Arts & Entertainment

Families In Crisis

An intermarried Cuban immigrant — ripped away from her own family in childhood —
hears her son announce on Chanukah that he has dropped out of college
to join the Marines in Afghanistan.

Suzanne Chessler
Special to the Jewish News

safe?" she pondered as she began her
work. "What does it mean to keep your
country safe?"
Although based on her own life, the
frank conversation about Cuban
work is strictly fictional.
American women married to
"There's a lot of my home life in the
Jewish men, shared by Melinda
Lopez and friends, partly inspired the next first act:' explains Lopez, who received the
Charlotte Woolard Award of the Kennedy
play being presented by Jewish Ensemble
Center in Washington, D.C., and an Elliot
Theatre.
Norton Award in Boston. "There's a mix of
Sonia Flew, running Dec. 8-Jan. 2 in
cultures, a Christmas tree and a dreidel.
the Aaron DeRoy Theatre in the Jewish
There's the pressure of how to raise chil-
Community Center in West Bloomfield,
dren in that context.
captures the experiences of a Cuban
"I'm also present in the chaotic nature
immigrant smuggled out of Havana as
of both households. There's always a lot
a teenager. Living in Minneapolis with
happening. There's a lot happening in
her Jewish husband and two children,
preparing for celebrations, and there are
the woman learns her son has joined the
undercurrents, secrets, different agendas
Marines to fight in Afghanistan.
that different characters have.
While the first act is set three months
"Ultimately, I think a writer is present in
after 9-11, the second moves back in time
every character that's created:'
to revolutionized Cuba just before the Bay
Portraying characters came before
of Pigs invasion and introduces Sonia's
developing them.
childhood family.
"I was one of those kids who wanted
The cast includes Christina Flynn; Sarab
to be in every school pageant, and I
Kamoo, Will David Young, Milica Govich,
Jon Bennett and Russ Schwartz, all in dual trained to be an actress:' says Lopez,
who has appeared in productions of The
roles. The cast recently appeared in the
Rose Tattoo and A Month in the Country
play for the Performance Network of Ann
(Huntington Theatre Company), Romeo
Arbor; Sonia Flew is a co-production of
and Juliet and A Christmas Carol (Portland
the two theaters.
Stage Company), Many Colors Make the
"This is a big, ambitious play, yet it's
Thunder King (Guthrie
about the most personal
Theatre) and Twelfth Night
decisions that a family or
and The Taming of the
individual can make says
Shrew (Shakespeare & Co.).
Lopez, 46, also an actress
"There was a time in my
and teacher.
late 20s when I moved to
"The families are differ-
Minneapolis, where there
ent in the first and second
was a burgeoning new play
acts, and I love seeing the
development movement. As
actors rise to the challenge
a performer, I was called
of playing multiple roles."
upon to be in a number
A number of events,
of staged readings, and I
beyond the conversation
loved being part of the dis-
of friends, came into play
Playwright M elinda Lopez
cussions afterward.
as Lopez developed Sonia
"I thought I was putting
Flew — getting to know
a lot of energy into helping someone else's
a cousin whose parents sent her from
creative process, and I started writing.
Cuba, thinking about family separation
What came from that was stories from my
when her own daughter was born, watch-
childhood, very particularly connected to
ing families part with sons and daughters
my Cuban roots, and I had some success
going to war and being chosen a play-
with my first play, a one-woman show."
wright fellow by the Huntington Theatre
Writing credits include Midnight
in Boston.
Sandwich/Medianoche (Coconut Grove
"What does it mean to keep your child

A

Left to right: Jon Bennett as Sonia's husband Daniel, Russ Schwartz as her son Zak,

Christina L. Flynn as her daughter Jen, Will David Young as her father-in-law Sam

and Milica Govich as Sonia in Sonia Flew

Playhouse, Miami), The Order of
Things (CentaStage, Kennedy Center
Fund for New Plays), How Do You Spell
Hope? (Underground Railway Theatre)
and Scenes From A Bordello (Boston
Playwrights Theatre).
Lopez, who had been a history major
with drama studies at Dartmouth College,
took some writing classes and went into
the graduate program in playwriting at
Boston University, where teaching assign-
ments complement similar assignments at
Wellesley College.
Married to Matthew Siegal, who heads up
conservation at the Museum of Fine Arts in
Boston, and the mother of Madeleine, 10,
Lopez has stayed away from acting for the
past two years in order to spend more time
with family. She recently accepted a play-
writing commission about evolution.
"I think the merging of cultures is the
question of our times',' she says. `Are we
going to merge and integrate into some-
thing different or are we going to hang on to

our history and maintain our separateness?
"I'm raising my daughter to honor two
religious traditions. She and my husband
are members of the temple where he went
when he was a child. Perhaps when she's
older, she'll choose one religion or she
won't. Maybe she'll keep both.
"In the play, Sonia has been brought
up mixing her Cuban roots, frijoles with
cheese logs, and she came to have rugelach
in the mix as well."

❑

JET presents Sonia Flew Dec. 8-Jan.
2 at the Jewish Community Center
in West Bloomfield. Performances
are 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, 5 and
8:30 p.m. Saturdays and 2 and
6 p.m. Sundays, with a 7:30 p.m.
performance Wednesday, Dec. 8, and
a 2 p.m. performance Wednesday,
Dec. 29. $32-$41, with student and
senior discounts. (248) 788-2900;
www.jettheatre.org .

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December 2 • 2010

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