Anna in the Tropics • SOUTH COAST REPERTORY P1

40th Season • 384th ProductionJULIANNE ARGYROS STAGE / SEPTEMBER 28 - OCTOBER 19, 2003

David Emmes Martin BensonPRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

presents

ANNA IN THE TROPICSby NILO CRUZ

SCENIC DESIGN COSTUME DESIGN LIGHTING DESIGNChristine Jones Joyce Kim Lee Christopher Akerlind

ORIGINAL MUSIC/SOUND DESIGN PRODUCTION MANAGER STAGE MANAGERChristopher Webb Jeff Gifford *Jamie A. Tucker

DIRECTED BY

Juliette Carrillo

HONORARY PRODUCERS

Sue and Ralph Stern

Anna in the Tropics was commissioned and originally produced by New Theatre, Miami, Florida, Rafael del Acha, Artistic Director,Eileen Suarez, Managing Director, in 2002 with support from the NEA/TCG Theatre Residency Program for Playwrights.

CAST OF CHARACTERS(In order of appearance)

Eliades/Palomo ................................................................... *Jonathan NicholsSantiago ........................................................................................ *Tony PlanaCheché ..................................................................................... *Geoffrey RivasMarela ............................................................................ *Onahoua RodriguezConchita .................................................................................. *Adriana SevanOfelia .................................................................................... *Karmín MurceloJuan Julian ................................................................................. *Julian Acosta

SETTING 1929 Tampa, Florida. A small town called Ybor City.

LENGTHApproximately two hours, including one 15-minute intermission.

PRODUCTION STAFFCasting Director ........................................................................................ Joanne DeNautDramaturg ................................................................................................... Jennifer KigerAssistant Director ......................................................................................... Michael BaezProduction Assistant ................................................................................. Chrissy ChurchAssistant Set Designers ................................................................. Ed Coco, Jennifer ZeylCostume Design Assistant ................................................................................. Julie KeenAssistant Lighting Designer ........................................................................ Tony MulanixStage Management Intern ............................................................................... Nina EvansAdditional Costume Staff .................................... Denitsa Bliznakova, Bronwen Burton,

Catherine Esera, Tracy Gray, Yen Trang Le, Stacey Nezda

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSWillie García, Judge Emiliano Salcines, Paul Vincent, Gus Jimenez, Patrick Manteiga, Julio Cordero,

Rodriguez and Menendez Cigar Factory, Sally Zarate, Rene Zarate, Vincent and Tampa Cigar Company, University of South Florida Special Collections, J.C. Newman Cigar Company, Mursuli Cigars, especially

Oscar Mursuli, Oscar Mursuli, Jr., Cindy Mursuli, Angel Gonzalez, Omar Madruga, Juan Muñoz and EileenGalindo. Sandy Rosenbaum at LACMA Research Center. Umberto Accardi with Artistic Costumes.

Please refrain from unwrapping candy or making other noises that may disturb surrounding patrons.The use of cameras and recorders in the theatre is prohibited. Smoking is not permitted anywhere in the theatre.

Cellular phones, beepers and watch alarms should be turned off or set to non-audible mode during the performance.

* Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers.

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Media Partner

Official AirlineMedia Partner

This production is part of Eclectic Orange Festival 2003, a project of the Philharmonic Society of Orange County.

Years before Nilo Cruz set outto write Anna in the Tropics,he became fascinated with thetradition of the lectores, welldressed men who were paid

to read to cigar workers as theyrolled. The tradition arrived in theUnited States with the Cuban cigarworkers and remained until the1930s, when the rollers and thereaders were replaced by mecha-nization. Eventually, the traditionfound its way into the heart ofCruz’s drama about afamily of cigar work-ers whose lives areforever altered by thearrival of a new lectorfrom Cuba.

The lectoreswere educated menwith beautiful voices.In those days, loudspeaker systemswere not popular, so the lectoreshad to read loud enough to beheard by the hundreds of workersin the factory. The workers con-

tributed a portion of their salaries topay for the services of the lectores.They demanded precision and pas-sion from the lectores, and they tookthe literature seriously. The workerswere largely illiterate, but they couldrecite passages from Don Quixoteand Shakespeare.

Days in the cigar factorieswere divided into four periods. Inthe first, the lectores read fromnewspapers; in the second they readnews from labor organizations. Thethird and fourth periods were re-served for culture, entertainmentand novels. The finest lectores weremore than readers. They were per-formers who brought life to theworld’s great literature and teacherswho informed the workers aboutlabor and political movements.

Wilfredo Rodriguez recalledhis days as a lector in a 1981 inter-view in the Tampa Tribune: “Inthose days we didn’t have any mi-crophones…You had to have a verystrong voice and very clear pronun-

ciation so the workers [would] un-derstand every word you read….Itwas exactly like theater. When wewere reading a novel we were tomake ourselves as though we werethe character talking—whether itwas a woman or a child, an old manor an old lady. Not everybodycould do that.”

