Fresh off a summer filled with Karen Finley's Return of the Chocolate Smeared Women, Off-Off-Broadway's Bat Theatre Co. returns with Rogelio Martinez's They Still Mambo in Heaven, Sept. 4-27.
Cuban born playwright Martinez came to this country in 1980 on the Mariel boat lift. His work has been presented at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, South Coast Repertory, Mark Taper Forum, The Group Theatre and INTAR, among others.
Directing Mambo will be playwright and member of The Bat, Eduardo Machado. Machado, who frequently directs his own work, is the author of more than twenty-five plays, including, Don Juan in New York, Stevie Wants to Play the Blues and Broken Eggs.
The cast for Mambo includes Marc Ardito, Vanessa Aspillaga, Philip Courtney, Yetta Gottesman, Ron Riley, Jaime Sanchez, Heather Simms, Ed Vassallo and David Zayas.
The Bat Theatre Company was formed in 1997 as a group of veteran theatre artists acting as producers. The "Bat Pack" includes: Machado, Jim Simpson, Mac Wellman, Kyle Chepulis, Jan Leslie Harding, Mike Nolan, and Laurie Stone. Previous Bat productions have included Herman Daniel Farrell III's Bedfellows, The Black Hole serial, and Adobe Theatre's mounting of the serial, Larry and the Werewolf. They Still Mambo in Havana plays Sept. 4-27 at The Flea Theatre, 41 White St. For reservations or more information call (212) 226-0051.
-- By Sean McGrath
