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NEWS RELEASE
For immediate release:
January 29, 2009
For further information contact:
Christi Courian
[email protected]
541.552.6347
(Ashland, Ore.) – Southern Oregon University Department of Theatre Arts presents Pulitzer
Prize-winning "Anna in the Tropics" by Nilo Cruz. Performances run Thursday-Saturday, Feb.
19-21 and Feb. 26-28 at 8:00 p.m. Matinees run on Saturday, Feb. 28 and Sunday, March 1 at
2:00 p.m.
As Cuban immigrants worked in Florida's cigar-making factories in the early twentieth century,
lectors would educate and entertain them by reading great works of literature aloud. When a new
lector reads “Anna Karenina” to the workers, desires and jealousies within a family bound by
tradition are revealed.
“The cigar is a wonderful metaphor for what this play achieves,” said guest director Stephany
Smith-Pearson. “The act of smoking is visceral and concrete, requiring the use one's hands and
mouth. But, it creates an insubstantial and dreamlike cloud of smoke. Nilo combines the real
world with the dream world, the visceral with the insubstantial, which results in a poetic and
deeply moving play.”
Cruz received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for this play in 2003. The play was commissioned in
2001 by New Theatre with the support of a grant from The National Endowment for the Arts.
Cruz himself, in the foreword to his play, says that his fascination with cigar boxes and cigar
labels was integral to the play’s themes. “These wooden boxes, with their intricate pictures of
imaginary landscapes, suggested the possibility of escaping to a magical place through the
brevity of a smoke,” writes Cruz. “Some of them have been named after the greatest ill-fated
love stories ever written; as if the smoker is to experience the enraptured heights of romantic
passion from a puff of a Romeo y Julieta or a Madame Butterfly.”
Jimmy Garcia plays family patriarch Santiago, Deborah Jensen plays his wife Ofelia, Joanna
Ortiz plays daughter Marela, Danielle Chaves plays daughter Conchita, Gregg Land plays sonin-law Palomo, Sam Ashdown plays Santiago’s half-brother Cheche, and Jorge Paniagua plays
lector Juan Julian.
Student designers Amanda Patt (scenic), Savel Sabol (costumes), Bridget Carlson (lighting), and
faculty designer Chris Sackett (sound) create a stage environment that, according to Smith-
Pearson, furthers Cruz’s invocation of “the world of Ybor City, Fla., in 1929 in a very detailed
and specific way.” Christopher Cook is the technical director and Jonathan Stinson is stage
manager.
Smith-Pearson directed the 2007 SOU production of William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.”
She directed two workshop productions of the play “Mary Tudor” by W. Sam Gregory for
Portland Repertory Theatre's New Play Development Program in 1994. She received a Bachelor
of Fine Arts in Theatre with an emphasis in Directing from Southern Oregon State College and
directed SOSC’s production of Alan Ayckbourn's “Bedroom Farce” in 1988. Smith-Pearson
works as a grantwriter and freelance writer for Oregon Shakespeare Festival publications.
Tickets are $18 regular, $16 senior, $5 students. Subscribers to three or more plays receive a
discounted rate of $15 regular and $13 senior. Tickets are available at the door or by calling the
SOU Theatre Arts Box Office at 552-6348. More information is available at
sou.edu/theatre/calendar.
Southern Oregon University (SOU) is an inclusive campus dedicated to student success,
intellectual growth, and responsible global citizenship. Named a “hidden gem” of higher
education by The New York Times, SOU offers a challenging and practical liberal arts education
centered on student learning, accessibility, and civic engagement that enriches both the
community and bioregion. Southern Oregon University has been designated a Center of
Excellence in the Fine and Performing Arts by the Oregon University System.
Enrolling approximately 5,000 students, the University addresses regional needs through its
academic programs, partnerships, public service, outreach, sustainable practices, and economic
development activities. Southern Oregon University is a community leader in promoting
environmentally sustainable practices, including being the largest green tag purchaser in
Ashland. SOU is also the first university in Oregon—and one of the first in the nation—to offset
100 percent of its energy use with clean, renewable power.
For more information, please visit sou.edu or call 1-800-482-7672.
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