THE ZOO STORY Bilingual Adaptation Opens in Miami

Two strangers divided by class, but also by language, culture and the impossibility of truly being heard. It could be Miami today – but it is the setup for American theater legend Edward Albee's classic, The Zoo Story (La historia del zoológico). And when one of Florida's leading Hispanic theater companies, Arca Images, brings a new bilingual adaptation to the stage this season, they will be giving the play a fresh Miami voice and making it accessible to both English and Spanish-speaking theatergoers alike.

Presented with simultaneous English audio translation for the Spanish section of the play, at all performances, the production runs from November 6 to 15 at the Westchester Cultural Arts Center. Directed by the award-winning Carlos Celdrán, and produced by Arca Images Executive and Artistic Director, Alexa Kuve, the play is co-presented by Miami-Dade County Auditorium and Roxy Theater Group.

The Zoo Story was a young Albee's introduction as one of the most provocative voices in American drama – he went out to win three Pulitzer Prizes during his long career. First performed in 1959, the play signaled his lifelong fascination with isolation, social masks, cruelty, intimacy and the violence that can emerge beneath the surface of ordinary life. In a single act, on a single bench in New York's Central Park, Albee creates a dramatic encounter that continues to disturb, challenge and illuminate audiences more than six decades later.

Caleb Casas (most recently starring in Arca Images' Death of a Salesman) stars as Jerry, a restless, wounded and unpredictable Hispanic man desperate to connect, while Caleb Scott plays Peter, an Anglo-American publishing executive whose carefully ordered life is interrupted by Jerry's arrival.

'Being able to present Edward Albee again to Miami audiences, in this new bilingual adaptation, is both an honor and a challenge for Arca Images,' said Kuve. 'We love bringing classic theater to our Florida stage in ways that contemporary audiences can relate to.'

Carlos Celdrán is a playwright and director whose work in Cuba, Spain and the United States has received international recognition. Winner of the National Theater Award of Cuba in 2016, he is the founder of the acclaimed Argos Teatro in Havana. He serves as resident director at Arca Images, where he maintains an ongoing artistic collaboration, and directing The Zoo Story is a continuation of this collaboration.

In May of 2027 the production will have its international premiere at the historic Corral de Comedias de Alcalá de Henares, in Madrid, Spain. For Spanish audiences, this bilingual vision of Albee's play offers a compelling encounter with a classic of American drama seen through the realities of language and cultural displacement.

Event Details

November 6-15, 2026; Friday and Saturday performances at 8:30 pm, Sundays at 5:00 pm

Westchester Cultural Arts Center, 7930 S.W. 40th St. Miami, FL

Tickets are $35 general admission, $30 seniors and students with valid ID, and groups of 10 or more. Advance tickets are available at www.arcaimages.org and the day of the show at the Westchester Cultural Arts Center box office only. The theater is fully wheelchair accessible, with adjacent free on-site surface parking available. To request materials in accessible format, or any disability accommodation, visit www.arcaimages.org or contact Arca by email at arcaimages@gmail.com.

Support for Arca Images, and its performances, is provided in part by Miami-Dade County Auditorium; Roxy Theater Group and Westchester Cultural Arts Center; the National Endowment for the Arts; the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and the Board of County Commissioners; the National Latinx Theater Initiative; SouthArts; Funding Arts Network; Arts Access Miami; the Shubert Foundation; the Dosal Family Foundation; American Airlines, Arca Images official airline; IKE Smart City; and other donors.

Arca Images creates, produces, and promotes original contemporary theater and new adaptations of classic plays for Miami's diverse English-Spanish bilingual audiences, as well as related Hispanic performing arts including music. Arca works with local artists and presents complex works that reflect the region's multicultural character, while contributing to the evolution of theater as a contemporary art form through educational programs for local youth and adults. Arca Images was founded in 2001 by Alexa Kuve, now Executive and Producing Artistic Director, and Larry Villanueva, now Resident Director, Education Director, and actor. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Nilo Cruz served as the company's Artistic Director and Resident Playwright from 2013 through 2022, and he continues to collaborate regularly, with his works produced and presented. In 2025 Miami New Times named Arca Images as the Best Spanish-Language Theater Company in South Florida, and Arca went on to win three prestigious Carbonell regional theater awards.