When he was a boy, too young to make sense of it, Cuban immigrant Nilo Cruz overheard his father discussing a homeland tradition in which lectors would read newspaper stories or books aloud while factory workers rolled cigars.
“It was much later in life when I was approached by a theater company to write a new play,” recalls the resident of Miami. “I went back to that tradition. That was the seed for Anna in the Tropics.” That play—which earned Cruz a Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2003—will run at Orlando Shakes through September 21.
Cruz, who immigrated in 1970, says his background has inspired his literary success. “I think all those experiences in Cuba living under an oppressive system really helped to shape my life, and I think it also gave me a sense of urgency and conflict that one also needs in the theater,” he says. “There’s no theater without conflict. There’s no theater without any life experience.”
As with Anna in the Tropics—in which the reading aloud of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina to workers in a cigar factory in Ybor City drives the action—Cruz takes a character-driven approach to his work. His stories often shift gears as the characters respond to changing circumstances.
“I love that exploratory process in my writing,” he says. “I don’t have a set itinerary. On the contrary, I’m more of an explorer—a traveler instead of being a tourist who just visits the known sites.”
When not playwriting, Cruz can occasionally be found teaching theater at the University of Miami. Or he may be writing the libretto of his latest opera, which will debut next May. That’s when New York City’s Metropolitan Opera will perform Cruz’s El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego (The Last Dream of Frida and Diego), based upon the lives of Frida Kahlo and romantic partner Diego Rivera.
Meanwhile, he lauds Orlando Shakes’s decision to produce Anna in the Tropics, which had been deemed suitable for those in eighth grade or higher. At least, that used to be the case for this much-acclaimed work.
However, in 2022—the play’s 20th anniversary—officials of Miami-Dade County Public Schools initially prohibited a planned student field trip to see a performance before a public outcry prompted them to reverse course. Says Cruz: “I’m delighted at this moment in time that Orlando Shakes decided to do this play, especially in this state.”
Orlando Shakes is located at 812 East Rollins Street, Orlando, in Loch Haven Cultural Park. For more information, visit orlandoshakes.org or call 407.447.1700.
