Batchelor in “The Girl On The Train” at Actors’ Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre, Coral Gables through Sunday, June 8. (Photo by Alberto Romeu/courtesy Actors’ Playhouse)

There’s something about the intimate Balcony Theatre at the Actors’ Playhouse that lends itself to a good thriller. In May of 2022, it was British mystery writer Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Orient Express” that stood out as the perfect Spring whodunnit. Three years later, Artistic Director David Arisco returns to the British thriller, this time with “The Girl on the Train,” based on the novel by Paula Hawkins.

Many will be familiar with “The Girl on the Train” from the 2015 bestselling mystery novel or the 2016 film starring Emily Blunt, which moved the locale to the United States from Hawkins’ England. The play adaptation by Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel stays true to Hawkins’ setting and is currently on a UK and Ireland tour through August of 2025. But South Florida audiences needn’t go any further than Coral Gables where Arisco and a cast of professional regional actors bring the complex drama to life.

Falling apart after the breakup of her marriage, Rachel Watson (Gaby Tortoledo) is an alcoholic. She’s “The Girl” who rides the train into London every day passing by the house she shared with her husband Tom (Iain Batchelor), now inhabited by his new wife, Anna (Krystal Millie Valdes), and the couple’s baby, Evie – something that adds to Rachel’s torment since she was unable to have a child. In a house a few doors down, she catches glimpses of a couple – embracing, kissing – on a balcony. She’s given them names – Jess and Jason, fantasizing about their perfect lives together, the one she believed she had, then lost. “Don’t you ever see someone and think, if I could step out of my shoes and into theirs, just for a day . . .” says Rachel about her imagining the couple’s lives.

One day, she spies “Jess” – real name Megan Hipwell (Allie Beltran) – on the terrace in a real-life situation that breaks the spell. The fantasy shattered, Rachel spins off into a rage. When Megan suddenly disappears, Rachel shows up to the husband, Scott’s (Ryan Didato) door claiming to be a close friend of his missing wife.

Detective D.I. Gaskill (Gregg Weiner) tracks down Rachel at her fleabag flat – he’s questioning her about the disappearance since she was spotted stumbling around a tunnel where Megan may have last been seen. Meanwhile, Rachel has a gash on her forehead and is unable to recall – because of one of her drunken blackouts – how it happened.

Rounding out the cast of characters is Megan’s therapist Kamal Abdic (Nate Promkul). Rachel will visit him, too, engaging him in her web.

The minimalist setting by Brandon M. Newton consists of a backdrop that resembles puzzle pieces, a constant reminder of Rachel’s jumbled memory. Different areas of the stage are playing areas for locales – Rachel’s untidy flat; the Hipwell’s house (with a bar cart as its centerpiece); Tom and his new wife’s place; the two chairs that represent the therapist’s office; and the detective’s workspace.

Drawn along the floor is a train track pattern, skewed in different ways and a constant reminder of Rachel’s disjointed perspective.

Sound design by Reidar Sorensen adds to the tension with the realistic train horn blaring at key points; when Rachel is in her flat in her drunken stupor, a deafening rock music soundtrack whips her into a frenzy.

Lighting designer Eric Nelson has created a hazy quality for the “lost memory” play. His use of a red light that comes from the side of the stage in between the curtains is haunting as Rachel tries to recreate what happened on the night in question. At other times, lighting choices are reminiscent of an Alfred Hitchcock film, sepia tone and black and white. The lighting also helps to mark transitions from one location to another, and  dialogue from the past and the present.

“The Girl on the Train” as a book and a film benefited from narrative scene setting and voice over. The play adaptation is more difficult because it relies heavily on the bare bones of the storytelling. Arisco allows the suspense of the play to unfold strategically. The pacing is what creates the tension – at times slow and cautious, at others barreling down the tracks like a locomotive.

