"I went to see Lonnie Carter's Obie-award-winning play The Romance of Magno Rubio two weeks ago. I was bowled over. Too many adjectives crowd my mind…heartwarming, funny, tear-jerking, wise, compassionate, literate, culturally savvy, beautiful, endearing…it reminded me of the best of the neighborhood theater I saw in Chicago in the 1970s and 1980s when things were really street-level hopping there. It’s REAL theater—not the overwhelming glitz of Broadway, or the indulgent angst sometimes called modern. In fact, the energy pouring off the stage was too big to be contained in our small, 200-seat theater on Mercer Street in Manhattan. It felt like the five characters were sending us tidal waves of emotion that rolled over us, bounced off the back wall of the theater and came rip-tiding back for a second crack at our psyches. When I left, I was changed as a person…far more compassionate for those people who pick our fruit; maybe more willing to embrace loving feelings, even at the expense of perhaps being a rube-io myself. So many life lessons in such a short hour and a half. Well done, Lonnie. I feel even more proud and privileged than ever to know you and call you my neighbor."
-– Ann Bidou
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
The Romance of Lonnie Carter: Ann Bidou Reports from Off Broadway
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Thanks, Annie. Coming from such an accomplished writer as yourself, your remarks mean a ton to me. What you saw was the result of five and a half years of work and one of the major concerns of the piece, the plight of migrant workers, sadly seems more relevant today than when we started. The particular workers of the play are, of course, Filipino, the "lost/last Asians", as they're sometimes called; but we think their story is universal and it sounds like you do too. You may even get me to start drinking coffee again.
cheer(io)s,
Lonnie
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