A teenage girl disguises herself as a boy in a country where male children are prized above all things.
A young boy slips into a world of imagination to reach his father, a soldier missing in action.
And the soldier himself — alone, terrified, but clinging to hope.
Each of them is the lead character of separate monologues by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Nilo Cruz.
The three tales — linked by the common thread of life and war in Afghanistan — are strung together by Arca Images in Three Times Cruz/Tres Veces Cruz .
Cruz says the first of these monologues that he wrote, Farhad or the Secret of Being, was inspired by a 2010 New York Times article he read about a long-standing practice in Afghanistan called bacha posh.
"Girls are disguised as boys until the age of puberty, so they can work and have benefits that boys have," he says.
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Over time, monologues with similar themes took shape. The Journey of the Shadow follows an 8-year-old boy named Marcelo Miguel, whose father is a soldier serving in Afghanistan.
At one point, the boy imagines that his shadow has leaped into an envelope containing a letter to his Dad.
That piece dovetails into Melisma, where the father of Miguel, separated from his unit in Afghanistan, likewise retreats into a fantasy world to escape the realities of war.
Arca Images is well known for its simultaneous English translations of Spanish-language theater pieces.
Offstage voice performers translate the stage dialogue in real time — and audience members listen through wireless headphones.
The Journey of the Shadow and Melisma are being presented for the first time in Spanish. Farhad or the Secret of Being, will be presented in its original English.
IF YOU GO
What: Three Times Cruz/Tres Veces Cruz
When: March 6 - 16. Thursdays — Saturdays at 8 p.m. Sundays at 5:00 p.m.
Where: Westchester Cultural Arts Center. 7930 S.W. 40th St. Miami, Fl. 33155
For more information: arcaimages.org
