By Nilo Cruz
Henry Godinez, Director
Rita Vreeland, Stage Manager A.E.A.
Tom Burch, Set Designer
Gustavo Leone, Sound Designer
Christine Pascual, Costume Designer
Gina Patterson, Lighting Designer
Marni Woloszyn, Props Designer

JEFF RECOMMENDED

September 21 - October 24, 2004

Havana, Cuba, 1991. Maria Celia and her sister Sofia, under house arrest in their family home, take refuge in their writing and music. The two sisters struggle daily to keep their passion and art alive. When censorship denies Maria Celia her husband's love letters, Lieutenant Portuondo offers to read them to her, but at a price... the sisters must then decide whether to take a dangerous chance on freedom.

	Charin Alvarez (Maria Celia), a Teatro Vista Ensemble member and my theatre credits include: Ifigenia in Electricidad at Goodman Theatre; Conchita in Anna in the Tropics at Victory Gardens Theatre; Suenos , Vampiros y Bebes with Teatro Vista; Dolores in Black Butterfly with Teatro Vista; Alma in The Infidel & Serita in Ordinary Yearning of Miriam Buddwing both at Steppenwolf Studio; Laura Fermi in World Set Free with Steppenwolf's Arts Exchange; Magdalena in Casa de Bernarda Alba at Aguijon Theatre; Generic Latina in Generic Latina at Teatro Luna; Gabriela in Rosa De Dos Aromas with Imagen Latina Theatre; La Llorona in Bocon with Stage Left Touring Company. She thanks Mami , Chuy , Chente , Juli , Cris , Isa , and Rich.
	Sandra Delgado (Sophia) is appearing for the first time at Apple Tree Theatre. She is Teatro Vista's (TV) newest company member. She was most recently seen in Electricidad at the Goodman Theatre directed by TV co-founder Henry Godinez and featuring several TV members. Other projects with Mr. Godinez include the critically acclaimed Victory Garden 's production of Nilo Cruz'Anna in the Tropics, Zoot Suit and Christmas Carol , both at the Goodman, and A Winter's Tale at Missouri Repertory Theatre. With TV, she was able to take part in the 2002 Chicago Humanities Festival as part of the cast of Black Butterfly ...directed by TV member Maricela Ochoa. Ms.Delgado is also a member of the multi-arts collective, Collaboraction, and in the past seven years has appeared in several theatrical productions,most notably Refuge , The Cosmonaut's Last Message To the Woman He Once Loved in the Former Soviet Union and the Sketchbook festivals. Other Chicago and regional credits include: Wit at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Summertime at Lookingglass, Undone at About Face, and Whispering City and Words on Fire at Steppenwolf. In the spring, she will be working on Guinea Pig Solo , directed by husband and Collaboraction Artistic Director, Anthony Moseley. She dedicates this show, in loving memory, to her Grandmother, Carmen.
	Sammy Publes (Lieutenant Portuondo) was born in La Habana, Cuba . His father was a political prisoner in Castro's regime, which is why he so excited to be participating in this play. He received his BA in theatre from Western Michigan and moved to Chicago in 2001. He's performed at the Bailiwick with Latinologues , was recently featured in the movie Once Upon a time in the Hood , played Edwin in Our Lady of 121st Street at Steppenwolf. Sammy would like to think Eddie Torres and Teatro Vista, our great director Henry, Teatro Luna and the cast of Our Lady... Sammy would also like to thank his family for their undying support, actor's theater of Grand Rapids, my beautiful daughters Maricela y Mikaila. Y CUBA LINDA Y LIBRE.
	Ivan Vega (Victor Manuel) is a founding member of Teatro Urbano (TU).  He is an actor/writer who works in theatre, film, commercial and voice-over.  Some of his latest projects include; Bodas de Sangre at Aguijon Theater, Collaborations Sketchbook 2004 at the Chopin Theatre, Anna In The Tropics at Victory Gardens Theatre, Northlight...To Go's touring show Identity (an educational outreach show exploring identity through poetry directed by Kimberly Senior).  Other credits include; Latinologues at the Bailiwick Repertory Theatre, House of Blues and other venues across the United States written and directed by Rick Najera, the US premiere of Los Calices Vacios/The Empty Chalices at Aguijon Theatre.  He holds his Bachelor's in Fine Arts in acting from the Theatre Conservatory at Roosevelt University .   His film credits include; Dancing With Ernesto , Cousins , Blackstone and Flickering Blue .  For more information on Ivan you can visit him at www.ivanvega.com. He would like to thank his family and friends for their love, laughter, and unconditional support.

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Daily Herald feature

Most of the belongings in the once-grand house where they lived with their parents in Havana have been confiscated. They have no radio, no visitors (none who were invited, at least), no connection with the outside world.

Yet dissident writer Maria Celia (Charin Alvarez) and her younger sister Sofia (Sandra Delgado), under house arrest in 1991 after two years of prison in Castro's Cuba, have each other -- and they have their art.

Maria, based on Cuban writer Maria Elena Cruz Varela, tells stories. Sofia plays the grand piano that somehow has been left to them.

"So much of this play is about art and creativity," said director Henry Godinez of Evanston, an artistic associate of Goodman Theatre and co-founder of Chicago's Teatro Vista, which is co-producing "Two Sisters and a Piano" at Apple Tree Theatre in Highland Park. "It shows how emotional and political oppression can suppress the creative spirit -- but it will out."

How appropriate, then, that Apple Tree is celebrating its first collaboration with Teatro Vista by hiring Cuban painter Pablo Perea to create a large original mural for the backdrop of the play. Since graduating from the University of Havana in 1995 with a medical degree, Perea's specialty as a painter has been his expressive portraiture of women.

Godinez first read "Two Sisters" a few years ago when it was the best-known work of Cuban-American playwright Nilo Cruz, winner of the Pulitzer Prize last year for his drama "Anna in the Tropics."

Familiar story

The play appealed to Godinez personally as a native of Cuba. He escaped to this country with his family in 1961 at the age of 3.

"So much of my growing up was influenced by my family's stories of Cuba, of Castro and the revolution," Godinez said.

Godinez was also impressed by Cruz's deceptively simple literary style.

"It's a beautiful play, a very subtle play," said the director, who also staged "Anna" with Alvarez in the lead at Victory Gardens Theatre. "Nilo is such a master at making the most modest words and images rich and evocative. His language sounds simple, but then it blossoms."

Similarly, Cruz takes an essentially simple situation in "Two Sisters" and complicates it to the point where lives are at stake.

Enemy or ally?

Maria and Sofia are enduring another search of their stripped home by government officers when they make the initially unpleasant acquaintance of Lt. Portuondo (Sammy Publes).

Much to his own surprise, the young officer finds himself attracted to Maria, so much so that he reads her books and falls in love with her -- and her writing. Knowing that Maria has been smuggling a new book one page at a time in letters to her husband, who has escaped to Sweden, Portuondo offers to let her read her husband's confiscated letters -- if Maria will allow him to read her potentially incriminating book.

"It's a very romantic play, but it's also very dangerous at the same time," Godinez said. "We're never sure whether to trust the lieutenant or not -- and the stakes are high. He could engineer their freedom and he implies that he might, even at the risk of his career, but Maria has no way of knowing, and Sofia plants the seed of doubt."

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Sun-Times feature by Mary Houlihan

In the older section of Havana, an unending stream of young artists and musicians haunt the picturesque bars and cafes that are a highlight of this colorful section of the Cuban city. These lively nightspots are the core of the city's bohemian scene, where being drawn into a conversation is as easy as finding a mojito with your name on it.

It was in just such a place several years ago I encountered a group of congenial young artists who talked about their work and their hopes of one day making it to the United States, where they suspected unknown dreams awaited. Pablo Perea could easily have been one of those bearded, dark-eyed charmers in paint-spattered jeans.

Perea, who grew up in Guines, just outside Havana, is one of the lucky ones who actually made the trip and found success. Now living in Chicago, Perea, at 34, is an established artist with a thriving career. His most recent accomplishment is creating a 10-by-30-foot mural as a stunning backdrop for Apple Tree Theatre's production of Cuban playwright Nilo Cruz's "Two Sisters and a Piano," which opens Monday.

"In the '90s, our generation in Cuba was in the boom of cultural awareness," says Perea. "Artists like Compay Segundo and the Buena Vista Social Club opened the door and suddenly the whole world was interested in what was going on in Cuba. We are the generation that found it easier to establish contacts with galleries and institutions outside of Cuba."

And a Cuban artist was just what Apple Tree was looking for. The company received an NEA grant to hire an artist to paint a mural; originally they intended to hire someone directly from Cuba. But they were informed by the U.S. State Department that the artist would not be allowed to take money back to Cuba.

