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THE UNITED STATES EMBASSY HOSTS THEATRE PLAY “THE GUYS”
September 11, 2006
“The Guys”, by Anne Nelson.
Spanish version by Fernando Masllorens and Federico González del Pino. Directed by Oscar Barney Finn.
Casts: Thelma Biral and Antonio Grimau.
TEATRÍSIMO® 06
Monday, September 11 at 7:00 p. m.
Teatro Regina
Avenida Santa Fe 1235
Centro Cultural Borges
Thursday, September 14 at 7:30 p. m.
Viamonte esq. San Martín, 1st floor
Galerías Pacifico
“The Guys” is based on a true story. Less than two weeks after the September 11th attacks, New Yorkers are still in shock. One of them, an editor named Joan, receives an unexpected phone call on behalf of Nick, a fire captain who has lost most of his men in the attack. He's looking for a writer to help him with the eulogies he must present at their memorial services. Nick and Joan spend a long afternoon together, recalling the fallen men through recounting their virtues and foibles, and fashioning the stories into memorials of words. In the process, Nick and Joan discover the possibilities of friendship in each other and their shared love for the unconquerable spirit of the city. As they make their way through the emotional landscape of grief, they draw on humor, tango, and the appreciation of craft in all its forms- and the enduring bonds of common humanity.
Anne Nelson
As a reporter, she covered wars in El Salvador and Guatemala in the early 1980's, at the height of the death squad period, and was published regularly in The Los Angeles Times, Maclean's and The Christian Science Monitor. Her photographs appeared in The New York Times and other publications.
Nelson's writing on the Philippines earned her the Livingston Award and the Thomas More Storke Award, both honoring international reportage. Her first book, the non-fiction Murder Under Two Flags: The United States, Puerto Rico, and the Cerro Maravilla Cover-up was made into a feature film.
For four years, she served as the director of the New York based Committee to Protect Journalists. While at CPI, she co-founded the International Freedom of Expression Exchange. Since 1995, she has directed the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism's international program. She currently oversees students from 24 countries. In this capacity, she developed the first journalism school curriculum in human rights reporting. She also helped establish the first interdisciplinary university website on human rights.
Nelson has traveled as a consultant on journalism development, visiting countries including Hungary, Romania, Cambodia, China, Spain and Argentina. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, she is a regular international affairs commentator on the syndicated television program "The Editors."
She wrote the play The Guys over the course of a week in October 2001, based on an experience she had shortly after September 11th. It opened on December 4th, 2001 and had been presented across the United States and in several international productions. The play was published by Random House and a Japanese translation was issued in September. On September 11th, 2002, she made the play available at no charge for non-profit performances across the country as part of memorial services. She has worked with the New York Fire Department medical office to establish the Flanagan Fund, which has begun to channel contributions from regional productions to support programs on behalf of working NYC firefighter and their families. She also wrote the screenplay for the Focus Features motion picture, also directed by Jim Simpson.
Although The Guys was Nelson's first play, she was active as a performer before she turned to journalism as a profession. She was appeared in the Yale Repertory Theatre productions of The Tempest and A Midsummer's Night Dream. At the age of 18, she soloed in the European premiere of Leonard Bernstein's Mass produced at Vienna Konzerthaus. A BBC production of the performance was broadcast in both the UK and the US.
The Stillwater, Oklahoma native graduated from Yale University and lives in New York with her husband and two children.