Mambo Beans
by David Valdes Greenwood
Directed by R.J. Tolan
Monday, March 12 at 7:30pm
Deane Hall at the BCA / South End
Cuban-American brothers Gonzo and Willie have lived in New England their whole lives. But when their mother dies, the two men set off on their first road trip together, carrying the news to their estranged father in Miami's Little Havana. On their journey, this duo of mixed-race "mambo beans" are joined by a ghostly backseat driver and an unexpected passenger. Thirty years of untrustworthy family history collide in playwright David Valdes Greenwood's comedy of clashing expectations.
David Valdes Greenwood is the author of a dozen plays produced across the US and UK including Brave Navigator, published by Baker Plays and winner of the Midwest Theatre Network National New Play Contest, and Paradise of Earthworms, commissioned by Ensemble Studio Theatre. His plays have been staged at the Humana Festival, New York International Fringe Festival, City Theatre, Venture Theatre, Cherry Lane Theatre, and Emerson College, with readings presented by New York Theatre Workshop, Portland Stage, New Jersey Rep, Blue Coyote, Immediate Theatre, Theater Offensive, Boston TheatreWorks, and Centastage. His short plays Dream of Jeannie-by-the-Door and Day Either: Snow Globe have been anthologized. He is a Brother Thomas Fellow, a two-time Sloan Commission recipient, and a finalist for both the National New Play Network Smith Prize and a Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Grant. As a prose writer, he is the author of three books and a Huffington Post blogger. He teaches at Tufts University. His play Wandaleria, about a housebound woman's fantasy life catching up with her, will be staged by Argos Productions January 26 — February 12 at Boston Playwrights' Theatre.
Becoming Cuba
By Melinda Lopez
Directed by M. Bevin O'Gara
Tuesday, March 13 at 7:30pm
Deane Hall at the BCA / South End
On the eve of the Spanish-American war, widowed Adela runs a pharmacy, indifferent to the mounting conflict around her. But when her brother returns from the devastated countryside looking for medicine, and a charming American reporter stumbles into the shop, the rebellion comes home to Havana, and Adela, a loyal Spaniard, is forced to choose between country and family. By turns funny and impassioned, Becoming Cuba asks, is freedom something we all want? Playwright Melinda Lopez (Sonia Flew) captures the potent contradictions of a fledgling nation on the verge of becoming itself.
Melinda Lopez previously appeared at the Huntington in Persephone, A Month in the Country, and The Rose Tattoo. Most recently she played Victoria in The Motherf**ker with the Hat (SpeakEasy Stage Company). Other credits include Oil Thief and A Girls War (Boston Playwrights’ Theatre), Anna in the Tropics and Theatre District (SpeakEasy Stage Company), Romeo and Juliet (Portland Stage), and Many Colors Make the Thunder-king (Guthrie Theater). She is featured in the movie Fever Pitch. Ms. Lopez is also an award- winning playwright (Sonia Flew, Orchids to Octopi, and Caroline in Jersey), and a Huntington Playwriting Fellow. She teaches playwriting at Boston University.
Shelter
by Miranda Craigwell
Directed by M. Bevin O'Gara
Wednesday, December 14 at 7:00pm
254 Huntington Avenue — Rehearsal Hall
A dark Louisiana fugue that stretches from antebellum days to post-Katrina, Shelterchronicles the stories of a handful of souls stranded in the Superdome. What future is possible if we can't make sense of the past? Lies splinter the truth for which these souls search while everywhere, the water keeps rising.
Miranda Craigwell is a writer for stage and screen, as well as an actress. Her works includes The Strongest Shape (Paines Plough Future Perfect finalist), Reply, Please (Rose Theatre in London), Requests (Staged reading directed by Melanie Hillyard), and Sugar Moth. She attended Brown University where she was a three-year captain of the women’s basketball team, graduated with a B.A. in literature and cultures in English, and was awarded a David Zucconi Memorial Fellowship, which allowed her to travel to London to study Eighteenth century female letter writers and epistolary theory. She began performing her written work in Slam poetry competitions at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Theatre Royal Stratford, and other venues before being named the Farrago Central London Slam Poet Champion in 2005. Ms. Craigwell received a Master’s degree with Distinction from Rose Bruford College of Drama for both acting and playwriting. She is currently an actor/educator with Urban Improv and a writer, director, and producer for the Boston-based production company Beyond Measure Productions. She recently joined the board of Into Your Art LLC.
The Disappearance of the Jews
by Lawrence Goodman
Directed by Melia Bensussen
Monday, November 21 at 7pm
Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA / South End
Still haunted by World War II, Heshie, a senile old man, sets out on a quest to keep the Holocaust from ever happening again. His first mission? Capture the neighbor he belives is Adolf Eichmann's widow. Heshie's son Martin wants to halt his father's antics, but he's also embroiled in a disastrous love affair with a gentile. As the two men struggle over the future of their religion, Lawrence Goodman's outrageous play takes a rollicking ride deep into the Jewish heart of darkness.
Lawrence Goodman’s plays include The Disappearance of the Jews, Keep Your Distance, An Evening of Highly Self-Indulgent Semi-Autobiographical Comedy, and Rain Later. His work has been performed at The Brick Playhouse in Philadelphia, the HERE Arts Center in New York, and the New York International Fringe Festival. He received the 2011 Rhode Island Fellowship Award in Play and Screenwriting. He worked as a reporter at New York Daily News and New York Post before moving to Providence, RI, where he currently lives with his two children and wife. He holds an M.F.A. in creative writing from Goddard College in Vermont and a B.A. in English from Harvard College.