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Running Time 1:45 - one intermission
A melancholy tale of thwarted passions let loose
Click here to buy the script

Storyline: The turbulent story of love missed and the new bride, who, on her wedding night runs off not with her husband but with the now married man who she once and always loved. Their running away together leads to chaos in the affected families and death in the Spanish country side, as they come up against the forces that do not want change the centuries old way of life and how people are to live.

During his life, Garcia Lorca (1898-1936) was influential in reviving Spanish stage work including writing, directing and forming a stage group. His work was a blast at the old ways of his country. As he wrote for a character in Blood Wedding, “To burn with desire and keep quiet about it is the greatest punishment we can bring on ourselves…” For his efforts, Garcia Lorca was assassinated by forces loyal to the Spanish Nationalists in the early days of the Spanish Civil War. Under the direction of Hugo Medrano, Blood Wedding’s written script is allowed to do its high-octane work, even though this production has a stripped-down, minimalist feel to it. There is little mystery in this production. As Medrano wrote in his director’s notes; this is a story of “the tensions between actions that respond to a strict rural social order and the intimate desire of individuals.”  But, while Medrano writes that this is a play about a society that has attempted to silence women, especially women who want to let loose their “unbridled emotions” and take actions on their desires, it cannot be dismissed that it is the men who die and the women who live; though ultimately living by wearing black and being shut away in their homes. It is also a script where early on the main character, Mother, can wish her son to be a daughter so he will live; and the bride, whose desires help set in motion the action, wishes herself to be a man so she can act on her passions without fear of community retributions. As an historical note, the play was staged for a month’s run on Broadway in 1935 renamed Bitter Oleander.

This is a large cast production of over 20. Several of the featured actors need to receive special attention for their performances. Maria Victoria Pena’s black clad Mother is a strong willed, force of nature in all she speaks and does. She speaks as if making ex cathedra pronouncements. Woe to those in the way of her taking the spotlight. Ediza Vega’s work as a servant woman is a joy to watch in her happiness in conjuring a bride’s wedding night bliss, and affecting as she tries to protect her charge from making miss-steps. Her role is reminiscent of Juliet’s maid in Romeo and Juliet. Karen Morales-Chacana’s young Bride moves easily from submissive waif almost invisible sitting quietly at the corner of the set to one who takes charge with strong voice projection and body gestures. Carlos Castillo is the husband caught between his wife and the woman he really wants. His handsome good looks clearly project the heat that the young Bride longs for. Frank Velez Rodriquez is the humiliated bridegroom. He plays the role as a submissive son and too bland husband until he must revenge his humiliation aflame with testosterone.

This is a play made for a small stage and with little need for vast sets and multitudes of props and costume changes. The unique theater space that GALA has at the Tivoli easily becomes the Spanish landscape through the use of very simple devises and with a top notch lighting design. The stage is broken into three main areas depicted by a white-washed stucco wall in front of which are simple wooden chairs and a table at audience left. A movable stucco wall in the center is used to hide entrances and exits as well as provide a sense of the outdoors. Audience right is open to provide a set location for large group actions as well as a sumptuous flamenco by Genoveva Guinn that brought the house down in applause. A note, for those not proficient in the Spanish language, such as this reviewer. Ask for seats in the center and higher up so that the supertext can be read while viewing the production before you.

Written Federico Garcia Lorca. Directed by Hugo Medrano. Choreography by Danilo Rivera. Design: Giorgos Tsappas (set) Martin Schnelligner (costumes)  Mariana Fernandez (properties) Martha Mountain (lights) David Crandall (sound), and Jose Abraham (stage manager). Cast: Monalisa Arias, Lucrecia Basualdo, Marta Carton Campbell, Carlos Castillo, Oscar Ceville, Hugo del Granado, Genoveva Guinn, Alex Iraheta, Enriqueta Lara, Yari Lorenzo, Karen Morales, Julieta Maroni, Karen Victoria Pena, Ramin Rad, Mel Rocher, Lorena Sobogal, Manolo Santalla, Noel Sarceno, Karin Tovar, Ediza Vega, Frank Velez Rodriquez, Alida Yath.

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Running time 1:25 - no intermission
Three generations of Puerto Rican men
 go off to American wars
Performed in English with Spanish surtitles

Storyline: Elliot's experiences as a U. S. Marine in Iraq blend with those of his father who served in Vietnam and his grandfather who served in Korea. Their common hopes, fears, devotion to duty and reactions in the face of boredom, homesickness and danger form a bond across the generations.

Philadelphian Quiara Algería Hudes, with her bachelors in music composition from Yale and her masters in playwriting from Brown, has been getting a great deal of attention recently. Her play Yemaya's Belly won the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Latino Playwriting award and was produced at Virginia's Signature Theatre in 2005. She's just opened her first musical (In The Heights with a score by Lin-Manuel Miranda) and it earned a Lucille Lortel Award nomination for outstanding Off-Broadway musical. The South Coast Repertory has commissioned a play, as has New York's Signature Theatre.

Like Yemaya's Belly, this one-act lyrical play feels rather like it would be better on the page than on the stage. Unlike the Signature production of Belly, however, this time Hudes has a director who matches the lovely language with visual pleasures. While the production does drag a bit about two thirds of the way through, the feeling of fatigue doesn't last long and the intensity picks up to work toward the final image. If this were ice skating, director Abel López would get extra points for "using all of the ice" as he moves the small cast over and under the wooden platforms that make up rather abstract patterns backed by a wall that takes on different colors as scenes and times change.

The title's reference to A Soldier's Fugue, is hardly accidental. The play is structured very much like a three-sided fugue, a series of individual images from the experiences of the men from the three generations, with a fourth voice added for contrast. The three central voices echo each other and offer variations, while Laura Giannarelli fulfills different roles for each - wife, mother, nurse. Andres Talero is a youthful, virile and confident Marine headed off to combat secure in his belief of the support of the folks at home. Manolo Santalla has a weary/wary attitude of a Vietnam War soldier, while Norman Aronovic shows the prideful recollections of a veteran of the Korean conflict.

Written by Quiara Algería Hudes. Directed by Abel López. Spanish surtitles by Barbara H. Phillips. Design: Milagros Ponce de Leon (set) Marcela Villanueva (costumes) Sofía Gawer-Fische (properties) Jason Cowperthwaite (lights) Brandon Vierra (sound) Daniel  Cima (photography) Ann Allan (stage manager). Cast: Norman Aronovic, Laura Giannarelli, Manolo Santalla, Andres Talero and the voices of Manuel Cabrera-Santos, Cindy Peña and Miyuki Williams.

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Reviewed May 4
Running time 2:25 - one intermission
t A Potomac Stages pick for a sumptuous production and an intriguing story

Storyline: A fictional exploration of the reasons why the real-life 17th-Century poet became a nun at age 20 and subsequently renounced writing entirely. Sor Juana's poetry, far too sensual and explicit to be accepted from the hands of a woman, creates scandal and brings pressure on her from the hierarchy of the church while court intrigue swirls around those in her life from her confessor to the Viceroy and from her fellow sisters to the Vicereine.

Ana Verónica Muñoz, who was so strikingly modern in GALA's Te quiero, muñeca (I Love You, Doll) returns to play the 17th-Century poetess/nun. She combines the surface serenity expected of a woman of her station in her time with the emotion of the writer and rebel who could speak out on themes no other woman of her circle would broach. She's flanked by a wily court politician in the person of the Vicereine played with sharp edged energy by Menchu Esteban and a sharp tongued Incan servant played with humor by Aminta de Lara.

Hugo Medrano plays both of the important men in her life - her confessor Padre Nuñez and the Viceroy himself. In a padre's cassock and shaved head he strikes a very different picture than when strutting about in a flowing cape sporting a wig of full curls. In both incarnations, however, he draws your eye toward him, commanding attention as the authority figure in every scene.

