<p>Set in the central valleys of California in the 1930s, the play focuses on Magno Rubio, an illiterate Filipino farm worker and his pen-pal courtship with Clarabelle, a white woman from Arkansas who advertises in the back pages of a “lonely hearts” magazine. Believing he's found the woman of his dreams, Magno fantasizes about their life together, only to soon realize that reality and dreams do not always align.“If the Rainbow Coalition had a playwrights’ wing, Lonnie Carter would be a leading candidate to chair it.”—Mike Boehm, Los Angeles Times“The high-priest of multicultural hiphop, Lonnie Carter, brought his übertheatricality to a movingly simple story of Filipino migrant workers scratching their way toward love and self-worth.” —Chris Jones, The Chicago Tribune“There may be no bouquets of flowers or Michel Legrand love songs in THE ROMANCE OF MAGNO RUBIO, but this unusual eighty minute fable … has much to say about the world’s most delicate emotion. Playwright Lonnie Carter uses an intriguing mixture of verse, music and dialogue.” —Brian Scott Lipton, The New York Post“The play is virtually musical. Lonnie Carter’s text throbs with rhyme and rhythm.” —Don Shirley, The Los Angeles Times“THE ROMANCE OF MAGNO RUBIO is one of those theatrical gems that heals your heart even as it breaks it. A magnificent piece of deeply humanistic storytelling … This is the tall tale of a man who may be small in stature and worldly goods, but is gigantic in his ability to believe in himself and his dreams — or at least in his ability to keep self-delusion alive. It is classic in its outline. But it is distinctive in the way Carter’s lyrical yet powerfully rhythmic language (English laced with bursts of Tagalog, a Filipino language) melds sounds and cultures.” —Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun Times“One of the best off-Broadway plays of the season.” —New York Times“A beautifully conceived fable.” —Variety</p>

The Romance Of Magno Rubio

Literature & Fiction

Bulosan, Carlos

Carter, Lonnie

Dramas & Plays

Broadway Play Publishing, Incorporated

The real life, storybook adventures of Phillis Wheatley; a revolutionary American slave girl, whose poetic genius lifted her from New England parlor trick into the great salons of Europe and beyond. Follow her travels with the Countess Selena, Ben Franklin, and the Admiralty from Boston to London and back, where she will find love in the arms of Samson Osee Power Frock - free man of color. "WOW! ... a comic-book exclamation may be the only word left in the wake of the grand torrent of language, movement and sublime imagination on display in this world premiere ... What a sense of awe and astonishment is generated by this ninety-minute fantasia on the life and legacy of Phillis Wheatley, the African American poet who became a literary celebrity in the era of the American Revolution - and the first of her race to be published in this country. And what a profound and intriguing story it tells about race and art in America, and about the singular nature of creative genius ... Never heard of Wheatley? Neither had I. So here's the one-minute version of her life: She was born in Senegal in 1753, brought to the Boston slave market at age seven and purchased by the well-to-do businessman John Wheatley at the urging of his wife, Susannah, who took a fancy to her beauty and spirit. From the start she was a slave, and wasn't a slave - a girl set apart, who was taught to read and write, was exposed to Greek and Latin and the Bible, and easily fell under the spell of a preacher's orations. Wheatley's first poem was published in 1767. A collection of her work was issued six years later in London. And for a brief time she became all the rage there, meeting the swells of society and, not incidentally, making the acquaintance of Benjamin Franklin. But society ultimately grew bored with and skeptical of her, and the poet made her 'second passage' to America, falling in love, having children and worrying that her poetic gift might be lost. By the age of thirty-one she was dead, though, as Carter suggests, something of her voice echoes down through the centuries, informing everything from the blues and jazz to the scratchin' of a hip-hop D J. Lonnie Carter is the polymorphous Victory Gardens wordsmith who last season gave us THE ROMANCE OF MAGNO RUBIO. Part James Joyce, part John Coltrane, part Diddy, he often is mistaken for African American, but is a white writer fascinated with the way English has been reshaped by black culture. Carter's WHEATLEY is no docudrama; it is in fact spun into pure invention that comes out in the form of a richer truth. (The play's riff on globalization should be performed at the next World Bank get-together.) The same is true of Scruggs' superb direction, which employs a slew of deft theatrical tricks and taps the talent of a quartet of actors who must have had nightmares while learning Carter's dense, tongue-twisting, mind-bending text ..." -Hedy Weiss, The Chicago Sun-Times

Wheatley

The Chicago Landmark Project chronicles all twelve short plays produced by Theatre Seven of Chicago as part of a World Premiere theatrical event paying tribute to the people and places of the Windy City. Using distinct locations in zip codes from Rogers Park to the South Side, The Chicago Landmark Project offers twelve diverse snapshots of Chicago life from present day to the distant past. From famous landmarks like Navy Pier to only-in-Chicago places like the Logan Square Farmers Market and Riverview Amusement Park, The Chicago Landmark Project uses location to create an emotional geography of life by the lake. "...as good a portrait of the diversity of this city as you can currently find.” - Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune “…this Landmark Project should unquestionably become an annual event.” - Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times

The Chicago Landmark Project: 12 World Premiere Plays about Chicago Places

Brooks, J. Nicole

Berman, Brooke

Carter, Aaron

Neveu, Brett

Theatre Seven of Chicago

Golden, Brian

Jacqmin, Laura

Khoury, Jamil

Koon, Rob

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Carter, Lonnie. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Carter, Lonnie