Skip to main content

EN EL TIEMPO DE LAS MARIPOSA/
IN THE TIME OF THE BUTTERFLIES
AT GALA

The Mirabal sisters versus Trujillo, the oppressive dictator of  the Dominican Republic is history.  In the Time of the Butterflies— a play by Caridad Svich, based on the novel of award-winning author Julia Álvarez— is the fictionalized recollection of the surviving sister, Dedé. 

Broselianda Hernández is the older Dedé, who tells the story of which she is part, and which is played by Catherine Núñez as young Dedé,.  Karen Romero is Mujer Americana, a writer whose family left the Dominican Republic when she was 10.

Together they weave the story of their lives into that of   Dedé’s sisters —Alina Robert as Minerva,  Domínguez del Corral and Lorena Sabogal, as Patria.  

 What Dedé  tells a young writer of her memories of not just what happens but what she remembers.  Together the sisters  as they grow up, they  develop and share their ideas on love and life as they are aware of the politically oppressive world they live in.

As the sisters become stronger in their beliefs, they are more determined to bring down the regime.  They  would  who used the  code name “the butterflies” as they inspired resistance.   They faced hardships and imprisonments until eventually they were  brutally murdered, along with their driver,  on an isolated road on the way to visit their husbands in jail on November 25, 1960.

Dede did not go with them that day.  Fearful of what would befall in those dangerous times, she is the one that was left to grieve and to tell the story. 

Delbis Cardona plays all the male roles:  the DJ,  Leo, Trujillo and their driver Rufino. 


A beautiful heart breaking story—not to miss  GALA’s production  In the Time of the Butterflies --  through May 13, 2018.

Popular posts from this blog

  Once is here again!   The Brooklyn Gallery Players reach into the treasure chest of great musicals to bring Once alive and on stage in Brooklyn (until to December 17, 2023). Director Mark Gallagher , and Music Directors David Fletcher and Brendon McCray have crafted a vibrant production, seamlessly integrating the 15 member cast in roles  as both actors and musicians. Set in Dublin, the  formula for the poignant love triangle  is simple. Patrick Newhart  plays Guy, an Irish musician who has given up  on love as he sings the award winning classic  Falling.  Newhart mastered the bombastic busking guitar style and performed each of his songs with intensity and passion Sophie Smith-Brody  is Girl,  a Czech woman  who will inspire him to try again both in  love and with music. Smith-Brody performed each of her disparate songs with aplomb,  from the opening classical piece to her plaintive solos – If You Want Me and The Hill.  The performance starts  with an “ impromptu”  p
Read more
               TINA - THE TINA TURNER MUSICAL  at The National Theatre              In the 1970s, I  had spent weeks climbing around ruins in Peru.  I heard music of the Andes all over.  I  was  finally at  Machu Picchu to spend the night so I could get up early  and climb to see the sunrise from the top of the ruins.   As I got to steps by the gatekeepe,  I could hear his boom box blaring across the Andes “I Wanna Take You Higher”  by Tina Turner.   You don’t have to go climbing the Andes to hear her songs — Tina-The Tina Turner Musical  isright here  at the National Theatre, Washington DC,  until  Oct. 23, 2022.    The show has broken all records with the awards it has received since in premiered in April 2018 in London.  No one questions that Tina is a musical legend but  for this show  accolades to  the stars Naomi Rodgers and Zurin Villanueva who alternate in the  spectacular role.   At every performance there will be people  who remember seeing Tina “back when” and
Read more
  Sarah Ruhl’s Orlando — sparkling wit and ageless wisdom —   at   Constellation Theatre — gone but not forgotten In Virginia Woolf’s Orlando A Biography ,  the eponymous hero undergoes many changes over the centuries— from roles in society and relationships to sex change.  Since the time travel gender bending work was published in 1928, this his/her story has continued to undergone adaptions to its original form, from analytical scholarly critiques to crowd pleasing  movies and stage plays.  Constellation Theatre Company continued  the tradition with its amazing presentation of Sarah Ruhl’s narrative play Orlando .    Five actors  take on dozens of roles as characters or in the  chorus to keep the story at its rapid pace,  condensing events spanning almost five centuries into 100 minutes.   Orlando (Mary Myers) is  ever the aristocrat whether as a page in the court of  Queen Elizabeth I (Alan Naylor)  or involved with a mysterious Russian princess (Edmee - Marie Faal) or pursued
Read more