Anna in the Tropics

Infobox Play
name = Anna in the Tropics


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writer = Nilo Cruz
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country of Origin = United States
original language = English
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"Anna in the Tropics" is a Pulitzer Prize-winning (2003) play by Nilo Cruz.

When Cuban immigrants brought the cigar-making industry to Florida in the 19th Century, they carried with them another tradition. As the workers toiled away in the factory hand rolling each cigar, the lector, (historically well-dressed and well-spoken), would read to them. It was the lector who informed, organized and entertained the workers until the 1930s, when the rollers and the readers were replaced by mechanization.

Ybor City, a section of Tampa, was the center of the cigar industry, and it serves as the setting for Nilo Cruz’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play.

Plot

Set in 1929, "Anna in the Tropics" tells the story of a family of cigar workers whose lives are irrevocably changed by the arrival of a new lector.

Santiago and Ofelia built a home and a business in Ybor City. Their daughters were brought up to roll cigars and honor tradition, but Marela dreams of adventure, while Conchita finds herself trapped in a passionless marriage with her husband, Palomo. Only Cheche, Santiago’s illegitimate brother, embraces the idea of progress in the factory as he tries to hide from the failures of his past.

As the new lector, Juan Julian, reads "Anna Karenina" to the workers, the spirit of Tolstoy’s novel affects them. With each chapter, new desires and jealousies erupt in the factory. Even the novel’s deadly love triangle starts to play itself out as Conchita considers whether to take a lover. The play raises the dichotomy of a time when the sound of a human voice reading poetry is about to be replaced by the percussive sound of a factory full of machines.

Recognition

"Anna in the Tropics" was widely regarded as a "long shot" for the 2003 Pulitzer Prize in Drama, mainly because it had not been seen in New York. Fact|date=December 2007 The play premiered at the New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida and had to compete with Edward Albee’s "The Goat, or, Who is Sylvia?" and Richard Greenberg’s "Take Me Out" for the coveted award.

Cruz, a Cuban born playwright living in New York, quoted, “It’s wonderful. I cannot believe it. The other day I went to the bookstore and I saw a book by William Kennedy. He won the Pulitzer for "Ironweed", which I adore. I was standing there looking at his books and thinking how amazing it was that this writer won a Pulitzer, and now I’ve been given one, too. I think I’m still in shock. I haven’t completely acknowledged the grandness of the award.”

His past works, such as "Two Sisters and a Piano", have earned him a reputation for writing lyrical, atmospheric plays with powerful emotions and language.Fact|date=December 2007 Critic Christine Dolen of the Miami Herald calls "Anna in the Tropics" his best to date: “It is a passionate, explosive, tender play, one filled with Cruz’s poetic-evocative imagery, language that almost seems tactile.”

"Anna in the Tropics" was honored with two nominations at the 2004 Tony Awards. The show was nominated in the category of Best Play and Best Featured Actress in a Play (Daphne Rubin-Vega)

References

External links

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* [http://www.scr.org/season/03-04season/anna.asp "Anna in the Tropics"] at South Coast Repertory
* [http://www.latw.org/radio/detail.aspx?title=Anna%20in%20the%20Tropics "Anna in the Tropics"] at [http://www.latw.org/ L.A. Theatre Works] which offered an audio broadcast version in September 2007 as part of its "Play's the Thing" series