Robby Ramos has been a real-life baseball player and a fictional wrestler.
He has a real grandfather who spent time in a Cuban prison. And he’s acted in a play about the spoils of the Cuban revolution.
He grew up in Miami hearing his family’s stories — history alongside myths — in English and in Spanish.
Now he’s brought all those elements together in his debut as a playwright.
Ramos' new play is The Walls Have Ears. He’s also producing the same play in Spanish — at the same time Las Paredes Oyen.
The one-act play is set during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The drama centers around a political prisoner whose fate is decided live on the radio.
He is staging the play where it resonates with its audience — at the Westchester Cultural Arts Center, which opened less than 2 years ago.
The play had sold-out readings in Los Angeles, where Ramos works as an actor. Recently he’s playing a wrestler on the TV show Heels, which was renewed for a second season on Starz.
On the April 11 episode of Sundial, Ramos joined us to talk about his inspiration for the play and how it feels to showcase it in front of a hometown audience.
On Sundial’s previous episode, we relistened to our favorite conversations. First, we’ll hear from Ruben Rabasa. He’d been acting for more than 50 years when he got famous overnight. Then, we’ll talk to the Puerto Rican singer iLe, who got her start with Calle 13. Finally, we went back to 1984 with playwright Aurin Squire.
Listen to Sundial Monday through Thursday on WLRN, 91.3 FM, live at 1 p.m., rebroadcast at 8 p.m. Missed a show? Find every episode of Sundial on your favorite podcast app, such as Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and Spotify.
Stay in touch with us by emailing us at sundial@wlrnnews.org.
