Asolo Repertory Theatre Presents HAMLET, PRINCE OF CUBA, 3/23-5/6

Asolo Repertory Theatre announces its final 2012 repertory production, Hamlet, Prince of Cuba, adapted and directed by Producing Artistic Director Michael Donald Edwards and featuring a Spanish translation by Pulitzer Prize-winner Nilo Cruz. Hamlet, Prince of Cuba will run March 23 through May 6 in the Mertz Theatre. Previews (in English) will begin March 21. Set in late 19^th century Cuba, the show will have two performances in Spanish with English supertitles. Spanish performances will be May 3 at 8 p.m. and May 5 at 2 p.m. After concluding its run at Asolo Rep, the show will move to the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center where it will perform May 11-13. Hamlet, Prince of Cuba will feature guest artist Frankie J. Alvarez as Hamlet, Gisela Chípe (of Asolo Rep's Yentl) as Ophelia, Emilio Delgado as Claudius (known for his performance as Luis on Sesame Street), Mercedes Herrero as Gertrude and Andhy Mendez as Laertes.

"The Cuban relationship to Hamlet came out of being in Florida right now, and feeling like there is a great disconnect between the Anglo and the Latino communities," said Producing Artistic Director Michael Donald Edwards. "That disconnect is language, so I thought what can we do as an institution to help bridge our reality right now? The setting came from, as so much of my work does, from the actors. It was people driven, rather than just an intellectual idea. It really came about from meeting these actors and wanting to access their artistic and intellectual energy. We want audiences in Sarasota and Miami to have a thrilling time, and to be simply overwhelmed with the beauty and the power of these ideas and this story."

Cuban-American playwright and winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize in Drama, Nilo Cruz, will serve as translator for the production. Cruz's 2002 play Anna in the Tropics was the recipient of The Pulitzer Prize, The Steinberg Award and two Tony Award® nominations. Cruz will be joining other creative team members to bring productions of Hamlet, Prince of Cuba to Sarasota audiences in English and Spanish.

"The process of translation is an intricate one," said Cruz.  "As artists we are constantly translating images, emotions, states of mind, human behavior to a canvas, a piece of music or the stage.  The word 'translation' is analogous with conversion, interpretation, transformation and change. As I began to translate Hamlet, I was not only interested in deciphering Shakespeare's language and discerning truth in the realm of his ideas, but also in transmitting the seductiveness of his words; to honor 'the thing' in the play, the arousal of complex and dangerous emotions that are contained deep within the human psyche.  In this rendition of Hamlet, the nakedness of words, without the ornamentation of iambic pentameters, became more of an irresistible invitation to interpret.  Here is a Hamlet in a Cuba that allows him to break from the prism of rhymes to embrace the dark sounds of his restless soul. Here, the 'academic spectacles' used in most Spanish translations of Shakespeare's plays have been removed to allow his tempestuous lyricism to rise for a Latino audience."   

Visit www.asolorep.org for more information.

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