Nilo Cruz is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright known for his evocative storytelling and exploration of themes such as love, identity, and the immigrant experience. Born in Havana, Cuba, Cruz’s works often reflect his cultural heritage and the complexities of life in a multicultural society. With a lyrical and poetic style, Cruz’s plays invite audiences to experience the richness of human emotions and the power of connection.
Anna in the Tropics
Winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Photo by Andres Manner 2023 Barrington Stage Company production
Anna in the Tropics is a poignant and poetic play set in Florida in 1929 in a Cuban–American cigar factory, where cigars are still rolled by hand and “lectors” are employed to educate and entertain the workers. The arrival of a new lector is a cause for celebration, but when he begins to read aloud from Anna Karenina, he unwittingly becomes a catalyst in the lives of his avid listeners, for whom Tolstoy, the tropics, and the American dream prove a volatile combination.
Beauty of the Father
This play by Pulitzer Prize–winner Nilo Cruz is set in Andalusia, Spain, where the restless ghost of the Spanish poet Federico García Lorca still wanders through the streets and converses with the living. Beauty of the Father is about a young American girl who travels to this part of the world to meet her estranged father and becomes romantically involved with his Moroccan companion. This passionate triangle explores the conflict between love and sacrifice.
Hortensia and the Museum of Dreams
A brother and a sister, whose lives were forever altered when their mother put them on a flight from Havana to the United States in 1961, return to their native land during the Pope’s visit to Cuba. The brother and sister take their own path, as they search for recollection and healing. This tale of estranged siblings seeking to make sense of the childhood that was subtracted from their lives possesses an imaginative and lyrical landscape that elevates the material to a poetic universality.
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Luis Alfaro
Drawing on his Chicano heritage, Luis Alfaro’s works often reflect the experiences of marginalized communities, weaving together rich narratives that address issues of race, class, and family. His notable plays include Electricidad, a modern retelling of Sophocles’ Electra, and The God of Sadness, which delve into the complexities of life in Los Angeles. Through his work, he continues to inspire dialogue and foster understanding in the world of contemporary theatre.
Electricidad
In the years following the murder of her father by her mother, Electricidad is committed to vengeance. To get it, she’ll need her brother, Orestes, to return from Las Vegas and help her finish the job. Transporting Sophocles’ Electra to the Los Angeles barrios, Luis Alfaro investigates violence, loss, and redemption through the lens of this age-old tragedy.
Mojada
Medea and Jason have escaped the worst. After a harrowing journey across the Mexican–American border, the couple has made it safely to the States, where they can work toward a better life for their family. While Jason is convinced the future looks bright, Medea fears a darker fate as they face the challenges of living without documentation. Blending Euripides’ classic with Mexican folklore, Luis Alfaro examines the tragedy behind America’s immigration system and the destiny of one family caught in its grip.
Oedipus El Rey
As he approaches the end of a lengthy prison sentence, Oedipus is ready to taste his long-awaited freedom. But liberation comes at a price, and life on the outside proves its own kind of prison ruled by a cruel and violent fate. Based on Sophocles’ classic tale, Oedipus El Rey is an urgent examination of modern institutions, social barriers, and the power of storytelling for those bold enough to challenge the gods of our time.
Matthew López
Matthew López is a talented playwright and screenwriter renowned for his impactful storytelling and exploration of identity, culture, and human connection. His critically acclaimed play The Inheritance, inspired by E.M. Forster’s Howards End, garnered multiple awards, including the Olivier Award for Best New Play and a Tony Award for Best Play. López’s works often delve into themes of love, loss, and the complexities of LGBTQ+ experiences, making him a prominent voice in contemporary theatre.
