JOSÉ RIVERA
The Street of the Sun
Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles, CA
José Rivera's The Street of the Sun is a poetic and apocalyptic vision of contemporary Los Angeles and a sly, razor-sharp indictment of the entertainment industry and its effects on the lives of the people in the surrounding community. Screenwriter Jorge Ciefuegos wakes up one morning frustrated by his inability to break into the movie industry, only to find that the god Apollo has come to town. Through the course of the day, he and his homesick French wife meet a series of events that open their hearts and change the ways they see the world.
José Rivera's
first play, The House of Ramon Iglesia, premiered at the Ensemble
Studio Theatre in 1983 and was broadcast on the public television series American
Playhouse in 1986. In 1985 The Promise premiered at the Los Angeles
Theatre Center. His 1989 play Each Day Dies with Sleep premiered as a
co-production between Circle Repertory Theatre and Berkeley Repertory Theatre.
Marisol premiered at the Humana Festival at the Actors Theatre of Louisville
in 1992. The La Jolla production of Marisol received six Drama-Logue
Awards, and the Hartford Stage/Joseph Papp Public Theatre production received
a 1993 Obie Award for Outstanding Play. Giants Have Us in Their Books
premiered at the Magic Theatre in 1994. Cloud Tectonics, part of the
1995 Humana Festival, has received critical acclaim at the La Jolla Playhouse
and the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. Rivera's latest plays are Maricela de
la Luz Lights the World and The Street of the Sun. Grants and awards
include a National Endowment for the Arts grant (1985), a Rockefeller Foundation
grant (1985), a Whiting Foundation Writers Award (1993), and a Fulbright Arts
Fellowship in Playwriting (1989-90). Television experience includes co-creating
and producing the critically acclaimed NBC series Eerie, Indiana, the
premiere episode for the Fox series Goosebumps, and P.O.W.E.R.: The
Eddie Matos Story for HBO's "Life Stories" series.
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts