Tuesday, February 10, 2015 │ 5 PM
Rehm Library
Co-sponsored with the Spanish department and the Latin American and Latino Studies program
Award winning playwright Melinda Lopez (playwright-in-residence at the Huntington Theatre, Boston) is best known for creating dramas that feature strong and deeply flawed female protagonists. Drawing from her bi-cultural background as a Cuban American, she strives to model a new vision of Latinas onstage.
Her talk focuses on the playwright’s process of creating historical dramas that feature the inter-relationship between Cuba and the United States, as well as writing about science for the stage. Weaving in readings from her recent plays including Becoming Cuba (2014), From Orchids to Octopi: An Evolutionary Love Story (2010) and Sonia Flew (2009), as well as work in progress, Lopez will discuss the process of moving from inspiration and ideas to the technical needs of a stage play, through the surprises and compromises of production.
ABOUT
Melinda Lopez is the playwright-in-residence at the Huntington Theatre, Boston. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation funds this three-year residency. She is the author of BECOMING CUBA, (Huntington Theatre Co, North Coast Rep) and SONIA FLEW (Elliot Norton Award Huntington Theatre, Steppenwolf, Coconut Grove Playhouse, the Contemporary American Theatre Festival, and many others.) Other plays include CAROLINE IN JERSEY, (Williamstown Theatre Festival), ORCHIDS TO OCTOPI (Central Square Theatre, commissioned by the National Institutes of Health), GARY, (Steppenwolf First Look Repertory, Boston Playwrights Theatre,) ALEXANDROS, (Laguna Playhouse,) a new translation of BLOOD WEDDING, (Suffolk University,) GOD SMELLS LIKE A ROAST PIG (Women on Top Festival, Elliot Norton Award-- Outstanding Solo Performance,) MIDNIGHT SANDWICH/MEDIANOCHE, (Coconut Grove Playhouse), THE ORDER OF THINGS (CentaStage, award winner--Kennedy Center Fund for New Plays.)
Ms. Lopez was the first recipient of the Charlotte Woolard Award, given by the Kennedy Center to a “promising new voice in American Theatre.” She has served as a panel member for the National Endowment for the Arts, the Cambridge Arts Panel, and has enjoyed residencies with the Huntington Playwriting Fellows, Sundance, the Lark, the New York Theatre Workshop and Harvard University.
Ms. Lopez is also an actress and has appeared in regional theatres across the country, and works in film and radio. She teaches theatre and performance at Wellesley College, and playwriting at Boston University. She makes her home in Boston.
RECENT WORKS
Sonia Flew (2009)
Sonia, a Cuban immigrant raising two children with her Jewish husband in Minneapolis, is preparing for her Christmas and Hanukah celebrations. When war intrudes on her son's life, Sonia must reconcile with her childhood memories of Operation Pedro Pan, a political maneuver that separated her and thousands of other Cuban children from their parents. More
From Orchids to Octopi: An Evolutionary Love Story (2010) is an ode to Darwin, science, and the circle of life. The play illustrates how evolution is a significant part of our daily lives — and how it lies at the heart of an artist’s creative process. More
Becoming Cuba (2014)
In 1897 Cuba on the eve of the Spanish-American War, spirited widow Adela runs a pharmacy, indifferent to the mounting conflict around her. But when the rebellion comes home to Havana, she must choose between loyalty to country or to family. More