"We could hire someone, but we couldn't pay them," says Apple Tree artistic director Eileen Boevers. "So we had to go back to square one and still meet the criteria for the grant and hire a Cuban artist, but it had to be someone already here."

Perea was their man. He was represented by Havana Gallery (1139 W. Webster) for several years before making the trip from Cuba for his first one-man show in 2001. A year ago, he married Allison Hill, the gallery's director, and now calls Chicago home.

Perea's haunting mural, a textured oil painting in shades of blue with white and black accents, expressively pinpoints the main theme's of Cruz's short drama about two sisters, Maria Celia, a writer, and Sofia, a pianist, living under house arrest in their family home. There they are visited by a police lieutenant who provides a dangerous chance at freedom.

Boevers thinks Perea's Cuban roots help him see the play on a different level.

"Especially since he's dealing with the problems of his family," she says. "They may not be locked in a house like these women, but emotionally and spiritually they are being held hostage, because he cannot go there and they cannot leave."

Another bit of serendipity is the fact that Perea almost exclusively paints images of women. The reasons are "mystical, artistic and spiritual," he says. Growing up in a family dominated by women, he was surrounded by several generations of competent women who "balanced the universe" for the men in the family.

"At some point in my life, I realized that I was nothing without the complement of women. The experience of observing women and connecting with them is what I try to put into my paintings. It is like a perfect conversation."

The play's director, Henry Godinez, says Perea brings a new energy to the production.

"In a kind of subliminal way, Pablo's mural adds another layer of resonance," says Godinez. "I think it amplifies the themes and atmosphere of the play without being too blatant. As a director, it's an enriching image to work around."

Turning point

Perea took an unusual path to a career in art. It began in medical school, where he became friendly with a group of artists who became a great influence on him. He listened to discussions on the history and philosophy of art, as well as eloquent conversations about discovering oneself through artistic self-expression. But he was not easily deterred from a career in medicine; he worked for several years as a general practitioner in a Havana hospital before turning solely to art.

At first Perea painted only a few small pictures while continuing his work as a doctor. But as he got more into painting, the number grew, and there came a moment in 1996 when he realized he couldn't handle both.

"I was working too many hours in the hospital and painting too many hours at night," he says, rubbing a spot of blue paint on his hand. "It was too much and that was my turning point."

But was it hard trying to work as an artist in Cuba? "No, it's hard being an artist anywhere," says Perea, laughing.

In fact, Perea says, the '90s were a good time to be a visual artist in Cuba. Government interference was at a minimum, and young artists set up shop in studios and galleries up and down busy Obispo Street in Old Havana. It was here that the owners of Havana Gallery first saw Perea's work. (There are no restrictions on bringing art out of Cuba. Under an agreement with the U.S. government, it's considered not economic or political, but rather a cultural exchange.)

"In all his work, Pablo employs an adventurous use of color," says Hill, also an artist. "He takes risks with color and has fun with composition. It's a joy to watch him work in those big expressive strokes."

One of Havana Gallery's more popular artists, Perea's works range from in price from $500 to $5,000. Earlier this summer, a solo show featured new work that he calls "a history of my family." It was another success.

Because of a recent change in laws regarding travel to their homeland, Cuban nationals are only allowed to travel there every three years; Perea cannot return until 2006. He becomes quiet when asked about returning to Cuba to see his family, with whom he is very close. Hill has not met her new in-laws, but they have been able to connect by phone and e-mail.

"The whole thing has to finish one day," he said. "I believe in Cuba, but I also think it needs many changes. People and their individual ideas should have more participation. My greatest wish is that someday Cuba will be open to everyone."

Apple Tree branches out for diversity

Though Apple Tree may be in suburban Highland Park, the company isn't adverse to building partnerships with city folk, namely the Latino company Teatro Vista, an ensemble that often performs in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood, a location worlds away from the tony North Shore.

The friendship began back in 1997 when Apple Tree staged "Blade to the Heat," Oliver Mayer's drama about a Latino boxer, with several Teatro Vista actors, including Henry Godinez, Edward Torres and Gustavo Mellado.

"During a show's run, you can't help but get to know the people involved, and we bonded," said Apple Tree artistic director Eileen Boevers. "More recently, Eddie Torres [now Teatro Vista's artistic director] made it clear to us that he was very aware of the diversity of our programming. And that made him want to nurture the relationship and encourage it to grow."

