Dear Friend,

Our Contemporary Voices series featuring works by Nilo Cruz concludes on Monday, April 26 at 7:30pm, with a reading of Anna in the Tropics. Winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the play is set in a cigar factory in Tampa’s Cuban-American community in 1929, when cigars are still rolled by hand and “lectors” are hired to read aloud, helping the workers not just to get through the tedium of their jobs, but to engage their minds. Juan Julian, a new lector, reads to them from Anna Karenina, and as Tolstoy’s characters come alive, their yearnings ignite the workers’ own passions to life-changing effect.

The reading is directed by Marcos Santana and features, in alphabetical order, Karmine Alers, Tony Chiroldes, Janet Dacal, Nick Duckart, Henry Gainza, Sandor Juan, Omar Lopez-Cepero, and Krystal Millie Valdes. Stage directions will be read by Bruce Linser.

On Wednesday, April 28 at 7:30pm, PBD Director of Education and Community Engagement Gary Cadwallader will host a discussion of the play with panelists Marcos Santana and Mirta Luaces, editor and reporter for La Guia News.

Tickets for the reading and the discussion are free, but reservations for both events are required. You can make your reservations at www.palmbeachdramaworks.org or by calling the box office at 561.514.4042, x2.

Contemporary Voices is sponsored by Executive Producers Marilyn Meyerhoff and Sam Feldman, and Associate Producer Holland & Knight. PBD online is sponsored by Louise and Barry Snyder.

Stay safe.
SOTTO VOCE
Discussion April 21, 7:30pm
German-born, 80-year-old novelist Bemadette Kahn lives a life of self-imposed seclusion in her New York City apartment, where she tries to shut out the memories of her long-lost love, Ariel Strauss, one of the 900-plus Jewish refugees who set sail from Nazi Germany aboard the St. Louis in 1939, only to be turned away by Cuba and the US. But Saquiel Rafaeli, a 28-year-old Jewish-Cuban student, is determined to convince Bemadette to resurrect the past.

A discussion of Sotto Voce, hosted by Gary Cadwallader, PBD education and community engagement director. Panelists include Margaret M. Ledford, play reading director; Maria Antuña, CEO of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce; and Olga Granda, community and cultural arts leader.
ANNA IN THE TROPICS
April 26, 7:30pm; Discussion April 28, 7:30pm
This Pulitzer Prize-winning play is set in a cigar factory in Tampa’s Cuban-American community in 1929, when cigars are still rolled by hand and “lectors” are hired to read aloud, helping the workers not just to get through the tedium of their jobs, but to engage their minds. Juan Julian, a new lector, reads to them from Anna Karenina, and as Tolstoy’s characters come alive, their yearnings ignite the workers’ own passions to life-changing effect.

A discussion of Anna in the Tropics, hosted by Gary Cadwallader, PBD education and community engagement director. Panelists include Marcos Santana, play reading director, and Mirta Luaces, editor and reporter for La Guia News.
Contemporary Voices is sponsored by:
Executive Producers Marilyn Meyerhoff and Sam Feldman
Associate Producer Holland & Knight
PBD Online is sponsored by Louise and Barry Snyder
Please consider donating to PBD. With your support, we can continue to offer a variety of programs virtually and preserve our reserve funds as we await the return to our live, mainstage performances later in the year.