The USF professor turned playwright

By Colette Bancroft, Times Staff Writer
Published October 14, 2007

THE STORY: In 2005, the University of South Florida theater department produced Cuban Bread, a play written by Denis Calandra, professor and former department chairman, and a Tampa resident since 1978. The play is a historical romance set in Ybor City in the 1930s.

FROM THE STORY: Calandra says that when he wrote the play in 1988, it was focused on the struggle in the 1930s between the cigar workers' unions and Tampa's power structure, a struggle that shook the cigar industry, then one of the city's largest. "Those were politically fraught times."

While writing the play, Calandra interviewed many of the former cigarmakers. "I talked to people of all political persuasions, all races. Each interview was another revelation. It all impressed on me the incredibly rich cultural heritage this town had."

He learned a great deal about Ybor City's sometimes contentious history and its vibrant community. "A lot of it's gone now. You just get all the Bourbon Street baloney. But under the crust, it's still there. It's more than just nostalgia."

THE REST OF THE STORY: Calandra is still writing about Florida, but he has moved from past to present. "When I have European visitors, I hand out Carl Hiaasen novels like Gideon Bibles," he says. One of those visitors was British director Matthew Francis. In 2001 he and Calandra began working on a stage adaptation of Lucky You, Hiaasen's 1997 novel about lottery winners.

When Hiaasen did a reading at USF during a 2002 book tour, the pair "just walked up and introduced ourselves." The novelist was receptive, so they kept working on the script and doing staged readings. In 2003, they put on a reading for "the very small audience of Carl and his family" at the library in Islamorada, where Hiaasen lived. He was impressed, Calandra says, and offered his help: "He's been as good as his word."

In December, the Key West Players presented a fully staged production of Lucky You, with nine actors playing 30 roles. Hiaasen attended, and approved. "He did a wonderful talkback with the audience."

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT: Lucky You has a producer, Katherine Dore, who has produced plays in London and on Broadway. Calandra says, "There will, that's capital W-I-L-L, be a production in 2008 in the U.K.," where Hiaasen has a "huge following." No details are in place yet, but the long-range plan, Calandra says, is for the play to open perhaps in a regional theater in Britain, move to London, then to a "significant venue" in the United States and from there to New York. "It's my business to be optimistic."

[Last modified October 12, 2007, 21:57:16]