ELLIOT, A SOLDIER'S FUGUE Launches Park Square's 41st Season Tonight

Park Square begins its 41st season next month with Quiara Alegría Hudes' moving and funny indictment of war, ELLIOT, A SOLDIER'S FUGUE.

Hudes, who penned the book for the hit Broadway musical In the Heights, has become one of America's most sought-after playwrights. In ELLIOT, A SOLDIER'S FUGUE she exposes the long-lasting effects of veterans' wartime experience and the even longer-lasting hope that drives them forward.

"This play lives in a world of heightened emotions, memories and tantalizing sensations -- at times sensual, at times cold and jarring," says director Robert Rosen.

Elliot Ortiz is home from Iraq. Like his father and grandfather before him, the eager soldier is forced to unravel his experience as he nurses his injuries and considers returning to the frontlines. Elliot's mother, a nurse in Vietnam, holds three generations of this family's soldiers together -- turning their city lot into a lush and healing tropical garden. Hudes's poetic fugue is a unique non-political exploration of the tolls of war from an often overlooked point of view. Park Square Artistic Associate Ricardo Vázquez will be featured as the youngest of three generations of a Puerto Rican family of soldiers. Pedro R. Bayón,* Rich Remedios,* and Adlyn Carreras complete the cast.

ELLIOT, A SOLDIER'S FUGUE, a finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer, is the first play in a globe-trotting trilogy that follows Elliot and his loved ones between the frontlines and the homefront. Of the play's subtitle, its innovative structure, and her musical influences, Hudes told Guernica Magazine, "If you read music, you can picture a Bach fugue. You have one line and the line can come back inverted and they'll be playing on top of each other and I was like, that's cool. That feels like something to me. I also was excited about combining this Latin world and this very western music classics world." The second play in the trilogy, Water by the Spoonful, received the 2012 Pulitzer Prize. Both plays, along with the final installment, The Happiest Song Plays Last, are being produced around the country.

The ELLIOT, A SOLDIER'S FUGUE production team includes Sonya Berlovitz (Costume Designer), Christopher Mayer (Set Designer), and Michael P. Kittel (Lighting Designer), Evan Middlesworth (Sound Designer), and Jennifer Johnson (Properties Designer).

Park Square will continue its 41st season when the musical mystery Murder for Two (September 18 - November 1) opens on the Andy Boss Thrust Stage.

ELLIOT, A SOLDIER'S FUGUE Performance Schedule: Previews begin tonight, September 11 and run through September 17. September 18 is Opening Night, and the run continues through October 4. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. except for Saturday and Sunday matinees, which begin at 2 p.m. All performances are on the company's 348-seat proscenium stage in Saint Paul's historic Hamm Building, 20 W. Seventh Place.

Ticket prices: Previews: $27 and $37. Regular Run: $40 and $60. Discounts are available for seniors, those under age 30, and groups. Tickets are on sale at the Park Square ticket office, 20 W. Seventh Place, or by phone: 651.291.7005, (12 noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday), or online at www.parksquaretheatre.org.

*Member, Actors Equity Association

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