As the alcoholic amateur sleuth, Tortoledo takes us along for the ride – we get caught up in her confusion and self-doubt, with the actress drawing sympathy yet, at times, conjuring loathing for her recklessness. With so many armchair detectives who have been created from the pop culture true crime phenomenon, Tortoledo gives Rachel an infusion of the “mom next door” who has set out to crack the case – putting together clues and meddling in places she probably shouldn’t be. The actress also never gives a portrayal of the slurring, caricatured drunk, but is utterly convincing that her drinking goes beyond the bottle.

Batchelor captures the dual personality of Tom – nice guy on the surface, pathological, abusive liar in every other crevice. Beltran’s Megan is at her best when she’s retelling a tragic past, and Didato, who was so compelling in Zoetic Stage’s “The Pillowman,” brings to Scott a slow burn of intensity.

Promkul as the empathetic therapist is believable as the man caught in the middle. Valdes plays new mom Anna as a woman yearning for an idyllic life free of the tribulations of her new husband’s ex, Rachel. Weiner adds a sly humor to what could otherwise be a dullish gumshoe.

The decision to have the cast speak in British dialect is appropriate for the setting and isn’t a distraction; to each actor, it seems natural. (Cast member Batchelor, a native of the U.K., doubled as dialect coach.)

Ellis Tillman’s costumes, especially Rachel’s long dowdy sweater and Megan’s wispy dresses, are appropriately realistic.

Adding realism, too, are Nicole Perry as intimacy director and Lee Soroko as fight director.

Fans of the film and the book will find the Actors’ Playhouse rendering of the stage adaptation a different take on the story. For those who have never seen “The Girl on the Train,” it’s a great theatrical ride.

WHAT:  “The Girl on the Train”

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 June 8.

COST:  $50, $60, and $70, weekdays; $65, $75 and $85, weekends.

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: Pondering Matters of Life and Death in Zoetic Stage’s ‘The Comeuppance’

Jovon Jacobs, Mallory Newbrough, and Joline Mujica in Zoetic Stage’s “The Comeuppance” at the Adrienne Arsht Center’s Carnival Studio Theater through Sunday, May 25. (Photo by Morgan Sophia Photography, courtesy Adrienne Arsht Center)

Zoetic Stage’s “The Comeuppance” is a satisfying punctuation mark as the theater season winds down; an exclamation point to keep theater lovers satiated through the leaner times of summer.

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, this year’s Pulitzer Prize winner for Drama (For his play “Purpose”), created a challenging, almost surreal dramedy with layers upon layers of emotions in the present dredged up from the past.

The setting is a porch in Prince George’s County, Maryland (“in fall in the year of our Lord 2022,” Jacobs-Jenkins wrote in the play notes). Twenty years after graduation from St. Anthony’s High School, a Catholic academy in Washington, DC, a group of friends are gathering to pregame before their high school reunion. This particular group had named itself the “Multi-Ethnic Reject Group” (MERGE for short).

It’s Ursula’s grandmother’s house, but grandma has passed away and Ursula (Joline Mujica) is living there alone. She enters with a patch on her eye, carrying a pitcher of her watermelon-muddled “jungle juice.” But, she isn’t the first character we meet. That would be Death in his first incarnation, inhabiting the body of Emilio (Jovon Jacobs). The Grim Reaper appears throughout the play, merging with the bodies of each of the characters. Every cast member gets a Death monologue, just one of the many acting acrobatics that the playwright has devised to ensure that the play, heavy on dialogue, is constantly in motion.

Director Stuart Meltzer embraces Jacobs-Jenkins’ fly-on-the-wall sensibility. We can relate to Death’s comments, “I like to watch.” There’s a wonderful undercurrent that’s meant to make us feel like silent party crashers, eavesdropping on this group who are trying to make sense of fraught personal lives and revisit what they thought would be a fun reunion. But reliving the past is much akin to Thomas Wolfe’s “Look Homeward, Angel,” and the phrase “You can’t go home again.”

There are more than a few comparisons to the 1983 comedy-drama “The Big Chill.” Old college friends have been brought together for a funeral. The Vietnam War and its effects hover over the group. They find out that inevitable changes in their lives have made it impossible to connect as they once did.

