CARMEN PELAEZ Y SU RUM & COKE

Si un día ve anunciado en la ciudad donde vive el show Rum & Coke, de la artista Carmen Pélaez, no se lo pierda. Entré a su página web a ver cuál sería su próxima presentación y no será hasta el 2008 en el Off-Broadway Abingdon Theatre de la Ciudad de NY, del 1ro de febrero al 2 de marzo. El monólogo Rum & Coke es un viaje autobiográfico de la cubano-americana Carmen Peláez, sobrina nieta de Amelia Pélaez, donde ella se desdobla en los diversos personajes que encontró mientras buscaba sus raíces en la Habana, los cuales llevan al espectador de la risa al llanto y viceversa durante toda la presentación. De alguna manera, uno se halla en su trayecto. Aquí muestro la biografía de la artista, una nota sobre la obra y una foto de ella con Compay Segundo tomadas de su página web (http://www.carmenpelaez.com/default.php, también adjunta en un link en Mis Sitios Favoritos debajo), tres sellos postales cubanos honrando la obra de Amelia –obra que en Rum & Coke juega un papel importante en su escenografía- y la tarjeta de la noche en que la vi año y medio atrás en una salita del NYU.

Carmen Peláez was born in Miami to Cuban parents. Grand-niece to the revered painter, Amelia Peláez and radio star Ernesto Galindo, Carmen continues her family's artistic expression of life's challenges filtered through the Cuban experience in her ferociously comic and moving one-person play, RUM & COKE.
She began writing this piece soon after graduating from the prestigious American Academy for the Dramatic Arts in New York. For RUM & COKE's development, she received a 1997 New York Foundation of the Arts Fellowship and was able to launch a development production of the work in New York City.
The show soon attracted the notice of Area Stage in Miami who invited Carmen to perform the piece at their space. From December 5, 1997 - March 8 1998, RUM & COKE played to sold out houses and rave reviews in Miami. Enthusiasm for Ms. Peláez's work soon caught the interest of Ted Koppel, who chose to feature her and her family on a Nightline Friday Night Special.
RUM & COKE was optioned by Fox Theatricals in 1999-2001 and was performed by Carmen at Chicago's Pegasus Theatre. She's also performed it at the HBO Workspace in Los Angeles, at PS NBC in New York and most recently at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, where RUM & COKE is now part of the curriculum. She opened the Coconut Grove Playhouses famed Encore rooms 2003-2004 season with RUM & COKE and was extended due to popular demand.
Carmen she was featured in W Magazines May 2000 issue in a photograph by Bruce Weber and was the first PS NBC performer to sign to a talent contract with NBC through 2000-2001. A featured contributor on several episodes for both seasons of the critically acclaimed Nightline/PBS show Life 360 she also completed writing work for a film being produced by Emilio Estefan Jr.
Carmen has starred in three independent films: Stroll, Houseguest and Last Hand Standing, finalist in the Chrysler Extreme Filmmaking competition at the 2003 Tribeca Film Festival. And was featured in A Very Serious Person by Charles Busch and Carl Andress which premiered at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival.
Most recently Carmen performed RUM & COKE at the 10th annual NY International Fringe Festival in NYC and at HeXTC. Her collaboration with Pablo Cano, CITY BENEATH THE SEA a play for marionettes, premiered at MOCA in Miami in November of 2006 and was part of Art Basel in December of 2006. This spring she'll be shooting My Father's Will and next spring RUM & COKE will be opening off-Broadway at Abingdon Theater in NYC.

RUM & COKE AT ABINGDON THEATER
Pain is funny. Separation, death, humiliation, all of it fodder for the characters Camila encounters on her trip to Havana via Miami in this ferociously comic and moving tale about life seen through the Cuban lens.