A BICYCLE COUNTRY
BY NILO CRUZ
UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, FALL 2023
This show is set during the Cuban rafting crisis in the 1990s. We chose to approach the first act with a heavy realistic approach and the second with a magically realistic approach. To support this, costumes needed to feel authentic and well-loved in the first act. Then when the characters rode the raft in the second, they needed to enhance reality by externalizing the characters’ internal landscapes.
Director: Fatima Quandar
Costume Design: Becca Janney Scenic Design: Sofia Olivar Lighting & Projection Design: Luis Garcia
Reviews
“We see the beauty more in the clothing (Becca Janney, costume designer) that identifies the characters immediately as Cuban: Pepe’s porkpie hat that echoes the relationship of Cuban music and jazz. Ines’ high-waisted skirts that exude a self-owned womanliness. Julio’s modest red guayabera and its self-assured masculinity… A Bicycle County is a beautiful gift to its audiences. It is full of surprise and magic, grief, comfort, and joy. And beauty runs throughout the whole blessed thing.”
Gregory Ford, DC Theater Arts