Melinda Lopez is an actress, playwright, and educator from Boston, Massachusetts. She is the first ever playwright-in-residence for the Huntington Theatre Company. She is a professor at Northeastern University.
Career As a playwright, Lopez has produced a sizable body of work that spans the last two decades and has garnered a variety of awards. Lopez's plays include Alexandros (Laguna Playhouse), Caroline in Jersey (Williamstown Theatre Festival), and Sonia Flew, which premiered at the Huntington Theatre in Boston, MA in 2004 and won several Best New Play awards. The Huntington's production of Sonia Flew was the inaugural production at the Huntington's space for new work, the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts. Sonia Flew has since been produced for radio broadcast and in multiple other cities. Lopez has also authored God Smells Like a Roast Pig (Women on Top Festival), The Order of Things (CentaStage), How do you Spell Hope? (Underground Railway Theatre), and a translation of Federico García Lorca's Blood Wedding for Suffolk University. In 2009, she was commissioned by the National Institute of Health to author a work celebrating the bicentennial of Charles Darwin's birth, leading to her play From Orchids to Octopi, An Evolutionary Love Story. In 2013, Lopez was made the first ever playwright in residence at the Huntington Theatre thanks to a three-year grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Lopez has held residencies with Harvard University, the New York Theatre Workshop, Sundance, and The Lark. Lopez has also acted in regional theaters across the country, most recently with Huntington Theatre Company and Speakeasy Stage Company of Boston.
Lopez's works frequently focus on the stories of Cuban or Cuban-American characters. Her play Becoming Cuba is set in 1897 Havana on the eve of the Spanish–American War, Alexandros centers on a Cuban family in exile, Sonia Flew is about a woman who was sent to the United States from Cuba as a child in 1961, and her one-woman show Midnight Sandwich/Medianoche (previously titled God Smells Like a Roast Pig) deals explicitly with Lopez's own struggle with her Cuban heritage.
In November 2016, ArtsEmerson produced Lopez's work, Mala. Mala is Lopez's one woman show about "an utterly unsentimental journey towards the end of life, Mala is an irreverent exploration of how we live, cope and survive in the moment." The production was directed by David Dower, and was remounted at the Calderwood Pavilion in January 2018 by the Huntington Theatre Company. The Huntington presentation was recorded and broadcast by GBH Channel 2 in 2020.
Personal life Lopez lives with her husband and daughter in Boston,. She has been a member of Actor's Equity Association since 1990. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College and a Master of Arts from Boston University. She is Cuban American, and works with Boston-area charities that give humanitarian aid to Cuba. She is also a long-distance runner and has completed two marathons.
Selected works The Lesson, Boston Theatre Marathon, 1999 Midnight Sandwich/Medianoche; Or, God Smells Like a Roast Pig, The Women on Top Theatre Festival, 1999 What The Market Will Bear, Boston Theatre Marathon, 2000 Scenes from a Bordello, Boston Playwrights' Theater, 2000 The Order of Things, CentaStage, 2000 How Do You Spell Hope?, Underground Railway Theatre, 2001 The Two Fifteen Local, Boston Theatre Marathon, 2002 Sonia Flew, Huntington Theatre Company, 2004 Gary, Steppenwolf Theatre Company First Look New Play Festival, 2007 Alexandros, Laguna Playhouse, 2008 Caroline in Jersey, Williamstown Theatre Festival, 2009 From Orchids to Octopi: An Evolutionary Love Story, Underground Railway Theatre, 2009 Blood Wedding translation, Suffolk University, 2009 Bad Santa, Boston Theatre Marathon, 2010 Downward Facing Dog, Boston Theatre Marathon, 2011 Becoming Cuba, Huntington Theatre Company, 2014 Girl Meets Boy: A Comedy About the Universe, Boston Museum of Science, Ongoing Back the Night, Boston Playwrights' Theatre, 2016 Mala, ArtsEmerson, 2016 Mr. Parent, Lyric Stage Company of Boston, 2022
Acting ShowRoleCompanyYearMany Colors Make the Thunder-kingGuthrie Theater1997A Month in the CountryLizaveta BogdanovnaHuntington Theatre Company2002The Rose TattooAssuntaHuntington Theatre Company2004Anna in the TropicsConchitaSpeakeasy Stage Company2005PersephonePersephoneHuntington Theatre Company2007Oil ThiefAmyBoston Playwrights' Theatre2008The Motherf**ker with the HatVictoriaSpeakeasy Stage Company2012Our TownMrs. GibbsHuntington Theatre Company2013AppropriateToniSpeakeasy Stage Company2015MalaArtsEmerson2016Grand ConcourseShelleySpeakeasy Stage Company2017
Awards YearAwardCategoryWorkResult1999Charlotte Woolard Awardrecognizing "a promising new voice in American theatre."The Order of ThingsWon1999Elliot Norton AwardOutstanding Solo PerformanceGod Smells Like a Roast PigWon2003Massachusetts Cultural CouncilGrant for PlaywritingWon2004Independent Reviewers of New EnglandBest New PlaySonia FlewWon2004Independent Reviewers of New EnglandBest ProductionSonia FlewWon2004Elliot Norton AwardBest New PlaySonia FlewWon2004Elliot Norton AwardBest ProductionSonia FlewWon2008Elliot Norton AwardBest New PlayGaryNominated2011Independent Reviewers of New EnglandBest New PlayFrom Orchids to OctopiWon
See also Cuban American literature List of Cuban-American writers
References
External links
Official website