Apple Tree is co-producing Nilo Cruz's "Two Sisters and a Piano" with Teatro Vista. Company co-founder Henry Godinez, now an artistic associate at the Goodman Theatre, directs. Teatro Vista ensemble members Charin Alvarez and Sandra Delgado star, along with Sammy Publes and Ivan Vega.

Boevers has made it Apple Tree's mission "to put a human face on situations around the world so that they are not simply isolated events happening far enough away to keep us comfortable." Last season, the company staged Eve Ensler's "Necessary Targets," which focused on women in a refugee camp in Bosnia.

"We want to stretch with a diverse presentation of stories and artists on our stage," Boevers said. "And if we occasionally cause a bit of discomfort for our audience with the stories we tell, well, that's a good thing."

Torres calls the partnership "a positive cultural exchange," a chance to introduce audiences in Highland Park, as well as a growing Latino population in nearby suburbs such as Waukegan, to Teatro Vista.

"Hopefully, we'll bring people from the city out to Highland Park and interest people there into following us into the city for our future productions," Torres said. "There's a beautiful energy between the two companies and that's the perfect environment to create memorable theater."

Boevers, who is contemplating other projects for the partnership, agrees: "It's a win-win situation. Our audience gets to see some wonderful work, and Teatro Vista gets to artistically present itself to a very different audience than they have in the city."

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Highlights from the Chicago Tribune review by Michael Phillips

Fans of the recent Victory Gardens Theater staging of the Nilo Cruz play "Anna in the Tropics," take heart. Many of that show's most potent elements have found their way into the Apple Tree Theatre/Teatro Vista co-production of an earlier Cruz play, "Two Sisters and a Piano." For a start, this area premiere has in its favor the actress Charin Alvarez, she of the smokehouse voice and yearning intensity, the kind without a trace of actress-y fussiness or calculation. In the Havana-set play, which takes place in 1991 just before perestroika shakes the foundations of the Soviet Union, Alvarez plays Maria Celia, a Cuban dissident author jailed for two years for counterrevolutionary activities. She and her sister, Sofia (Sandra Delgado, wittily petulant without overdoing it), now out of prison, have been returned under house arrest to their family home.

Two men orbit these claustrophobic confines. One of Castro's minions, Lt. Portundo (Sammy A. Publes, intriguingly guarded), has in his possession a bundle of letters addressed to Maria Celia from her husband, traveling in America.

A fourth character, the piano tuner (Ivan Vega, boyish in the extreme), gives Sofia someone to pine for. "Two Sisters and a Piano" keeps this development in the background. Cruz is more compelled by the humidity rising when the sisters must cope on their own. The fever is broken only by the moment the lieutenant nuzzles the neck of the wary but aroused Maria Celia. The play is like a miniature Cuban version of Garcia Lorca's sexually charged tales of poetic pulp. Call it "The House Arrest of Bernarda Alba."

Like "Anna in the Tropics" and Cruz's early play "A Park in Our House," "Two Sisters" favors the poetic image and juicy simile over narrative persuasion. You never really buy, in "Two Sisters," the casual, sneering attitude these sisters reveal in front of even a smitten member of the Cuban military. Cruz cannot help himself; he is punch-drunk on such descriptions as that of a woman smoking on the beach "leaving smoke behind, like a steam ship," or the lieutenant pining for Maria Celia ("You got inside me like a war"). Cruz is a real writer, and he fashions some wonderful turns of phrase, as when Sofia talks about the years she's wasted "saving herself for North America."

Dominating Tom Burch's scenic design, a mural by artist Pablo Perea fills the back wall of the sisters' colonial house. It depicts the sisters, the piano and swallows in flight (or, perhaps, the metaphoric butterflies referred to in the purloined letters). You may wonder why the piano tuner doesn't say something like, "Say! That is quite a painting!" But this material is longer on atmosphere and fervent longing than on cold logic. Alvarez, in particular, is like no other performer in town, the essence of banked emotional fires made vivid and alive. She can do a Nilo Cruz play any time she likes.

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Highlights from the Chicago Sun-Times review by Hedy Weiss

For playwright Nilo Cruz, literature, art and the yearnings of the human heart are far more powerful forces than politics. No matter how intrusive and repressive a political regime may be, the imagination can still run free. And in "Two Sisters and a Piano," now in a lovely rendering at Highland Park's Apple Tree Theatre, a pair of cultured, well-educated Cuban sisters subjected to spirit-crushing house arrest struggle to keep the flames of their imaginations burning and their dreams of freedom alive.