There is a grand feel to the production from the elegantly simple set of platforms and screens to the grace of the period costumes, both religious and courtly, and from the warm and subdued lighting to the a cappella music. Ayun Fedorcha's lights create different spaces around the set, which, when they are properly aligned and focused, works very well. Medrano kneeling in prayer, Muñoz writing by candle light, Ángel Torres and Mel Rocher fighting along a path. Each is a stage picture of note and López uses them well.

Written by Karen Zacarías. Directed by Abel López. Design: Milagros Ponce de León (set) Alessandra D'Ovidio (costumes) Brenden McDougal (properties) Ayun Fedorcha (lights) Neil McFadden (sound) Daniel Troconis (photography) Alexander Fernandez (stage manager). Cast: Menchu Esteban, Aminta de Lara, Hugo Medrano, Ana Verónica Muñoz, Mel Rocher, Lorena Sabogal, Ángel Torres.

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Reviewed February 25
Running time 2:35 - one intermission
A stylized performance of a 17th Century comedy from Spain

Storyline: In occupied Italy in the 1560s, the soldiers of Spain amuse themselves with the women of the territory, but too many of them fall in love with the same beautiful woman. She is is actually a camp-follower accompanied by her "madre" and Castrucho, "a 'matchmaker' of the entrepreneurial variety." He orchestrates a series of scams involving three suitors for the beautiful Fortuna's favors.

Just how "legendary" is the author of this piece, Lope de Vega? This incredibly intriguing character from the colorful history of Spain produced over 400 plays that have survived to the modern day and form the basis for his reputation as one of Spain's two greatest writers. His long life (over 70 years) saw him as a playwright, a priest, a sailor in the Spanish Armada, a fugitive banished from his homeland and a hero lauded for, among other things, creating an entire form of Spanish comedy. This example of his work shows it to be as complex and convoluted as some of the better known comedies of his English contemporary, William Shakespeare, and the Frenchman who came just a bit later, Molière.

GALA brings in two performers to join local cast members and both are a delight. Most impressive of the pair is Puerto Rican Ernesto Concepcíon, whose acrobatic comedy is physical, fluid and very clear even to those not fluent in Spanish. He brings to the title role the body control of a mime and a seemingly endless supply of facial expressions, he's a joy to watch. Alicia Kaplan, a Venezuelan now working out of New York is a strong comedic actress. While she is a bit overly made up as the "madre," her performance strikes the right balance.

A sense of quality pervades the production. Of course, it helps that it is performed in one of the Potomac Region's most distinctive and attractive theater spaces. From the simple but elegant set of spears rising as spikes from several platforms and a two-story tower to the colorful costumes to the lush orchestral and guitar score, this is a production of distinction. Fortunately, GALA decided to include the designers in the opening night curtain call so the audience could applaud what they just enjoyed. Most of the designers won't be present for the rest of the performances but audiences will still appreciate the work they have done.

Written by Lope de Vega. Directed by Hugo Medrano. English surtitle translations by Heather McKay. Original music by Fahir Atakoglu. Fight coordination by Monalisa Arias. Design: Stefan Gibson (set) Alessandra D'Ovidio (costumes) Osbel Susman-Peña (properties) Ayun Fedorcha (lights) Neil McFadden (sound) M. Jimena Paz (stage manager). Cast: Alejandro Arce, Monalisa Arias, Carlos Castillo, Oscar Ceville, Ernesto Concepcíon, Hector Díaz, Hugo C. Dubon, George Laws Garcia, Alicia Kaplan, Joaquín Mundo, Lorena Sabogal,  Manolo Santalla, Emilia Sims, Angel Torres, Edgar Trujillo.

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Reviewed September 23
Running time 2:20 - one intermission
A sharp but wordy comedy
 performed in Spanish

Storyline: A modern take on the Pygmalion myth with a distinctly Latin touch finds a film critic, who, unable to find a mate who meets his standards, orders one made to his specifications. He may not, however, know what he really wants. The fact that this modern marvel is reprogrammable should solve that problem but it only introduces additional complications.

Carlos Castillo is precise and proves himself a fine straight man as the movie critic who would like all things, including his love life, to be as perfect as he expects the world on the screen to be. It isn't quite clear what standards he brings to his reviews (at one point he is appalled by the thought that his reviews might read like they were the product of - horror! - a theater critic) but his standards for a suitable mate finally include some actual humanity. Ava Veronica Muñoz is striking as the modern Galatea (or Liza Doolittle, if you will). Her slightly mechanical movements and postures suggest her artificiality while her eyes sparkle with both humor and humanity. The two are supported by a nicely haughty Eva Salvetti as the doctor whose breakthrough made the made-to-order mate possible, and a fine team of Lucrecia Basualdo and Luis Simón as the next door neighbors.

Director Ruiz moves the five member cast about the stage with a sharp, energetic quickness that matches the flippant dialogue but avoids seeming frenetic. Elizabeth McFaden's stylish set of semi-circular platforms and furniture is backed by five large panels of circuit board patterns on mirrors giving a high-tech sheen to the image, while Allesandra D'Ovidio's colorful modern costumes brighten up the space and the feel.

For some reason, the theater decided to abandon the supertitle display of the English translations in favor of displaying them on panels flanking the stage. The supertitle display had been on a strip over the top of the set which, especially for those sitting in the upper half of the steeply raked audience, allowed a relatively quick glance from action to text and back. The new format, on the other hand, requires a total shift of attention from the stage to the text. With this highly verbal comedy, that distraction is damaging to the quick paced humor. Patrons wanting to use the translation would still do well to sit in the rear where the glance either left or right would be less disruptive.

Written by Ernesto Caballero. Directed by Harold Ruiz. Projected English translation by Heather McKay. Design: Elizabeth McFaden (set) Allesandra D'Ovidio (costumes) Brenden McDougal (properties) Ayun Fedorcha (lights) David Crandall (sound) Daniel Cima (photography) Andrés Acosta (stage manager). Cast: Lucrecia Basualdo, Carlos Castillo, Ana Veronica Muñoz, Eva Salvetti, Luis Simón.

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Reviewed May 7
Running time 2:10 - one intermission
GALA offers its first show in English in over a decade (with Spanish surtitles)
Click here to buy the script

Storyline: Eighteen year old Latina Ana has joined her mother working in her sister's dress-making shop in East Los Angeles where a collection of overweight women toil away sewing dresses many sizes too small for them to wear. Although all but one of them have become legal residents of the United States, they continue to be spooked by any noise that might signal the approach of immigration officials as they struggle against a deadline for a shipment of dresses. Through it all they bond into a team and learn from each other the value of self respect.

The best on-stage comedy features a wide range of pace, emotion and volume. Punch lines have to be set up and then highlighted with a pause. In this production, it seems as if most of the set up lines are delivered at the same volume and with the same emphasis that should be reserved for punch lines. This might work for a rapid-fire farce but it doesn't quite make it for an affectionate portrait of sympathetic characters who are supposed to ring true to life. The approach is appropriate for the more farcical scenes such as the one in act one where the women pour over a purloined copy of an illustrated guide to sexual positions on their lunch hour, or the one in the second act when they give in to the temptation in the aptly named sweat shop to remove their outer garments because of the heat. Even the small touching moments are treated with the same farcical intensity, however, it and keeps them from being as effective as they could be.

The cast works as an ensemble, supportive and affectionate as is appropriate for a play about bonding among a group isolated by their economic, social and gender identities. Kathleen Gonzales smoothly moves between narrating the piece as the youngest member of the work crew, a writer who chronicles the events, and the action on the shop floor. Barbara Bonilla-Burnett is her mother and Cynthia Benjamin her sister, the shop owner who has yet to get her green card. They all take their curtain calls in a final fashion show featuring the creations of their dress shop for the full figured.

Lest anyone miss the implications of the piece, set designer Elizabeth McFadden provides a backdrop mural in primary colors featuring an idealized Mexican scene on one side of a river being crossed by a family and selected scenes of the United States on the other including those of workers in the fields and the Statue of Liberty. The mural disappears, however, as the lights shift for the action in the dress factory, replaced by cinderblock and chain link fence.

