Date: November 9–28, 2004
Role: Juan Julian
Theater: Portland Center Stage, Portland, Oregon
Playwright: Nilo Cruz
Director: Timothy Douglas

et in a Cuban-American cigar factory in 1929 Florida, Anna in the Tropics takes place at a moment when the old traditions of hand-rolled cigars are beginning to collide with mechanization and a changing world.

One of those traditions is the lector, a professional reader hired to read literature, newspapers and other works aloud while the cigar makers work. When a new lector, Juan Julian, arrives at the factory and chooses Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, the novel begins to echo through the workers’ own lives. Desire, jealousy, marriage and infidelity move from the pages of Tolstoy into the factory, while the family also struggles over whether to preserve its traditions or embrace modernization.

Pedro as Juan Julian

Pedro played Juan Julian, the handsome and charismatic new lector whose arrival becomes the catalyst for much of the story.

Juan Julian is educated, romantic and deeply committed to the tradition of the lector. As he reads Anna Karenina aloud to the workers, his voice and the world created by the novel captivate the factory, particularly sisters Marela and Conchita. His growing relationship with Conchita brings the themes of Tolstoy’s novel startlingly close to the lives of the people listening to it.

Production Notes

Portland Center Stage presented Anna in the Tropics as part of its 2004–2005 season, with performances running from November 9 through November 28, 2004. The production was directed by Timothy Douglas, whose own production history and later Portland Center Stage biographies confirm the credit.

The play was already a major work in contemporary American theater by the time Pedro appeared in it. Nilo Cruz had received the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Anna in the Tropics, becoming the first Latino playwright to receive the honor.

A contemporary review noted that Portland Center Stage brought in its cast from outside the local Portland theater community and praised the production's visual elements, including the large cigar-factory set and Peter Maradudin's lighting.

Known Cast

  • Pedro Pascal — Juan Julian

  • Marlene Forte — Conchita

  • Bruno Irizarry — Palomo

  • José Ramón Rosario — Santiago

  • José Febus — Cheché

Anna in the Tropics

Archival Photos

Production photographs from Anna in the Tropics, Portland Center Stage, Archival production photos by Owen Carey

Reviews

PDX Backstage Message board — 2004

Brynn Baron gave Portland Center Stage’s Anna in the Tropics an enthusiastic review, praising Timothy Douglas’s direction and the production’s “fresh, honest” ensemble. She described the audience as completely absorbed in the story and called the production “sure-footed,” highlighting the cast’s restraint and ability to bring Nilo Cruz’s poetic language to life.

Baron was particularly complimentary of Pedro Pascal as Juan Julian, writing:

“Pedro Pascal, perfectly cast as Juan Julian the lector, delicately and sensitively rounds out these four characters as the common apex in their love triangles.”

She went on to describe Juan Julian as the embodiment of art and preservation within the play, and praised Pedro for giving the character an almost otherworldly quality:

“Somehow, Pascal manages to convey his ultimate fate from the moment he steps on stage.”

Baron noted that Pedro’s performance, together with Jeff Cone’s costume design and Peter Maradudin’s lighting, made the lector appear to “glow with a ghostly purity,” creating a character who seemed suspended somewhere between a real man and a figure born from the other characters’ collective imagination.

The review concluded by calling the production “a good production of a really great play” and giving it a wholehearted recommendation.

Portland Mercury — November 25, 2004

Justin Wescoat Sanders reviewed the production for the Portland Mercury. His assessment of the production overall was decidedly mixed, criticizing the scale and staging of what he believed was a more intimate play. The review nevertheless provides valuable contemporary confirmation of Pedro's casting and describes Juan Julian as the charming new lector whose arrival immediately affects the women and men of the factory.

The review also identifies Marlene Forte as Conchita, Bruno Irizarry as Palomo, José Ramón Rosario as Santiago and José Febus as Cheché. Production photography accompanying the article was credited to Owen Carey.

Fun Fact

Anna in the Tropics wasn't Pedro's last connection to playwright Nilo Cruz.

Just two years later, Pedro appeared in Cruz's Beauty of the Father at Manhattan Theatre Club in New York, playing Karim. That 2006 production marked Pedro's Off-Broadway debut. His professional bio from the period specifically listed Anna in the Tropics, directed by Timothy Douglas at Portland Center Stage, among his regional theater credits.

So this 2004 production sits at an interesting point in Pedro's theater career: between his earlier regional work and the Off-Broadway roles that would begin arriving only a couple of years later.