Cruz, who was 9 when his family fled Cuba for Miami, is best-known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning play "Anna in the Tropics," in which he evoked the spirit of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina . Both a poet and dramatist, Cruz creates lush and perfumed language in the tradition of both Latin America's magical realists and Tennessee Williams.

The time is the summer of 1991. The place is the Havana home of Maria Celia (the drawn and beautiful Charin Alvarez), an admired writer who several years earlier issued a declaration on political freedom that landed her and her younger sister, Sofia (Sandra Delgado, radiant in her youthful ebullience), in jail.

Now under house arrest, with strong-arming government agents at their door whenever the political screws need tightening, they try desperately to fend off claustrophobia and despair. And Maria awaits letters from her husband, who managed to flee the country years before and is now trying to win her asylum in Sweden.

Meanwhile, without men in their lives, and without the ability to walk even to the sea, their confinement is driving them to the edge. When a piano tuner (played with great sweetness by Ivan Vega) comes to work on Sofia's beloved piano, she tries to seduce him; he runs away, fearful of being in a dangerous place.

The visits by a government agent assigned to check on the sisters, however, trigger a more complicated response. Lt. Portuondo (a fine balance of menace and vulnerability by Sammy A. Publes) is drawn to Maria Celia and uses the embargoed cache of letters from her husband -- filled with secret messages -- as a means of seducing her. She uses him as a temporary surrogate.

When news of the upheaval in the Soviet Union pierces the haze, the sisters believe their own liberation may follow. Alas, the clamp-down on Castro's island outpost comes quickly and furiously.

Director Henry Godinez has done a splendid job of tapping into the play's mix of erotic dreaminess and real-life nightmare, and the performances he has elicited from Alvarez and Delgado could not be more touching or nuanced, even when the joints of Cruz's play feel a bit stiff.

Tom Burch's handsome set and the vibrantly painted mural by Cuban-bred artist Pablo Perea (a fractured vision of women, windows, white doves and letters) evoke a cage for beautiful if horribly trapped birds.

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Highlights from the Pioneer Press review by Robert Loerzel

"Two Sisters and a Piano" is as much of an art exhibit as it is a play.

A large, expressive mural by Cuban-American painter Pablo Perea dominates the set at Apple Tree Theatre, offering its own commentary on the Nilo Cruz story that is being acted out in front of it. Fortunately, the painter's vision meshes quite well with those of the playwright and the performers.

Like the two women on the stage - a Cuban writer and her piano-playing sister under house arrest in Havana in 1991 - the women in perea's mural look trapped. But the image of white birds taking flight around their straight-lipped, solemn faces creates a feeling that these sisters have too much spirit for any prison to hold.

Directed by Henry Godinez of Evanston, this Apple Tree co-production with Teatro Vista finds a good balance between the angst that the situation calls for and the natural, easy-going humor one would expect from a pair of sisters. As it moves along at a nice pace, "Two Sistsers" ranges from tender, quiet moments to outbursts of frustration.

All four cast members are believable and likebale in their roles, though it's [Charin] Alvarez and [Sandra] Delgado, as the sisters, who make the strongest impression with their conflicting emotions.

Throughout it all, those faces in Perea's mural gaze down upon the action. During the lighter scenes, they remind us of the sorrow that's never far away in Cuba. And in the play's darker moments, those birds offer some hope for a brighter future.

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Highlights from the Daily Herald review by Jack Helbig

Plenty of playwrights mix politics with their art, but few of them do so with the delicacy and grace that Nilo Cruz does in "Two Sisters and a Piano," currently playing at the Highland Park-based Apple Tree Theatre.

In this moving portrait of two sisters, Cruz tells the true life story of Cuban dissident writer Maria Celia and her sister, Sofia. Cruz could have made his play into an angry screed against the Castro regime in Cuba, but if he had, his art would have suffered. Cruz, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 2003 for his play "Anna in the Tropics," knows it is better in theater to show than tell, better to move the heart than try to convince the brain. Cruz wisely focuses on the characters in his play, and the compelling story of how they cope under extreme duress. His pro-democracy political message is hidden between the lines.

