Goodman Theatre Presents BOLEROS FOR THE DISENCHANTED 6/20 - 7/26

Goodman Theatre proudly concludes its 2008/2009 season with José Rivera's newest play, Boleros for the Disenchanted, "an epic study of wedded life that is simply—and not so simply—marvelous" (Variety). A true love story inspired by Rivera's parents' courtship and eventual migration from Puerto Rico to Alabama, Boleros for the Disenchanted makes its Chicago premiere directed by Henry Godinez—the Goodman's Resident Artistic Associate who was named 2008 Latino of the Year by the Chicago Latino Network. Chicago actors Elizabeth Ledo and Sandra Marquez command the stage in the role of Flora, based on Rivera's mother, at various points in her life. Godinez's cast also includes Liza Fernandez, Joe Minoso, Rene Rivera and Felix Solis. Boleros for the Disenchanted is performed in English in the Albert Theatre June 20 – July 26, 2009. Tickets are $25 – $70. A complete performance schedule including dates, times and ticket prices appears at the end of this release. Meet the playwright and director at a free post-performance discussion on Thursday, June 25, moderated by Myrna Salazar of the International Latino Cultural Center. Tickets and information: 312.443.3800 or GoodmanTheatre.org. The Chicago Community Trust is the Major Production Sponsor.

"I am thrilled to welcome back José to the Goodman with this gorgeous new play," said Artistic Director Robert Falls. "In a season that has included a number of vivid romances (from the doomed triangle at the center of Desire Under the Elms to the politically fraught coupling of Jan and Esme in Rock 'n' Roll), Boleros for the Disenchanted provides an especially wise insight into the vagaries of human relationships—and the bonds that hold them together."

Boleros for the Disenchanted received its world-premiere production last season, directed by Henry Godinez at Yale Repertory Theatre. After her fiancée breaks her heart, Flora vows never to fall for an unfaithful man again. Then she meets Eusebio, who sweeps her off her feet, and off to America—away from her family and her familiar life in Puerto Rico. Thirty-nine years later, an angel visits Eusebio with a mysterious message that stirs up old secrets. Boleros for the Disenchanted is a bittersweet and ultimately uplifting story about what it takes for two people to make a life together far from home, and the struggle to hold on to love in the face of life's unexpected challenges.

"I wanted to blend the fairytale optimism of Flora and Eusebio's early courtship days in Puerto Rico with a hardcore, gritty reality later in their life together," said José Rivera, who earned an Oscar nomination for his screen adaptation of The Motorcycle Diaries. "While this play is really a love story, it has another layer—a political consciousness that explores what happens when a society is so destitute and depressed that it has to emigrate. Literature and films often explore the immigrant experience once people have arrived; I thought it would be interesting to address what compels people to leave. In Puerto Rico they have family, they have love, they have connection to land, they have all these things—and yet there's still something that moves them to take this journey."

Playwright José Rivera is the author of the OBIE Award-winning Marisol (La Jolla Playhouse, Actors Theatre of Louisville and The Public Theater); The House of Ramon Iglesias (New York's Ensemble Studio Theatre); Giants Have Us in Their Books (Magic Theatre); Sonnets for an Old Century (INTAR Theatre); Sueño (Hartford Stage); Cloud Tectonics (Playwrights Horizons, Goodman Theatre); Massacre (Sing to Your Children); and the OBIE Award-winning References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot (South Coast Repertory and The Public Theater). He studied with Gabriel García Marquez at The Sundance Institute and was writer-in-residence at The Royal Court Theatre, London, on a Fulbright Arts Fellowship in Playwriting. Honors include a Whiting Award, as well as grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and Rockefeller Foundation. Television credits include the critically acclaimed Eerie, Indiana series, which he co-created and produced, as well as HBO's ThE Eddy Matos Story. In addition to The Motorcycle Diaries (Walter Salles, director) Rivera has written the screenplay for Salles' upcoming film of Jack Kerouac's On the Road. The native Puerto Rican serves on the boards of The Sundance Institute and the Independent Feature Project.

Director Henry Godinez is the resident artistic associate at Goodman Theatre, where he is the curator of the Latino Theater Festival, which will have its fifth installment in August 2010. Godinez appeared in the Goodman Theatre/Teatro Vista world premiere of José Rivera's Massacre (Sing to Your Children) and has also directed Mariela in the Desert, Millennium Mambo, Electricidad, Straight as a Line, Zoot Suit, Red Cross, Cloud Tectonics and A Christmas Carol. Other directing work includes plays at Chicago Children's Theatre, Apple Tree Theatre, Victory Gardens Theatre, Next Theatre, Lifeline Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Signature Theatre, Missouri Repertory Theatre, Oak Park Festival Theatre, Colorado Shakespeare Festival and Teatro Vista, which he co-founded and where he served as artistic director for the first five years. Born in Havana, Cuba, he currently serves as an associate professor at Northwestern University and was named the 2008 Latino of the Year by the Chicago Latino Network.