The tradition of the lectores inTampa came to an end followingthe Depression. The introduction ofmachines into the factories inter-fered with the workers’ ability to lis-ten. Meanwhile, the factory ownersbecame increasingly hostile towardthe lectores for reading the laborpress to the workers.

In the fall of 1931 thousandsof cigar workers went on strike toprotest the removal of readers fromthe factories. In support of theprotest, nearly every business inYbor City and West Tampa closedits doors. Eventually, the cigarworkers returned to the factories,but the lectores were no longer wel-come. It was the end of an era.

–Jennifer Kiger

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A mass meeting of Tampa cigarworkers on November 28, 1931,protesting the removal of readersfrom the factories.

A lector at the Perfecto-García factory(1930), following the return of read-ers in 1926.

El Lector

Set in 1929 in a section of Tampa,Florida known as Ybor City, Anna inthe Tropics paints an evocative por-trait of the lost world of Cuban cigarfactories. Ybor City, the “Cigar Cap-ital of the World,” was the manufac-turing center of Havana hand-rolledcigars until the industry hit hardtimes in the 1930s. The entire na-tion was reeling from the Great De-pression. Increased cigarette con-sumption led to a decreased de-mand for cigars, and the introduc-tion of machinery into the cigar fac-tories emphasized mass productionover individual workmanship. Thefollowing excerpts are taken fromTampa Cigar Workers: A PictorialHistory by Robert P. Ingalls andLouis A. Perez, Jr. (University Pressof Florida, 2003), a fascinating ac-count of the world of the Tampacigar workers.

Florida’s cigarindustry began

at Key West in1831, when W.H. Hall chosethe island city asa site for a fac-tory because ofits climate andits proximity toCuban tobaccofields. In 1868, with open revolu-tion and business demoralization inHavana, many cigar makers migrat-ed to Key West, where established

factories offeredemployment.When fire sweptthe city in 1886,destroying thelarger factories,and labor dis-putes furtherdisrupted pro-duction, the ma-jority of themanufacturersmoved their

plants to a district east of Tampa,which they named Ybor City forVincent Martínez Ybor, one of theirleaders.

—Federal Writer’s Project, 1939

Ybor City is like steppingfrom one country into

another….It is a revelationto many to pass throughthe atmosphere in thatsection, truly Latin, withhabits and customs almostidentical to those of Cuba.The main business districtof Ybor City is stretchedalong Seventh Avenue,lined on either side with awhite way, supported bymerchants, equal to any-thing in Tampa….Thestreets of Ybor City are

usually lined with people from fiveo’clock in the afternoon until late atnight. The restaurants are alwaysopen as well as many of the stores.

—Tampa Daily Times, February 17, 1917

Tampa-made Havana cigars did notneed advertising. They were

known throughout the country bysmokers of fine cigars. They wereconstantly in demand, and everydealer stocked them. Tampa man-ufacturers simply filled the orderswith quality cigars as they came in.

—A. Stuart Campbell, The Cigar Industry of Tampa,

Florida, (1939)

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A cigar brand created to honor Vi-cente Martínez Ybor, one of the Span-ish cigar manufacturers who foundedYbor City.

Above, Tampa Cigar makers duringthe 1920s. Above right, the Sánchezy Haya factory, the first to producecigars in Ybor City, was located onthe corner of Seventh Avenue and Fif-teenth Street.

The Capital of Cigars

Cigar workers usually and generallywear good working clothes and

are prone to appear after workinghours neatly and freshly dressed.To the Latin workmen, especiallythose of the younger state, the dailyafternoon or evening change is anecessity, and the women workersalso follow that practice with a fi-delity that becomes a fixed habit.Evidences of this love of goodclothes is found in Tampa’s wellstocked and modern shops.

—Tampa Daily Times, December 20, 1922

The Latin cigar worker considershimself more of an artist than a

worker. This feeling has causedhim to resent plant rules and restric-tions and oppose measures whichare a part of the standarddiscipline in Americanplants….He has a tenden-cy to take things pertain-ing to his work or his art,as he thinks of it, very seri-ously….Once an issue isbefore him, he will fightdesperately for it, whichhelps explain some of thecontroversies between theworkers and employers inthe industry. Many of theemployers, for their part,are just as stubborn aboutcompromising an issue.

—A. Stuart Campbell, The Cigar Industry of Tampa, Florida, 1939

Arespectable fraction of the work-men in tobacco are women—

dark-eyed, olive skinned and Castil-ian señoras and señoritas—whountil four short years ago lived theirtropic lives in the patios and plazasof Havana.

