Discovering “La Havana Madrid” Anew at The Mission

Cheryl Lynn Bruce is a big deal in Chicago theatre—an accomplished director, actor and playwright, and the recipient of numerous awards and honors. Her mantle includes the Illinois Public Humanities Award, the Robert Rauschenberg Residency, a Yale Art Gallery residency, the Jane Addams Hull House Woman of Valor Award and the 3Arts Artist Award, recognizing her overall support of theatre arts.

Bruce performed on Broadway, in the UK and Mexico, among dozens of other stops. She has directed productions all over the country and been the theatrical mentor for countless young artists. This will be her fifth time directing La Havana Madrid, Sandra Delgado’s immersive play with lively Latin music running through Aug. 4 at Mission San Juan Capistrano.

And yet, Bruce is the first person to say she’s still a blank slate, taking everything in like a beginning theatre student. Everything is new, everything is different, everything is in play on and off the stage.

“One of my acting roles was in The Grapes of Wrath, directed by Frank Galati, who was an artist, writer and actor. He was a genius in every way,” Bruce said. We had opened at Steppenwolf (Theatre Company) and went on the La Jolla Playhouse, then we went to a national theatre festival in the UK, then Broadway. I remember him telling us we were going to have two weeks of rehearsals. We’d done this for months at four places. I didn’t understand what more rehearsal time meant. Now, I do.

“Thirtysomething years later, to have another crack at something, I can’t tell you how many times as an actor, I’m in a show and I think back and realize there was something I didn’t realize in a scene at the time. Now, I know something I didn’t know at the time. That’s what revisiting this piece affords an artist—the opportunity to go further, dig deeper, have an epiphany. That’s what revisiting a piece allows an artist to do.”

Bruce carried one of the many lessons Galati taught her from Chicago to Southern California, La Havana Madrid’s fifth production—but the first outside of Chicago. Accompanying her was Delgado, along with actor Cruz Gonzalez-Cadel (Myrna), bandleader Roberto “Carpacho” Marin and trombonist Carol Macpherson. Everyone else is new to the production.

The firsts started there. Mission San Juan Capistrano provides Bruce, her cast and creative team their first outdoor venue. From the moment she walked into the Mission during a visit last November, Bruce—an avid gardener—was entranced by the historic beauty and plant life. She said she was drawn to the “deeply spiritual energy” that Bruce described as “magical.”

“I didn’t know what to expect, but it was more than I expected,” she said.

But surpassing those expectations came with challenges new to the production, including deleting one key element.

“Because we’re performing outdoors during daylight, that meant we couldn’t have the projections that were such an important part of the play. We had to figure out ways of getting what we wanted across without relying on the visuals,” she said. “That’s proved challenging, but we answered the call.”

How did Bruce answer that call? You’ll have to see the play to find out

“The temptation is to be literal, but I like the audience to work a little bit,” she said. “It’s also very important to remember the imagination is much more vivid and more powerful than any image. … The monster you can conjure up in your mind is much more powerful than one that a person draws. Once it’s drawn, it’s static. Everyone’s monster will be different. But they’ll all be terrifying. You have to reevaluate the importance and necessity of an image, rather than relying on the storyteller.”

Some of the music is new, courtesy of music director Cristian Amigo, who wrote a song—"Azul Celeste”—that charmed Bruce so much, she finds herself singing it to herself. Bruce rhapsodized about choreographer Jonny Martinez, who choreographed a final dance number featuring steps from 29 Latin countries.

As Bruce sees it, the new enhances the old. Delgado’s timeless message of the immigrant’s story plays in the Southern California melting pot as poignantly as it does in Chicago’s melting pot. And more than five years later, stirs that melting pot in a new direction.

“All the stars aligned and this came at just the right time,” she said. “We just had a life in between and now we’re ready for another version of La Havana Madrid. In the interim, we’ve grown as artists and now we see it as a piece in progress, in development with new collaborators. Fresh eyes are always welcome because when you do a piece for so long, you don’t see some things. Newer eyes do. it’s a journey. A stop along the way to we don’t know where.”