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World premiere of 'El Grito Del Bronx' starts tomorrow
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Photo by Saverio Truglia
Probably one of the most inspirational plays to look forward to this summer is El Grito Del Bronx, written by Migdalia Cruz and directed by Anthony Moseley. Co-produced by Collaboraction and Teatro Vista, El Grito Del Bronx is a semi-autobiographical tale that begins with Lulu on her wedding day. Before Lulu can feel entitled to happiness, she first must confront her brother, Papo’s, legacy of violence. This piece travels between the 1970’s to the 1990’s, all the way from childhood to death row.
I got a chance to sit down with some of the cast and crew about this brilliant piece of work.
Sonia: Tell me a little bit more about the play.
Anthony Moseley (Director): The play is a story about a brother and sister who grew up together in the Bronx in 1977, Papo and Lulu. It is moments before Lulu gets married to Ed, a Jewish journalist in Darien, Connecticut. As she looks in the mirror with her wedding gown on, she summons her brother’s spirit to help her find the strength and courage to really be happy. In doing so, their life together flashes before her eyes. The play explores that millisecond in which their life flashes before her eyes. And in that millisecond, in that light year, we come to learn that they grew up in a house of domestic abuse that they suffered in the hands of their father. This abuse had a ripple effect on their lives that got them to where they are today.
Sonia: I was reading that this play is semi-autobiographical. Where did the true parts come into place?
Anthony Moseley: Migdalia grew up in the 70’s in the Bronx.
Juan Villa (Papo): She’s married to a Jewish journalist. He’s a science writer. She did live in Darien, Connecticut with him. They grew up in a tumultuous household where there was a lot of love but just as much anger there also. That same journey that Lulu has is what she has gone through in her life. Believing that hope, trying to find hope and love, and not someone who is just full of rage even though she can be such a strong spirited person.
Sonia: Juan you played Papo and Eddie played Jose. How did the two of you prepare for those roles?
Eddie Torres (Jose): You have to like the piece, you have to like the play and try to understand the characters. Me being Puerto Rican and coming from, not too much of a New York background but from an urban background and having to kind of grow up around identity. I play Jose, Papo’s father, and I am considered the catalyst that gets him where he’s at in the play. Those experiences that Jose has in the play, they are not by any means of a good father but I think a father who has gone through a lot in his life, his alcoholism, and probably not given as many opportunities at either society especially at the Bronx in particular. Understanding those and kind of finding out where I draw those parallels.
Juan Villa: I grew up in the lower east side in Manhattan in New York City. I’m Colombian-American but everyone, a majority of everyone in my neighborhood were all Puerto Rican. Even in my building, all the father’s in the building, in my eyes, including my own, we’re monsters in a way. Very aggressive, very angry and afraid to show any vulnerability and the influence it has on all of the children. It’s interesting how everyone responds to that. I’m here with you years later and I can have this conversation with you. People who are my age who went through the same experiences, they just can’t, they don’t know, they’re just angry. Angry, angry, angry. And I feel for those guys. And those guys made choices in their lives, meaning my friends, made choices that I can easily judge them or other people can but I understand. I saw what they went through. It was hard for them. I had conversations with them of what hurt for them. How they didn’t want to be like their father. I mean, we had these conversations. They would say, ‘I’m never gonna drink! I’m never gonna do weed! I’m never gonna hit my kids!’ And what ends up happening? They get older, they go through they’re teen years and then you make your choices. What’s beautiful for me is that they come full circle, a lot of them. They learned. They have humanity just like anyone else and they realized they made some really bad choices. They didn’t want to, but for some reason they just couldn’t share with anyone ‘I’m sorry,’ or share with anyone ‘Please help me’ or I’m scared.’ So I went through the same thing and luckily for me I had therapy! So that helps! (Laughs)
Eddie Torres: This is also a story of hope. A story of hope for the brother and sister to reconcile their relationship but also understand that moving ahead or moving forward doesn’t mean that you should forget your past but that you learn from it. What’s beyond is sometimes a beautiful and powerful thing. There’s still hope. It’s more about the people and how we connect to them as people even though some of these characters aren’t as nice as we like them to be. We still feel for them and that to me is why we’re doing this piece.
Sonia: This is for everyone, what were your thoughts when you first read the script?
Juan Villa: Wow. I was blown away. If I had made a choice in my life when I was younger, when I was at that point, this is the path I could have gone. Easily, but I didn’t for my own reasons. So that was my immediate response.
Eddie Torres: One reaction to this was, ‘Wow, this is really beautifully written and artistically it’s at a level that has a lot of poetic value to it.’ And then the other part of it was, ‘The reality of the situation is how you can put poetry and that kind of dangerous, dark role together and make it make sense?’ And that’s one of the things that Migdalia does as a playwright. You find yourself feeling for these characters. You’re like, ‘Wait a minute. Am I supposed to feel for this guy who’s on death row?’ That’s pretty powerful. She does it really well.