—New York Herald, quoted in Tampa Tribune,

February 14, 1890

In many cases entirefamilies of Latins have

worked together foryears in the cigar facto-ries. Father, mother,sons and daughtersworked side by side.Boys and girls of thir-teen and fourteen wereemployed as appren-tices. In some in-stances members ofthree generations areemployed together. Inprosperous times, withall members of thefamily employed ex-cept the younger children, the com-bined income of the family wouldfrequently exceed $100 per week.

—Federal Writers Project, 1937

To my manner of thinking,the cigar-making machines

are at the root of all the evil inYbor City. They have gradual-ly displaced the cigar makers.As an example, the factory ofSantaella installed five ma-chines, and threw out thirtycigar makers.

—Fernando Lemos in an interview with the

Federal Writer’s Project, 1936

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Above, a bunch maker working witha mold and below left a label for aTampa-made cigar, emphasizing itsquality and connection to Cuba.

Cigar makers (1930) using molds,which are stacked in the presses thatappear in the left and right fore-ground.

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In 1903 the Tampa Tribune told of a fascinating turn of events. Inall of my research and reading on the role of lectors, I had neverrun across such an unusual example of literature’s impact on themasses.

Two cigar makers worked side by side in a factory for yearsand were fast friends. One was a Mexican, the other a Spaniard....

When the time came for the lector to announce his selection forthe month’s reading, the workers stopped their work to listen. Heannounced that he would be reading Emile Zola’s Germinal.

The Mexican objected immediately. He would not have filthread to his wife, who would have to sit in mixed company and bearthe obscenities ofthat French novel.(Zola’s novelswere known to gointo the kind ofgraphic detail thatshould not beheard in public.)

The Spaniarddisagreed. Whyshould the men bedeprived of hear-ing the work of agreat novelist be-cause he describedthe acts that eachadult there per-formed? The othermarried men pre-sent reacted vio-lently, and an argument started which sputtered and flickered dur-ing the tense week.

“Tell the women to leave the room when the lector reads theZola novel,” the bachelors said with what they felt was reason.

“What, and miss an hour of work?” the married men answered.The Spaniard and the Mexican had eaten supper together at the

Fourth of July Café since they were bachelors, and they continuedto do so after the Mexican took his bride. But on this night, bothmen appeared at the café in an agitated state, and both were armed.The argument at the factory had reached a climax. Harsh wordshad been exchanged.

According to the Tampa Tribune, violence broke out as soon asthe two men spotted each other. The Spaniard was armed with tworevolvers, and the Mexican carried one six-shooter Colt.

When the smoke cleared, the Mexican lay on the floor with fourholes in his chest. The Spaniard was down with one bullet in his.

–Ferdie Pacheco, Pacheco’s Art of Ybor City

University Press of Florida, 1997)

Literary DisagreementF

or playwright Nilo Cruz, Leo Tolstoy’sAnna Karenina opened a window intothe soul of his play. “Once I discov-ered the book that was being read by

the lector, the whole play came to me. Istarted to read Anna Karenina through theeyes of the characters.” (Read Nilo Cruz’sentire interview in the SCR’s SubSCRibernewsletter at www.scr.org)

As its title suggests, the spirit of LeoTolstoy’s masterpiece echoes throughoutAnna in the Tropics. Life and art collide asJuan Julian, the new lector, reads the classictale of love and adultery set against thebackdrop of high society in late 19th Centu-ry Russia.

A young, elite woman married to apowerful government minister, Anna fallsin love with the elegant Count Vronsky.She becomes pregnant by Vronsky andleaves her husband and son to live with herlover.

Unable to obtain a divorce, Anna livesisolated from the society that once valuedher. She descends into fits of jealousy, andVronsky’s love for her fades. Finally, un-able to bear her plight, Anna throws herselfon the tracks beneath an oncoming train,and dies.

Meanwhile, the journey of another loveaffair unfolds. A thoughtful young mannamed Levin hopes to marry the PrincessCatherine, affectionately known as Kitty. Atfirst she rejects Levin’s proposal becauseshe believes that Vronsky, who flirted withher before he met Anna, intends to marryher.

Devastated, Levin withdraws to hiscountry estate to work in seclusion. Intime, the couple reunites and discovers thatthey are deeply in love. Kitty happily ac-cepts Levin’s second proposal. They marry,live happily in the country and have a son.

Considered by some to be one of thegreatest novels ever written, Anna Kareni-na shocked the world with its powerfulportrayal of the human need for love andhappiness weighed against the rigid de-mands of society.

–J.K.

‘Anna’ in the Tropics

“Literary Disagreement,” painted by FerdiePacheco, 1995.

