Latinos in Hollywood are taking a more pro-active role in shaping their careers. Many have found that to wait for Hollywood to create or cast them in three-dimensional lead roles is almost like waiting for Godot; its a long time coming and there is no sure bet that it will happen. Actor/producer and entrepreneur Odalys Nanin realized this over a decade ago, that’s when she began writing her own roles. It was a move that would eventually lead to her tobowning her own theater and to writing award-winning productions and short films.
Currently Nanin is setting the stage for theatrical excellence, bringing (back by popular demand) on the Macha Theatre’s stage the Landmark Lesbian play, Skin of Honey/Piel de Miel. Skin of Honey/Piel de Miel will have its revival premiere on June 22nd at the Macha Theater on Santa Moncia Blvd., in West Hollywood running until June 25th.
Originally premiering in 2007 on this same stage, Skin of Honey/Piel de Miel follows the romance between two Cuban women, Amelia and Isabel, over a 20-year period. As teenagers, the girls fall in love but find their loyalties diverging after the Bay of Pigs invasion. Tragically separated when Amelia’s family leaves for the United States, Amelia later returns to Cuba to reunite with her lost love. The women’s passion for each other is still strong, but their differing views of life under Castro threaten to drive them apart.
With Cuba making headlines recently as President Obama announced the loosening of restrictions with the island nation, it made sense for this Cuban native to revive the iconic play. It pulls in some elements of Nanin’s own experience of coming to the United States during the late ’60s, remembering what the early years under Castro were like.
A Los Angeles Times review put the play into perspective, “Nanin’s Play is a searing examination of Castro’s failed socialist experiment and a torrid love story about two young Cuban girls split apart by the ties. As a charged political drama, “hone” has a lot to recommend.” — LA Times
Nanin as Mercedes de Acosta in Garbo’s Cuban Lover
When I sat down with Nanin, one thing was obvious, her love and passion for the theater and for writing plays about strong, bold women; fascinating stories based on real life of women like Catalina De Erauso (The Adventures of the Lieutenant Nun) born in 17th Century Spain, who threw off her nun’s veil and at the age of 14 decided to dress as a man and participated in the conquest of the Americas. Nanin’s play Garbo’s Cuban Lover chronicles the love affairs of Mercedes De Acosta, a writer and “lover of the stars” who was linked romantically with the likes of Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, and many others. The Nun and the Countess is about 17th Century Mexican nun, Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz and her romance with Countess Maria Luisa de Paredes, Vicereine of Mexico.
Nanin is the recipient of three Drama-Logue Theatre Awards for direction, performance and production of Vargas Llosas’ La Chunga. Her other plays are Love Struck in 1997, Garbo’s Cuban Lover in 2001, The Nun and the Countess in 2003, and Beyond Love in 2005.
The re-staging of Nanin’s play Skin of Honey/Piel de Miel has an added special meaning, as it commemorates the first play Nanin premiered after she took over the lease for LA historical theatre landmark, The Globe Playhouse. At the time of its decline and gutted, she was able to obtain the lease and set out to refurbish the theater, rebuilding it from a virtual hollow space into one of West Hollywood’s most lauded theater spaces. The Macha Theater attracts a variety of talent including Al Pacino who recently workshopped his latest play there. It is also one of the very few theaters still located in West Hollywood.
Odalys Nanin, is a renaissance woman, serving as an example and inspiration to many aspiring talents and entrepreneurs alike, not only as a woman but as well as a Latina. Her revival of the Macha Theatre (Mujeres Advancing Culture, History & Art) stands tall and strong as one of the only Latina run theaters in the country. She has turned this small tin roofed theater into a community cultural arts center for artists to exhibit and express their talents (whether painters, actors, writers, etc.). To that end, Nanin has developed a bohemian to boutique-ish atmosphere in the authentic space that was once a world famous theatrical mainstay.
With Macha Theater’s upcoming collaboration with the Hollywood Fringe festival (running The Collection by Harold Pinter beginning June 7th) and the revival of Skin of Honey/Piel de Miel, Nanin is opening up her theater to welcome audiences to come and share her passion for the theatre.
Skin of Honey/Piel de Miel is written/produced and directed by Odalys Nanin runs June 11, 17, 18, 24, 25 at 8pm and June 19 at 6pm. Cast includes: Odalys Nanin, Julia Vari, Katarina Radivojevic, Omnia Bixler, Alexandra Evankovich, Andres Mejia Vallejos, Joseph Arzuaga, Eddy G. Munoz, Bayard de Murgia, and Dennis Delsing.
1107 N. Kings Rd.
W. Hollywood CA 90069
For ticket info and group sales: 323.314.6332
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