Tectonic Theater Project & Miami New Drama Present Scenes From Moisés Kaufman's LAS AVENTURAS DE JUAN PLANCHARD

Tectonic Theater Project and Miami New Drama will present an online performance of select scenes from Las Aventuras de Juan Planchard, written and directed by Tectonic Theater Project founder and Artistic Director Moisés Kaufman (33 Variations, The Laramie Project) and based on the best-selling novel by fellow Venezuelan Jonathan Jakubowicz (Resistance, Hands of Stone), on October 6. Las Aventuras de Juan Planchard was the first Venezuelan novel to become the #1 Amazon Best Seller for Foreign Language Fiction and has become a rallying point for the anti-Maduro resistance movement. The new play, a blazing indictment of the ruling class in Kaufman's native Venezuela, is particularly resonant in today's United States and anywhere democracy is being undermined.

Kaufman's new play, his first in Spanish, chronicles the life of Juan Planchard, a young Venezuelan "revolutionary" who takes advantage of his government contacts to steal from the country. He lives an opulent lifestyle of drugs and excess common to the oligarchs benefiting from the Bolivarian Revolution. As such abuses of power lead the country into a spiral, Juan himself becomes caught in the destruction he's helped manufacture.

Kaufman describes, "I've witnessed my native country devastated by the Bolivarian Revolution. Chavez, Maduro and their amoral cronies and henchmen have bankrupted one of the richest countries in the world, and brought about famine, disease, and scarcity of basic goods.

I've been eager to write a play about the situation there but couldn't do it because I've been gone for 25 years. But then I read Jonathan's novel and I knew I'd found the story I wanted to tell. This play wouldn't be allowed to be performed in Venezuela today-but the online preview will allow Venezuelans to see it; in fact, all of Latin America will be able to see it, and that fills me with great joy."

Jakubowicz adds, "If you multiply the money made by Al Capone by the money made by Pablo Escobar and adjust for inflation, you would still be nowhere near the amount of cash that has been stolen by Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro. They have undoubtedly performed the biggest robbery of all time, and it's all been done in the name of socialism. The Adventures of Juan Planchard is an inside look at how this mafia operates. I wrote it as a desperate attempt to reach my fellow Venezuelans, and never dreamed that it would become an international bestseller. It also never crossed my mind that one of my all-time heroes, Moisés Kaufman, would end up adapting it for the stage. When I saw the first reading of his play, I was blown away. And I know that fans of the novel, and those who have never read it, will be both physically and intellectually seduced by Juan Planchard, his adventure, and his immense moral dilemma."

"Miami has become the capital of the Venezuelan exile community, and this important story about the governmental corruption and abuses that precipitated that exile will have a profound resonance here," says Miami New Drama Artistic Director Michel Hausmann. "When Moisés and I first discussed the project, I knew we had to be a part of its development. It's an honor to work alongside a theatrical giant like Moisés Kaufman and a groundbreaking storyteller like Jonathan Jakubowicz."

The online stream of the selected scenes of Las Aventuras de Juan Planchard will be performed in Spanish with English subtitles. It is directed by Moisés Kaufman and features acclaimed Venezuelan and Venezuelan-American actors. The cast includes Daniela Bascopé (Vera), Elba Escobar (Mamá), María Gabriela de Farias (La Brasilera), Rafael De La Fuente (Eduardo), Christian McGaffney (Juan Planchard), Iván Tamayo (Papá/Cartaya), Franklin Virguez (Molina), and Amanda-Lynn Williams (Scarlet).

The recorded presentation will premiere on YouTube on October 6. and will be followed by a live Zoom Room conversation with Moisés Kaufman, Jonathan Jakubowicz, and Michel Hausmann. The production of the full-length play will take place in Miami-and eventually tour Latin America-when it's safe to reconvene for live performances.

Moisés Kaufman was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama. Mr. Kaufman's Broadway directing credits include the revival of Harvey Fierstein's Torch Song; The Heiress with Jessica Chastain; 33 Variations (which he also wrote) starring Jane Fonda (5 Tony nominations); Rajiv Joseph's Pulitzer Prize finalist Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo with Robin Williams; and Doug Wright's Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning play I Am My Own Wife with Jefferson Mays. His play The Laramie Project (which he wrote with the Tectonic Theater Project company) is among the most performed plays in America. Kaufman also co-wrote and directed the HBO film adaptation of The Laramie Project, which received two Emmy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Writer. He is an Obie winner and a Guggenheim Fellow in Playwriting. Mr. Kaufman is the founder and artistic director of Tectonic Theater Project.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos