The NY production will be directed by Tina Landau (Floyd Collins, The Trojan Women), who staged Tectonics' world premere at Louisville's Humana Festival in March 1995, as well as a subsequent production at La Jolla Playhouse later that year. Berkeley's staging will be manned by Assoc. Artistic director Tony Taccone.
Besides the involvement of Landau, the Playwrights Horizons production will also utilize the same designer - Riccardo Hernandez, responsible for The Public Theater's The Tempest and Bring in 'da Noise/Funk - and two of the three cast members of the La Jolla production. According to a spokesperson for Playwrights Horizons, the New York incarnation will be "basically the same" as what was seen in San Diego, with the addition of some tightening to the script made by playwright Rivera.
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.
Rivera's last play to open in New York, Marisol, arrived under a cloud of controversy when director George C. Wolfe reneged on an agreement to direct the play at Hartford Stage Company in favor of Angels in America on Broadway. The man who took over the troubled production of Marisol was Michael Greif, who has risen to prominence in the past year as the director of Rent and Randy Newman's Faust. Other plays by Rivera include The House Of Ramon Iglesia, The Promise, Each Day Dies With Sleep and Giants Have Us In Their Books. Starring in the Berkeley Tectonics are Judy Reyes (Celestina), Gary Perez (Anibal) and Demtrius Navarro (Nelson). Loy Arcenas is the scenic designer, Lydia Tanji the costumer, Blake Burba (Broadway's Rent) the lighting designer and Stephen LeGrand the sound designer.
For tickets to Cloud Tectonics at Playwrights Horizons, call (212) 279-4200. For tickets to Cloud Tectonics at Andrew Ku and David Lefkowitz
