Photo courtesy of Joe TickNow
A publicity shot for “Pedro Pan,” written by Rebecca Aparicio and produced in New York in July 2018. This shows the first day of school in New York for the emigrant Cuban boy Pedro. On stage, from left, are Rodrigo Ignacio Cruz, Gregory Diaz IV as Pedro, Julian Silva, Sisley Carreta and Diego Lucano.
Rebecca Aparicio, a 2002 Hoover High School graduate, has been a busy actor, writer and producer in theater in New York City for nearly a decade.
But this summer, Aparicio — along with her husband and collaborator, Stephen Anthony Elkins — had perhaps her biggest success so far.
She and Elkins presented their play, “Pedro Pan,” in a limited Off-Broadway run at the Acorn Theatre in Manhattan in July, part of the New York Musical Festival.
Aparicio wrote the book, or story, and Elkins wrote the music and lyrics.
In the play, a young boy in Cuba in the early 1960s — after Fidel Castro comes to power — is sent to the U.S. by his parents, who fear he’ll otherwise be indoctrinated by the communists. To survive in New York, where he goes to live with his aunt, Pedro must learn a new language and culture — while hoping to reunite with his parents.
The story is based on the real-life Operacíon Pedro Pan from 1960 to 1962, when 14,000 Cuban children — usually without their parents — were sent to the U.S. for a better life.
The story resonates deeply with Aparicio, a Cuban-American whose own parents came to the U.S. later in the 1960s. The stories Aparicio heard about her parents growing up in communist Cuba and the obstacles they faced after immigrating always stayed with her.
“They’ve been the compass in my life,” she said.
The musical allows Aparicio to honor her family and her heritage, to share a great story from recent history and to examine what it means to be a displaced immigrant in America. And Aparicio and Elkins are not done, as they hope to develop the play for a Broadway run.
Photo courtesy of Rebecca Aparicio
Rebecca Aparicio, a 2002 graduate of Hoover High School, is an actor, producer and playwright.
Aparicio was born in Miami and moved to Birmingham with her family when she was 14. She graduated from The University of Montevallo in 2007 with a BFA in theater and a BA in voice.
She met — and begin collaborating — with Elkins in college. They got married in 2008 and moved to New York in 2009, and Aparicio has amassed numerous acting, writing and producing credits.
Aparicio, who said it was tough trying to make it as a Hispanic actor in New York, was commissioned by The TRUF Theatre in 2013 to write a children’s musical using a fairy tale or fable and accessing her cultural heritage.
“As I researched fairy tales, none of them were really speaking to me,” Aparicio said.
But she stumbled across the Operacíon Pedro Pan website.
“I knew that this was the story I wantedto tell because it was my parents’ story,” she said.
“They both came here as young children leaving behind everything in Cuba,” Aparicio said. “Even though both got to leave with one parent, they still left behind family that they didn’t know if they would ever see again.”
Pedro Pan opened Off-Broadway at The Chain Theatre in New York in 2014. It had a critically praised run in the 2015 New York International Fringe Festival. And the play won the 2017 NYMF Developmental Reading Series Award, giving Aparicio and Elkins the chance to produce the play at the NYMF this summer.
Aparicio said she wants to tell stories that are often not told in the theater and to honor different people and cultures.
It’s “a unique thing to be able to create” a play with a entirely Latin cast, she said.
“And it’s an immigrant story, … and that is not something you see a whole lot,” Aparicio said.
Aparicio and Elkins spent the month of August at a writers retreat getting started on a new musical. But they’ll also continue working to improve “Pedro Pan.”
They dream of a Broadway run, which will likely take the couple another three years or so to bring to fruition, according to Aparicio.
For more about the play, go to pedropanthemusical.com.
