Nilo Cruz

When a new "lector" arrives at a Cuban-American cigar factory in Florida, he begins to read aloud from "Anna Karenina," an act which becomes the catalyst in the lives of his listeners.

Anna in the Tropics

Winning...A seductive story of clashing theatrical titans. Mr. Pendleton creates an engrossing picture of success, failure, betrayal, guilt, and ravening fear among a shifting constellation of stars of film and theater. --NY Times. In this highly entertai

Hortensia and the Museum of Dreams

"What will we sacrifice in the name of love? A young woman reunites with her painter father in the south of Spain, both falling in love with the same exciting young man. Beauty of the Father invokes the lyrical language of Lorca, as the great poet himself appears to the father and counsels him in his life. The play's rhythms are infused with the spirit of the Andalusian people who sing their sorrows in cante jondo, as Cruz once again creates musical poetry to honor unrequited love."--BOOK JACKET.

Beauty of the Father

Winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, this lush romantic drama depicts a family of cigar makers whose loves and lives are played out against the backdrop of America in the midst of the Depression. Set in Ybor City (Tampa) in 1930, Cruz imagines the catalytic effect the arrival of a new ''lector (who reads Tolstoys Anna Karenina to the workers as they toil in the cigar factory) has on a Cuban-American family. Cruz celebrates the search for identity in a new land.

Two new plays by Nilo Cruz, the first Latino honored with a Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Two Plays by Nilo Cruz

Color of Desire/Hurricane

In Beauty of the Father one of the American theater's most promising voices rings true and strong.'' - Lynn Jacobson, Variety ''Cruz conducts arias with his pen. He is a writer of ideas, who fills the stage with a kind of lush dramatic literature . . . Beauty of the Father brings to mind the playwright Maria Irene Fornes. Like his artistic forebear, Cruz recognizes the magic in the everyday. And he has found an astonishing language with which to describe it.'' - Hilton Als, The New Yorker In his latest play, Nilo Cruz asks; What will we sacrifice in the name of love? A young woman named Marina reunites with her father Emiliano in his artistic home, populated by his worldly wise female companion Paquita and the irresistible young Moroccan Karim, whom father and daughter both fall for. Set in the south of Spain, Beauty of the Father invokes the ghost of Federico Garca Lorca, both with its lyrical language and as a character in a white linen suit who appears to Emiliano as he paints. The play's rhythms are infused with the spirit of the Andalusians - a people who sing their sorrows in the cante jondo - as Cruz once again creates poetry to the tune of unrequited love.

An exquisite new drama from the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of Anna in the Tropics

Sotto Voce

“Beautifully strange… An opera star with a penchant for dramatic sorrow shows up at a doctor’s office, looking for her husband’s heart. Someone got it when he died—which means that somewhere, inside another person’s rib cage, a piece of her husband lives on… Thus begins a tantalizing correspondence in Nilo Cruz’s Exquisite Agony, a play about the human heart: its fumblings and yearnings, its bruises and scars, its generosity and viciousness.” —Laura Collins-Hughes, New York Times “Exquisite Agony is about a woman who finds life in death, in an atmosphere where poetic insights are the norm and women are the center. Cruz’s feminist view is one of the liberating aspects of his writing, as is a kind of magical realism that is not cloying but true to his characters, and to the fact of dispossession: sometimes we don’t know who we are because we don’t know where life has landed on our bodies, let alone in our hearts.” —Hilton Als, New Yorker “Exquisite Agony is explosive… As in several of Cruz’s previous works, drama ignites from the friction between the banal and the magical.” —Zachary Stewart, TheaterMania “Exquisite Agony entertains and enraptures… There’s rueful humor, Chekhovian reveries, and a sense of the mystical… Ravishing on all levels.” —Darryl Reilly, TheatreScene.net Nilo Cruz is a Cuban-American playwright and director, and the first Latino to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, for his play Anna in the Tropics. His other plays include Sotto Voce, Beauty of the Father, Two Sisters and a Piano, Lorca in a Green Dress, Dancing on Her Knees, and Night Train to Bolina.

