MIDNIGHT IN HAVANA Opens Off-Broadway

Midnight in Havana, a play with music documenting the end of the Cuban revolution written and directed by veteran New York Daily News reporter Robert Dominguez, opens tonight, January 14, at Off Broadway's Snapple Theater Center.

Venezuelan actor-playwright-director and World Wrestling Entertainment announcer Marcelo Rodriguez is among the cast. David N. Fernandez, musical director of renowned Latin orchestra Zon del Barrio, provides original music for the play, which features a cast of 13. Vivian "Zenaide" Garcilazo (Cirque Arabesque) and Altagracia Bruno, renowned developer of the Spanish Arabic Fusion form of dance, provide choreography.

Midnight in Havana is a unique theatrical experience set in a seedy Havana nightclub against the backdrop of the Cuban Revolution. With its nightclub setting and classic Cuban music, Midnight in Havana is a comedy-drama that transports audiences back to the exciting and dangerous hours before Batista will flee, Castro will take over and everyone's lives - including the club's sexy showgirls, conniving emcee and slimy owner - will change forever.

Dominguez co-wrote and co-directed the comedy monologues show Men Are Real at The Theatres at 45 Bleecker St. His dramas Faded and The Outside Man, which he also directed, were both produced at the New York International Fringe Festival and at Songs from Coconut Hill Latino Playwrights Festival. The Outside Man was also the third-place winner in Repertorio Español's 2006 Nuestras Voces National Playwriting Competition. Dominguez produced and directEd Halley Bondy's solo show Sleep Tight Mick, which won the 2007 ONE Festival in New York and also ran at Manhattan Repertory Theatre. Dominguez was playwright-in-residence at the American Ensemble Company, which produced his plays Operation: Deserves to Die and Red Sky and debuted his short film, Writer's Block. For the past 19 years, Dominguez has been a writer-editor for the New York Daily News.

Marcelo Rodriguez, longtime company member of New York's famed Repertorio Español, has worked as an actor, dancer, playwright and director. His theater credits in leading roles include Don Juan Tenorio (Don Juan); Mozart, the Angel Amadeus (Amadeus); The Tempest (Fernand), and ¿Quién mató a Hector Lavoe?, the long-running Spanish-language musical. He has worked internationally with theater companies such as Rajatabla, Compañía Nacional de Teatro de Venezuela, Compañía Nacional de Teatro de España, Repertorio Español and Teatro Círculo of New York. His acting awards include Premio Nacional del Artista and Premio Municipal (Venezuela), the Critic's Circle Award (Puerto Rico), and HOLA, ACE and Premios Sin Límite (New York). Television credits include roles on the telenovelas Cara Sucia, Cristal and La Revancha for Venevisión-Univisión, and host of the weekly TV show Los Superastros, produced by the World Wrestling Entertainment for Univisión. In 2006, Rodríguez was the winner of the Nuestras Voces National Playwriting Competition for his play Bestalia, which will be produced at Repertorio Español.

Providing original music is David N. Fernandez, musical director of the famed Latin orchestra Zon del Barrio, which brings its foot-stomping, funk-based classic salsa, plena, merengue, bomba and boogalu to the corners of the barrios where Latinos live, work and play. Creative and musically diverse in taste, Zon del Barrio emerges as one of the few orchestras to express the varied genres of Latin music from the African Diaspora and the urban streets of New York. This group of veteran and young musicians is led by music journalist and historian Aurora Flores with Fernandez, a multi-instrumentalist who has performed with Joe Cuba, Andy Montanez, Ismael Miranda, Ismael Rivera Jr., Manny Manuel, Bill Watrous and Pedro Guzman y Jibaro Jazz. Fernandez has also composed for Nickelodeon's Dora the Explorer.

Vivian "Zenaide" Garcilazo has been a performer, teacher and choreographer of World Folkloric and Oriental Dance for over 30 years. She cut her teeth in dance as a child in Cuba during the revolution and later as a teen dancer on Latin American TV variety shows. Zenaide is a graduate of Vassar College and holds Masters Degrees in both Anthropology and Education. Besides teaching Creative Dance for Children in the NYC Public School system, she is also a highly regarded instructor at the Serena Dance Studios, The Harkness Dance Center at the 92nd Street Y and has served as a guest dance instructor at The Juilliard School's Drama Department for the last six years. Her most recent credit was as a guest choreographer for Cirque Arabesque (2010).

Altagracia Bruno is a teacher and choreographer who has taken her dance experience and training in ballet, jazz, flamenco, Hispanic folkloric and Middle Eastern dance to develop a unique fusion style called Spanish Arabic Fusion. She has performed at Lincoln Center, Harkness Dance Center and American Theater for Actors, and has appeared on Good Morning America, Good Day New York and MTV Comedy Network with Dennis Leary.

The cast of Midnight in Havana includes Marcelo Rodriguez, Jeannie Sol, Eric Robledo, Alex Vallecillo Bone, Jaclyn Ramos, Catalina Plaza, Ydaiber Orozco, Tiffany Huet, Freia Canals, Wilson Flores, Scotty Batista, Justin Kircks and Luis Bordoy.

Performances will be held each Friday at 10:30pm beginning January 14, 2011. Tickets can be purchased by calling the box office at (212) 921-7862 or visiting Ticketmaster.com.

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