She is best known for penning the book to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “In the Heights.”
Now, Quiara Alegría Hudes delivers “Daphne’s Dive” at Signature Theatre in Virginia.
“She has been such an inspiration for Latinx artists,” Director Paige Hernandez told WTOP. “You may recognize her as one of the co-authors of ‘In the Heights,’ which recently had its cinematic debut. She’s also the author of several plays, which include [the Pulitzer Prize-winning] ‘Water by the Spoonful.’ … We’re so thrilled to bring ‘Daphne’s Dive’ to life.”
The story follows Puerto Rican bartender Daphne (Rayanne Gonzales), whose Philly bar welcomes her younger sister Ines (Yesenia Iglesias), Ines’ politician husband Acosta (James Whalen), eccentric artist Pablo (Jonathan Atkinson), biker Ray (Jefferson Russell), performance artist Jenn (Quynh-My Luu) and adopted child Ruby (Jyline Carranza).
“Ruby is who sets everything in motion,” Hernandez said. “Ruby is found outside in the dumpsters back behind the bar. Our play begins with the introduction to Ruby and who she becomes. … A lot of this is close to Quiara’s real life in that her father owned a bar, she knows a lot of these characters. Now they get to be fictionalized and live with us forever.”
The bar serves as a “Cheers”-style meeting spot to explore universal themes.
“Unlike any theater piece I’ve seen, you can really understand how ‘found families’ are created … how we can be resilient with each other, community,” Hernandez said. “There’s also overcoming trauma, how we deal with our coping mechanisms of how we get through things day to day. All that sounds pretty spot on for what we’re collectively experiencing.”
Most fascinating is how the show takes place over the course of 20 years.
“Quiara has written something stupendous in that we get to see full character arcs in 90 minutes,” Hernandez said. “A lot of times you go see a play, it may take place over the course of a year or month, but we don’t know what happens after the show ends. [Here] we see them age; how what they do in the next scene is informed by five years ago.”
The passage of time is conveyed by scenic designer Meghan Raham.
“That’s where we get to bring in the magic of theater, which looks like transitions and interludes where you get to see these people age on stage,” Hernandez said. “They change clothes right in front of you, they move their belongings, they reset the bar. … We really get to move through time in a way that’s artistic and thoughtful.”
The bar includes visual shoutouts to both Philadelphia and Puerto Rico.
“A lot of the cast identifies as Afro-Latinx,” Hernandez said. “You’ll see tchotchkes from all of our lives. … It’s an Easter Egg Hunt where a lot of what you see are things that we brought to set from our travels to different places in the Caribbean … our family pictures.”
Regardless of where you’re from, when you grab a barstool at Signature for “Daphne’s Dive,” you’ll leave inspired to overcome your own struggles for a brighter future.
“We all at one point in our lives are broken or damaged goods — what choices we make to persevere and who decides to stand in our corner,” Hernandez said. “Any moment of pain, transgression or trauma is temporary. It doesn’t feel like that when you’re carrying it like luggage … but the truth is that moment is temporary. We can all move past and through it.”
Listen to our full conversation here.
