THEATRE + COMEDY

The Country Playhouse (voted through Houston Community Newspapers as Best Community Theatre of 2010) and Talento Bilingüe of Houston proudly present Anna in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz. This co-production will run from September 16 to October 1, 2011 on the Cerwinske Stage at the Country Playhouse and from October 7 to 16 at Talento Bilingüe of Houston with Pedro Garcia directing.

Anna in the Tropics is a poignant and poetic new 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 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.

Nilo Cruz first intended to set this play in the 1800s, a time when lectors (readers) played an important role in cigar factories. He reconsidered however, and decided that a historical account would be “too complicated” to render dramatically, so he chose instead to focus on the role the lector played in the factories during a time when personal and financial independence were inextricably linked.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, 2003
Nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play, 2005