Nilo Cruz (born 1960) is an Cuban-American playwright and pedagogue. With his award of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play, Anna in the Tropics, he became the first Latino so honored.^[1]

Biography[link]

Early years[link]

Cruz was born to Tina and Nilo Cruz, Sr. in Matanzas, Cuba. The family immigrated to the "Little Havana" in Miami, Florida in 1970 on a Freedom Flight, and eventually naturalised to the United States. His interest in theater began with acting and directing in the early 1980s. He studied theater first at Miami-Dade Community College, later moving to New York City, where Cruz studied under fellow Cuban María Irene Fornés. Fornes recommended Cruz to Paula Vogel who was teaching at Brown University where he would later receive his M.F.A. in 1994.

Career[link]

In 2001, he served as the playwright-in-residence for the New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida, where he wrote Anna in the Tropics, winner of the 2003 Pulitzer and the Steinberg Award for Best New Play. A year later it received its Broadway premiere with Jimmy Smitts in the lead role.

Some of the theatres that have developed and performed his works include New York’s Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Pasadena Playhouse, McCarter Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, South Coast Repertory, The Alliance, New Theatre, Florida Stage and the Coconut Grove Playhouse.

Cruz wrote the book of the Frank Wildhorn/Jack Murphy musical Havana. Its scheduled world premiere at the Pasadena Playhouse has been delayed by the theatre's declaration of bankruptcy in 2010.^[2]

Cruz has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including two NEA/TCG National Theatre Artist Residency grants, a Rockefeller Foundation grant, San Francisco's W. Alton Jones award, a Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays award and a USA Artist Fellowship.

Cruz is a frequent collaborator with Peruvian-American Latin Grammy composer Gabriela Lena Frank, collaborating on several operas. They recently completed a set of orchestral songs, "La centinela y la paloma" (The Keeper and the Dove), for Dawn Upshaw and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra to be premiered under the baton of Joana Carneiro in February 2011.

Cruz is an alumnus of New Dramatists, has taught playwriting at Brown University, the University of Iowa and at Yale University. He presently lives in New York City and Miami.

Work[link]

Plays[link]

• Dancing on Her Knees (1994)
• Night Train to Bolina (1995)
• A Park in Our House (1995)
• Two Sisters and a Piano (1998)
• A Bicycle Country (1999)
• Hortensia and the Museum of Dreams (2001)
• Anna in the Tropics (2002)
• Lorca in a Green Dress (2003)
• Capricho (2003)
• Beauty of the Father (2006)
• The Color of Desire (2010)
• Hurricane (2010)

Musicals[link]

• Havana - music by Frank Wildhorn, lyrics by Jack Murphy, book by Cruz

Translations[link]

• A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings - a children's play that is an adaptation of a short story by Gabriel García Márquez
• Doña Rosita the Spinster - by Federico García Lorca
• The House of Bernarda Alba - by Federico García Lorca
• Life is a Dream - by Pedro Calderón de la Barca

See also[link]

Literature portal

• List of Cuban Americans
• List of Cuban American writers

References[link]

1. ^ Hilton Als (23 January 2006). "Ghosts and Hosts: Two Troubled Households". The New Yorker. http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/01/23/060123crth_theatre. Retrieved 2008-12-25. 
2. ^ "Pasadena Playhouse files Chapter 11 petition". Los Angeles Times. May 11, 2010. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2010/05/pasadena-playhouse-files-chapter-11-petition.html. Retrieved May 11, 2010. 

External links[link]

• Nilo Cruz at the Internet Broadway Database
• Nilo Cruz at the Internet Movie Database
• Nilo Cruz at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Nilo Cruz Interview by Beth Stevens on Broadway.com
• New Plays And Playwrights - Working in the Theatre Seminar video at American Theatre Wing.org, January 2004
• Bomb magazine interview
• Articles about Nilo Cruz and Life is a Dream at South Coast Repertory

Lin-Manuel Miranda
Miranda at the White House Evening of Poetry, Music, and the Spoken Word on May 12, 2009
Born	(1980-01-16) January 16, 1980 (age 32) New York City

Lin-Manuel Miranda (born January 16, 1980) is a Puerto Rican-American composer, rapper, lyricist, and actor. He is most famous for writing and starring as Usnavi in the Broadway musical In the Heights, which opened on Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in 2008 and for which he won the Tony Award as composer and lyricist.