Written by Josephina López. Directed by Abel López. Design: Elizabeth McFadden (set) Alessandra D'Ovidio (costumes) Brenden McDougal (properties) Ayun Fidorcha (lights) Neil McFadden (sound) Daniel Cima (photography) Alex Fernández  (stage manager). Cast: Cynthia Benjamin, Barbara Bonilla-Burnett, Kathleen Gonzales, Wendy Nogales, Marycarmen Wila.

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Reviewed February 19
Running time 2:00 - One intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for a beautiful production of a story of strong emotional impact
Click here to buy the script

Storyline: The name "Yerma" means "Barren" and it is an appallingly appropriate name for the heroine of the play, a woman unable to conceive the child she believes would justify her existence. She's willing but not at all anxious to give herself to her husband in the sexual act she knows is required but he's turned off by her approach to intimacy as merely a functional procedure. As the un-productive years go by, their relationship sours beyond redemption.

Artistic Director Hugo Medrano chose well for the first work in the new theater when he decided to direct this tragic poem by Federico García Lorca, an author he says in his director's notes he has studied and staged for years. His immersion into Lorca's world allows him to guide the company toward a unified feel for all elements of the production which exudes a sense of appreciation, almost a reverence, for the piece. And it is an important piece, dealing with fundamental human condition not often dealt with on stage. Indeed, it is hard to recall a single play so directly focused on the deep-seated basic instinct that links sexuality, maternal instinct, the drive to produce offspring and the impact of it all on feelings of self worth.

Anna Veronica Muñoz carries the burden of the heroine's tragedy with such physical clarity that those following the play through either the spoken Spanish or the projected English surtitles will have the same understanding and the same empathy with her descent from mere frustration into terminal desperation. Her partner in the tragedy, the husband who absents himself by staying in the fields at night rather than face her escalating dissatisfaction, is given a vibrant portrayal by Carlos Castillo.

Physically this is a glorious production. Tony Cisek's set design combines a heightened sense of realism in the stark angular walls of the village with a Salvador Dali-inspired image blending a breast and the sands of time to visually match the major themes of the play, while Alessandra D'Ovidio's costumes clearly establish time, place and status. As lit by Ayun Fedorcha, this is a magical world.

Written by Federico García Lorca. English translation for surtitles by Caridad Svich. Directed by Hugo Medrano. Choreographed by Edwin Aparicio. Fight coordination by Monalisa Arias. Design: Tony Cisek (set) Alessandra D'Ovidio (costumes) Ayun Fedorcha (lights) Neil McFaden (sound). Cast: Monalisa Arias, Rubén Buitrago, Lucrecia Basualdo, Marta Cartón Campbel, Rubén Iram Rodgíguez Casas, Carlos Castillo, Miriam Cruz, Elsy García, César A. Guadamuz, Mattias Kraemer, Aleksey Kulikov, Seferina Liriano, Marta Chico Martín, Julieta Maroni, Beatriz Mayoral, Anna Veronica Muñoz, Victoria Peña, Lorena Sabogal, Emilia Sims, Ángel Torres-Cabassa, Jason Vera-y-Arogon, Alida Yath.

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Reviewed December 11
Running time 1 hour 25 minutes

Storyline: A young boy and a man are seen on a balcony in flashes of lightning. During the darkness in between flashes there is a noise of cracking and crunching. With the next flash it is clear that the cracking was the railing of the balcony, that the crunching was the sound of the body of the man hitting the floor after falling from the balcony. The boy rushes down and starts to drag the body out of site but a policeman arrives. The police detective interrogates the boy who says nothing at all through his sobs, at least not until the last moments of the play.  As a result, more is revealed about the detective than the boy or what has just happened in the dark.