*JULIAN ACOSTA (Juan Julian) ap-peared in Loose Ends, Stags andHens at the Guthrie Theater and inAnna Deveare Smith’s Piano atIACD/American Repertory Theatrein Cambridge. He was a series reg-ular on ABC’s “The Job,” and a re-curring character on Lifetime’s“Strong Medicine.” Other televisioncredits include “Kingpin” (pilot),“Law and Order,” and “One Life toLive.”

*KARMIN MURCELO (Ofelia) ap-peared at SCR in California Sce-narios. Other regional theatre ap-pearances include Death and Lifeof Jesse James, The Maids and RedCross at the Mark Taper Forum;Once Removed at Long Wharf The-ater; Roosters at New Mexico Reper-tory and The Boiler Room at theOld Globe in San Diego. Her mostrecent television guest appearancesare “The Division,” “Six Feet

Under,” “Diagnosis Murder” and“Air America” (in the recurring roleof Alma). In Spanish television,she has had leading roles in Tele-visa Mexico’s daytime serials “In-famia” and “Shadows” and most re-cently in Univision’s “Te Amare EnSilencio.” In films, she is best re-membered for her performances inRight to Kill, Borderline and BloodIn, Blood Out.

*JONATHAN NICHOLS (Eliades/Palomo) appeared at SCR in the2003 Pacific Playwrights Festivalreading of Anna in the Tropics andthe 2002 Hispanic Playwrights Pro-ject reading of Nilo Cruz’s TheBeauty of the Father. Theatre cred-its include Measure for Measure atLincoln Center; Othello at the Clas-sic Stage Company; Julius Caesar atHartford Stage; La Fiaca, Necessi-ties, Hamlet and As You Like It atthe Old Globe; Talk to Me Like the

Rain, The Long Goodbye and MuchAdo About Nothing at The ActingCompany; and Once in a Lifetime,Caucasian Chalk Circle, The LowerDepths and Troilus and Cressida atthe Juilliard Theatre Center. He isa member of the Antaeus TheatreCompany where he has performedin Of Mice and Men directed byFrank Dwyer and Mercadet direct-ed by Dakin Matthews. Televisioncredits include guest starring roleson “Judging Amy,” “Roswell,”“Becker,” “Family Law,” “NYPDBlue,” “Friends” and “The WestWing.” Film credits include Pay ItForward and Desert Saints. Mr.Nichols would like to thank theMursuli family for their cigar exper-tise and kind generosity. For myFather, “Para ti papi, te quieromucho.”

*TONY PLANA (Santiago) was bornin Cuba, raised in Miami and Los

Artist Biographies

KARMíN MURCELO

OfeliaJONATHAN NICHOLS

PalomoJULIAN ACOSTA

Juan Julian

Anna in the Tropics • SOUTH COAST REPERTORY P7

‘

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Angeles and trained at London’sRoyal Academy of Dramatic Art.He first garnered notices for hisportrayal of Rudy in the musicalZoot Suit, a role he reclaimed inthe subsequent Broadway and fea-ture film productions. Other no-table stage roles have included theSCR productions of Rum and Cokeand Charley Bacon and HisFamily; the sergeant in the Broad-way production of The Boys ofWinter; Richard III, Widows andThe Reader at Mark Taper Forum;Figaro Gets a Divorce at La JollaPlayhouse; Rum and Coke andBang Bang Blues at the New YorkPublic Theater; and The WonderfulIce Cream Suit (the musical) at thePasadena Playhouse. He is alsothe co-founder and executive artis-tic director of the East L.A. ClassicTheatre which is dedicated to im-proving the academic performanceof disadvantaged students throughits award-winning Beyond Borders:Performing Arts Literary Interven-tion Program. Plana currently starsas widowed patriarch Roberto San-tiago in Showtime’s ResurrectionBoulevard for which he received2001 and 2002 ALMA award nomi-nations for best actor. He also re-cently starred in the ShowtimeOriginal Miniseries, Fidel, as well

as Showtime’s Noriega: God’s Fa-vorite. Other leading roles includethe series “Veronica Claire,” “Bak-ersfield P.D.,” “Total Security” and“City of Angels.” He has also ap-peared in several Emmy Award-winning programs such as SweetFifteen, Drug Wars: The CamarenaStory, The Burning Season: The Lifeand Death of Chico Mendes and aspecial episode of L.A. Law, whichreceived an IMAGEN Award.Plana currently portrays a recurringrole in “John Doe” and on theaward-winning drama “The WestWing” as the U.S. Secretary ofState. He has starred in more than60 films including JFK, Nixon, Sal-vador, An Officer and a Gentle-man, Lone Star, Three Amigos,Born in East L.A., El Norte, 187,Primal Fear, Romero, One GoodCop, Havana, The Rookie, SilverStrand and Picking Up the Pieceswith Woody Allen. He recentlyappeared in the action thriller HalfPast Dead with Steven Segal, Mor-ris Chestnut and JaRul. He is therecipient of two Nosotros GoldenEagle awards for outstanding workin film and television, as well asfive Los Angeles Drama-LogueAwards for Theatre. He has direct-ed two feature films, A Million toJuan and The Princess and the

