(NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ) -- George Street Playhouse (GSP) will welcome audiences back to the Arthur Laurents Theater at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center with the captivating new production of Baipás by Jacobo Morales, directed by Julio Monge, opening March 1-20, 2022.
“We are truly honored to welcome the extremely talented, award-winning Director/Choreographer Julio Monge to George Street Playhouse for the American English-language premiere by Academy Award nominee Jacobo Morales, considered to be one of the most influential filmmakers in Puerto Rican history,” said Artistic Director David Saint.
A romantic “pas de deux,” Baipás presents a world in which two people are thrown into a strange place together and come to choose life and love. Faced with consequences of past choices and the possibilities of second chances, Lorena (Maggie Bofill) and Antonio (Jorge Luna) find themselves unexpectedly in one another’s arms—enchanted by the thrill of the unknown and enrapt by the seductive allure of a Bolero.
Tickets start at $25 and can be purchased online at www.georgestreetplayhouse.org
The design and production team includes: Julio Monge - Director/Choreographer; Wilson Chin - Set Designer, Jason Lyons - Lighting Designer, Javier Diaz – Composer; Harry Nadal - Costume Designer; Caite Hevner - Projection Designer; Germán Martínez - Sound Designer; Cheryl Mintz - Production Stage Manager.
About The Cast & Creative Team
Maggie Bofill (Lorena) - Actor, playwright. Founding member of LAByrinth Theater Company, member of Ensemble Studio Theater (EST) and WAW, WomanArtistWriters (Dorset Theater Festival). Recent: Nationally Televised PBS Short CubanAmericanGothic, Performed/Written by Maggie in collaboration with Maria Rodriguez. STAGE: Bella, The Sound Inside, Theater Works Hartford, Dir. Rob Ruggiero: Nora, A Doll's House Part Two, The Longwharf Theater, Dir. Will Davis: Armida, Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles, St. Louis Rep. Dir: Rebecca Martinez: Blanca in The 24 Hour Plays Viral Monologues, Writer Michael John Garcés: TV AND FILM: High Town, The Path, Smash, Law&Order SVU.
Jorge Luna (Antonio) - THEATRE: Constellations (George S. Lindsey Theatre), Hamlet (Jersey City Theater Center), Deathwatch (New Ohio), The Dream Dances (Irondale), SHINKA (Capital Fringe), Starry Messenger (Theatre For The New City), Cymbeline (Chashama), FLORIDITA, My Love (INTAR), Barceloneta, de noche (IATI), The Tempest (BC), The Promise (CBA). FILM: The Week Of (Netflix), planet b234 (Vail), All The Beautiful Things (Sundance), papa y yoyo, The Last Frankenstein, Catching Fireflies, All Is Not Lost, Angelo, Bx3M. TV: Lisey's Story, Elementary, The Blacklist, Law & Order: SVU, The Code, One Life to Live, Basile. TRAINING: Shakespeare; RADA. BA Theatre; UPR. MFA Acting; Brooklyn College.
Julio Monge (Director) - Directing credits include Hedwig and the Angry Inch (also producer and translation) at the Gay and Lesbian Theater Festival in San Juan, Puerto Rico (Best Production Award), and West Side Story (co-director) at Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour (Helpmann Award Best Direction and nomination for Best Choreography). He also directed the play Putting Out by Laura E. Bray at the Venus Theater Festival in NYC.
Choreography credits include The Somewhere Project, celebrating Carnegie Hall’s 125th anniversary; Tony Kushner's translation of Mother Courage and her Children starring Meryl Streep at the Delacorte Theater, and the musical Radiant Baby, both directed by George C. Wolfe. Also, The Threepenny Opera at Williamstown Theater Festival starring Betty Buckley; Jose Rivera's premiere of References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot starring Rosie Pérez, and the revival of Pablo Cabrera’s La Verdadera Historia de Pedro Navaja starring Gilbertito Santa Rosa and Yolandita Monge.
He served as artistic collaborator in the new film version of West Side Story, written by Tony Kushner and directed by Stephen Spielberg.
Jacobo Morales (Playwright) - Mr. Morales burst into the entertainment industry at the age of fourteen and soon after, developed his writing skills in television and with La criada malcriada (1965). The first film he directed, ...And God Created Them (1979), is recognized as the marking point where Puerto Rico's film industry evolved. His third film, Lo que le pasó a Santiago (1989), reached an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film in 1990. Mr. Morales is considered by many to be the most influential filmmaker in Puerto Rico.
Under the leadership of Artistic Director David Saint since 1997, and Kelly Ryman -- Managing Director since 2013, George Street Playhouse produces groundbreaking new works, inspiring productions of the classics, and hit Broadway plays and musicals that speak to the heart and mind, with an unwavering commitment to producing new work. As New Brunswick’s first producing theatre, George Street Playhouse became the cornerstone of the revitalization of the City’s arts and cultural landscape. With its 45-year history of producing nationally renowned theatre, the Playhouse continues to fill a unique theatre and arts education role in the city, state and greater metropolitan region.
Beginning with the 2019-20 Season, George Street Playhouse moved to the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center in downtown New Brunswick. Featuring two state-of-the-art theatres -- The Arthur Laurents Theater with 253 seats and The Elizabeth Ross Johnson Theater which seats 465-- and myriad amenities, the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center marks a new era in the esteemed history of George Street Playhouse.
Founded by Eric Krebs, George Street Playhouse, originally located in an abandoned supermarket on the corner of George and Albany Streets, was the first professional theatre in New Brunswick. In 1984, the Playhouse moved to a renovated YMCA on Livingston Avenue, and in 2017 took temporary residence in the former Agricultural Museum at Rutgers University during construction of its new home.
The Playhouse has been well represented by numerous productions both on and off-Broadway. In 2018, George Street Playhouse was represented on Broadway with Gettin’ the Band Back Together which premiered on the Playhouse mainstage in 2013. American Son, produced by George Street Playhouse in 2017, opened on Broadway in 2018 starring Kerry Washington and Stephen Pasqual, and will appear on Netflix. Other productions include the Outer Critics’ Circle Best Musical Award-winner The Toxic Avenger. In 2015, It Shoulda Been You opened on Broadway and Joe DiPietro’s Clever Little Lies opened off-Broadway. Both shows received their premieres at the Playhouse. Others include the Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk and Drama League nominated production of The Spitfire Grill; and the Broadway hit and Tony and Pulitzer Prize winning play Proof by David Auburn, which was developed at the Playhouse during the 1999 Next Stage Series of new plays.
George Street Playhouse programming is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts. Grant funding has been provided by the Middlesex County Board of Chosen Commissioners through a grant award from the Middlesex County Cultural and Arts Trust Fund.
