Playwright Jose Rivera (Sueno, Marisol) will receive his first Mexican production when his Cloud Tectonics is staged in mid-April 1999 at La Gruta Theatre in the Centro Cultural Helenico in Mexico City. Chicago's American Theatre Company's co-founder William Payne will direct the Spanish language production.

Payne, who will co-produce and sound design the show as well as direct, received a $10,000 award from the US-Mexico Fund for Culture to bring Tectonics to Mexico for a minimum run of 25 performances.

In Nov. 1998, Payne picked the cast and crew for Tectonics, which features Arturo Reyes (Anibal de la Luna), Ricardo de la Rosa (Nelson de la Luna) and Natalia Traven (Celestina del Sol), Monica Raya (set and lighting design) and Alejandra Dorantes Fuentes (costumes). Otto Minera will translate the play.

Cloud Tectonics takes place during a record-breaking Los Angeles deluge, where a man gives shelter to a beautiful, pregnant hitch-hiker who is searching for the father of her child. The play features Rivera's distinctive blend of magic realism and apocalyptic imagery.

Tectonics received its world premiere at Louisville's Humana Festival, where it was directed by Tina Landau (Floyd Collins), who also brought the show to New York's Playwrights Horizons in Dec. 1996. -- By Christine Ehren and David Lefkowitz