Barrio Boy which received twoALMA award nominations and anIMAGEN award for best televisionmovie. On television he has di-rected several episodes of “TheBrothers Garcia” for Nickelodeonand won an IMAGEN award forthe third season finale. He hasalso directed several episodes ofResurrection Boulevard receiving aGLAAD award and a SHINE awardnomination. He has just complet-ed directing an episode of “Greet-ings From Tucson,” a half-hourcomedy for the Warner Bros. net-work. Plana is the proud father ofAlejandro and Isabel and has beenhappily married for 15 years to theactress Ada Maris.

*GEOFFREY RIVAS (Cheché) is anative Californian who graduatedfrom UCLA with a Master of FineArts Degree with a concentrationon acting. He received a 1999Ovation nomination for the role ofMartin in Sam Shepard’s Fool forLove at the newly opened MadridTheatre in Canoga Park. He hasperformed at Los Angeles TheatreCenter in Luminarias (now out onDVD and VHS), I Don’t Have toShow You No Stinking Badges forLuis Valdez and Piano by AnnaDeavere Smith; at SCR in the 2003

GEOFFREY RIVAS

ChechéONAHOUA RODRIGUEZ

MarelaTONY PLANA

Santiago

Pacific Playwrights Festival readingof Anna in the Tropics, and previ-ously in Man of the Flesh and LaPosada Mágica, both by OctavioSolis; and at New Mexico Reperto-ry in Once Removed by EduardoMachado. Film credits include LaBamba, Born in East L.A., PowWow Highway, Bound by Honor,Above Suspicion, Notes From Un-derground, Eye for an Eye, TheRight to Remain Silent and FotoNovelas for PBS (for which he wonan ALMA Award in 1998). Numer-ous television credits includemovies of the week Little Assassin,Drug Wars: The Camarena Story,Overkill, Blind Side, Ambush atWaco, Trial by Fire, The Lake; andthe television shows “Jake and theFat Man,” “L.A. Law,” “E.R.,” “Rela-tivity,” “Chicago Hope,” “BrooklynSouth,” “Alright Already,” “Early

Edition,” “Pensacola,” “Air Ameri-ca” and “Promised Land.” Current-ly he has a recurring role as Det.Vega on the CBS show “C.S.I.” Heis a member of the Latino TheatreCo. created by Jose Luis Valen-zuela at LATC, whose recent playby Evelina Fernandez, Dementia,just won the GLAAD award. Hederives great pleasure from hiswork with the Virginia Ave. Pro-ject, an organization that uses theperforming arts to encourage chil-dren growing up under difficultcircumstances to achieve their fullpotential.

*ONAHOUA RODRIGUEZ (Marela)appeared at SCR in the 2003 PacificPlaywrights Festival reading ofAnna in the Tropics. She is grate-ful to be a part of this productionand thanks everyone involved.Theatre credits include Blood Wed-ding at La Jolla Playhouse, OneStep from Death at the MCC The-atre, Fools Journey at Intar, TheNext Stop at Repertorio Espanol,Home Girls on the Prowl at the LaTea Theatre, Aphrodite’s Dungeonat the Looking Glass Theatre andGreenfeld’s “Shakespeare’s Haunt-ed House” at the Belvedere Castle.Film and television credits includeThe Rhythm of the Saints (officialselection of the 2003 SundanceFilm Festival), the Allison Andersproject In the Echo, “ER,” “For thePeople,” “Judging Amy,” “BostonPublic,” “Cover Me” and “ThirdWatch.” She dedicates this perfor-mance to her parents, their journey

for a better life, hard work andnever ending love and support.She is a better person through thelove of Andy, her family andfriends. God bless.

*ADRIANA SEVAN (Conchita) isdelighted to return to SCR whereshe was last seen in the 2003 Pacif-ic Playwrights Festival reading ofAnna in the Tropics and previouslyas Maria Celia in Nilo Cruz’s TwoSisters and a Piano and at the 1999Pacific Playwrights Festival in Illu-minating Veronica. Past creditsinclude Derek Walcott’s TheOdyssey at Willow Cabin Theatre,Another Part of the House at ClassicStage, Two Sisters and a Piano andIndian Ink at The Public Theatre,A Royal Affair at Intar, Macbeth atHERE and Sodom and Gomorrah atthe O’Neill Festival. Her recentguest starring appearances on tele-vision include “Law and Order:Criminal Intent,” “Sex and theCity,” “Law and Order” and “Dead-line.” She is a founding memberof Kristen Linkater’s all femaleShakespeare company, The Com-pany of Women, with whom sheperformed Henry V and King Lear.Last year, her first solo perfor-mance piece was produced atIntar. She is currently at work onher second piece, Shut Up andDance which was just work-shopped at the Lark Theatre. Ms.Sevan dedicates her performancewith love and thanks to her hus-band Dennis. Love to Mom, Dad,Peter and Olga.

