Sotto Voce

Teatro Paraguas is pleased to present Sotto Voce, the latest play by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Nilo Cruz, which premiered under the direction of the playwright at the Theatre for the New City in New York on February 15, 2016. Sotto Voce is written and performed in English.

In this exquisite, dreamlike sonata of a play, Cruz examines the resiliency of true love and the indelible power of

memories. German-born novelist Bemadette Kahn, now in her eighties and living in New York, lost the love of her life during World War II when he fled Nazi Germany on the S.S. St. Louis, a ship carrying 937 Jewish refugees seeking haven in North America. Both Cuba and the U.S. turned the ship away, leaving the passengers to return to Europe and perish in Nazi concentration camps. Bemadette’s past resurfaces when a young Jewish-Cuban writer named Saquiel, in New York on an expired visa, contacts her in his research of the ship’s tragic voyage, which also claimed the life of his great aunt. As their relationship deepens, they are enveloped by a transcendent romance based on her memories of her great lost love. Acting as a go-between is Bemadette’s maid Lucila, an undocumented Columbian with her own sorrows.

DS Magid directs the production, which features Francesca Shrady as Bemadette, John Reiser as Saquiel, and Juliet Salazar as Lucila.

Nilo Cruz (born 1960) is a Cuban-American playwright who became the first Latino to be awarded the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Anna in The Tropics. The play also one the Steinberg Award for Best New Play. A year later it received its Broadway premiere with Jimmy Smits in the lead role.

Cruz was born to Tina and Nilo Cruz, Sr. in Matanzas, Cuba The family immigrated to Little Havana in Miami in 1970 on a Freedom Flight, and eventually naturalized to the United States. His interest in theater began with acting and directing in the early 1980s. He studied theater first at Miami-Dade Community College, later moving to New York City, where Cruz studied under fellow Cuba Maria Irene Fornés. Fornes recommended Cruz to Paula Vogel who was teaching at Brown University where he would later receive his M.F.A. in 1994.

Cruz is an alumnus of New Dramatists, and has taught playwriting at Brown University, the University of Iowa, and at Yale University. He presently lives in New York and Miami.

In 2009, Cruz received the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theatre Award for a distinguished American playwright in mid-career.

His plays include:Dancing on Her Knees (1994), Night Train to Bolina (1995), A Park in Our House (1995), Two Sisters and a Piano (1998), A Bicycle Country (1999), Hortensia and the Museum of Dreams (2001), Anna in the Tropics (2002), Lorca in a Green Dress (2003), Capricho (2003), Beauty of the Father (2006), The Color of Desire (2010), Hurricane (2010), Sotto Voce (2014), and Bathing in Moonlight (2016). Teatro Paraguas produced Two Sisters and a Piano in 2013.

DS Magid has been a theater professional since age 8, and has worked at every level from community to education to

LORT to Broadway. Local credits include Santa Fe Opera, Playwrights’ Lab, New Mexico Rep, Santa Fe Playhouse, Los Alamos Little Theatre, and founding the Cantina at La Casa Sena. On Broadway she played in The King and I with Yul Brynner and Camelot with Richard Burton. Besides directing and acting, DS Magid is also a playwright with 21 full-length plays to her credit.

Sotto Voce opens Friday, September 29, 2017, and continues through October 15 with performances Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30pm and Sunday at 2:00pm. A special Gala performance will be held Saturday, September 30. Tickets are $20 general admission and $12 limited income. Admission on Thursdays are $10. Tickets for the Gala performance are $25.

Tickets may be purchased in advance at sv2017.brownpapertickets.com, or at the door. Reservations may be made by calling (505) 424-1601. More information is available at teatroparaguas.org.

Teatro Paraguas is located at 3205 Calle Marie in the Siler-Rufina area in Santa Fe, and has produced over 60 plays since its founding in 2004. Teatro Paraguas presents contemporary Latinx plays in English, as well as bilingual poetry, traditional cuentos (folktales), and community celebrations.

This project is made possible in part by New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry, and the Santa Fe Arts Commission and 1% Lodgers Tax.