The Path That Got ‘A’ Train’ Play To Brownsville’s Davis African Heritage Arts Center

Ricky J. Martinez as Valdez and Enrique Galán as Angel Cruz in “Jesus Hopped The ‘A’ Train” opening Thursday, Oct. 3 through Sunday, Oct. 20 at Marshall L. Davis, Sr. African Heritage Cultural Arts Center’s Wendell A. Narcisse Performing Arts Theater. (Photo courtesy of Mark Anthony James)

When Theodore “Teddy” Harrell Jr. was pitching the play “Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train” as the October stage production season opener at the Marshall L. Davis, Sr. African Heritage Cultural Arts Center (DAHCAC), it wasn’t the center’s usual fare.

And not so much the theme of Stephen Adly Guirgis’ dark comedy about two inmates in New York City’s largest jail, but more so the two main characters, one a New York Puerto Rican (Nuyorican) and the other African American.

Enrique Galán as Angel Cruz in “Jesus Hopped The ‘A’ Train” through Sunday, Oct. 20 at Marshall L. Davis, Sr. African Heritage Cultural Arts Center’s Wendell A. Narcisse Performing Arts Theater (Photo courtesy of Mark Anthony James)

“We try to do plays that are basically based in the African heritage diaspora,” says Harrell, who also serves as the DAHCAC’s assistant center director. But, he says, that the demographic of the Brownsville community, where the center is smack dab in the middle, is changing.

“We are finding that a lot of Hispanic families are moving into the community. I live three blocks away and I can tell you that on my street ten years ago, it was fully African American. And now, we are almost a half capacity, where it’s Latino and Black families,” says Harrell.

He says that was his “selling point” to the center. “I told them, I said, ‘there are a lot of people who are living in our community who will see this as something that they can relate to because of the influence of Latino characters in the play.”

The play, which opens at the DAHCAC at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 3 and runs through Sunday, Oct. 20, premiered off-Broadway by the LAByrinth Theater Co. in November 2000 and was directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Set in 2000, Angel Cruz, a 30-year-old bike messenger in New York City has lost his best friend to a religious cult. In fact, he says, his friend was stolen by the cult. Cruz (played by Enrique Galán last seen in DAHCAC’s “The Opponent”) shoots cult leader Reverend Kim in the backside and, after the man dies during surgery, he ends up facing murder charges.

Lucius Jenkins (played by Jean Hyppolite) is a serial killer turned born-again Christian, who is awaiting extradition to Florida to face execution. And there are other players in the mix including Angel’s lawyer Mary Jane Hanrahan (played by Linda Mendivel), a sadistic corrections officer named Valdez (played by Ricky J. Martinez) and the kindly prison guard Charlie D’Amato (played Demitri Narace).

Theodore “Teddy” Harrell Jr. is shown directing a production of Jeff Stetson’s “Fathers and Other Strangers” at the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center. Harrell is directing “Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train” at the DHACAC. (Photo courtesy of Teddy Harrell Jr.)

Harrell was first introduced to the play when he saw it at Barry University in a production directed by John Manzelli in 2011.

“It first comes off like, ‘Oh, my gosh, look at all the profanity words and all of this,’ but when you really look at the soul of what the playwright is writing and how he’s writing it and (with) these characters pouring their lives and emotions out,” says Harrell. “You have such a heart for these characters and that’s what I love about it. I especially love doing something like this in Liberty City, in Brownsville, and for us to do a play like this when we’re known for just Black work, well, for me it creates such a nice dimension to what we can produce,” says the director.

Hyppolite, who plays Lucius, couldn’t agree with Harrell more about what he calls the “climate of change” happening amidst the DAHCAC. “There is gentrification going on and especially where it’s within walking distance to the center,” he says. He relates the two characters that meet at the jail and acquaints them like the new neighbors living next to each other in Liberty City. “Like we are two people from two different worlds, Angel and Lucius, but now they are neighbors and there they are sharing their stories.”

Playing a serial killer who is waiting to be extradited to Florida and executed may not be the most sympathetic of characters. But Lucius has found God, and he wants to confer the blessing on everyone he meets, including Angel, a young man new to life behind bars. “Lucius has been reborn, and he has repented, and he has complete and total faith that God has 100 percent forgiven him,” says Hyppolite.

For the actor from Little Haiti, he says one thing he’s always brought to his characters is that “I was taught to never judge your character while you’re in the process.” There are some things he also bring to Lucius to life on the stage. “I have a lot of friends and family members, brothers, cousins, that are incarcerated, that are doing time for things that they have done wrong and time for things maybe they didn’t do anything for. You’ll see in this story, maybe like Angel who may feel that he didn’t have the right prosecutor, the right lawyer to help him out.”

In rehearsal for “Jesus Hopped the ‘A Train” at the Davis African Heritage Arts Cultural Center, left, Enrique Galán as Angel Cruz, Jean Hyppolite as Lucius Jenkins, and director Theodore “Teddy” Harrell Jr. seated. (Photo courtesy of Demitri Narace)

Hyppolite contends that Lucius is a product of the environment in which he grew up. “(It’s) his upbringing and how he feels, a lot of which was very, very tough.”

There’s so much depth in Guirgis’ play says Galán, including issues of race. “For instance, I tell my lawyer how I would have been given better treatment if I were white. I’d have Perry Mason representing me. And there’s a lot in this play to be said about how backwards the current penal system really is.”

Angel, he says, tried to get his “stolen” friend back from Reverend Kim in a number of civilized attempts. “He had tried to kidnap Joey and planned it with kidnappers and a deprogrammer to debrief and unbrainwash his friend. But that failed and he resorted to a quick, emotional decision and shot that leader in the rear-end,” describes Galán.

He believes the play’s dark humor will resonate with audiences. “Just like in life, there are moments where the mood isn’t monotone, there are opportunities for comedy.”

When he’s not acting, Galán has an interesting day job. “I hunt python” for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. But would he like to be employed full-time as an actor? “Heck, ya,” he says.

Demitri Narace as D’Amico, Ricky J. Martinez as Valdez, and Enrique Galán as Angel Cruz, in “Jesus Hopped The ‘A’ Train” through Sunday, Oct. 20 at Marshall L. Davis, Sr. African Heritage Cultural Arts Center’s Wendell A. Narcisse Performing Arts Theater (Photo courtesy of Mark Anthony James)

The Cuban-American who grew up in Miami-Dade County’s Westchester neighborhood  says, “I’ve met Angel Cruz, the character. I’ve met him before, you know, the Miami version. My next-door neighbors growing up were Puerto Rican and I have a very close tie to the Puerto Rican diaspora. There’s just something about this character that I understand, so I’m very happy but also proud to represent this misunderstood cat,” he says.

WHAT:  “Jesus Hopped The ‘A’ Train” by Stephen Adly Guirgis

WHERE: Marshall A. Davis, Sr. African Heritage Cultural Arts Center Wendell A. Narcisse Performing Arts Theater, 6161 NW 22nd Ave., Miami

WHEN:  Opens 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 3. Regular showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday, through Oct. 20.

COST:  $45 plus a $4.87 fee.

INFORMATION:  305-638-6771 or ahcacmiami.org. Tickets at Eventbrite.

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