The same happens here, just in a different era. The millennials have gone through the horrors of Columbine and 9/11. Now, as adults, they are gathering shortly after COVID. “How was your COVID?” is the phrase in this post-pandemic gathering. A classmate, Simon, who has cancelled on the group, calls in every once in a while. And although he isn’t seen, he speaks for all when he says: “Look at all the shit we’ve been through – It’s like too much, Columbine, 9/11, the war, the war, the endless war, then Trump, then COVID, whatever the f— is going on in the Supreme Court… Roe v. Wade….”

Emilio is an artist now living in Germany. He’s in for the reunion but off to Manhattan, where his work will be shown in a biennial, presumably the Whitney. He’s done well for himself, able to afford the luxuries of staying in a high-end hotel while in town.

Caitlin (Mallory Newbrough) has married an ex-cop, a man older than her, who participated in January 6 at the Capitol. “Michael was not in the group that actually stormed the Capitol,” she makes sure her classmates hear loud and clear.

Kristina (Amy Lee Gonzalez) is an overworked anesthesiologist with five kids and a drinking problem, a carryover from so much time at the hospital during COVID. She dated Emilio in high school.

She’s brought along her cousin Francisco, aka Paco (Rayner Gabriel), who is an unwelcome guest because he wasn’t part of MERGE. He’s a military veteran suffering from PTSD after two tours of duty in Iraq; he has a past with Caitlin.

The dowdy and shy Ursula is diabetic and has lost her eyesight in one eye. An orphan whose grandmother raised her, she’s now alone and has a woman who stops by a few times a week to check in on her.

This is a brilliant all-local Equity ensemble, Mujica’s tenderly sweet Ursula, Newbrough’s carefully calibrated yet lonely Caitlin, Gonzalez’s “I’ve had it” doc mom, and Gabriel’s amped up Francisco, with each actor working off of one another with obvious guidance from Meltzer. This is how the complex characters Jacobs-Jenkins created develop throughout the two-hour and 10-minute show without an intermission (a difficult but wise choice since an interval would interrupt the necessary continuous momentum and worth every minute).

When they must step out of their realistic portrayals to become Death, it is done with seamless precision so as not to seem out of character. It’s a difficult tightrope and one that each of the actors maneuvers with finesse. It’s not easy, mind you.

Jacobs, who has appeared in productions throughout South Florida, makes his Zoetic Stage debut here and has the weightiest role. His Emilio is the protagonist and, although all the characters are given a shot at Death, Jacobs as Emilio is the most unsettling. He begins the play as Death and winds it up at the end. It is his Death that makes you wonder whose soul he has come to collect. The steeped in reality Emilio (in some aspects based on the playwright himself) is also the character who seems the least to have crossed over to adulthood. These two spectrums call for an actor with range and Jacobs aces it.

The lighting design by Leonardo Urbina creates the atmosphere of the outdoors at dusk. During the tricky Death monologues, Urbina subtly shines a spotlight on the actor, while the others, frozen in place, are dimly lit, still able to be seen. Sound design by Haydn Diaz adds an eerie reverb to each actor’s voice for Death. Then there’s the realistic sounds of a neighborhood, dogs barking and birds chirping, a car driving up and a door slamming, a limousine speeding off.

Costume design by Lorena Lopez fits each character’s persona  – the oversized sweater and long skirt for Ursula, Emilio’s richly looking beige turtleneck, brown pants, leather boots, Caitlin’s breezy dress, Paco’s oversized suit, and a skirt uniform for military doc Kristina.

.

Scenic design by Michael McCLain is a back porch filled with odds and ends shoved in a back corner, things that should have gone to the trash, but never did. At stage right are overstuffed garbage cans. There’s plenty of places for the characters to move about in addition to the porch:  a lawn, a picnic table. A non-realistic faux stump, which is used as a playing area seems out of place, however, affecting the realism.

