SHORT EYES EXTENDED @ LATC

Date: February 2, 2012

LOS ANGELES TIMES CRITIC’S CHOICE! BACK STAGE CRITIC’S PICK! Returning by popular demand for an additional six weeks.

For the first time in a decade, “Short Eyes” is being produced in Los Angeles. West Coast rights to the play have been unavailable for ten years, and Urban Theatre Movement is the first company to receive authorization to present this controversial piece after its long absence from Los Angeles stages, making this new production an Event.

When first produced in 1974 at the Public Theatre in New York, the play won the Obie Award and swiftly moved to Broadway, winning the New York Critics Circle Award for Best New American Play and the Drama Desk Award.

The tough, unforgiving environment of a New York City detention center is the setting for the play’s story. The population of the institution is an assembly of racially and ethnically divided cliques in an internally constructed society with its own rules and boundaries, peopled with violent felons, thieves and killers, whom the world at large has locked away for its protection. Into the midst of these desperate men is inserted a new prisoner, a middle-class white man named Clark, accused of child rape. Men like Clark are dubbed “Short Eyes” by the other prisoners and even among criminals are considered the vilest of the vile. Gentle-mannered Clark, surrounded by tough customers, had better make some friends fast, if he is to survive at all. He gets the ear of an inmate named Juan, but Juan must keep Clark at arm’s length for Juan’s own protection. Clark is clearly a sick man, thrust in the midst of career criminals. Can he possibly survive? Given the extreme nature of his offense, can even the theatre audience recognize his underlying humanity?

Playwright Miguel Pinero (1946-1988) was born in Puerto Rico and raised in New York in an impoverished family. He wrote “Short Eyes” while incarcerated in Sing Sing prision for armed robbery. Once paroled, he co-founded the Nuyorican Poets Café and wrote plays prolifically, including “The Sun Always Shines for the Cool,” “Eulogy for a Small Time Thief,” “Playland Blues,” “Midnight Moon at the Greasy Spoon,” and more. He also wrote for episodic television (“Baretta,” “Miami Vice”) as well as the screenplay for “Short Eyes.” He also achieved success as an actor, appearing in major Hollywood films (“Alphabet City,” the remake of “Breathless,” “Deal of the Century,” “Exposed,” “Short Eyes” and more). Pinero died of cirrhosis in New York at 42.

Written by Miguel Piñero.
Directed by Julian Acosta.
Produced by Urban Theatre Movement and Latino Theater Company in association with the Estate of Miguel Pinero.

WHERE:
Los Angeles Theatre Center
Theatre 4
514 S. Spring St.
Los Angeles, CA 90013

WHEN:
February 2- March 11, 2012.
Show times: Thurs.- Sat. at 8, Sun. at 7.

ADMISSION:
$30 general. $20 students, seniors and groups.
A limited number of seats will be available for $10 at all Thursday performances.

RESERVATIONS: (866) 811-4111.

ESTIMATED RUNNING TIME: 2 hours, plus intermission.

CONSUMER ADVISORY: Adult themes, some rough language. Suggested for audiences 13 to adult.

You can also visit the event's website at: www.thelatc.org

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