It's difficult enough for actors to perform a play in two languages and make sure the audience understands. An Alabama-based partnership of Cubans and Americans is tackling that and more with an unusual engagement in New York.
The cast and crew of "Alcestis Ascending" are preparing for one of just a handful of joint Cuban-American plays to hit the Big Apple since the Cuban revolution of the 1950s.
They'll perform in Tuscaloosa starting Monday, then move the show to New York on July 9. Finally, the production will head to Havana.
The production is a research-based collaboration of Alabama's College of Arts and Sciences and actors and theater agencies in the communist country. Dialogue switches between English and Spanish. Director Seth Panitch says repetition helps audiences understand what's going on.