While some may find the 130-minute running time daunting at the outset, once the clock begins to tick, the play and this production, like life and death, have you in its grips, and it isn’t about to let you go.

WHAT: Zoetic Stage’s “The Comeuppance” by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

WHEN: 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Friday and Saturday; 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Through Sunday, May 25.

COST:  $66-$72

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

INFORMATION: (305) 949-6722, zoeticstage.org 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

 

 

GableStage’s ‘Fat Ham’ Is Part Of A Juicy Regional Collaboration

Cassidy Joseph, Henry Cadet, Mikhael Mendoza, and Toddra Brunson head to GableStage after appearing in the Island City Stage production of “Fat Ham,” a collaboration between three regional theater companies. The play opens at GableStage on Saturday, May 17. (Photo by Matthew Tippins, courtesy Island City Stage)

Maybe the seemingly long haul on I-95 made treacherous by traffic congestion creates the Miami-Dade County and Broward County division among its residents. While there are plenty of reasons someone from one county or the other will say they don’t venture north or south, arts groups are well aware there’s a definite line in the sand.

 So, when three professional theater companies, two from Broward and one from Miami-Dade, came together to collaborate on the production of James Ijames’ Pulitzer Prize-winning “Fat Ham,” it was, in no uncertain terms, heralded as a historic partnership.

Then there was a fourth cog in the wheel, the Fort Lauderdale-based Warten Foundation that wanted to support the newly formed theater trinity of Wilton Manors’ Island City Stage, Pompano Beach’s Brévo Theatre, and Coral Gables’ GableStage, with a $250,000 grant to help fund the South Florida premiere of “Fat Ham.”

“Fat Ham” opened at Island City Stage on Friday, April 3 and ran through Sunday, May 4. Now it moves to GableStage, opening Friday, May 16 and running through Sunday, June 15.

A modern interpretation of Wiliam Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” set at a Southern Black family’s backyard barbecue, the playwright, originally from North Carolina, creates parallel’s between the classic play as Juicy, a 20-year-old gay Black man living in the South is visited by the ghost of his father asking him to avenge his death, Pap, Juicy’s father, says his brother had him killed so that he could marry his widow and take over the family business.

Bari Newport, producing artistic director of GableStage, had plans to produce “Fat Ham.” She says she obtained the rights to stage the show but hadn’t moved forward in putting it on GableStage’s season calendar.

“I was sitting on the rights,” she says.” It’s an incredible piece of writing and it isn’t a Pulitzer Prize winner for nothin.’ But I wanted to partner with the right director.” Newport received a call from the licensing agent at Concord Theatricals, explaining that another theater company “about 30 miles away” wanted to present “Fat Ham.”

“They didn’t think that would be a problem because, quote, we didn’t share an audience. And I said, ‘Well, I think it is a problem,’ and I asked who the company was.” When the agent said Island City Stage, Newport’s wheels started turning. What if the two companies did it together somehow? “Why say no to their production when I could just say yes to our production?”

She says that the Warten Foundation, which had a relationship with Island City Stage, was “tickled” by this experiment and that some of the foundation members had been to plays at GableStage. Island City’s founding artistic director Andy Rogow then mentioned that he had been in conversations with Brévo Theatre, a young Black theater company based in Pompano Beach, founded by Florida A&M grads Zaylin Yates and TM Pride. The company had worked with Island City on Tarell Alvin McCraney’s “The Brothers Size.”

Pride was the perfect fit to direct the production, which would keep the same cast for both companies. (There is one replacement in the GableStage production because of a scheduling conflict with the first actress who played Tedra. At GableStage, Tedra will be played by Dina Lewis).

“Zaylin says it best when he talks about the play,” says Pride. “The fact that Ijames was able to write a play that can fit three completely different visions – Island City Stage who focuses on LBGTQ issues, GableStage where one part of their mission is the idea of tackling today’s issues, and then Brévo, where we put the focus on Black voices and young artists, so it was the perfect play for us to come to the table with.”

