Nilo Cruz
Encyclopedia
Nilo Cruz is an Cuban-American playwright
and pedagogue. With his award of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
for his play, Anna in the Tropics
, he became the first Latino so honored.
" in Miami, Florida
in 1970 on a Freedom Flight, and eventually naturalised 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 Cuban María 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.
, where he wrote Anna in the Tropics
, winner of the 2003 Pulitzer and the Steinberg Award for Best New Play. A year later it received its Broadway premiere with Jimmy Smitts in the lead role. He also has a sister named Clara Cruz who works as a Spanish teacher in Hialeah Gardens Elementary School in Hialeah, Florida.
Some of the theatres that have developed and performed his works include New York’s Public Theater
, New York Theatre Workshop
, Pasadena Playhouse
, McCarter Theatre
, Oregon Shakespeare Festival
, South Coast Repertory
, The Alliance
, New Theatre, Florida Stage and the Coconut Grove Playhouse
.
Cruz wrote the book of the Frank Wildhorn
/Jack Murphy musical Havana. Its scheduled world premiere at the Pasadena Playhouse
has been delayed by the theatre's declaration of bankruptcy in 2010.
Cruz has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including two NEA/TCG
National Theatre Artist Residency grants, a Rockefeller Foundation
grant, San Francisco's W. Alton Jones award, a Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays award and a USA Artist Fellowship.
Cruz is a frequent collaborator with Peruvian-American Latin Grammy composer Gabriela Lena Frank
, collaborating on several operas. They recently completed a set of orchestral songs, "La centinela y la paloma" (The Keeper and the Dove), for Dawn Upshaw
and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra to be premiered under the baton of Joana Carneiro
in February 2011.
Cruz is an alumnus of New Dramatists, has taught playwriting at Brown University
, the University of Iowa
and at Yale University
. He presently lives in New York City
and Miami.
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
and pedagogue. With his award of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Pulitzer Prize for Drama
The Pulitzer Prize for Drama was first awarded in 1918.From 1918 to 2006, the Drama Prize was unlike the majority of the other Pulitzer Prizes: during these years, the eligibility period for the drama prize ran from March 2 to March 1, to reflect the Broadway 'season' rather than the calendar year...
for his play, Anna in the Tropics
Anna in the Tropics
Anna in the Tropics is a 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, , would read to them...
, he became the first Latino so honored.
Early years
Cruz was born to Tina and Nilo Cruz, Sr. in Matanzas, Cuba. The family immigrated to the "Little HavanaLittle Havana
Little Havana is a neighborhood of Miami, Florida, United States. Home to many Cuban immigrant residents, Little Havana is named after Havana, the capital and largest city in Cuba. The approximate boundaries are the Miami River , SW 16th Street , SR 9/West 27th Avenue and I-95...
" in Miami, Florida
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
in 1970 on a Freedom Flight, and eventually naturalised 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 Cuban María Irene Fornés
María Irene Fornés
María Irene Fornés is a Cuban-American avant garde playwright and director who is associated with the establishment of the Off-off-Broadway movement in the 1960s. Fornes themes focused on poverty and feminism. In 1965, she won her first Obie Award for Promenade and her second for The Successful...
. Fornes recommended Cruz to Paula Vogel
Paula Vogel
Paula Vogel is an American playwright and university professor. She received the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play, How I Learned to Drive.-Early years:...
who was teaching at Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
where he would later receive his M.F.A. in 1994.
Career
In 2001, he served as the playwright-in-residence for the New Theatre in Coral Gables, FloridaCoral Gables, Florida
Coral Gables is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, southwest of Downtown Miami, in the United States. The city is home to the University of Miami....
, where he wrote Anna in the Tropics
Anna in the Tropics
Anna in the Tropics is a 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, , would read to them...
, winner of the 2003 Pulitzer and the Steinberg Award for Best New Play. A year later it received its Broadway premiere with Jimmy Smitts in the lead role. He also has a sister named Clara Cruz who works as a Spanish teacher in Hialeah Gardens Elementary School in Hialeah, Florida.
Some of the theatres that have developed and performed his works include New York’s Public Theater
Public Theater
The Public Theater is a New York City arts organization founded as The Shakespeare Workshop in 1954 by Joseph Papp, with the intention of showcasing the works of up-and-coming playwrights and performers. It is headquartered at 425 Lafayette Street in the former Astor Library in the East Village...
, New York Theatre Workshop
New York Theatre Workshop
__notoc__New York Theatre Workshop is an Off-Broadway theatre noted for its productions of new works. Located at 79 East 4th Street between Second Avenue and the Bowery in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, it houses a 198-seat theatre for its mainstage productions, and a...
, Pasadena Playhouse
Pasadena Playhouse
The Pasadena Playhouse is a historic performing arts venue located 39 S El Molino Avenue in Pasadena, California. The 686-seat auditorium produces a variety of cultural and artistic events, professional shows, and community engagements each year.-History:...
, McCarter Theatre
McCarter Theatre
McCarter Theatre is a not-for-profit, professional company on the campus of Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey. It is one of the most active cultural centers in the nation, offering over 200 performances of theater, dance, music and special events each year...
, Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Oregon Shakespeare Festival
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is a regional repertory theatre in Ashland, Oregon, United States. The festival annually produces eleven plays on three stages during a season that lasts from February to October...
, South Coast Repertory
South Coast Repertory
South Coast Repertory is a professional theatre company located in Costa Mesa, California.Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory, founded in 1964 by David Emmes and Martin Benson and now under the leadership of Artistic Director Marc Masterson and Managing Director Paula Tomei, is widely...
, The Alliance
The Alliance
The Alliance, also known as Team WCW/ECW, was a professional wrestling stable in the World Wrestling Federation that lasted from July to November 2001. The stable came about as a result of the World Wrestling Federation's purchase of World Championship Wrestling in March 2001...
, New Theatre, Florida Stage and the Coconut Grove Playhouse
Coconut Grove Playhouse
The Coconut Grove Playhouse was a legitimate theater in the Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami, Florida, United States.The building was originally constructed as a movie theater called the Player's State Theater. It first opened on January 3, 1927 as a part of the Paramount chain. The movie house...
.
Cruz wrote the book of the Frank Wildhorn
Frank Wildhorn
Frank Wildhorn is an American composer known for both his musicals and popular songs. He is most known for his musical Jekyll & Hyde, which ran four years on Broadway, and for writing the #1 International Hit song "Where Do Broken Hearts Go?" for Whitney Houston.-Early years:Wildhorn was born in...
/Jack Murphy musical Havana. Its scheduled world premiere at the Pasadena Playhouse
Pasadena Playhouse
The Pasadena Playhouse is a historic performing arts venue located 39 S El Molino Avenue in Pasadena, California. The 686-seat auditorium produces a variety of cultural and artistic events, professional shows, and community engagements each year.-History:...
has been delayed by the theatre's declaration of bankruptcy in 2010.
Cruz has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including two NEA/TCG
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
National Theatre Artist Residency grants, a Rockefeller Foundation
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...
grant, San Francisco's W. Alton Jones award, a Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays award and a USA Artist Fellowship.
Cruz is a frequent collaborator with Peruvian-American Latin Grammy composer Gabriela Lena Frank
Gabriela Lena Frank
Gabriela Lena Frank is an American composer of contemporary classical music and pianist.- Biography :...
, collaborating on several operas. They recently completed a set of orchestral songs, "La centinela y la paloma" (The Keeper and the Dove), for Dawn Upshaw
Dawn Upshaw
Dawn Upshaw is an American soprano described as "one of the most consequential performers of our time" by the Los Angeles Times. The recipient of several Grammy Awards and Edison Prize-winning discs, Upshaw is at home both in opera and art song, and in repertoire from Baroque to contemporary...
and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra to be premiered under the baton of Joana Carneiro
Joana Carneiro
Joana Carneiro , is a Portuguese conductor. She is the third of nine children of the former Portuguese minister of education Roberto Carneiro, and she is the niece of the Portuguese politician Adelino Amaro da Costa.As a youth, Carneiro played the viola...
in February 2011.
Cruz is an alumnus of New Dramatists, has taught playwriting at Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
, the University of Iowa
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...
and at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
. He presently lives in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and Miami.
Plays
- 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 TropicsAnna in the TropicsAnna in the Tropics is a 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, , would read to them...
(2002) - Lorca in a Green Dress (2003)
- Capricho (2003)
- Beauty of the Father (2006)
- The Color of Desire (2010)
- Hurricane (2010)
Translations
- A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings - a children's play that is an adaptation of a short story by Gabriel García MárquezGabriel García MárquezGabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez is a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo throughout Latin America. He is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in...
- Doña Rosita the Spinster - by Federico García LorcaFederico García LorcaFederico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads...
- The House of Bernarda Alba - by Federico García LorcaFederico García LorcaFederico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads...
- Life is a DreamLa vida es sueñoLife is a Dream is a Spanish language play by Pedro Calderón de la Barca. First published in 1635 , it is a philosophical allegory regarding the human situation and the mystery of life. Focusing on Segismundo, Prince of Poland, the central argument is the conflict between free will and fate...
- by Pedro Calderón de la BarcaPedro Calderón de la BarcaPedro Calderón de la Barca y Barreda González de Henao Ruiz de Blasco y Riaño usually referred as Pedro Calderón de la Barca , was a dramatist, poet and writer of the Spanish Golden Age. During certain periods of his life he was also a soldier and a Roman Catholic priest...
See also
External links
- Nilo Cruz Interview by Beth Stevens on Broadway.com
- New Plays And Playwrights - Working in the Theatre Seminar video at American Theatre Wing.orgAmerican Theatre WingThe American Theatre Wing is a New York City-based organization "dedicated to supporting excellence and education in theatre," according to its mission statement...
, January 2004 - Bomb magazine interview
- Articles about Nilo Cruz and Life is a Dream at South Coast RepertorySouth Coast RepertorySouth Coast Repertory is a professional theatre company located in Costa Mesa, California.Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory, founded in 1964 by David Emmes and Martin Benson and now under the leadership of Artistic Director Marc Masterson and Managing Director Paula Tomei, is widely...