Following the inauguration of a new facility in 2005, Pregones Theater’s current and forthcoming seasons are designed to showcase the ensemble’s craft with new and restaged works from our award-winning Latino repertory. Plays are in Spanish or English, or both, and the theater makes use of supertitles for simultaneous dual language translations. These are only some of the productions on active repertory:
El último rosario de Medea (Medea’s Last Rosary)
A new staging of José Manuel Torres Santiago’s urban retelling of the Greek myth, set during the nine-day folk celebration known as Fiestas de Cruz. Based on the historic trial of Puerto Rican actor Lydia Echevarría, convicted of hiring hit men to kill her husband and senten-ced to 254 years in prison, the action focuses on Medea’s torn conscience and the perverse fascination her crime awakens among the townspeople. The Fall 2006 run, starring Venezuelan star Lupita Ferrer, won multiple multiple ACE and HOLA awards including Best Direction and Best Musical.
Blanco/White A send-up of immigration law and the American obsession with physical beauty, Blanco was written by Pablo García Gámez and it won our Asunción Playwrights Project competition in 2004. As the play opens, two dazzling figures in futuristic attire guard the entrance to an imaginary kingdom where appearances are all-important. When the men’s routine is interrupted by an undocumented visitor it turns out nothing is quite what it seems. The play is a co-production with Teatro IATI in Manhattan. The show had two runs in 2006, and won multiple multiple ACE and HOLA awards including Best Direction and Best Drama. Variety called it "a stunning visual delight that transcends language barriers."
The Red Rose/La Rosa Roja Starring international recording artists Danny Rivera, the play narrates the meeting of Puerto Rican activist writer Jesús Colón and undercover FBI agent Mildred Blauvelt, and their subsequent face-off before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1959. Premiered in 2005, the production won multiple HOLA and ACE Awards including Best Direction and Best Musical. The original cast recording CD was independently released by composer Desmar Guevara in 2006. The Red Rose has also been performed at the newly renovated Teatro de la Universidad in Puerto Rico and as an opener for TeatroStageFest, the Latino International Theater Festival of New York, in 2007.
El Apagón/The Blackout This bilingual theatrical adaptation of the story "La noche que volvimos a ser gente" by José Luis González is set to the sounds of popular Latin songs from the 1950s and 1960s. Riding the subway uptown towards El Barrio, and eager to witness the birth of his firstborn, a Puerto Rican factory worker and his best friend face the Northeast Blackout of 1965. A paean to the courage, humor, and humanity of migrant experience, the show has been hailed by critics as "the quintessential Boricua play." El Apagón has been performed throughout the U.S., and in Puerto Rico, Slovakia, and Holland.
Betsy A new intercultural music play marking 10 years of partnership with the Appalachian artists of Roadside Theater (KY). The story involves a Bronx born and bred Puerto Rican jazz singer who stirs up the little known history of her Scot-Irish ancestry. The production’s musical team includes Nashville jazz legend Beegie Adair, Old Time master Ron Short, and Puerto Rican composer/pianist Desmar Guevara. Co-directors Dudley Cocke and Rosalba Rolón also share writing credits. Betsy was previewed at the New Pregones Theater in 2006, and was performed at the Zeiterion Theatre in New Bedford-MA in 2007.
El bolero fue mi ruina (The Bolero Was My Downfall) Acclaimed adaptation of the story "Loca la de la locura" by Puerto Rican gay literary icon Manuel Ramos Otero. The play’s protagonist is an aging transvestite fulfilling the last days of a long prison sentence for murder. The production deploys the aesthetics of torch song and kitsch to convey a subtler message about love, abuse, and the relationship between perpetrator and victim. Since its premiere in 1997, El bolero has been performed throughout the U.S., and in Puerto Rico, Peru, Mexico, and France. Dazzling new sets and costumes were introduced for the Spring 2006 run. The production is another perennial audience favorite.
The Beep
A musical theater revue featuring the poetry of Nuyorican legend Pedro Pietri, and covering nearly a century’s worth of Puerto Rican literature: Jesús Colón, Manuel Méndez Ballester, Judith Ortiz Cofer, and actor/poet Elise Hernández. Their texts are matched to a contagious musical score that mixes traditional and contemporary Latin music and features plena-rap hit “Chiviriquitón,” performed
by guest star José Figueroa of Los Pleneros de la 21. The Spring 2007 run won an HOLA award for Best Ensemble Cast.
The Phone Call One of two new forum theater productions on the subject of domestic violence, commissioned in part by the Bronx Borough President and the Bronx District Attorney. Based on the technique of Augusto Boal, with whom our ensemble's principals trained, the plays enact dramatic scenarios drawn from real life accounts. Members from the audience get to inter-vene directly into the play’s action by taking the place of any of the actors on stage and through related discussions. Selected shows and a special television studio performance have been taped for broadcast via BronxNET TV, a public access network reaching more than 300,000 homes.
Navigate Ensemble
Medea's Last Rosary. From left: Rafael Decena, Zulema Clares, Johary Ramos, Sol Crespo & Lupita FerrerPhoto by Erika Rojas
Blanco / White. Johary Ramos & Carlos Valencia.
Photo by Jason Sturm
The Red Rose. From left: Elise Hernández, José J. García, Danny Rivera & Jorge Merced. Photo by Michael Palma
The Blackout. Jorge Merced & José J. García.
Photo by Erika Rojas
Betsy. A collaboration with Roadside Theater.
Photo by Erika Rojas
Jorge Merced in El Bolero fue mi ruina.
Photo by Erika Rojas
The Beep. From left:Rosal Colón, Varín Ayala, Sol Crespo & Elise Hernández.
Photo by Erika Rojas