Anna in the Tropics • SOUTH COAST REPERTORY P9

ADRIANA SEVAN

Conchita

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PLAYWRIGHT,DIRECTOR & DESIGNERS

NILO CRUZ (Playwright) was bornin Cuba and lives in New York. Hereturns to SCR following the westcoast premiere of Two Sisters and aPiano and readings of Hortensiaand the Museum of Dreams andThe Beauty of the Father. His otherplays include A Park in Our House,Night Train to Bolina, A BicycleCountry, and Dancing on herKnees. Some of the theatres thathave developed and performed hisworks include New York’s PublicTheater, New York Theatre Work-shop, McCarter Theatre, OregonShakespeare, Florida Stage, The Al-liance, The Studio Theatre, NewTheatre, Coconut Grove Playhouseand the Children’s Theatre of Min-neapolis. His play Anna in theTropics received the Pulitzer Prizeand the American TheatreCritics/Steinberg Award. He teach-es playwriting at Yale Universityand is a New Dramatists alum.

JULIETTE CARRILLO (Director) is anArtistic Associate at SCR where shedirects regularly in the season andis the Director of the Hispanic Play-wrights Project. Favorite produc-tions at SCR include the world pre-mieres of the site-specific Califor-nia Scenarios by various Latin writ-ers and José Rivera’s References toSalvador Dali Make Me Hot. Otherprojects for SCR include the worldpremiere of Lucinda Coxon’s Nos-talgia, the West Coast premieres of

Gregory Murphy’s The Countess andStuart Flack’s Sidney Bechet Killed aMan. She has directed regionally atthe Williamstown Theatre Festival,the Actors Theatre of Louisville, theNew Jersey Shakespeare Festival,Cornerstone Theatre Company inLos Angeles, the Alliance TheatreCompany in Atlanta and the WestCoast premiere of Sam Shepard’sEyes for Consuela at the Magic The-atre in San Francisco. In NewYork, she directed projects for theNew York Theatre Workshop, TheWomen’s Project, The Joseph PappPublic Theater and the Dance The-atre Workshop. She is a winner ofmany awards and grants, includingthe NEA/TCG Directing Fellowship,and is a graduate of the YaleSchool of Drama. She recentlycompleted her first short film, Spi-ral.

CHRISTINE JONES (Set Design) re-turns to SCR where she designedthe sets for Much Ado about Noth-ing. On Broadway she designedsets for The Green Bird directed byJulie Taymor (Drama Desk andOuter Critic Circle Award nomina-tions when the show was originallystaged at The New Victory Theatre).She has been designing Off-Broad-way and across the country sincegraduating from New York Univer-sity where she received her MFA.Highlights include: Flesh and Bloodand Nocturne at New York TheatreWorkshop; True Love at The Zipper;Silver River at The Spoleto and Lin-coln Center Festivals; The Impor-

tance of Being Earnest at The Mc-Carter Theatre in Princeton, N.J.;Twelfth Night at The ShakespeareTheatre in Washington, D.C.; TheChairs at The Intiman in Seattle;Resurrection Blues at The GuthrieLab; and Texts for Nothing at NewYork Shakespeare Festival. Operaincludes Lucia di Lammermoor andGiulio Cesare at the Houston GrandOpera. She has also designed cos-tumes and a music video for BenFolds Five. Currently she is a Lec-turer at Princeton University.

JOYCE KIM LEE (Costume Design) ispleased to return to SCR, where sheand director Juliette Carrillo last col-laborated on Sidney Bechet Killed aMan. Other SCR credits includeThe Two Gentlemen of Verona,Hold Please, Art, The Summer Moondirected by Mark Rucker and Enter-taining Mr. Sloane directed by Mar-tin Benson. Recent credits includeThe Country at La Jolla Playhouse,Ten Unknowns and The House ofBernarda Alba (LA Ovation Nomi-nation) at the Mark Taper Forumand Under the Blue Sky at the Gef-fen Playhouse. She has also de-signed costumes for the Los Ange-les Opera, Berkeley Repertory The-atre, East West Players, the IndianaRepertory Theatre, Chicago’s CourtTheatre, Santa Fe Chamber MusicFestival, Arena Stage, the BerkshireTheatre Festival Children’s Theatre,the Latino Theatre Company andthe Singapore Repertory Theatre.Ms. Lee is a recipient of anNEA/TCG Grant for Designers.

