Synopses & Reviews
"The poetry of Cruz's writing is what those who love his work cite most often about his style, and Sotto Voce has that. Yet it also contains passages that are realistic, whimsical, sensual and heartbreaking. Cruz may be that rarity, a poet of the stage, but he is first and foremost a dramatist."—The Miami Herald
Ariel Strauss, a Jewish Cuban man, strives to explore his cultural history when he encounters Bemadette Kahn, an older woman and famed novelist who seeks to relive hers. Cruz's passionate romantic drama takes place in a dreamscape, somewhere between history and memory, present and past. Sotto Voce is a work of dramatic poetry and an imaginative exploration of nostalgia and the ensuing heartbreak it comes with.
Nilo Cruz was the first Latino playwright to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Anna in the Tropics. His other plays include Night Train to Bolina, Dancing on her Knees, A Park in Our House, Two Sisters and a Piano, The Color of Desire, Hurricane, A Bicycle Country, Hortensia and the Museum of Dreams, Lorca in a Green Dress, Beauty of the Father, and translations of Lorca's Doña Rosita the Spinster and The House of Bernarda Alba. He is the third recipient of the Greenfield Prize, a $30,000 grant to produce new work.
Review
Exquisite, dreamlike... Nilo Cruz is a keen observer of behavior. Cruzs territory is the soul, that inner life in which dreams, desires and disappointments reside... Cruz may be that rarity, a poet of the stage, but he is first and foremost a dramatist.” Christine Dolen, Miami Herald
Synopsis
An exquisite new drama from the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of Anna in the Tropics
Synopsis
A Jewish-Cuban man strives to explore his cultural history when he encounters an older woman who seeks to relive it. Cruz's passionate romantic drama takes place in a dreamscape, somewhere between history and memory, past and present. Sotto Voce will be staged by legendary director Peter Brook in Paris this fall.
About the Author
Nilo Cruz won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize in Drama for his play Anna in the Tropics, making him the first Latino to be so honored. He is author of more than 13 plays and four translations. He studied theater first at Miami-Dade Community College and later in NYC under fellow Cuban María Irene Fornés. Fornés recommended Cruz to Paula Vogel, who was then teaching at Brown University, where Cruz received his M.F.A. in 1994. He was playwright-in-residence at the New Theatre in Coral Gables, FL, where he wrote Anna in the Tropics, which received the Pulitzer and Steinberg prizes in 2003. Its Broadway premiere in 2004 starred Jimmy Smitts in the lead role. Plays by Cruz have been presented by the Public Theater, NY Theatre Workshop, Pasadena Playhouse, McCarter Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, South Coast Repertory, The Alliance, New Theatre, Florida Stage and the Coconut Grove Playhouse. He is an alumnus of New Dramatists and has taught playwriting at Brown University, the University of Iowa, Yale and University of Miami. In 2009, he received the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award for a distinguished American playwright in mid-career.