CLICK HERE FOR IMAGES FROM TIGHT EMBRACE
INTAR Theatre continues 4OTH ANNIVERSARY SEASON with the WORLD PREMIERE of JORGE IGNACIO CORTINAS’ TIGHT EMBRACE, a POLITICAL THRILLER Directed by LISA PETERSON
Opening Night is December 6th
INTAR
Theatre, dedicated to developing and producing Latino playwrights in English,
continues its 40th Anniversary Season with the world premiere of
Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas’ play TIGHT EMBRACE. Directed by Lisa
Peterson, whose off-Broadway credits include New York Theatre Workshop, Vineyard
Theatre and Manhattan Theatre Club, TIGHT EMBRACE opens at the Kirk Theater on Theatre Row on
Tuesday, December 6th.
Previews begin on Tuesday, November 22nd.
Cortiñas’
play takes place in a safe-house where two kidnap victims, an elderly woman and
a pregnant woman, negotiate the boundaries of reality and memory as they try to
survive with each other and the two men assigned to guard them. A haunting
examination of the consequences of political violence, the play speaks to a
world where violence is such a part of our daily landscape that it has become
part of our DNA—infecting even our most intimate exchanges.
As the second production in its fortieth anniversary season, INTAR is very excited to be presenting a play which was work-shopped in its developmental New Works Lab. As elaborated on by INTAR’s Associate Artistic Director Louis Moreno: “Having been around the New Works Lab since its beginning in 1995, I am thrilled to see the Lab do what it was built to do—to see the artists all the way through from development to production. Not only the playwright, but most the actors in the cast have come from our New Works stage. INTAR is intensely committed to supporting emerging Latino artists, and I couldn’t be happier that we’re now doing a full production of this challenging, beautiful, and honest play that is indicative of the complexities and contradictions of the Latino voice.”
The cast of
TIGHT EMBRACE includes Mia Katigbak
and Zabryna Guevara (as Adalina and Claudia, the two women who have been
kidnapped), Robert M. Jiménez and Andres Munar (as Zero and Barquín, their
guards), and Marisa Echeverría (as a young girl from the town). Ms. Guevara is
best known to INTAR artists for her portrayal of the title role in Eduardo
Machado’s The Cook (both in New York
and at Hartford Stage), and Mr. Munar returns to the INTAR stage after his
successful run as Ismael in Kissing
Fidel this fall.
The design
team includes Mikiko Suzuki (setting), Meghan Healey (costumes), Paul Whitaker
(lighting), and David M. Lawson (sound).
Jorge Ignacio
Cortiñas (Playwright) is currently playwright-in-residence at Hartford Stage.
His awards include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the
New York Foundation for the Arts; as well as the Helen Merrill Award;
“playwright of the year” in El Nuevo Herald’s 1999 year-end list; a Writers
Community Residency from the YMCA National Writer's Voice; and the Robert
Chesley Award, among others. His first play Maleta Mulata was produced by Campo
Santo + Intersection for the Arts in
Lisa Peterson (Director) NY credits: Trestle at Pope Lick Creek, Slavs!, Traps, Bexley OH, Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (OBIE Award), and The Waves (all at New York Theatre Workshop); The Fourth Sister, The Batting Cage (Vineyard); Birdy, Chemistry of Change (WPP/Playwrights Horizons); Sueño (MCC); Collected Stories (MTC); The Model Apartment (Primary Stages); The Scarlet Letter (CSC); and Tongue of a Bird (Public); The Square (Public/Ma-Yi). Regional work: Mark Taper Forum, La Jolla Playhouse, South Coast Rep, Berkeley Rep, Cal Shakes, Intiman, Guthrie, Actors Theater of Louisville, Dallas Theater Center, Baltimore Center Stage, Hartford Stage, Yale Rep, Huntington Theatre. Member of Ensemble Studio Theater and the Drama Dept.
Performance schedule is as
follows:
TIGHT EMBRACE plays at the
Kirk Theater (410 West 42nd
Street) from November 22nd through
January 2nd on the following schedule: Tuesdays through Saturdays at
8pm, Saturday and Sunday matinees at