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Meet the cast of Abundancia, a play by Carlos-Zenen Trujillo
Directed by Melory Mirashrafi
Produced by Matchbox Theatre Company
Presented by Bridgeport Public Library April 10, 2021
Matchbox Theatre Company’s Arts Manager Zaneta Nicholson and her mother Elaine Braithwaite, Bridgeport Library Director and host of the event, began by acknowledging their family relationship. They both agreed, though, with Braithwaite's assertion that when it comes to cultural programming, "this is ‘strictly business.” The library is in strong support of the company’s mission - to produce original content by BIPOC, LGBT+ and women artists - and its goal of dismantling racism, sexism, ableism and elitism in theater.
Abundancia is set in Cuba during what became known as “the special period in peacetime,” which occurred in the 1990s just after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The name follows the tradition of Cuban irony and humor in referring to an abundance of scarcity, or presence in absence. It is a kind of prologue to tales of immigration to the US and remaking family life in a new home. The spectre of escape looms over the production.
As playwright Carlos-Zenen Trujillo tells it, “The country was suddenly left rudderless, and this created massive scarcity. Cuba lost its biggest trade partner, so there was no oil, no food imports, electricity had to be rationed. Every Cuban knows about this hidden history.”
Trujillo was reminded of its significance in 2019 when he experienced a routine blackout on a visit back home. He continued, “I approach playwriting as a way of being a scribe for histories that are oral and not being written. In some ways this is a kitchen sink story of a family collapsing. If you already know say Tennessee Williams or Eugene O'Neill, it might be received that way. To be able to speak to something overlooked by the whiter narratives and bring that into reality was my purpose.”
Bridgeport is a very diverse city, with a large Latino community representing many different nationalities and ethnicities. Since it has the largest Cuban population in Connecticut, presenting Abundancia was “important to do here,” according to Braithwaite.
Trujillo was born in Cuba and came to the US in 2001 on a diversity visa his dad won by lottery. Since 2006, he has lived in Oregon. He and director Melory Mirashrafi have known each other since high school. This play - which has been in development over the past year and is seeking a venue to present a fully staged premier in the future - has been their first time working professionally together.
Matt Rowning, a sound designer also based in Oregon, stepped in late in the process. Cast members expressed feeling fortunate that he was able to achieve a really crisp sound that added dimension to the immersive listening experience. Multiple different styles of Cuban music represent emotions shifting from tense to passionate, nostalgic, and angry. “Every part of the play has a soundtrack.” This includes everyday sounds, pots and pans, a bounding basketball, and claves (performed by Trujillo).
Ana Zambria and Gamaliel Arroyo played Maria and Yunior, respectively. They are both based in Florida and hope to perform the roles in a live production
Playing Ramon, Jhulenty Delossantos, a native of Bridgeport, came to this country when he was 18. Raised in the Dominican Republic, he resonated with the themes of this play, which was not only his first lead role, but his first professional acting experience in a full-length play.
Costume designer Grace Petersen noted how freeing it felt to design hyper-realistically but without the usual budget constraints because it was so early in the process. The costumes were inspired by what would have been typical of the 90s in Cuba, based on the playwright’s old family photos. “Plastic flip flops were an OMG moment.”
In part because there are very few public archives of photographs from that time period, Carlos’ collection of family photos became the basis for the entire play design, which he imagined to take place in his childhood home. His birth year - 1996 - was an especially hard part of the so-called special period. “It was so hot in the night, and mosquitoes were everywhere. Abuela would wrap her baby up in a blanket like a doll, walk me around with a battery operated fan directed right at my face.” Evoking all of that sensory information, from the night sounds to the kitchen smells, was “a beautiful experience, having one’s personal life become the blueprint for what’s going on in the theater.
Nicholson explained how producing Abundancia as online theater aligned so well with Matchbox and its roots. “Practically speaking, 2020 became a moment of opportunity. Conceptually, though, working remotely enabled a meeting of skills plus talent plus diversity, bringing together underrepresented people and communities where they wouldn’t ordinarily have been seen.”
She recapped the meaning of ‘accessible theater’ as a touchstone for the company’s work. “Seeing Hamilton is like the price of a student loan for a ticket. We are the exact opposite.”
Beyond financial aspects, however, delivering an online radio play with a packet of bonus materials enables audience members to absorb the experience in different ways. Instead of the one-size-fits-all seats in a theater, people can take breaks, read the script, study conceptual designs, text or talk back and forth, and really get a deeper glimpse into how a play actually gets made. This, the company believes, is healthy for theater as a whole.
The company’s transparency and appreciation for differing abilities, schedules and attention spans also encourages a non-toxic work environment for the actors. Cast members expressed consensus that the production schedule had been quite friendly to their work schedules during the pandemic, when they could not afford to take any time off, and not having to travel somewhere to be present in-person became a kind of equalizer.
As the theater lockdown began to ease, Nicholson reflected back on it: “We missed the live experience of going to the theater, but you can also create that at home. As audience members, we dressed up on opening night, made snacks, sat down and shared the anticipation of the moment.” Plus, “added director Mirashrafi, “You can have such a widespread audience with virtual theater, it feels almost like a touring show. It became an interesting challenge to see what needs of our audience members we could meet in that format.”
Final takeaways from cast members?
- “This was a real performance. The connection was there.”
- “This kind of platform helps us know that the arts literally can never die. It can take any form. “
- “Every one of us saw a piece of their history - whether an emotional relationship history or familial history.”
- “The words of the play are so grounded in reality and truth, you innately react as a human to those words.”
- “Production values are so high right now, just imagine when it’s fully realized!”
For more information about Abundancia including the possibility of bringing the work to your venue, contact Matchbox Theatre Company Founder and Director Maeve Cunningham at matchboxtheatrecompany20@gmail.com. The company’s next production is Roots of Georgia Clay by Zackary Turner.
A bit more local background: Elaine Braithwaite began her career in library science at Ora Mason in West Haven, where her daughter Zaneta Nicholson, a recent SCSU theater grad, lives presently. Last summer Nicholson was part of an ensemble that created Living Monuments on the West Haven Green. She dedicated her monument to her mother, who showed strong leadership by example in going on to become the first African-American woman library director in Connecticut. You can find pictures of the event here and join the group to see what’s next for West Haven’s Living Monuments Initiative.
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