Anna in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz

From the Publisher

Winner of the 2003 Pulitizer Prize for Drama

. . . there are many kinds of light.
The light of fires. The light of stars.
The light that reflects off rivers.
Light that penetrates through cracks.
Then there's the type of light that reflects off the skin.
-Nilo Cruz, Anna in the Tropics

This lush romantic drama depicts a family of cigar makers whose loves and lives are played out against the backdrop of America in the midst of the Depression. Set in Ybor City (Tampa) in 1930, Cruz imagines the catalytic effect the arrival of a new "lector" (who reads Tolstoy's Anna Karenina to the workers as they toil in the cigar factory) has on a Cuban-American family. Cruz celebrates the search for identity in a new land.

"The words of Nilo Cruz waft from the stage like a scented breeze. They sparkle and prickle and swirl, enveloping those who listen in both specific place and time . . . and in timeless passions that touch us all. In Anna in the Tropics, the world premiere work he created for Coral Gables' intimate New Theatre, Cruz claims his place as a storyteller of intricate craftsmanship and poetic power."-Miami Herald

Nilo Cruz is a young Cuban-American playwright whose work has been produced widely around the United States including the Public Theater (New York, NY), South Coast Repertory (Costa Mesa, CA), Magic Theatre (San Francisco, CA), Oregon Shakespeare Festival, McCarter Theater (Princeton, NJ) and New Theatre (Coral Gables, FL). His other plays include Night Train to Bolina, Two Sisters and a Piano, Hortensia and the Museum of Dreams, among others. Anna in the Tropics also won the SteinbergAward for Best New Play. Mr. Cruz teaches playwriting at Yale University and lives in New York City.

Variety

...enticing and exotic...entrancingly lovely...

Miami Herald

The words of Nilo Cruz waft from a stage like a scented breeze. They sparkle and prickle and swirl, enveloping those who listen in both a specific place and time—and in timeless passions that touch us all...In ANNA IN THE TROPICS, Cruz claims his place as a storyteller of intricate craftsmanship and poetic power...[Cruz] has turned out many wonderful plays—but none more shimmeringly beautiful than ANNA IN THE TROPICS.

NY Times

In evoking the lost Cuban–American world of a Florida cigar factory in 1929, Mr. Cruz has created a work as wistful and affectingly ambitious as its characters. ANNA IN THE TROPIC reaches for the artistic heavens...

School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up-This live audio performance of Reginald Rose's teleplay, Twelve Angry Men (1954), is the story of 12 male jurors who deliberate on the fate of a young man accused of stabbing his father. The presumed open-and-shut case veers off course when an initial vote shows a lone dissenter. Bullied by the others, he maintains a calm demeanor and raises questions about the boy's motive and background that weren't addressed in the trial. A second round of voting produces more doubt and heated discussions ensue about witnesses and circumstantial evidence. As hours tick away, each juror finds a voice-and the mob mentality that prevailed at the start gives way to a sense of justice. Just as the boy is unnamed, the men are known to each other only by their juror number. The jumble of male voices are indistinguishable, at first, but slowly become recognizable by their tone or accent, such as the opinionated racist, the empathetic Latino, and the slow-talking elderly man. The five straw votes serve as a clever device to move the plot. The full cast of narrators include some well-known actors such as Robert Foxworth and Hector Elizondo. In addition to the performance of the play, Reginald Rose's widow reflects on her late husband's career and other work, such as war movies and the TV show, The Defenders. This well-done audio presentation is appropriate for high school literature and social studies classes as an example of jury dynamics and the effects of prejudice on the jury system.-Vicki Reutter, Cazenovia High School, NY Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

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