Newport’s idea to hold on to the play until she could fit the pieces together with the right director who understood the play’s voice and perspective was on point. Pride agrees about knowing the narrative intrinsically. “The beautiful thing about being able to direct ‘Fat Ham’ is having that experience. I know what Juicy is going through. I know this story. I know this family. And bringing the actors together who share that with me. They’ve said to me, ‘We get to be ourselves. We don’t even have to do all this deep, intense character development.’ And all within a framework that is traditionally white America, or European theater.”

Pride says he believes audiences will relate to the family dynamics present in the play. “What we’ve done with the collaboration, too, is really about building community and establishing relationships and helping people to see how we’re more alike than different.”

Other cast members in the GableStage production, all South Florida actors, are Toddra Brunson, Henry Cadet, Melvin Huffnagle, Cassidy Joseph, Denzel McCausland, and Mikhael Mendoza.

There were slight adjustments that had to be made to have the play move from Island City Stage to GableStage. “None of us have ever done it before in terms of creating a show for two different spaces, and two very different spaces, at that.” Moving “Fat Ham” south didn’t require many changes. GableStage’s stage is a bit wider so it allowed for the set to expand a bit. Island City Stage’s intimate venue has 65 seats while GableStage has more than double the amount at 135, but also not a large theater. “We’ve made some subtle changes with costuming. Also, we’ve done a more elaborate light design at GableStage.”

Both artistic directors, who often direct their shows, were integral in shaping the productions, too.

‘ “Fat Ham” is an extremely smart script and that’s who our audience is. They are a sophisticated group of theater lovers who want to go away talking about the piece that they just experienced and they want to see it excellently executed,” says Newport.

For the Warten Foundation, the regional production of “Fat Ham” ticked all the boxes for its funding mission.

“ . . . The collaboration, the diversity, all of it,” says Clifford J. Cideko, chairman of the Fort-Lauderdale based philanthropy group founded by the late Frederick Warten.

“I said, ‘We have to do this.’ We are focused on diversity and bringing people together. If there is someone on the fence about certain issues, or someone who isn’t aware, even if one person sees this show and it changes their perspective, that we use the power of live theater to get people talking,  then (our contribution) has been a success.”

WHAT: “Fat Ham” by James Ijames, a coproduction of Island City Stage, Brévo Theatre, and GableStage

WHERE: GableStage in the Biltmore Hotel, 1200 Anastasia Ave., Coral Gables 

WHEN: Opens with a preview on Friday, May 16 with public opening on Saturday, May 17. 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. 2 p.m. Wednesday and Sunday. Through Sunday, June 15. The show closes with a “Fat Ham” barbecue following the performance. 

COST: $55 and $65 includes $10 service fee (discounts for students, teachers, artists, military and groups). 

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. 

Inspired By Personal and City’s History, Playwright Celebrates Coral Gables Centennial

Rehearsing “Greetings from Paradise” are actor Gregg Wiener as Carl Fisher and actor Caleb Scott as
reporter Frank Harris. Directed by David Arisco at Actors’ Playhouse, the play by June Thomson Morris begins Tuesday, April 29. (Photo by Allen Morris)

The year was 1925 and Miami looked very different — a lot less buildings, a lot more marshy wetland. Prohibition was in full effect and there was a land boom that could put today’s real estate market to shame. It was also the same year the City of Coral Gables was incorporated.

In celebration of the City Beautiful’s centennial, the Actors’ Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre is hosting “Greetings From Paradise,” a limited five-night engagement theatrical experience by June Thomson Morris that will transport audiences back in time.

The play, opening on Tuesday, April 29, tells the story about Miami’s development and the land boom of the 1920s that changed the city’s landscape forever. It parallels the stories of developers George Merrick, who established Coral Gables, and Carl Fisher, who built the Miami Beach we know today.

Behind the plot of these two real estate titans is a love story about a young girl from Indiana who boards a train to meet a boy in Miami. As Lucy and Robert’s relationship progresses, so does the city around them.