In directing Cruz's words, Henry Godinez displays the same deftness he revealed earlier this year in "Electricidad" at the Goodman. Once again, his casting feels perfect. In the lead roles, Charin Alvarez and Sandra Delgado seem very much like sisters of contrasting temperaments and talents forced to endure the same monotonous punishment. In Alvarez's hands, Maria Celia has a long suffering dignity about her, while Delgado's Sofia is full of a wounded fury.

The production at Apple Tree, a co-production with the Chicago-based Latino theater company Teatro Vista Ensemble, is lush and sensuous, full of thwarted desires, hot days and thick, tropical nights. This compelling re-creation of the look and feel of Cuba only makes Sofia and Maria Celia's loneliness all the more pronounced - and palpable.

Four stars out of four. Rating: Contains adult language and situations that may not be suitable for young viewers.

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Highlights from the Copley News Service review by Dan Zeff

Nilo Cruz burst on the national drama scene in 2002 with his Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Anna in the Tropics.” But two years earlier Cruz wrote a stirring play about political oppression called “Two Sisters and a Piano” that marked him as a major playwright.

Apple tree Theatre is presenting the local premiere of “Two Sisters and a Piano” in collaboration with Teatro Vista Theatre from Chicago . The result is one of those happy events when a fine play intersects with a superb production.

The play is poignant and often tense, but it isn't a downer. There is humor and some dramatic fireworks, especially in the second act as the defiant Sofia flees the house in disguise just to sample the air of freedom for a few hours. There is an intense lovemaking scene between the lieutenant and Maria Celia that seems genuine in its passion on both sides.

Apple Tree provides the intimate stage that's perfect for this small-scale play. The Teatro Vista provides the performers and the director. Charin Alvarez and Sandra Delgado are perfect as Maria Celia and Sofia. Alvarez made a strong impression in the Victory Gardens Theatre presentation of “Anna in the Tropics” last season and she is clearly one of the most sensitive and charismatic actresses in Chicagoland theater. One hopes she isn't locked into purely Hispanic p art s. This is an actress capable of great roles, no matter what their cultural roots.

Delgado is a joy as the feisty Sofia , open and funny at first but carefully building her character to her explosion of rebellion and frustration later in the play. Sammy Publes could convey a little more menace as the lieutenant but he's fine in expressing the man's sensual longing for Maria Celia and his confusion over his feelings toward a woman who should be his adversary. Ivan Vega does nicely in his largely comic scene as the piano tuner who catches Sofia 's eye.

Henry Godinez is the sure-handed director. The simple but function set by Tom Burch is complemented by a striking Picasso-esque mural by Pablo Perea that dominates the background of the sisters' ap art ment.

The show gets a rating of 3 ½ stars.

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Daily Herald feature by Jack Helbig

Lack of Latino roles spurred founders of Teatro Vista
BY JACK HELBIG Daily Herald Correspondent
Posted Thursday, October 14, 2004

Fourteen years ago Henry Godinez was a young actor, trying to make it in the theater game. He had many strengths: a strong voice and considerable training in both classical and modern theater.

But he had a liability, too. He was Latino. And in the early '90s there were few strictly Latino roles, in theater or in Hollywood. On TV Latinos almost exclusively played drug dealers and gang members. That's why, in the winter of 1990, he and fellow actor Edward Torres founded Teatro Vista.

"We knew all these incredible Latino actors who were not getting work. And when they were working, they weren't being challenged," Godinez says. "We wanted to create a theater where more Latino actors could stretch themselves and appear in a number of different roles."

Godinez quickly adds: "We also saw that there were all these brilliant Latino playwrights coming along, and we wanted to produce them."

Godinez and Torres started the company with an initial grant of $10,000 from the Chicago-based Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum. At the museum they staged their first production, "The Crossing," a play about the exploitation of illegal immigrants from Mexico. From the beginning, Teatro Vista productions had a polish, intensity and relevance that made them impossible to ignore.

Fourteen years later the company is as active as ever.

Last spring they co-produced "Electricidad," the Goodman Theatre's controversial "Spanglish" version of Euripides play "Electra."

And now they are working with the Highland Park-based Apple Tree Theatre on a production of Nilo Cruz's heartfelt attack on artistic oppression in Cuba in the early '90s, "Two Sisters and a Piano," directed by Godinez and starring three actors from the Teatro Vista ensemble.