The play is by Marco Antonio de la Parra, a contemporary playwright, short story writer, novelist and social critic in Chile whose Matatangos and La secreta obscenidad de cada dia have previously been produced by GALA. This short play is set “in a residential neighborhood in Latin America” and, thus, need not be interpreted as a direct commentary on the tumultuous history of Chile in the last few decades. Indeed, it is probably more satisfying as a character study than as a political polemic.

The character being studied is that of the police detective. As played by Cabrera-Santos, he starts out as a potentially comic Latin-American version of television’s Columbo without the stuttering hesitations. As the evening goes on, however, his interrogation technique of rambling on so as to establish rapport with the suspect reveals more and more about his own values, background and secrets. In the process, the audience switches its analytical attention from what happened in the moment of darkness to the detective’s true nature. As the boy Sebastián Rodríguez alternates between cowering in the corner whimpering and trying to collect himself and straighten things up. If Carbrera-Santos has an actor’s challenge in a monologue exceeding an hour, Rodríguez has an even greater one with no lines for all that time and yet a character to create. Both do a fine job.

Milagros Ponce de León has designed an elegantly spare set and Ayun Fedorcha provides a combination of light and darkness effects that take the play from the violent dead of a stormy night to the moments of early dawn. It is all made so much more impressive by David White’s tumultuous sound design which thunders and crashes and whips from side to side just as Ponce de León’s two story luminescent white drapes swish and sway in a real wind generated off stage. The simultaneous translation is well paced and lets the English speaking audience member follow the meaning of the words without having to relinquish any attention on the performance on stage.

Written by Marco Antonio de la Parra. Directed by Gabriel García.  Design: Milagros Ponce de León (set) Alessandra D’Ovidio (costumes) María Marín (makeup) Tim Jones (properties) Ayun Fedorcha (lights) David White (sound) Héctor Emanuel (photography). Cast: Manuel Cabrera-Santos, Sebastián Rodríguez. Simultaneous English interpretation by Charles Becker and Marolo Santalli using a translation by Charles Philip Thomas.

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Reviewed October 4
Running time 2 hours 20 minutes

Storyline: Three women meet by chance in a subway station. One is despondent over her love life. One is angry over hers. The third is an up-tight religious fanatic. Each shows the others the strengths and weaknesses of their lives and values. Each comes to question the seriousness of the problems which had them so upset at the start and they form a strong bond of friendship.

GALA’s Associate Producing Director, Abel López, directs the three-member cast composed completely of GALA company members. Having worked together before they work very well as an ensemble. There is a sense of partnership in the performances, especially later in the play as the three characters - strangers to each other at the start - bond and share. What began as three very distinct and independent personalities, becomes a group with shared views and values.

Menchu Esteban is the funniest of the three and she creates the strongest of the three characters while Cynthia Benjamin takes her character the farthest in development. Hers undergoes a complete transformation, liberated from a repressed, self-controlled personality by the observations of her new companions. All three are very funny and play off each other quite well.

As with all their productions, this Venezuelan comedy is performed in Spanish with simultaneous English translations provided through earphones. Some plays do better than others when a portion of the audience is listening to a translation because some plays rely less on verbal fireworks and more on plot and character development. I must admit that what Spanish I learned in school has atrophied atrociously in the decades since and, therefore, I was at the mercy of the three simultaneous translators who were crackling and popping in my ear (each was much too close to her microphone) as they attempted to keep up with the performers on stage. The synchronization of on and off stage voices should improve as the run continues but on opening night it was a bit of a difficulty for those plugged into the translation system. But the majority of the audience was listening without assistance and the laughs came loud and often.

Written by Gustavo Ott. Directed by Abel López. English translations by Heather L. McKay. Simultaneous Interpretation Program coordinated by Laura Van Druff. Design: Elizabeth McFadden (set) Alessandra D’Ovidio (costumes) Ayun Fedorcha (lights) David White (sound) Daniel Cima (photography). Cast: Cynthia Benjamin, Menchu Esteban, Daya Méndez.

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Reviewed September 30

The performance is in Spanish as the play was written. As always, GALA offers simultaneous translations into English through earphones.