The story is particularly personal for playwright Morris. The characters of Lucy and Robert are based on her grandparents.

“As a little girl, I heard the story [about Miami’s development] directly from my grandmother’s lips. She would tell me how she got on a train at age 19 back in 1924 and left her small town in Indiana and rode Henry Flagler’s East Coast Railroad down to Miami… all to meet a man that she had met at a dance in Indianapolis.”

While Morris has always dreamed of writing the story of how her grandparents met and fell in love, she has also been fascinated by Florida’s history.

“I’ve been intrigued with the story of the great Florida land boom of 1925,” says Morris. “And I love the fact that my grandparents are part of that history.”

A journalist by trade (she earned a master’s degree from Northwestern’s University’s Medill School of Journalism and worked in broadcast news at television stations throughout the country as an anchor and reporter), Morris knows the importance of facts and research. She spent nearly one year gathering information on Miami’s history and would pore over books and archives. After she’d collected ample material, Morris says when she sat down to write, the story came to her effortlessly.

“I could hear the characters’ voices in my head,” Morris says, a bright smile crossing her lips. “What I really want to do [with this play] is bring Florida’s history to life. We’re talking about the Magic City, and I’m surprised as to how many people have never heard the history of Miami or know very little about it.”

Thomson knows a bit about Coral Gables. Her mother, Dorothy Thomson. made history as the first and only female mayor of Coral Gables in its first 100 years.

David Arisco, artistic director for Actors’ Playhouse, who is directing “Greetings From Paradise,” applauds Morris’ storytelling. He recalls that when she first approached him two years ago with a rough script, he knew that he was reading something special.

“I thought it was a really interesting project, and I really wanted to be involved, especially with the Miracle Theatre being right in downtown Coral Gables and the centennial,” says Arisco.

Over the next two years, the pair would workshop the script and the timing for its premiere on April 29 would align perfectly – it was the exact day the City of Coral Gables was incorporated in 1925.

“It’s a good play,” says Arisco. “I think it’s a story that needs to be told.”

He describes it almost like watching a dramatic documentary. “It has elements that are a bit like a documentary but at the same time it’s a play. We’ve got a great cast to tell this story.”

Arisco continues, “We’re meeting characters like George Merrick and Carl Fisher and Doc Dammers [Edward “Doc” Dammers was the first mayor of Coral Gables]. And though the story is more specific to Coral Gables, because Merrick and Fisher were kind of doing their thing at a similar time, we thought it was fun to include a bit about the Miami Beach story and to show Merrick and Fisher as these dual visionaries who did incredible things.”

Actor Gregg Weiner, most recently seen in Miami New Drama’s “Lincoln Road Hustle,” plays Fisher and describes the man as an adrenaline junkie. In addition to developing Miami Beach, Fisher also helped to build Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indy 500. He liked speed — and attention.

“He was a big man, he was a proud man, and he appreciated attention and liked taking risks,” says Weiner. Through his own research and conversations with Morris, Weiner developed his version of Fisher.

“We see him at the height of his achievements. He’s built something out of nothing, which is astonishing to me, and he really appreciates all of his accomplishments,” says the actor.

“Greetings From Paradise” is Morris’ debut play. She reveals that she has plans to develop the script into a full-length feature film while continuing to work on stories about Miami’s development.

“After this is done, I want to get back to the screenplay and perhaps write a book where I can round out Miami’s history with all the truth,” says Morris. “My grandparents’ story is one I’ve always wanted to tell, but the time has come to tell a fuller story, a truthful story, and I hope to do that next.”

WHAT: “Greetings From Paradise” by June Thomson Morris

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

 WHEN: 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 29 (special Centennial Gala presentation, limited availability), 8 p.m., Wednesday, April 30, Thursday, May 1 and Friday, May 2, noon Saturday, May 3.

COST: Regular performances, $65-$75, includes $10 service fee.

 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.