DREAMING IN CUBAN Premieres at Central Works in June

Dreaming in Cuban, a poignant new comedy by award-winning writer Cristina García, opens with a press night on Saturday, Jun 25, and runs through July 24 (previews Jun 23 & 24). This is a new adaptation by Cristina García of her celebrated first novel developed in the Central Works Writer's Workshop. Dreaming in Cuban is written by Cristina García, directed by Gary Graves featuring Daniela Cervantes, Natalia Delgado, Anna Maria Luera, Steve Ortiz, Eric Gutierrez and Mary Ann Rodgers.The production has stage management by Natalia Ramos, costume design by Tammy Berlin, prop design by Debbie Shelley and sound design by Gregory Scharpen. Performances at the historic Berkeley City Club on Thur & Fri 8pm, Sat 7pm, Sun 5pm centralworks.org.

Central Works 68th world premiere is Central Works' third theatrical production of a Cristina García play. This new adaptation by García of her novel is a haunting, bittersweet story of the del Piño family, a family divided in the wake of the Cuban revolution. With her characteristic humor and emotional fireworks, García weaves a complex tale of yearning and aspiration, of one child's longing for the home she left behind, and another's desire to find a new home in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty.

About Dreaming in Cuban the New York Times observed, "García is blessed with a poet's ear for language, a historian's fascination with the past, and a musician's intuitive understanding of the ebb and flow of emotion." Time Magazine said "Her story is about three generations of Cuban women and their separate responses to the revolution. Her special feat is to tell it in a style as warm and gentle as the 'sustaining aromas of vanilla and almond, as rhythmic as the music of Beny More."

Cristina García explains "My first novel, Dreaming in Cuban, started as a poem based on the women in my extended family. It quickly got out of control! Over time it metamorphosed into a meditation on the stories that official history excludes. Now after thirty years in circulation, it felt like a good time to give the novel a more public airing. Hence, this adaptation! It's been thrilling to bring this intimate tale to four-dimensional life (four, if you include time). I love working with director Gary Graves and the sublime Central Works at the Berkeley City Club. It's truly the perfect venue for introducing the del Pino women, up close and personal, to a live audience."

Cristina García (playwright) is the author of eight novels, including: Dreaming in Cuban, The Agüero Sisters, Monkey Hunting, A Handbook to Luck, The Lady Matador's Hotel, King of Cuba, Here in Berlin and the forthcoming Vanishing Maps. García has edited two anthologies, Cubanísimo: The Vintage Book of Contemporary Cuban Literature and Bordering Fires: The Vintage Book of Contemporary Mexican and Chicano/a Literature. Two works for young readers, The Dog Who Loved the Moon, and I Wanna Be Your Shoebox were published in 2008 and a young adult novel, Dreams of Significant Girls, in 2011. A collection of poetry, The Lesser Tragedy of Death, was published in 2010. García's work has been nominated for a National Book Award and translated into fourteen languages. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers' Award, a Hodder Fellowship at Princeton University, and an NEA grant, among others. She is the founder and artistic director of Las Dos Brujas Writers' Workshops and lives in the San Francisco Bay area.

Gary Graves (director) has been a resident playwright and company co-director at Central

Works since 1998. He has been a part of developing 67 world premiere productions with the

company, many of which he has either written and/or directed. Some of the other productions

he has directed for the company include The Lady Matador's Hotel, Bamboozled, King of Cuba,

Chekhov's WARD 6, Into the Beautiful North, and Machiavelli's The Prince. He directed the

company's first collaboratively developed script, Roux, at the Berkeley City Club in 1997. He

also leads the Central Works Playwriting Program, and he teaches playwriting year-round at the

Berkeley Rep School of Theater.

Central Works-The Company

For over three decades Central Works has filled a special niche for theater artists in the San Francisco Bay Area, producing more new plays by local playwrights than any other company in the region. "The New Play Theater" utilizes three basic strategies: some are products of the Central Works Method, some are developed in the Central Works Writers Workshop, and some come to the company fully developed.

Central Works Method plays bring together writer, actors and director at the very outset of the playwriting process. In a supportive workshop environment, group research and collective brainstorming contribute to the entire development of the script.

The Central Works Writers Workshop is an ongoing commissioning program established in 2012. Twice a year, in 12-week sessions, 8 local playwrights are selected to develop projects through informal readings and carefully directed discussions. This season, Cristina García's Dreaming in Cuban and Patricia Milton's Escape from the Asylum emerged from this program, as well as the upcoming Museum Annex by Mildred Inez Lewis, coming later this season. For more information, visit our website: www.centralworks.org

Company co-directors Jan Zvaifler and Gary Graves remain steadfast in their mission to develop and produce new works. "New plays are the lifeblood of the theater," says Ms. Zvaifler. "We look at current events, politics, classic literature and traditional storytelling to bring our audience face to face with the challenges of our lives everyday, juxtaposed against the reflections of history, both recent and far-reaching. Given our current harrowing times, we all need an opportunity to pause, feel, think and act." The special intimacy of the Central Works theater offers this in a truly unique package.

Central Works is also a member of the National New Play Network (NNPN), and has participated in two Rolling World Premieres over the two seasons pre covid.

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