Nilo Cruz to Visit Um Center for the Humanities, 9/15

The University of Miami College of Arts and Sciences Center for the Humanities announces that Nilo Cruz will be the first Stanford Distinguished Professor in the 2011-2012 academic year. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Nilo Cruz will present "Theatre Accompanied by Light: Searching for Poetry in the Theatre" on Thursday, September 15th at 7:00 pm in the Storer Auditorium on the Coral Gables campus at the University of Miami.

Nilo Cruz was born in Cuba in 1960, and immigrated to Miami with his family when he was nine years old. He grew up in Little Havana, and studied theater at Miami Dade Community College; he earned his MFA from Brown in 1994. As playwright-in-residence at the New Theatre in Coral Gables, he wrote Anna in the Tropics, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2003 and has been performed on Broadway and in theaters across the country. His most recent play, The Color of Desire, premiered at the Actors' Playhouse in Coral Gables. Cruz has taught drama at various universities, including Brown, Yale, and the University of Iowa.

The event is free and open to the public. Registration is required. For registration and further information, please visit http://www.humanities.miami.edu/programs/stanford2012.

In addition to Nilo Cruz, the Stanford Distinguished Professors for 2011-2012 include esteemed physicist, professor and accomplished novelist Alan Lightman. Lightman is the author of the international best-seller Einstein's Dreams. Distinguished University of British Columbia professor of Philosophy and specialist in aesthetics Dominic McIver Lopes will also be visiting.

Also this September, the University of Miami College of Arts and Sciences' Department of Theatre Arts will present Nilo Cruz's Night Train to Bolina running from September 14th - 24th. Written and directed by Cruz, the play spins an intriguing and haunting tale set in an unidentified, war-torn Latin American country where two peasant youths, Mateo and Clara, create an imaginary world to cope with the starvation and oppression of their daily lives. Bonded by an emotional link that is both innocent and erotic, the couple decides to run away to the Bolina, a mythical city where lost kites "go to die." Cruz will conduct two, public talk-backs (interactive question and answer sessions) after the performances of Night Train to Bolina on September 21st and 22nd.

Nilo Cruz will be in residence with the Department of Theatre Arts for five weeks, working directly with students. This juncture coincides with his residency at the Center for the Humanities.

The College of Arts and Sciences Center for the Humanities at the University of Miami is dedicated to supporting humanities, arts, and interpretive social science research and teaching, as well as to presenting public programs to enrich Miami's intellectual culture. For further information, please call 305.284.1580 , or visit www.humanities.miami.edu.

Photo Credit: Peter James Zielinski

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