"This is actually our second time at Apple Tree," Godinez said. "In 1996 we did a co-production of a play called 'Blade to the Heat,' (about a Latino boxer,) directed by Gary Griffin."

Of all the possible plays by Latino playwrights, how did Godinez and Torres decide on the Cruz play?

"I've been a fan of Nilo Cruz for a long time," Godinez said. "And of this play in particular."

It certainly didn't hurt that Cruz won the Pulitzer Prize last year for his play "Anna in the Tropics."

But there is a more profound connection between Godinez and this particular Cruz play.

"My family left Cuba in the early '60s. I was not even 3 when we left," Godinez said. "I grew up hearing all these stories. And then I had a chance to return to Cuba several years ago. It was the most emotional thing, just stepping out of the plane at Jose Marti International Airport. Just stepping onto the Tarmac, you smell the tropical air, the flowers in the air. I just started getting teary-eyed. To be finally back there, if only for a short visit."

This deep yearning for Cuba suffuses Apple Tree's sublime production of "Two Sisters and a Piano." Just as a similar yearning for a stronger Latino voice in Chicago theater has powered Teatro Vista for 14 years and will power them for many years to come.

Fourteen years ago Henry Godinez was a young actor, trying to make it in the theater game. He had many strengths: a strong voice and considerable training in both classical and modern theater.

But he had a liability, too. He was Latino. And in the early '90s there were few strictly Latino roles, in theater or in Hollywood. On TV Latinos almost exclusively played drug dealers and gang members. That's why, in the winter of 1990, he and fellow actor Edward Torres founded Teatro Vista.

"We knew all these incredible Latino actors who were not getting work. And when they were working, they weren't being challenged," Godinez says. "We wanted to create a theater where more Latino actors could stretch themselves and appear in a number of different roles."

Godinez quickly adds: "We also saw that there were all these brilliant Latino playwrights coming along, and we wanted to produce them."

Godinez and Torres started the company with an initial grant of $10,000 from the Chicago-based Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum. At the museum they staged their first production, "The Crossing," a play about the exploitation of illegal immigrants from Mexico. From the beginning, Teatro Vista productions had a polish, intensity and relevance that made them impossible to ignore.

Fourteen years later the company is as active as ever.

Last spring they co-produced "Electricidad," the Goodman Theatre's controversial "Spanglish" version of Euripides play "Electra."

And now they are working with the Highland Park-based Apple Tree Theatre on a production of Nilo Cruz's heartfelt attack on artistic oppression in Cuba in the early '90s, "Two Sisters and a Piano," directed by Godinez and starring three actors from the Teatro Vista ensemble.

"This is actually our second time at Apple Tree," Godinez said. "In 1996 we did a co-production of a play called 'Blade to the Heat,' (about a Latino boxer,) directed by Gary Griffin."

Of all the possible plays by Latino playwrights, how did Godinez and Torres decide on the Cruz play?

"I've been a fan of Nilo Cruz for a long time," Godinez said. "And of this play in particular."

It certainly didn't hurt that Cruz won the Pulitzer Prize last year for his play "Anna in the Tropics."

But there is a more profound connection between Godinez and this particular Cruz play.

"My family left Cuba in the early '60s. I was not even 3 when we left," Godinez said. "I grew up hearing all these stories. And then I had a chance to return to Cuba several years ago. It was the most emotional thing, just stepping out of the plane at Jose Marti International Airport. Just stepping onto the Tarmac, you smell the tropical air, the flowers in the air. I just started getting teary-eyed. To be finally back there, if only for a short visit."

This deep yearning for Cuba suffuses Apple Tree's sublime production of "Two Sisters and a Piano." Just as a similar yearning for a stronger Latino voice in Chicago theater has powered Teatro Vista for 14 years and will power them for many years to come.

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	In rehearsal.
	Muralist Pablo Perea paints scenery. Taken by Joel Lerner, Pioneer Press Staff Photographer.
	"Just listen to the music. Be still and listen." Sandra Delgado and Charin Alvarez
	"I believe in what you wrote." Charin Alvarez and Sammy Publes
	"Salud!" Sandra Delgado, Sammy Publes, and Charin Alvarez
	"Dance with me." Sandra Delgado and Charin Alvarez
	"Sophia has invited the man who tuned the piano to dinner." Sandra Delgado and Charin Alvarez
	"They should fit you." Sandra Delgado and Ivan Vega

cast | press | photos | background | tickets

cast | press | photos | background | tickets