Anna in the Tropics Brings Cuban Heat to the Stage

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Edward Miller, (205) 933-2383

Sultry, Seductive Production Comes to Birmingham Festival Theatre


BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – April 4, 2011 – You might want to brush up on your Spanish before coming to see Anna in the Tropics at Birmingham Festival Theatre beginning April 21, 2011. The opening of the Pulitzer Prize winning play, by Nilo Cruz, will be entirely in Spanish. ¿Entiendes?

Set in Tampa, Fla. in the 1920’s, the play depicts how life changes for a family of Cuban immigrants working in a cigar factory, when a stranger arrives on the scene. The owner’s wife has hired a Lector, a well-spoken, well-dressed man to read classic novels to the workers as they roll cigars. The novel chosen is Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, a story of love, lust and betrayal. The characters and situations in the novel come to life for the family as the story unfolds.

“The play is about love: lost love, forgotten love, forbidden love. The strength of the piece is the poetic beauty of the language layered with the power of the sensuality contained in the work,” says Edward Miller, who is directing the play at BFT. “The climax provides a gripping and shocking finality to Cruz’s vision.”

Actors Don Cano (Lobby Hero), Chalo Gurmendi, Michelle Griffo, Beth Kitchin (Season’s Greetings), Jessica Knight, Sigfredo Rubio (Spinning into Butter) and David Seale make up the cast.

Anna in the Tropics runs each Thursday, Friday and Saturday for three weeks at 8:00 p.m. beginning on April 21, with a matinee on Sunday, May 1, at 2:30 p.m. The show closes on May 7, 2011. Tickets are $20, $15 for students. For reservations, call the theatre at (205) 933-2383.


About Birmingham Festival Theatre
BFT is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. For almost 40 years, BFT has been bringing local audiences theatrical experiences that touch the heart and stir the mind. Our all-volunteer Board of Directors works to involve the community’s many talented directors, actors, designers and techies to produce the best in contemporary and classic theatre. For more information, go to www.bftonline.org.

Shawn Reese (Actor 5) - Around the World in 80 Days

Shawn Reese (Actor 5) is a stage veteran of both Birmingham and New York, having appeared in numerous plays and musicals in almost two decades of performing. He was most recently seen this past December as Bob Cratchit in the Alys Stephens Center's production of A Vest Pocket Christmas Carol, and before that as the Sherriff in Red Mountain Theatre Company's 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey . While in New York, he was on the board of Break-A-Leg Productions and The Gallery Players, one of the city’s premier Off-Off Broadway production companies, where he produced Cloud Nine and The School for Scandal. He also appeared in numerous NYC productions including Holiday, Life on Death Row, and The Mousetrap, and directed several shows for the East Side Theatre Group. Notable roles include Tony (West Side Story), Joseph (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat), Hines (The Pajama Game), Benjy (My Favorite Year), William Roper (A Man for All Seasons), Pablo Picasso (Picasso at the Lapine Agile), Will Parker (Oklahoma), and James Wilson (1776). Awards include the 2006 Irving Stern Award for Performer of the Year (Levite Jewish Community Center).

Holly Croney Dikeman (Actor 4) - Around the World in 80 Days

Holly Croney Dikeman (Actor 4) was last seen on the BFT stage as the Snake Handler in Talking With... and as Cherie in Bus Stop prior to that. Previous BFT credits also include The Great Wrong Way and Miss Witherspoon. She was most recently in A Vest Pocket Christmas Carol at Alys Stephens Center (ASC) and in Red Mountain Theatre Company's 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey . Favorite roles include Betty in The Will Rogers Follies; Effie in The Spitfire Grill; Alice in Alice’s Even Bigger Tea Party at ASC; Missy in Winter Wonderettes and Maria in El Grande de Coca Cola, both at the Terrific New Theatre; and Cinderella’s stepsister, which she played once in Cinderella, and once in Into the Woods, both at Virginia Samford Theatre.

Chuck Evans (Actor 3) - Around the World in 80 Days

Chuck Evans (Actor 3) is delighted to appear in his third production with Birmingham Festival Theatre. He previously performed in The Great Wrong Way and Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens. Chuck has worked with many other theater companies in the Birmingham area, including Terrific New Theatre, Theatre Downtown, Theatre LJCC, Park Players, Leeds Arts Council, South City Theatre and CenterStage Productions. He also has been a member of the Opera Birmingham Chorus for the past five seasons.

Kevin Van Hyning (Actor 2) - Around the World in 80 Days

Kevin Van Hyning (Actor 2) is returning to the Birmingham Festival Theatre stage after making his debut as Dwight, in last year's Dead Man's Cell Phone. Luckily, as a member of the regional comedy team, BrainFreeze, Kevin is well versed in the world of improv and sketch comedy, so juggling nine different characters in one show (not to mention a potpourri of bad wigs) isn't too great of a stretch, albeit it's still rather challenging. Kevin has performed around town in a variety of plays, including Theatre Downtown's After School Special and ACTA's The Foreigner.

M. Bates Redwine (Actor 1) - Around the World in 80 Days

M. Bates Redwine (Actor 1) has been on stage previously at BFT in The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 and Tobacco Road. You may have also seen him as Captain Beatty in Fahrenheit 451 and as Dr. Grimes in Night of the Living Dead at Theatre Downtown, as Balthasar in Much Ado About Nothing with Park Players, and in The Who’s Tommy and Broken Glass at Theatre LJCC. Other favorite past roles include Baylor in A Lie of the Mind, Touchstone in As You Like It, Moon in The Real Inspector Hound, and Rev. Parris in The Crucible. He is also a member and former officer of Alpha Psi Omega, the national theatrical honor society.

A World of Roles for 5 Actors in "Around the World in 80 Days"

How will they do it?!
Call 933-2383 for reservations to see!

M. Bates Redwine - Gauthier Ralph, British Consul, Director of Police, priest, Sir Francis, Judge Obadiah, Chinese broker, ship clerk, Bunsby, Proctor, engineer, Mudge, clerk, Speedy, ship engineer, train clerk

Kevin Van Hyning - Andrew Stuart, Detective Fix, priest, Indian conductor, elephant owner, young Parsi, Oysterpuff, U.S. conductor, Reverend Wilson’s servant

Chuck Evans - Passepartout, John Sullivan

Holly Croney Dikeman - James Forster, newspaperman, priest, Aouda

Shawn Reese - Phileas Fogg