The Road Theater Company and Founder/Artistic Director Taylor Gilbert and Artistic Director Sam Anderson are delighted to announce their return to live performances with three repertoire plays, beginning and re-opening with the world premiere of “The Play You Want”, written by Bernardo Cubria and directed by Michael John Garcés, on Friday March 4.
Synopsis of the show “The game you want”
Fed up with the theater world’s desires to lock him down, Mexican playwright Bernardo Cubría sarcastically launches “Nar-Cocos,” a play about drug traffickers on Dia de los Muertos. To his surprise, the Public Theater picks it up. With mounting financial pressures and a newborn at home, this is her chance for business success. But when Scott Rudin offers him a run on Broadway on the condition that he exploit more of his identity and the headlines, he must decide how much he’s willing to compromise to ultimately be accepted.
About the team
BERNARDO CUBRIA (Playwright) recently sold his “Like It Used To Be” screenplay to stars Gina Rodriguez and Karla Souza. He wrote the “Untitled Ryan Garcia Project”, directed by Gina Rodriguez and featuring boxer Ryan Garcia. He won the NNPN Playwright Award for Political Theater in 2021. He co-wrote the short film “Spanish Class”, which won Best Comedy at the NBC Universal Shorts Awards in 2018. “The Play You Want” won received the 2020 Boulder Ensemble Theater Company Generation Prize and 2020 Ingenio Award for a New Play by a Latinx Playwright by the Milagro Theater in Portland, Oregon. He was nominated for Best Playwright at the Ovation Awards, Stage Raw Awards, and Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards for his play “The Giant Void In My Soul,” which received a reading at Circle in the Square on Broadway in 2019. and will be produced at Luna Stage in 2022 and at Foro Shakespeare in Mexico City in 2022. His play “Neighbours: A Fair Trade Agreement” was produced Off-Broadway at INTAR in the fall of 2017. It has since received a premiere regional at the Studio Theater in Florida. He was a proud member of The Road Theater Company’s inaugural Under Construction Playwright’s Lab, where “The Play You Want” was developed.
MICHAEL JOHN GARCÉS (Director) is the artistic director of Cornerstone Theater Company, a community ensemble based in Los Angeles. Recent projects include James McManus’ ‘The Rivers Don’t Know’ (City Theatre), Will Power’s ‘Seize the King’ (The Alliance Theatre); “The Thanksgiving Play” by Larissa FastHorse (The Geffen Playhouse); “The Royale” by Marco Ramirez (Arizona Theater Company); “The Just and the Blind” by Marc Bamuthi Joseph and the composer Daniel Bernard Roumain (Carnegie Hall and The Kennedy Center); and, for Cornerstone, “Highland Park is Here” by Mark Valdez, “Native Nation” and “Urban Rez” by Larissa FastHorse and “What Happens Next” by Naomi Iizuka.
Pieces he wrote for Cornerstone include “Magic Fruit”, “The Forked Path”, and “Los Illegals”. Michael is the recipient of the 2020 Doris Duke Artist Award, Princess Grace Statue and Alan Schneider Director Award. He is first vice-president of the board of directors of SDC, the theatrical union of directors and choreographers.
The cast of “The Play You Want” will include: Peter Pasco in “Bernardo”, Chelsea Gonzalez in “Vera”, Natalie Llerena in “Chloe/Mija/J.Lo”, Jonathan Nichols in “Gilbert Cruz/Alfred Molina”, Roland Ruiz as “Lin Manuel Miranda/Mijo/Pablo/John Leguizamo”, Christopher Larkin as “Sam Gold/Chay Yew/Variety Reporter”, Stewart J. Zully as “Oskar Eustis/Scott Rudin”, and Presciliana Esparolini as “Abuela/Gloria Estefan .
The design team for “The Play You Want” is as follows: Scenic Design by Brian Graves; Lighting design by Derrick McDaniel; Projection design by Nicholas Santiago; Sound design by Marc Antonio Pritchett; Costume design by Michele Young; Puppet design by Lynn Jeffries; Musical composition by Arian Saleh. The production manager is Maurie Gonzalez. “The Play You Want” is produced by Tina Carlisi, Carlyle King and Danna Hyams.