Background
Reinaldo Povod, known to his friends as Rei (Ray) grew up on the Lower East Side. The son of a Puerto Rican mother and a Cuban father of Russian descent.
Reinaldo Povod, known to his friends as Rei (Ray) grew up on the Lower East Side. The son of a Puerto Rican mother and a Cuban father of Russian descent.
In 1977, his play Cries and Shouts played at the Nuyorican Poets Café, where Mr. Povod was a protege of Miguel Piñero. Bill Hart brought Mr.
Povod to the attention of Joseph Papp, who invited him to become a resident playwright at the Public Theater.
In 2009, Cuba and His Teddy Bear received its Chicago premiere by the Urban Theater Company and People"s Theater of Chicago. The play has since been adapted into a screenplay by Richard Barbour and Joseph Barbour and is in pre-production at Bergen Street Ent.
Povod"s story has much incident but not a lot of plot. He relies on arbitrary action more than character development and takes too long reaching an ending.
Moments might be cathartic except that these people, with the exception of the son, are not the sort to learn from their mistakes.
But Povod knows his terrain, his dialogue is sharp and colorful yet fits the characters, he never bogs down in exposition, and he sentimentalizes nothing.