The New Jersey Professional Premiere of
MARISOL
By José Rivera
Directed by Niegel Smith
WHEN: April 10th to May 11th; Thursdays 7:30 PM; Fridays and Saturdays 8 PM; Sundays 3 PM (Please Note that there is no late seating for Marisol. Please allow time to park and arrive at the Theater.)
WHERE: Luna Stage, 555 Valley Road, West Orange
TICKETS: $25 - $35; Student Rush Tickets $10, 1/2 hour before curtain, subject to availability
CLICK HERE TO BUY TICKETS or By phone or in person Tues.-Fri. 10 AM to 3 PM
973.395.5551
Set in early 90s New York City, Oscar Nominee (The Motorcycle Diaries) José Rivera's powerful and poetic Marisol plunges audiences into the story of a young Latina woman forced to navigate a world left in disarray when her guardian angel leaves her to fight a battle of biblical proportion. In the magic realism style of his mentor Gabriel García Márquez, Rivera creates an urban fantasy, filled with humor and pathos, urging society to recover our long-lost compassion and to wrest our world from the brink of destruction. Winner of the 1993 Obie Award.
“…Rivera's play is angry, fearsome, fantastic, and poetically frenzied, without surrendering either its sanity or its mordant sense of humor… It's a cry from the poet's heart.” —Village Voice
| Playwright José Rivera |
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José Rivera’s screenplay “The Motorcycle Diaries” was nominated for a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar in 2005 making him the first Puerto Rican writer to be nominated for an Academy Award. Also nominated for a BAFTA and a Writers Guild Award, “The Motorcycle Diaries,” won top writing awards in Spain and Argentina. His screenplay based on Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road,” premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and was distributed nationally in the winter of 2013. His film “Trade” was the first film to premiere at the United Nations. For Showtime he’s written “The Conquest,” a pilot for a one-hour series based on the conquest of the Aztecs by Hernán Cortés. Feature films in the works include “Vincent,” about the painter Vincent Van Gogh, and “Patriotic Treason” about abolitionist John Brown. “The 33,” a film about the 2010 rescue of 33 trapped miners in Chile is in production. He leads a weekly writing workshop in Brooklyn, where he lives. In the works is his first novel, Love Makes the City Crumble. |
| Director Niegel Smith |
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Niegel Smith is a performance artist and theater director who sculpts social spaces into unique communal environments where we make new rituals, excavate our pasts and imagine future narratives. READ MORE |
| Cynthia Fernandez as Marisol |
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Cynthia Fernandez is a graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University. Her prior credits include lead roles in Off-Broadway productions of AMIGO DUENDE and THE TWO MONTH RULE, LITTLE DOG LAUGHED at The Bickford Theatre, and many other productions and readings. READ MORE |
| Christopher Kelly as Lenny |
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Christopher Kelly: Off-Broadway: Moby Dick (Drama Desk Nomination), revival of Another Part of the Forest (Theatre at St. Clements) TV/Film: "Damages," "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman," "Brothers of the Borderland" (narrated by Oprah Winfrey). READ MORE |
| Emma O'Donnell as June |
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Emma O'Donnell: Off Broadway: Juno and the Paycock, The Shaughraun, Prisoner of the Crown, The Hairy Ape, and Yeats Festival Readings (Irish Repertory Theater), Court Martial at Fort Devins, (New Federal and Castillo Theater Production - Audelco Award: Best Ensemble), and Freed (59 E. 59th St. - Audelco Nom.). READ MORE |
| Nehassaiu deGannes as The Angel |
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Nehassaiu deGannes: Luna Stage: "Chrysler Building/Joy/Mrs Safran," Tallest Building In The World; "Cordelia" King Lear, "The One Who Flees," Stay With Me. READ MORE |
| Debbie Bernstein as Woman With Furs |
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Debbie Bernstein's recent roles include Reba Freitag in The Last Night of Ballyhoo, M'Lynn Eatenton in Steel Magnolias, Alice Russell in The Best Man and Ma Joad in The Grapes of Wrath (NJACT Perry Award Nomination) all at local theaters in New Jersey. READ MORE |
