Theater season opens with alumnus' Pulitzer-winning play

Nilo Cruz developed idea for "Anna in the Tropics" while a student in Brown's M.F.A. program.

by Mary Jo Curtis

Professor Lowry Marshall remembers classmate Nilo Cruz well from their time together as Brown graduate students in theater. She also remembers talking with him about an idea he had for a play - a play about a lector reading to Cuban immigrants working in cigar factories.

"I spent some of my childhood years in Florida, and that's where his story was set," she recalled recently. "He'd heard this story of the lectors, and the workers gaining remarkable fluency in literature, which of course you wouldn't expect to happen in a cigar factory."

Cruz went on to write that play, calling it "Anna in the Tropics." In 2003 it took the coveted Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the first play in more than a decade to have won the prize without first having a production in New York. Now Brown University Theatre kicks off its 2004-05 season with Cruz' prize winner, and Marshall is directing the production.

Marshall readily admits this is a production she wanted to direct.

"This is such an amazing play, and the fact that one of our graduates wrote it is really exciting," she said. "And I love Nilo. He's full of heart and spirit; he's just a wonderful fellow."

"Anna in the Tropics" is set in Tampa in 1930, where workers at a cigar factory try to recreate the Cuba they left behind. When a handsome and mysterious professional lector enters their world to read them Tolstoy's tragic love story of Anna Karenina, the results are explosive. The play is now being performed "all over the country," according to Marshall, who noted it took two requests before Brown was granted permission to mount its production.

"We were lucky to get this. I think this may be its first college production," she said. Although Marshall is delighted to have the opportunity to direct this play, she's also excited about her cast, which includes some second-generation Cubans.

"We have a really young group, with some actors who are new to us," she said. The cast includes Thomas Lipinski '04.5, Angelica Scherer '06, Lucy Devito '05, Daniel Hernandez '06, Reese Smith '05, Aaron Cutler '08, Michael Obremski '07, Monica Willey '07, Andrea Gompf '08, Gloria Huwiler '06, Sarah Perlman '07, Cody Campanie '08, Nicholas Clifford '08, Joshua Unseth '08 and Andrew Skinner '08.

Cruz is currently directing a production of "Anna" in Florida. The Cuban-born playwright immigrated to the United States and settled in Miami's "Little Havana" as a child. He received his M.F.A. from Brown in 1994 and has since taught here and at Yale. In addition to winning the Pulitzer Prize, he has received numerous awards and grants for "Anna" and his other plays.

"Anna in the Tropics" will be presented in Stuart Theater Thursday through Sunday, Oct. 21-24 and Oct. 28-31. Performances are at 8 p.m. Oct. 21-30 and at 3 p.m. Oct. 31. Tickets are $14 for general admission, $10 for seniors and Brown employees, and $5 for full time students; they are available at the box office. For more information, call 863-2838.