The Inheritance, Part One
Winner of the 2020 Tony Award® for Best Play
Winner of the 2020 Drama Desk Award for Best Play
Winner of the 2019 Olivier Award for Best Play
Photo by Matthew Murphy, 2019 Broadway Production
Decades after the height of the AIDS epidemic, The Inheritance tells the story of three generations of gay men in New York City attempting to forge a future for themselves amid a turbulent and changing America. Eric Glass is a political activist engaged to his writer boyfriend, Toby Darling. When two strangers enter their lives—an older man and a younger one—their futures suddenly become uncertain as they begin to chart divergent paths. Inspired by E.M. Forster’s masterpiece Howards End, The Inheritance is an epic examination of survival, healing, class divide, and what it means to call a place home.
The Inheritance, Part Two
Picking up where Part One ended, The Inheritance, Part Two takes its characters on roller-coaster journeys of self-discovery, self-deception, and self-destruction. Eric, reeling from his discovery at Walter’s house, finds himself growing even closer to Henry—while Toby tumbles down a dark hole of celebrity and addiction as he runs from a hidden past that will inevitably catch up with him. And the young man Leo, returning to Toby’s life and Toby’s bed, discovers a world of books—in particular the works of E.M. Forster—that open up a new realm of life to him, but at the same time finds himself in more danger than before. All three lives intersect as they are faced with the decision to heal or to burn. Inspired by E.M. Forster’s Howards End, The Inheritance is an epic examination of survival, healing, class divide, and what it means to call a place home.
The Legend of Georgia McBride
He’s young, he’s broke, his landlord’s knocking at the door, and he’s just found out his wife is going to have a baby. To make matters even more desperate, Casey is fired from his gig as an Elvis impersonator in a run-down, small-town Florida bar. When the bar owner brings in a B-level drag show to replace his act, Casey finds that he has a whole lot to learn about show business—and himself.
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Best known for his work on hit TV shows, Aguirre-Sacasa has also made a significant impact in the world of theatre. His plays, such as Good Boys and True and Abigail/1702, showcase his ability to blend gripping drama with complex characters. With a unique voice that bridges pop culture and classic storytelling, Aguirre-Sacasa continues to captivate audiences on stage and screen alike.
Abigail/1702
Photo by Abby Kraftowitz, 2013 City Theatre production
In this tale of New England witchery, it is ten years after the harrowing and tragic events of the Salem witch trials. Abigail Williams—the lead accuser who sent twenty people to their doom as a young girl—now lives under an assumed name on the outskirts of Boston, quietly striving to atone for her sins. When a handsome stranger arrives claiming to be a sailor in need, Abigail takes him in, and long-dormant passions awaken within her. Love starts to grow between the two—an unlikely flower cracking through salty earth. But their contentment is short-lived, for someone else is coming for Abigail, someone who has been looking for her since she danced in the weird woods of Salem. The Devil is demanding Abigail’s soul, and a debt will be paid—but first, Abigail must make peace with the woman she most wronged…
Based on a Totally True Story
A contemporary comedy that moves at the speed of lightning, Based on a Totally True Story chronicles the hilarious, bittersweet misadventures of twenty-something New Yorker Ethan Keene. A semi-successful comic book writer by day (he writes The Flash for DC Comics) and struggling playwright by night, Ethan’s world is turned upside down when a veteran Hollywood producer decides she wants to turn one of Ethan’s unproduced plays into a big-budget horror movie—possibly starring Nicole Kidman. With that tasty carrot clouding his vision, Ethan struggles to be a loving, supportive, giving partner to his boyfriend Michael Sullivan, a Village Voice reporter and budding novelist. On top of which, Ethan’s lovable dad announces that he’s leaving Ethan’s mom for a married woman—and can he please stay with Ethan and Michael until he finds a new place to live? Hearts are broken, lessons learned, and dreams deferred in this quirky, offbeat romantic comedy of manners.
Good Boys and True
Prep-school senior Brandon Hardy is brilliant, athletic, popular and charming—the kind of student that makes St. Joe’s School for Boys proud to call its own. However, his privileged life threatens to collapse when a disturbing videotape is found on campus. As the resulting scandal takes unexpected turns, Brandon’s mother Elizabeth must sort fact from fiction from family and confront unsettling truths about her son, herself, and their life.
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