Anna in the Tropics

Winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for drama, Anna in the Tropics by acclaimed Cuban-American playwright Nilo Cruz, is set in the sultry heat of 1929 Ybor City, Florida. With factory mechanization on the rise, a group of Cuban-American immigrants maintain the cigar rolling industry with pride and tradition. Cigar factory owners continue the tradition brought from Cuba of hiring lectors to educate and entertain while the workers hand-roll cigars. As they toil away in the factory, a well-dressed and well-spoken lector arrives and reads Anna Karenina to them, igniting their passions even as they struggle to uphold tradition in the face of encroaching modernity.