Boleros for the Disenchanted
By José Rivera
Directed by Henry Godinez
June 20 – July 26, 2009

Liza Fernandez.....................................Petra/Monica
Elizabeth Ledo......................................Young Flora/Eve
Sandra Marquez....................................Dona Milla/Older Flora
Joe Minoso...........................................Young Eusebio/Oskar
Rene Rivera...........................................Don Fermin/Older Eusebio
Felix Solis.............................................Manuelo/Priest

Set Design............................................Linda Buchanan
Lighting Design......................................Joseph Appelt
Costume Design.....................................Rachel Healy
Sound Design.........................................Ray Nardelli and Joshua Horvath
Composer..............................................Gustavo Leone

Full bio information for the company is available upon request.

Meet José Rivera and Henry Godinez
Thursday, June 25, following the 7:30pm performance
FREE

Myrna Salazar of the International Latino Cultural Center engages Rivera and Godinez in a conversation about their work on Boleros for the Disenchanted, and a discussion about the ways in which immigrants' experience is reflected in theater and film.

Tickets to Boleros for the Disenchanted are $10 – $70 and may be purchased online at GoodmanTheatre.org, at the box office (170 North Dearborn) or by phone at 312.443.3800. Mezztix are half-price mezzanine tickets available at 12 noon at the box office, and at 10am online (promo code MEZZTIX) day of performance; Mezztix are not available by telephone. 10Tix are $10 mezzanine tickets for students available at 12 noon at the box office, and at 10am online on the day of performance; 10Tix are not available by telephone. Valid student I.D. must be presented when picking up the tickets. Limit four per student with I.D. All tickets are subject to availability and handling fees apply. Discounted Group Tickets for 10 persons or more are available at 312.443.3820.

About Goodman Theatre

Currently playing in Goodman Theatre's 2008/2009 season is Rock 'n' Roll by Tom Stoppard, directed by Charles Newell (through June 7 in the Albert Theatre) and The Crowd You're In With by Rebecca Gilman, directed by Wendy C. Goldberg (through June 21 in the Owen Theatre).

The upcoming 2009/2010 season includes Animal Crackers, book by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, music and lyrics by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby, directed by Henry Wishcamper (September 18 – October 25); Brian Dennehy in the Broadway-bound double-bill of Hughie by Eugene O'Neill, directed by Robert Falls and Krapp's Last Tape by Samuel Beckett, directed by Jennifer Tarver (January 16 – February 21, 2010); the world premiere of A True History of the Johnstown Flood by Rebecca Gilman, directed by Robert Falls (March 13 – April 18, 2010); The Good Negro by Tracey Scott Wilson, directed by Chuck Smith (May 1 – June 6, 2010); The Sins of Sor Juana by Karen Zacarías, directed by Henry Godinez (June 19 – July 25, 2010) which launches the Goodman's 5th Latino Theater Festival (offerings TBA). World premiere offerings in the Owen Theatre include Joan D'Arc created by Tanya Palmer and Aida Karic, directed by Aida Karic, adapted from Friedrich Schiller's Die Jungfrau Von Orléans, a co-production with the Linz 2009 European Capital of Culture (September 11 – October 11); High Holidays, by Alan Gross, directed by Steven Robman (October 31 – November 29); and The Long Red Road by Brett C. Leonard, directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman (February 13 – March 14, 2010).

Named the country's Best Regional Theatre by Time magazine (2003), Goodman Theatre is a leader in the American theater, internationally recognized for its artists, productions and educational programs since its founding in 1925. Artistic Director Robert Falls and Executive Director Roche Schulfer's forward-thinking leadership has earned the Goodman unparalleled artistic distinction, garnered hundreds of awards—including the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre (1992) and Pulitzer Prizes for Ruined by Lynn Nottage and Glengarry GLen Ross by David Mamet—and moved dozens of plays from Chicago to stages in New York and abroad. Central to its commitment to the reinvestigation of classics and development of new plays and artists is the Goodman's Artistic Collective, including Brian Dennehy, Frank Galati, Henry Godinez, Chuck Smith, ReGina Taylor and Mary Zimmerman. The largest not-for-profit theater in Chicago, the Goodman moved in 2000 into a brand new state-of-the-art complex which houses two principal theaters: the 856-seat Albert Ivar Goodman Theatre and the 400-seat flexible Owen Bruner Goodman Theatre. Board Chairman is Shawn M. Donnelley and Karen Pigott is president of the Women's Board. American Airlines is the Exclusive Airline of Goodman Theatre. Kraft Foods is the Principal Sponsor of the Goodman's free Student Subscription Series.