Pulitzer Winner ANNA IN THE TROPICS Comes to Gallery Players

Gallery Players continues its 52nd season with ANNA IN THE TROPICS by Nilo Cruz.

Winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize, ANNA IN THE TROPICS is a poignant and poetic 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 a 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. The New York Times proclaimed, "Mr. Cruz has created a work as wistful and affectingly ambitious as its characters. ANNA IN THE TROPICS reaches for the artistic heavens..."

Director Mark Gallagher, who previously staged the Gallery Players' productions of THE ELEPHANT MAN, THE 39 STEPS, PROOF, EQUUS and THE HISTORY BOYS returns with his own fresh interpretation of this prize winning drama. "ANNA IN THE TROPICS may be even more timely and resonant in 2018 than when it originally premiered. I think we're living in crass, myopic political times where the pursuit of the almighty buck is steamrolling the more poetic and artistic aspects of our lives in this country. This play takes place at a critical moment in time where a beloved aspect of Cuban (and in this case, Cuban-American) culture is at risk of being lost forever - trampled over by a blind pursuit of profit."

ANNA IN THE TROPICS opens Saturday, October 20th and runs for 12 performances through November 4th. Performances are Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8PM, Sundays at 3PM, with additional Saturday matinees on October 27th and November 3rd at 2PM.

Tickets are $25 for adults and $20 for seniors over 65 and children 12 and under. Tickets can be purchased online at www.galleryplayers.com or by calling Ovationtix at 212-352-3101.

Bringing ANNA IN THE TROPICS to the Gallery stage is Producer, Justine McLaughlin; Director, Mark Gallagher; Set Designer, JiYoung Han; Lighting Designer, Gifford Williams; Costume Designer, Joey Haws; Props Designer, Rachel Mae Cullinane; Composer/Sound Designer, Fernando Hernández; Production Stage Manager, Michelle Danahy; Assistant Stage Manager, Timothy Sheridan and an ensemble featuring Sergio Mauritz Ang*, Maylin Castro, Abbi Hawk*, Matt McGlade, Fabricio Santos, Rebecca Smith, John Squires, Devon Strom and Peter Tedeschi*.

(*Equity member appearing with permission of Actors' Equity Association without benefit of an Equity contract in this Off-Off Broadway production. ANNA IN THE TROPICS at Gallery Players is an Equity Approved Showcase.)

The Gallery Players is located at 199 14th Street (between 4th and 5th Avenues), in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Take the F or G train to 4th Avenue or the R train to 9th Street. By car: the BQE to Hamilton Avenue, to 14th Street. Website: http://galleryplayers.com

Pictured: Fabricio Santos & Abbi Hawk*
Photo by Michelle Danahy

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