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.

The late Jerry Gulledge (Don Quixote) in the 1995 Actors’ Playhouse production of “Man of La Mancha” wearing the breast plate E.L. Losada will be outfitted in for the 2025 production. Francisco
“Pancho” Padura is pictured as Sancho Panza. (Photo by Ruben Romeu)

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.

Actors’ Playhouse Artistic Director David Arisco, Founding Executive Producing Director Barbara S. Stein, and Founding Chairman of the Board Dr. Lawrence E. Stein review plans for the Miracle Theatre in 1994. (Photo courtesy of Actors’ Playhouse)

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.

Coral Gables Mayor Dorothy Thomson; Actors’ Playhouse’s Lawrence Stein; Coral Gables Commissioner William Kerdyk Jr.; and Actors’ Playhouse’s  Barbara Stein accept a proclamation from the office of Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas on opening night of “Man of La Mancha” and the Miracle Theatre’s debut as Actors’ Playhouse on Nov. 17, 1995. (Photo by Ruben Romeu)

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.”

Jose Luaces as Sancho Panza, E.L. Losada as Don Quixote/Cervantes and Gaby Tortoledo as Aldonza in Actors’ Playhouse’s 30th anniversary production of “Man of La Mancha.” (Photo by Alberto Romeu)

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.

Aldonza is played by Gaby Tortoledo in Actors’ Playhouse’s production of the musical “Man of La Mancha.” (Photo by Alberto Romeu)

“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.”

E.L. Losada in the same breast plate of armor that was worn by Don Quixote in Actors’ Playhouse’s production three decades ago. With Losada is Jose Luaces as Sancho Panza. (Photo by Alberto Romeu)

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.

Michael Hunsaker as Captain of the Inquisition/Pedro has his grips on Aldonza, played by Gaby Tortoledo, in Actors’ Playhouse’s production of the musical “Man of La Mancha.” (Photo by Alberto Romeu)

“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

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