Early life[link]

Lin-Manuel was born in northern Manhattan, New York City, New York. He grew up in the Inwood section of Manhattan and is of Puerto Rican descent.^[1]

Education[link]

After graduating from Hunter College High School, Miranda went on to attend Wesleyan University^[1][2] and graduated in 2002. During this time, he co-founded a hip hop comedy troupe called Freestyle Love Supreme. He wrote the earliest draft of In the Heights in 1999, his sophomore year of college. After the show was accepted by Wesleyan's student theater company The Second Stage, Miranda worked on adding "freestyle rap ... bodegas, and salsa numbers."^[1] It played from 20 April to 22 April.

Miranda wrote and directed several other musicals at Wesleyan. He also acted in many other productions, ranging from musicals to Shakespeare.

[edit] In the Heights

In 2002, Miranda and Mailer worked with director Tommy Kail and wrote five separate drafts of In the Heights that were dissected. During this time, Miranda worked as an English teacher at his former high school. After making it off-Broadway, the play went to Broadway in 2008.^[1] Miranda made his last performance in the Broadway show on February 15, 2009.^[3]

However, Miranda reprised his role of Usnavi when the national tour of In the Heights played in Los Angeles, California from June 23 to July 25, 2010.^[4][5] The tour continued without him at the helm until it played in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where he played Usnavi.

The Broadway production played its final performance on January 9, 2011 after 29 previews and 1,185 regular performances. Miranda reprised the role of Usnavi from December 25, 2010 until the closing of the production.^[6]

Other work[link]

Miranda wrote, directed, and acted in an independent film called Clayton's Friends (1996). In 2007, Miranda made an appearance on the television series The Sopranos in the episode "Remember When."^[7] Miranda also worked as an English teacher at his former high school, wrote for the Manhattan Times as a columnist and restaurant reviewer, and composed music for commercials.^[8] In 2008, Miranda was invited by composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz to contribute two new songs to a revised version of Schwartz and Nina Faso's 1978 musical Working, which opened in May 2008 at the Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, Florida.^[9]

Miranda wrote Spanish language dialogue and worked with Stephen Sondheim to translate into Spanish song lyrics for the revival of West Side Story, which opened on Broadway in March 2009.^[10][11] He is also a composer and actor on the 2009 revival of The Electric Company. Miranda also appeared in the CollegeHumor sketch "Hardly Working: Rap Battle," playing himself working as an intern and rapper.^[12] In September 2009, Miranda played Alvie, Gregory House's roommate in a psychiatric hospital, in the two-hour season six premiere episode of House. He reprised the role in May 2010.^[13] He also has done work for Sesame Street, where he has played occasional roles and sings the theme song to Murray Has a Little Lamb.^[14]

He is a member of Freestyle Love Supreme, a performance group of freestylers that make up words on the spot. Chris Jackson, a member of the original Broadway cast of In the Heights, is also a member.

Miranda and the cast of In the Heights performed segments from the show at the Lincoln Center Barnes and Noble. They also performed at the Virgin Megastore. Recently a flash mob performance done by Flash Mob America showing a large scale street version of 96,000 being performed as Miranda ate lunch. Miranda has made several popular YouTube videos centered on In the Heights, performing songs like "Bet on It" from High School Musical 2 and "Run This Town" with lyrics altered to concern the show.

He is working on The Hamilton Mixtape, a hip hop album based upon the life of Alexander Hamilton.^[15] He performed part of it at the White House Evening of Poetry, Music, and the Spoken Word on May 12, 2009, accompanied by Alex Lacamoire.^[16]

He also co-wrote the music and lyrics for Bring It On: The Musical, with Tom Kitt and Amanda Green. The musical opened on October 30, 2011 at the Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles, California at the start of a US National tour.^[17][18]

Personal life[link]

Miranda married Vanessa Nadal, a high school friend who grew up with him in Washington Heights, in September 2010 after dating her for five years.^[19][20][21]

The principal female character in In the Heights, Vanessa, is not based on Nadal, as many people believe. At the wedding reception, Miranda, along with the wedding party, presented Vanessa with a group rendition of the Fiddler on the Roof song "L'Chaim".^[22] The video was posted on YouTube^[23] and quickly became popular on the internet.

Miranda received an honorary degree from Yeshiva University during its May 14, 2009 graduation ceremony. He is the youngest person to receive an honorary degree from Yeshiva University.^[24] His show In the Heights is based in the upper Manhattan community of Washington Heights, which is also home to Yeshiva's campus. Ed Koch, former mayor of New York City, presented Miranda with the degree and remarked about first meeting him when Miranda was seven years old.^{[citation needed]}

Awards[link]

Miranda has won the following awards:

• 2009 Grammy, Best Musical Show Album, In the Heights
• 2008 Tony Award, Best Musical, In the Heights
• 2008 Tony Award, Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre, In the Heights
• 2008 Dramatists Guild of America Frederick Loewe Award ("achievement in a theatrical score presented on Broadway in the previous theatrical season")^[25]
• 2007 Theatre World Award for Outstanding Debut, In the Heights
• 2007 Clarence Derwent Award, In the Heights
• 2007 Obie Award for Music and Lyrics, In the Heights
• 2007 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Ensemble Performance, In the Heights
• 2007 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Musical, In the Heights
• 2007 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical, In the Heights
• 2007 Broadway.com Audience Award for Favorite Off-Broadway Musical, In the Heights

In addition, Miranda was nominated for the following awards:

• 2007 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Lyrics, In the Heights
• 2007 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Music, In the Heights^[7]
• 2008 Tony Award Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical
• 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, one of three finalists

See also[link]

	Puerto Rico portal
	Biography portal
	Literature portal

• Puerto Rican literature

References[link]

External links[link]

• Website: http://linmanuel.com/
• Lin-Manuel Miranda at the Internet Broadway Database
• Lin-Manuel Miranda at the Internet Movie Database

The word asshole, a variant of arsehole, which is still prevalent in British and Australian English, is a vulgar to describe the anus, often pejoratively used to refer to people.

History[link]

The word arse in English derives from the Germanic root *arsaz, which originated from the Proto-Indo-European root *ors — meaning buttocks or backside.^[1] The combined form arsehole is first attested from 1500 in its literal use to refer to the anus. The metaphorical use of the word to refer to the worst place in a region, e.g., "the arsehole of the world") is first attested in print in 1865; the use to refer to a contemptible person is first attested in 1933.^[2] In the ninth chapter of his 1945 autobiography, Black Boy, Richard Wright quotes a snippet of verse that uses the term: "All these white folks dressed so fine / Their ass-holes smell just like mine ...". Its first appearance as an insult term in a newspaper indexed by Google News is in 1965.^[3] As with other vulgarities, these uses of the word may have been common in oral speech for some time before their first print appearances. By the 1970s, Hustler magazine featured people they did not like as "Asshole of the Month."^[4] In 1972, Jonathan Richman's Modern Lovers recorded his song "Pablo Picasso," which includes the line "Pablo Picasso was never called an asshole."

Until the early 1990s, the word was considered one of a number of words that could not be uttered on commercial television in the United States. Comedian Andrew Dice Clay caused a major shock when he uttered the word during a televised MTV awards show in 1989.^[5] However, there were PG-13 and R rated films in the 1980s that featured use of the word, such as the R-rated The Terminator (1984), the PG-13-rated National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989), and the PG-rated Back to the Future (1985). By 1994, however, vulgarity had become more acceptable, and the word was featured in dialog on the long-running television series NYPD Blue, though it has yet to become anything close to commonplace on network TV. In some broadcast edits (such as the syndication airings of South Park), the word is partially bleeped out — ironically, as "assh—", with the profane half of the word intact.

Semantics[link]

The word is mainly used as a vulgarity, generally to describe people who are viewed as stupid or incompetent or detestable.^[6]

This word or its literal translation is found in colloquial speech in a number of cultures (in both English and other languages).^[7] This is because it describes an organ of elimination that is considered a taboo region (since it belongs to the intimate parts) of the body in many societies.^[8]

The English word ass (meaning donkey, a cognate of its zoological name Equus asinus) may also be used as a term of contempt, referring to a silly or stupid person. In the United States, and, to a lesser degree, in Canada, the words arse and ass have become synonymous; however, in the rest of the English-speaking world, ass still only refers to the donkey, rather than the arse (buttocks). It is worth noting that speakers of some varieties of English "drop their Rs" before consonants, leading to a pronunciation of arse that is quite similar to ass.^[9]

Political usage[link]

In 2000, during a Labor Day event, then candidate George W. Bush made an off-hand remark to his running mate, Dick Cheney, that New York Times reporter Adam Clymer was a "major league asshole." The gaffe was caught on microphone and led to a political advertisement chiding Bush for "using expletives ... in front of a crowd of families," produced for Democratic opponent Al Gore.^[10]

In February 2004, American media reported that during a rally of supporters, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called Bush "an asshole" for believing his aides in supporting a coup against Chavez in 2002.^[11] The word in the original Spanish was "pendejo", and in news coverage the word was widely, though incorrectly, translated as "asshole"; the meaning of the word varies substantially in Latin America, and in Venezuela its meaning is closer to "fool".^[12] The following year, in September, Nightline host Ted Koppel said to Chavez on national television, "I'm going to perhaps shock you a little, but these are your words. You called President Bush an asshole," to which Chavez replied, "I've said various things about him. I don't know if I actually used that word."^[13]

See also[link]

• Arse
• The No Asshole Rule
• Sexual Slang
• Profanity

References[link]