Anna in the Tropics

40th Season • 384th Production JULIANNE ARGYROS STAGE / SEPTEMBER 28 - OCTOBER 19, 2003 David Emmes Martin Benson PRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR ARTISTIC DIRECTOR presents ANNA IN THE TROPICS by NILO CRUZ SCENIC DESIGN COSTUME DESIGN LIGHTING DESIGN Christine Jones Joyce Kim Lee Christopher Akerlind ORIGINAL MUSIC/SOUND DESIGN PRODUCTION MANAGER STAGE MANAGER Christopher 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. Anna in the Tropics • SOUTH COAST REPERTORY P1 CAST OF CHARACTERS (In order of appearance) Eliades/Palomo ................................................................... *Jonathan Nichols Santiago ........................................................................................ *Tony Plana Cheché ..................................................................................... *Geoffrey Rivas Marela ............................................................................ *Onahoua Rodriguez Conchita .................................................................................. *Adriana Sevan Ofelia .................................................................................... *Karmín Murcelo Juan Julian ................................................................................. *Julian Acosta SETTING 1929 Tampa, Florida. A small town called Ybor City. LENGTH Approximately two hours, including one 15-minute intermission. PRODUCTION STAFF Casting Director ........................................................................................ Joanne DeNaut Dramaturg ................................................................................................... Jennifer Kiger Assistant Director ......................................................................................... Michael Baez Production Assistant ................................................................................. Chrissy Church Assistant Set Designers ................................................................. Ed Coco, Jennifer Zeyl Costume Design Assistant ................................................................................. Julie Keen Assistant Lighting Designer ........................................................................ Tony Mulanix Stage Management Intern ............................................................................... Nina Evans Additional Costume Staff .................................... Denitsa Bliznakova, Bronwen Burton, Catherine Esera, Tracy Gray, Yen Trang Le, Stacey Nezda ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Willie 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 Eileen Galindo. 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. This production is part of Eclectic Orange Festival 2003, a project of the Philharmonic Society of Orange County. Official Airline Media Partner Media Partner P2 SOUTH COAST REPERTORY • Anna in the Tropics El Lector ears before Nilo Cruz set out to write Anna in the Tropics, he became fascinated with the tradition of the lectores, well dressed men who were paid Yto read to cigar workers as they rolled. The tradition arrived in the United States with the Cuban cigar workers and remained until the 1930s, when the rollers and the readers were replaced by mecha- nization. Eventually, the tradition found its way into the heart of Cruz’s drama about a family of cigar workers whose lives are A mass meeting of Tampa cigar forever altered by the workers on November 28, 1931, arrival of a new lector protesting the removal of readers from Cuba. from the factories. The lectores were educated men ciation so the workers [would] un- with beautiful voices. derstand every word you read….It In those days, loudspeaker systems tributed a portion of their salaries to was exactly like theater. When we were not popular, so the lectores pay for the services of the lectores. were reading a novel we were to had to read loud enough to be They demanded precision and pas- make ourselves as though we were heard by the hundreds of workers sion from the lectores, and they took the character talking—whether it in the factory. The workers con- the literature seriously. The workers was a woman or a child, an old man were largely illiterate, but they could or an old lady. Not everybody recite passages from Don Quixote could do that.” and Shakespeare. The tradition of the lectores in Days in the cigar factories Tampa came to an end following were divided into four periods. In the Depression. The introduction of the first, the lectores read from machines into the factories inter- newspapers; in the second they read fered with the workers’ ability to lis- news from labor organizations. The ten. Meanwhile, the factory owners third and fourth periods were re- became increasingly hostile toward served for culture, entertainment the lectores for reading the labor and novels. The finest lectores were press to the workers. more than readers. They were per- In the fall of 1931 thousands formers who brought life to the of cigar workers went on strike to world’s great literature and teachers protest the removal of readers from who informed the workers about the factories. In support of the labor and political movements. protest, nearly every business in Wilfredo Rodriguez recalled Ybor City and West Tampa closed his days as a lector in a 1981 inter- its doors. Eventually, the cigar view in the Tampa Tribune: “In workers returned to the factories, A lector at the Perfecto-García factory those days we didn’t have any mi- but the lectores were no longer wel- (1930), following the return of read- crophones…You had to have a very come. It was the end of an era. ers in 1926. strong voice and very clear pronun- –Jennifer Kiger Anna in the Tropics •SOUTH COAST REPERTORY P3 The Capital of Cigars Set in 1929 in a section of Tampa, lorida’s cigar Florida known as Ybor City, Anna in Findustry began the Tropics paints an evocative por- at Key West in trait of the lost world of Cuban cigar 1831, when W. factories. Ybor City, the “Cigar Cap- H. Hall chose ital of the World,” was the manufac- the island city as turing center of Havana hand-rolled a site for a fac- cigars until the industry hit hard tory because of times in the 1930s. The entire na- its climate and tion was reeling from the Great De- its proximity to pression. Increased cigarette con- Cuban tobacco A cigar brand created to honor Vi- sumption led to a decreased de- fields. In 1868, with open revolu- cente Martínez Ybor, one of the Span- mand for cigars, and the introduction and business demoralization in ish cigar manufacturers who founded tion of machinery into the cigar fac- Havana, many cigar makers migrat- Ybor City. tories emphasized mass production ed to Key West, where established over individual workmanship. The bor City is like stepping following excerpts are taken from Yfrom one country into Tampa Cigar Workers: A Pictorial another….It is a revelation History by Robert P. Ingalls and to many to pass through Louis A. Perez, Jr. (University Press the atmosphere in that of Florida, 2003), a fascinating ac- section, truly Latin, with count of the world of the Tampa habits and customs almost cigar workers. identical to those of Cuba. The main business district of Ybor City is stretched along Seventh Avenue, lined on either side with a white way, supported by merchants, equal to any- thing in Tampa….The streets of Ybor City are factories offered usually lined with people from five employment. o’clock in the afternoon until late at When fire swept night. The restaurants are always the city in 1886, open as well as many of the stores. destroying the —Tampa Daily Times, larger factories, February 17, 1917 and labor dis- putes further ampa-made Havana cigars did not disrupted pro- Tneed advertising. They were duction, the ma- known throughout the country by jority of the smokers of fine cigars. They were manufacturers constantly in demand, and every moved their dealer stocked them. Tampa man- Above, Tampa Cigar makers during plants to a district east of Tampa, ufacturers simply filled the orders the 1920s. Above right, the Sánchez y Haya factory, the first to produce which they named Ybor City for with quality cigars as they came in. cigars in Ybor City, was located on Vincent Martínez Ybor, one of their —A. Stuart Campbell, the corner of Seventh Avenue and Fif- leaders. The Cigar Industry of Tampa, teenth Street. —Federal Writer’s Project, 1939 Florida, (1939) P4 SOUTH COAST REPERTORY • Anna in the Tropics igar workers usually and generally n many cases

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