GIVE ME CARMELITA TROPICANA! Extends for Final Time at Soho Rep

Soho Rep will present a second and final extension of its highly acclaimed world premiere production of Alina Troyano (aka Carmelita Tropicana) and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Give Me Carmelita Tropicana!. Performances now run through December 22.
 
Directed by OBIE Award-winner Eric Ting and starring Tropicana herself, Give Me Carmelita Tropicana! is part love letter to an iconic performance artist, part intergenerational debate about the legacy of “downtown” New York, part theatrical interrogation of the uses and abuses of nostalgia, real estate, representation, and the avant-garde—and 100% fantastical journey in which Branden Jacobs-Jenkins attempts to buy Carmelita Tropicana from her creator… but at what cost?
 
The writers of Give Me Carmelita Tropicana! have deep roots at Soho Rep: Carmelita Tropicana was an inaugural Soho Rep Project Number One artist; and recent Tony Award-winner Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ breakout An Octoroon premiered at Soho Rep in 2013 (in a production directed by Sarah Benson). Their work marks the organization’s final production at 46 Walker Street, which Soho Rep will depart this January after more than 30 years. In 2025, the organization will take up temporary residence at Playwrights Horizons’ Peter Jay Sharp Theater at 416 West 42nd Street, where Soho Rep will produce the majority of its season for the next 2-3 years.
 
The production unites the two artists for their first collaborative full-length work. They first met when Jacobs-Jenkins studied Performance Art with Troyano (whose work was written about extensively by the late queer theorist and performance studies scholar José Esteban Muñoz). Troyano taught a class at NYU on sentimentality that Jacobs-Jenkins calls a “creative watershed” for him—and eventually Troyano connected Jacobs-Jenkins with his first professional gig, performing in PS122’s Avant Garde Arama.
 
Give Me Carmelita Tropicana! also reunites Eric Ting and Jacobs-Jenkins following Ting’s direction of the world premiere of The Comeuppance, “a profound tragicomedy…about the reunion that awaits us all” with Ting’s “breakneck staging…never missing the details” (The New York Times). Give Me Carmelita Tropicana! was developed with support from the Creative Capital Foundation.
 
Give Me Carmelita Tropicana’s cast includes OBIE Award-winner Tropicana (The Box/Meine Box, With What Ass Does the Cockroach Sit?, Single Wet Female) alongside Octavia Chavez-Richmond (Mary Gets Hers, Fuente Ovejuna, Knives Out), Ugo Chukwu (Oklahoma! Dir. Daniel Fish, Primary Trust, What to Send Up When It Goes Down), Will Dagger (Corsicana, The Antelope Party, Among the Dead) and Keren Lugo (At the Wedding, Privacy, Romeo y Julieta). The creative team includes Cha Ramos (Choreography & Fight Direction), Mimi Lien (Co-Scenic Designer), Tatiana Kahvegian (Co-Scenic Designer), Greg Corbino (Puppet & Costume Designer), Barbara Samuels (Lighting Designer), Tei Blow (Co-Sound & Video Designer),  Jeremy Kadetsky (Co-Sound & Video Designer), and Cookie Jordan, Yamie Lopez-Ramirez, Alberto “Albee” Alverado (Co-Wig & Hair Designer). Casting is by Stephanie Yankwitt, CSA, Nia Smith, and Tanis Parenteau, tbd casting co. Amanda Sayed is the Production Stage Manager.

Special Benefit Performance of Give Me Carmelita Tropicana and Final Performance At 46 Walker Street

For over 30 years, Soho Rep has invited you to 46 Walker Street to see incredible new work from artists like David Adjmi, Misha Chowdhury, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Melissa James Gibson, Aleshea Harris, Hansol Jung, Lucas Hnath, Young Jean Lee, and many more. Theatergoers are invited to see Give Me Carmelita Tropicana! and celebrate the entire body of work that has taken place at 46 Walker at a special benefit performance on December 22 at 7:30pm.
 
90% of Soho Rep’s budget comes from donations. In true Soho Rep fashion, the company’s intent is for as much of each donation as possible to be directed straight into the mission-driven work of the theater. So, in addition to the performance of Give Me Carmelita Tropicana!, the benefit evening will be followed by a pizza party at 46 Walker with the show’s cast, creative team, and other Soho Rep artists. Most importantly, each ticket purchase will underwrite Soho Rep’s next wave of extraordinary productions by radical theater makers, keep the company’s starting ticket prices at $35 or less, and provide living wages to artists working at Soho Rep.
 
Those who are inspired to support Soho Rep’s continued commitment to its mission and values and have the means to do so are invited to purchase tickets available for $1,000 and $4,600. Ticket purchases, less $75 per seat, will be fully tax-deductible.
 

Photo credit: Julieta Cervantes

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