Exquisite Agony

Nilo Cruz is the most produced Cuban-American playwright in the U.S. and was the first dramatist of Hispanic descent to receive the Pulitzer-Prize. In his plays, Cruz almost always journeys back to Cuba, even when the play is not set there. Cruz is a sensualist, a conjurer of mysterious voyages and luxuriant landscapes. He is a poetic chronicler, a documentarian of the presence of Latin people in American life. He conveys the strength and persistence of the Cuban spirit through a wholly dramatic imagination. This volume also includes A Bicycle Country and the one-act play, Capricho.

Two Sisters and a Piano and Other Plays

THE STORY: The play is set in Latin America in the mid-eighties, in an unidentified country, during the guerilla warfare. Threatened by starvation and abuse, two children flee their rural village for the city. Dancing on a fine line between innoc

Night Train to Bolina

“In Beauty of the Father one of the American theater’s most promising voices rings true and strong.”—Lynn Jacobson, Variety “Cruz conducts arias with his pen. He is a writer of ideas, who fills the stage with a kind of lush dramatic literature . . . Beauty of the Father brings to mind the playwright Maria Irene Fornes. Like his artistic forebear, Cruz recognizes the magic in the everyday. And he has found an astonishing language with which to describe it.”—Hilton Als, The New Yorker In his latest play, Nilo Cruz asks: What will we sacrifice in the name of love? A young woman named Marina reunites with her father Emiliano in his artistic home, populated by his worldly wise female companion Paquita and the irresistible young Moroccan Karim, whom father and daughter both fall for. Set in the south of Spain, Beauty of the Father invokes the ghost of Federico García Lorca, both with its lyrical language and as a character in a white linen suit who appears to Emiliano as he paints. The play’s rhythms are infused with the spirit of the Andalusians—a people who sing their sorrows in the cante jondo—as Cruz once again creates poetry to the tune of unrequited love. Nilo Cruz won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Anna in the Tropics. Other works include Two Sisters and a Piano, Lorca in a Green Dress, Night Train to Bolina, A Bicycle Country, and Dancing on Her Knees. He is one of this country’s most produced Cuban American writers.

Nilo Cruz is the most produced Cuban American playwright in the United States and was the first dramatist of Hispanic descent to receive the Pulitzer Prize. In his plays, Cruz almost always journeys back to Cuba, even when the play is not set there. Cruz is a sensualist, a conjurer of mysterious voyages and luxuriant landscapes. He is a poetic chronicler, a documentarian of the presence of Latin people in American life. He conveys the strength and persistence of the Cuban spirit through a wholly dramatic imagination. This volume also includes the one-act play, Capriccio. Two Sisters and a Piano “Cruz’s tightly constructed study of incarcerated sisters provides the spine for an authentic study of oppression that bends but never breaks the human spirit.”—Variety Beauty of the Father “He is that rare American scribe who embraces the role of stage poet and the legacy of Tennessee Williams.”—The Seattle Times Hortensia and the Museum of Dreams “Cruz explores all kinds of loss . . . lost childhood, lost freedom, lost innocence. Yet he infused Hortensia with joy, with desire, with humor and hope and healing.”—The Miami Herald Lorca in a Green Dress “Like Lorca, Cruz is a lyrical writer in whom the surreal is grounded in the musical world of the senses . . . it is fresh, wonderful and dazzling.”—Mail Tribune (Oregon) Nilo Cruz is the author of many plays, including A Park in Our House, A Bicycle Country, Dancing on Her Knees, Night Train to Bolina and other works. He is a recipient of numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Alton Jones Award and the Kesselring Prize. Mr. Cruz is a professor at the Yale School of Drama. He resides in New York City and is a New Dramatists alumnus.

Nilo Cruz

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