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Anna in the Tropics • SOUTH COAST REPERTORY P11

CHRISTOPHER AKERLIND (LightingDesign) returns to SCR where hedesigned Much Ado about Nothing,The Beginning of August and Cali-fornia Scenarios. Recent work in-cludes the world premiere of Debo-rah Drattell’s Nicholas and Alexan-dra at the LA Opera, Tony Kushn-er’s Homebody/Kabul for the MarkTaper Forum and Adam Guetteland Craig Lucas’ new musical TheLight in the Piazza at the IntimanTheater in Seattle. New York cred-its include the American premieresof Caryl Churchill’s The Skriker andMad Forest, the world premieres ofCraig Lucas’ The Dying Gaul andthe New York premieres of TonyKushner’s Slavs!, Ellen McLaughlin’sIphigenia and Other Daughters,Charles Busch’s The Tale of the Al-lergist’s Wife, Claudia Shear’s BlownSideways Through Life and AugustWilson’s Seven Guitars, for whichhe received a Tony nomination.His work has been seen at HartfordStage, La Jolla Playhouse, the Mc-Carter Theatre, the Goodman The-atre, the Guthrie Theater, ACT,ART, Seattle Repertory and Berke-ley Repertory Theater. His exten-sive credits in opera include morethan 30 productions, four worldpremieres and two American pre-mieres at Opera Theatre of St.Louis, as well as productions at theGlimmerglass, Santa Fe, Dallas,Houston Grand, Tulsa, BostonLyric, Nissei and Hamburg Operas.He has received the Obie Awardfor Sustained Excellence, theMichael Merritt Award for Excel-

lence in Design and Collaboration,three Drama-Logue Awards, andnumerous nominations for OuterCritics Circle, Bay Area Critics,Drama Desk and Lucile LortelAwards.

CHRISTOPHER WEBB (OriginalMusic/Sound Design) is pleased toreturn to SCR where he scored anddesigned productions of Nostalgiaand The Countess, directed by Juli-ette Carrillo, and Art, directed byMark Rucker. Mr. Webb composesoriginal scores for film, theater,dance and animation. Theatercredits include the West Coast Pre-miere of Sam Shepard’s Eyes forConsuela at the Magic Theater,Greg Sarris’ Joyride and MigdaliaCruz’s Fur at the Intersection forthe Arts (San Francisco); Barriersby Rehana Mirza at Stages TheatreCenter (Los Angeles); Green EyesDreaming and Righteous Acts LikeFilthy Rags by Jason Sinclair Longfor the Lincoln Center’s Director’sLab, and Shishir Kurup’s On CaringFor The Beast at the Currican The-ater (New York). Film credits in-clude Spiral by Juliette Carrillo andThese Are Our Kids for the Annie E.Casey Foundation. His originalscores for dance have been per-formed at the University of Texas,Austin and the ArtWallah Festival inLA and New York. Mr. Webbwould like to dedicate this perfor-mance to his parents.

*JAMIE A. TUCKER (Stage Manager)completed his MFA in Dance, spe-

cializing in Stage Management, atUCI in 1994. Last year he had thepleasure of stage managing theworld premiere of Richard Green-berg’s The Violet Hour, the WestCoast premiere of Horton Foote’sThe Carpetbagger’s Children, Rela-tively Speaking and Rolin Jones’ TheIntelligent Design of Jenny Chow.He worked as SCR’s stage managerfor the Second Stage productions ofThe Dazzle, True West, Play Strind-berg, the world premiere of But Notfor Me and the Pacific PlaywrightsFestival production of Landlocked.He also was stage manager of LaPosada Mágica for two seasons andSCR’s Festival Latino ’97 productionof Rick Najera’s Latinologues. Hehas worked as assistant stage man-ager on the Mainstage productionsof New England, Our Town and Ar-cadia, and the Second Stage pro-ductions of BAFO and Three Daysof Rain. Mr. Tucker has worked atthe Long Beach Civic Light Operaon No, No, Nanette, Can Can, AChorus Line, The King and I andMan of La Mancha. If you can’tfind him in the theatre, he is likelyto be on the diamond.

DAVID EMMES (Producing ArtisticDirector) is co-founder of SCR, oneof the largest professional residenttheatres in California. He has re-ceived numerous awards for pro-ductions he has directed duringSCR’s 39-year history, including a1999 Los Angeles Drama CriticsCircle Award for the direction ofGeorge Bernard Shaw’s The Phi-

Robert Falcon Scott races to the South Pole—toward a destinythat is doomed and yet, ultimately, life affirming.