Anthony Moseley: I was struck by the honesty. You know how she says the things that we think but she says them in a much more lyrical and poetic and just realistic at the same time kind of way. The way she talks about Papo and how he’s talking about blood and masturbation and these things and you’re like, ‘A woman wrote this?!’ And then at the same time I was struck by the combination of the complex narrative, the pain, the beauty, the hope, the humor and as a director I was immediately tickled at the challenge on how to stage this in a way that would not dilute the power of the script and the narrative arc. To enhance it, to bring it to the forefront and not get in its way but also to let the script run.
Sonia: What was the most challenging part of this piece?
Juan Villa: Well, I’m not gonna say was, it still is. We’re still figuring things out. It’s to acknowledge what’s Juan’s response to a circumstance like murdering your father and murdering 18 people and then by the end of the play striving for hope for my sister so she doesn’t carry the hate and the burden to fell like she did it. Because Juan in a straight response, I would be driven by so much guilt and I would probably ball my eyes out for a long time. For Papo, it’s like I did what I had to do for a reason and I don’t own up for it and I’m not sorry and I deserve what I’m getting. I’m not trying to get out of jail, don’t kill me, I’m tired, please! And to be at this place, at the end of the play, to have this sense of peace to be happy for my sister, to be strong enough for her and to be ecstatic to see her finally. That to me is the most challenging.
Eddie Torres: As a producer getting the project executed or getting it done or getting it produced. Theatre these days, people don’t want to do the risk, hard-taking kind of pieces. Hopefully, as you will see, necessary to, I think, telling the story. It took two of us to come together to produce this play in a venue that’s also very open and helpful but a venue that’s considered kind of a main stage of Chicago theatre. You have these two companies Collaboraction and Teatro Vista which are known for doing very cutting edge work and different types of staging and very involved in the work, both companies. It was hard to put it together.
As an actor I just think it’s digging to a character or individual who has made and has believed in wrong choices most of his life. Not only was he abusive to his family but also to himself. So understanding the kind of abuse that it takes to want to be abusive to yourself but also to others is the hardest and I’m still playing with that. I’m still trying to grasp it in a way where it evolves within the play naturally.
Sonia: What makes this piece unique and why do you think people should come see it?
Anthony Moseley: It’s a musical about serial killers! (Laughs)
The show is a cry from characters that are normally ignored by media, by the people that go to Pottery Barn, The Gap, Old Navy, Whole Foods and Best Buy. It’s a cry for people that are normally ignored and by bringing together a great collection of artists and presenting it at the Goodman Theatre people are going to hear the cry for once. I think that’s one of the most relevant functions of art. To be able to unveil stories and characters that is much easier to ignore and by doing so sharing their struggles and their beauty and their love. Hopefully by doing that, we can all learn a little bit, walk a block in somebody else’s shoes and A-- maybe not feel so alone and B--connect to one another and be human. That’s the thing theatre can do so well, bring people together and makes us feel alive by the shared communal time space.
Juan Villa: I think during the recession it makes people more afraid to definitely take a risk. I think in that way it makes it’s very unique because if anything this is when great art is suppose to come out. It’s when things are tough and really difficult. It needs to be shown right now. Yes, Latinos have made a lot of progress but the reality of it is that there are still a lot of problems. Whether it’s how other people view us or how we treat ourselves. That’s the other thing, how we treat our kids. What we do to them is still happening. I understand people want to see positive role models of Latinos. But with Migdalia, this is her world and it’s the world where we can’t act like it’s not there anymore. It’s more vital now for this story to be told.
Anthony Moseley: As people lose jobs and economic realities become more harsh, addiction and violence and abuse in the home goes up. There’s this thing when stuff gets worse people want to see a silly comedy in the movie theatre but really these are the times in which we need to get this stuff out in the open.
Both Anthony and Juan agree that this piece of work will make audience members leave the theatre feeling something. Whether you end up liking or disliking the play, the cast and crew is satisfied enough knowing that the story was put out there for the world to see.
So what if an audience member was really dissatisfied with the play? The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation has chosen El Grito Del Bronx to be the first production to offer patrons The Driehaus Foundation Money Back Guarantee. This was created in order to encourage audiences and theater companies to take a chance on new, controversial work by removing the financial risk. The program gives any audience member who was unsatisfied with the production a full refund of his or her ticket price. A $10,000 allotment has been designation for ticket refunds. After every performance, a representative will be in the theatre lobby to distribute a cash refund on-site. The unsatisfied attendee must fill out a form, available in the theatre lobby, with their name, email address and reasons why they were unsatisfied with the production in order to receive the cash refund.
El Grito Del Bronx
Price:
Tickets are $18 - $30 for the regular run; preview tickets are $15.
Tickets may be purchased at the Goodman Theatre Box Office, 170 N. Dearborn St., by phone at 312.443.3800 or online.
Where & When:
El Grito Del Bronx runs July 14 – Aug. 2; previews are July 15 and July 16 at 8 p.m.
Press night is Friday, July 17 at 8 p.m.
The performance schedule is as follows: Thurs. at 7:30 p.m.; Fri. at 8 p.m.; Sat. at 2 & 8 p.m.; and Sun. at 2 p.m. There will be no 2 p.m. performance on Saturday, July 18.
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