EastLine Theatre to Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month At Westbury Arts With MACHINAL

EastLine will return for their third annual Hispanic Heritage Month production at Westbury Arts with the rarely-produced play Machinal. First seen on Broadway in 1928, Machinal was penned by Mexican-American playwright and journalist Sophie Treadwell.

Machinal draws on Treadwell's work as a journalist to depict the story of a character (known in the script only as "Young Woman") who is driven by her circumstances and the increasing mechanization of the world around her to murder her husband. Treadwell was inspired by the sensational trial of Long Island murderess Ruth Snyder, who was executed a few months prior to the play's premiere.

"Scholars have thoroughly explored Machinal as a feminist play, and as an expressionistic work over the past century. Its importance in American theatre history cannot be overstated," explains artistic director Nicole Savin, "but we feel Treadwell has been infrequently explored as a writer trying to reconcile her two cultures, both American and Mexican. It felt like a natural progression from our previous Hispanic Heritage productions to highlight this historic work and demonstrate the longevity of Latine influence on American theatre."

Performances will take place at Westbury Arts starting on September 20th and running through October 6th. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at eastline.ludus.com. More information is available at eastlinetheatre.org or by calling 516-749-5047.

Machinal by Sophie Treadwell is directed by Paul DeFilippo and presented by EastLine Theatre in partnership with Westbury Arts. Costumes are by Wendy Grimm and Lyn Adler, stage management is by Michelle Osojnak. The cast of Machinal features Stephanie Moreno, Julia Navarro, Juancho Rodriguez, Matthew Rubenfeld, Genevieve K. Henderson, and Morgan Moffitt.

"One of the boldest, bravest theatre companies on Long Island," according to Fire Island News, EastLine Theatre aims to create theatre in unlikely spaces while re-examining the canon, exploring modern plays, and bringing original works to the attention of the community.

EastLine will return to Westbury Arts for their third annual Hispanic Heritage month programming that began with Anna in the Tropics in 2022. In recent years, EastLine has produced a lauded immersive Diary of Anne Frank, Prospero (Live!), an original musical based on The Tempest; the Long Island premiere of Paula Vogel's Indecent; a Treasure Island that BroadwayWorld said was "bursting at the seams with imagination"; and a production of In the Next Room by Sarah Ruhl that Long Island Theatre Scene said "raises the bar of creativity for all theaters." EastLine will close its season in Lindenhurst in December with the family classic Little Women, adapted by Kate Hamill.

To post a comment, you must register and login.