New York Premiere of FISH MEN Opens Tonight at INTAR

INTAR continues its 2016-'17 Season with the New York premiere of FISH MEN by Cándido Tirado.

Fish Men had its World Premiere at Chicago's Goodman Theatre (in collaboration with Teatro Vista) where it received four Jeff Award nominations and won the Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award and New York Foundation for the Arts Award for playwriting as well as being nominated for the Steinberg ATCA Award.

Lou Moreno directs a cast that features David Anzuelo (Intimacy, Aunt Dan & Lemon - New Group), Gardiner Comfort (The Elephant in Every Room I Enter - La Mama), José Joaquín Perez (Drama Desk Award nomination - My Manana Comes), Shawn Randall (founder, Symphonics Live), and Ed Setrakian (Salome with Al Pacino, Saint Joan with Lynn Redgrave). FISH MEN will have scenic design by Raul Abrego, lighting design by Christopher Cancel Pomales, costume design by Meghan E. Healey, and sound design by Jesse Mandapat.

On a hot summer's day Rey Reyes, a computer programmer for a large bank, walks into Washington Square Park to pay off a debt his uncle incurred the night before to chess hustlers. The hustlers, who are in dire needs of money, talk Rey into playing a few games. "Ninety-Two," a Holocaust survivor, who is always interfering with the hustlers' trade, tries to pry Rey away from them. The struggle for Rey's soul between the hustlers and "Ninety-Two" gets more and more heated until the game becomes a life and death struggle.

"Candido Tirado has been a part of the INTAR community since I came here in 1989. I could not be more thrilled to bring him back to our mainstage. As a director Fish Men links the ancient game of chess to humanity's darkest corners. An important play for this time in our country as well as the world," said Mr. Moreno.

Performances for this limited Off-Broadway engagement began February 10th and continue through March 18th only at INTAR's theater space (500 West 52nd Street, at Tenth Avenue). Opening Night is set for tonight, February 21st. Tickets may be purchased at www.intartheatre.org or by calling 212/352-3101.

Cándido Tirado's acclaimed Off-Broadway musical Celia: The Life and Music of Celia Cruz (co-written with Carmen Rivera) premiered at New World Stages and enjoyed a 9-month run. It was also performed in Chicago's Athenaeum Theater, Las Bellas Artes in Santurce, Puerto Rico; Tenerife, and Miami. His new musical La Canción premiered this fall at Repetorio Espanol. Momma's Boyz was produced by Teatro Vista and it was chosen as one of Chicago Top Ten plays by the Huffington Post. First Class was produced by Urban Theater Company in Chicago and subsequently chosen by Theater On The Lake Festival. His other Off-Broadway plays include Heart Stopping Sex (Soho Rep), King Without a Castle, Checking Out, First Class. The Barber Shop and Momma'z Boyz (Spanish Repertory). Other productions include The Missteps of a Salsa Dancer, From Dating to Death in Five Easy Steps, Ilka: The Dream. King Without a Castle was first workshopped at Sundance Theater Lab; Some People Have All The Luck was produced at the National Theater of the Dominican Republic and New York. His other plays include Two Diamonds, The Kid Next Door, Hey There Black Cat, Abuelo, The Missing Colors of the Rainbow, And The Pursuit Of Happiness, House of Souls, and Palladium. He co-wrote the award winning short film (with Alfredo Bejar) "Getting to Heaven" and was a staff writer for the TV show "Ghostwriter" where his episode was nominated for a Humanitas Award. He was also staff writer for the hit web series "East WillyB." He's a four-time winner of the New York Foundation of the Arts Playwriting Fellowship. He is co-founder of EDUCATIONAL PLAYS PRODUCTION with his wife Carmen Rivera, which tours the public schools presenting social issue-oriented plays concerning the inner city youth.

For INTAR, Lou Moreno directed Se Llama Cristina by Octavio Solís, Drawn and Quartered by Maggie Bofill, which was developed in INTAR's NewWorks Lab and was INTAR's inaugural production under his leadership as well as Lucy Loves Me, written by Migdalia Cruz. Other directing credits include Rent Control by Evan Zes, Trying by Erin Browne (The Bushwick Starr); Minotaur a Romance and Beautiful by David Anzuelo (LAByrinth Theater Company at The Public Theater); MCC Youth Festival (Manhattan Class Company); Kingdom (NYMF); End of the Line (MCC Youth Company); Rock/Paper/Scissors (NY Hip-Hop Theater Festival at The Public Theater); The Bigger Man (Partial Comfort); and Blues for a Gray Sun by Nilaja Sun (INTAR). He also serves as an Associate Producer with The 24-Hour Company (Athens, Greece and Broadway). Mr. Moreno won the 2005 Princess Grace Award for Directing.

INTAR, one of the United States' longest running Latino theatres producing in English, works to: Nurture the professional development of Latino theater artists; Produce bold, innovative, artistically significant plays that reflect diverse perspectives; Make accessible the diversity inherent in America's cultural heritage through an integrated program of workshops, productions of works-in-progress, and mainstage productions. INTAR brings to the public vital and energetic voices of emerging and accomplished Latino theater professionals, giving expression to the diversity and depth of today's Latino-American community.

For more information, visit INTAR on the web at www.intartheatre.org.