REFERENCES TO SALVADOR DALI MAKE ME HOT Comes to Custom Made Theatre Next Month

Custom Made Theatre Co. (Brian Katz, Executive Artistic Director) continues its 23rd season with the Bay Area Premiere of "References to Salvador Dalí Make Me Hot" by award-winning, Puerto Rican playwright, José Rivera.

The cast features Caleb Cabrera (BENITO/MOON), Robbie Diaz (MARTÍN), Carla Gallardo (GABRIELA), Gabriel Ross (COYOTE), Alejandra Wahl (CAT).

The creative team includes Marisely Cortes, Connie Galvan, Lana Palmer, Sarah Pykitt, Sara Saavedra, Katja Rivera, Elyse Schrock, and Elena Wright.

A surreal drama set in the desert of Barstow, California where Gabriela - wife of career soldier Benito - dives into a surreal fantasy world during her husband's prolonged absences and imagines the mating rituals between a coyote and a cat. Rivera's award-winning play celebrates the confusion that grows out of trying to understand not only the one you love but yourself as well.

Strange things happen in a moonlit backyard on the edge of the California Desert. The cat talks with a dangerously seductive coyote and the moon plays his violin for a lonely woman awaiting her husband's return from war. When he arrives, broken and distant, the reality of their relationship seems as strange as the apparitions in the desert night. Jose Rivera, a contemporary master of magical realism and the painful and gritty realities of human relationships, has created a suddenly relevant play that explores the scars of war both on those who fight it and those who get left behind.

Director Rivera (no relation) says playwright Rivera's play is suddenly as timely as when it was first produced two decades ago. "We all have just come through a collective trauma (with Covid.) The couple in this play has also come through a trauma that makes them question their life and their relationship. I find so many of us, myself included, are questioning life choices because of the pandemic, and wondering if how we have lived our lives still makes sense. Is this how we want to keep living it? Another theme that feels especially pertinent today is how the Moon (a character in the drama) admonishes Gabriella to pay attention to her dreams and her inner voice. She must pay attention, the Moon says, to incidents that seem like coincidences, and look for the wisdom she can find there. It's one of my favorite places to find guidance as well."

Previews: July 1st & 2nd at 8:00 pm

Press Opening: Sunday, July 3rd, at 2:00 pm (note: new opening time)

Runs: July 1st - July 24th, 2022. Thurs-Sat 8:00 pm; Sunday 2:00 pm

Tickets: $30-55

Learn more & buy tickets at http://www.custommade.org or (415) 798-CMTC (2682)

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