GARBO'S CUBAN LOVER Opens at Casa 0101 Theatre In February

Macha Theatre/Films will present the critically acclaimed play Garbo's Cuban Lover at Casa 0101 Theatre from February 10 - 25, 2023. Opening night weekend Red Carpet will take place on Saturday, February 11, 2023 with a reception following the performance. The new mounting will be a "reimagined production" of the show, with more music, dance and multimedia.

The lover in the title refers to the most famous and infamous lesbian of Hollywood's Golden Age, Mercedes De Acosta (1893-1968), a contract screenwriter for MGM who was also a playwright, poet and costume designer. She had affairs with some of the most illustrious actresses and writers in America, including Edith Wharton, Adele Astaire, Katherine Cornell, Pola Negri, Alla Nazimova, ballerina Tamara Karsavina, a young Tallulah Bankhead, Eva La Gallienne, dancer Isadora Duncan, Marlene Dietrich, and the love of her life Greta Garbo.

Born to a Cuban father and Spanish mother, de Acosta's ability to move in social circles and her position as a writer for MGM put her in contact with many of the most beautiful and important women in Hollywood. Garbo's Cuban Lover focuses on two of the most important relationships of her life---with Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo, professional adversaries who become rivals for de Acosta's love.

 

Garbo holds an erotic power over de Acosta that the Cuban cannot resist nor control. She returns to Garbo no matter how often she is betrayed. But Garbo and Dietrich both have secrets from de Acosta. It will be many years before she learns the whole truth about her two greatest loves.

Award-winning playwright Odalys Nanin is the Producing Artistic Director and Founder of Macha Theatre and Films. At the time of its original production, Garbo's Cuban Lover landed on multiple Critic's Choice lists, as well as 2001's Ten Best Plays list of Advocate magazine. Her other works include an adaptation of Garcia Lorca's Blood Wedding as well as her own original works including FRIDA- Stroke of Passion, Skin of Honey, Beyond Love, The Nun and the Countess, The Adventures of the Lieutenant Nun, Love Struck, Naked in the Tropics, and Lavender Love (also set in the Golden Age of Hollywood).

The Cuban-born writer is a graduate of The Drama Studio London and Rutgers University. Also an actor, she has appeared in over 30 plays in New York and Los Angeles. She has also produced three short films, two documentaries and written three feature screenplays. She is the recipient of the Maverick Award and the pat Parker Award from Christopher Street West in West Hollywood.

 

Garbo's Cuban Lover is Directed by Angela Nicholas, who is also an actor, producer, playwright, choreographer and costume designer. Nichols appeared as Garbo in two previous productions of Garbo's Cuban Lover.

 

Odalys Nanin wrote, produced and also stars as Mercedes De Acosta. Nanin, like Mercedes De Acosta, is Latina, a lesbian, a writer, and an advocate for greater participation by women in the arts and in society.

 

The cast also includes Lydie Denier/ Elyse Mirto as Greta Garbo, Myeva Surjik /Saige Spinney as Salka Viertel, Kesia Elwin as Isadora Duncan, Katie Patel as Marlene Dietrich, Mantha Balordou as Poppy Kirk and Skip Pipo as Irving Thalberg.

 

From any audience perspective, Garbo's Cuban Lover is one of the great true Hollywood love stories.

 

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