Call (714) 708-5555or buy online at www.scr.org

by Ted TallyOctober 10 - November 16

P12 SOUTH COAST REPERTORY • Anna in the Tropics

landerer. He directed the worldpremieres of Amy Freed’s TheBeard of Avon and Freedomland,Thomas Babe’s Great Day in theMorning, Keith Reddin’s Rum andCoke and But Not for Me and NealBell’s Cold Sweat; the Americanpremiere of Terry Johnson’s Un-suitable for Adults; the West Coastpremieres of C.P. Taylor’s Goodand Harry Kondoleon’s Christmason Mars; and the Southland pre-miere of Top Girls (at SCR and theWestwood Playhouse). Other pro-ductions include the West Coastpremieres of Three Viewings by Jef-frey Hatcher, The Secret Rapture byDavid Hare and New England byRichard Nelson; and Arcadia byTom Stoppard, Six Degrees of Sepa-ration by John Guare, The Impor-tance of Being Earnest by OscarWilde, Ayckbourn’s Woman inMind and You Never Can Tell byGeorge Bernard Shaw, which herestaged for the Singapore Festivalof Arts. His producing responsibil-ities involve the overall coordina-tion of SCR’s programs and pro-jects. He has served as a consul-tant to the Orange County Per-forming Arts Center and as a the-atre panelist and onsite evaluatorfor the National Endowment forthe Arts. He has served on the Ex-ecutive Committee of the Leagueof Resident Theatres, and as a pan-elist for the California Arts Council.After attending Orange Coast Col-lege, he received his BA and MAfrom California State University,San Francisco, and his PhD in the-atre and film from USC.

MARTIN BENSON (ArtisticDirector) shares co-founder creditand artistic leadership of SCR withhis colleague David Emmes. As

one of SCR’s chief directors, Mr.Benson has directed nearly onethird of the plays produced here inthe last 39 years. He has distin-guished himself in the staging ofcontemporary work, includingHorton Foote’s The Carpetbagger’sChildren and the world premiereof his Getting Frankie Married—and Afterwards, the critically ac-claimed California premiere ofWilliam Nicholson’s Shadowlands,Athol Fugard’s Playland, BrianFriel’s Dancing at Lughnasa ,David Mamet’s Oleanna, HaroldPinter’s The Homecoming, DavidHare’s Skylight and the West Coastpremieres of Peter Hedges’ GoodAs New and Martin McDonagh’sThe Lonesome West. He has wonaccolades for his direction of fivemajor works by George BernardShaw, including the Los AngelesDrama Critics Circle (LADCC)Award winners Major Barbara,Misalliance and Heartbreak House.Among the numerous world pre-mieres he has directed are TomStrelich’s BAFO and MargaretEdson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Wit,which he also directed at SeattleRepertory Theatre and the AlleyTheatre in Houston. He has di-rected American classics includingAh, Wilderness! , A StreetcarNamed Desire, A Delicate Balanceand All My Sons. Mr. Benson hasbeen honored with the Drama-Logue Award for his direction of 21productions and received LADCCDistinguished Achievement in Di-recting awards an unparalleledseven times for the three Shawproductions, John MillingtonSynge’s Playboy of the WesternWorld , Arthur Miller’s TheCrucible, Sally Nemeth’s Holy Daysand Wit. He also directed the film

version of Holy Days using theoriginal SCR cast. Along withDavid Emmes, he accepted SCR’s1988 Tony Award for OutstandingResident Professional Theatre andwon the 1995 Theatre LA OvationAward for Lifetime Achievement.Mr. Benson received his BA inTheatre from California State Uni-versity, San Francisco.

PAULA TOMEI (Managing Director)is responsible for the overall ad-ministration of South Coast Reper-tory and has been Managing Direc-tor since 1994. A member of theSCR staff since 1979, she hasserved in a number of administra-tive capacities including Subscrip-tions Manager, Business Managerand General Manager. She cur-rently serves as President of theTheatre Communications Group(TCG), the national service organi-zation for the professional not-for-profit theater. In addition, she hasserved as Treasurer of TCG, VicePresident of the League of Resi-dent Theatres (LORT) and hasbeen a member of the LORT Nego-tiating Committee for industry-wide union agreements. She rep-resents SCR at national conferencesof TCG and LORT; is a theatrepanelist and site visitor for the Na-tional Endowment for the Arts andthe California Arts Council; servedon the Advisory Committee for theArts Administration Certificate Pro-gram at the University of Califor-nia, Irvine; and has been a guestlecturer in the graduate school ofbusiness at Stanford. She graduat-ed from the University of Califor-nia, Irvine with a degree in Eco-nomics and pursued an additionalcourse of study in theatre anddance.

The Actors and Stage Managers em-ployed in this production are membersof Actors’ Equity Association, the Unionof Professional Actors and Stage Man-agers in the United States.

The Scenic, Costume, Lighting andSound Designers in LORT theatresare represented by United ScenicArtists Local USA-829, IATSE.

The Director is a member of the Soci-ety of Stage Directors and Choreogra-phers, Inc., an independent nationallabor union.