Naked in the Tropics, produced by Macha Theatre/Films and Odalys Nanin, continues Fri.-Sat., 8 pm; Sun., 7 pm; through Feb. 21. Tickets: $34. Macha Theatre, 1107 N. Kings Rd., West Hollywood; 323.960.1057 or plays411.com/nakedtropics

Odalys Nanin

They say all good things come in threes. Odalys Nanin proves this in her most recent play, Naked in the Tropics. “When I set out to do theatre there are three things I want to do with the audience: educate, entertain and enlighten.” she says. And with her seventh play, she does just that.

Nanin, founder and Producing Artistic Director of Macha Theatre/Films, was the recent recipient of the Maverick Award from the Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Group. She directs, acts in, writes and is co-lyricist with Danny Indart who penned the music for Naked in the Tropics.

Nanin’s previous plays include The Adventures of the Lieutenant Nun, Beyond Love, Skin of Honey, Love Struck, Garbo’s Cuban Lover (”Ten Best,” The Advocate), The Nun and the Countess (”Ten Best,” The Advocate) as well as her translation and adaptation of Blood Wedding (Back Stage Critic’s Pick).  She is the recipient of the Pat Parker Arts Award and was named one of the 100 People Who Make a Difference by Out Magazine. Nanin is a graduate of The Drama Studio London and Rutgers University.

The entertainment component of the show might be most obvious. Nanin uses song and dance along with her witty writing to make the audience roll over with laughter in the 99 seat theatre.

The music within the show is something new for Nanin that came out of her creative process. Although Naked is not a musical, Nanin believed the show called for characters to sing what they are feeling.

There are three or four songs in the show that capture what Nanin thought she could not put in plain written word. They move the story forward and provide the audience with an enhanced entertainment experience.

The play centers on Andy, a bi-curious youth with a pregnant girlfriend, who develops a relationship with Joe, a porn star, drug dealer and nude dancer at the Tropics night club. As the play continues, all the characters, including Isis, Andy’s beautiful lesbian mother, and her lover Alicia, come together and fight as Andy faces grievous injustice.

From a full frontal nudity tribal animal dance set in the tropics opening the show to a condom with a Mexican hat flying across the stage during “The Birthing Song,” Nanin assures audiences will find something to laugh at. “Audiences need laughter to have a release so they will let more in,” says Nanin. “This is what I try to do with my work, to make sure people have just as much fun watching as I do onstage.”

And audiences have already approved of Nanin’s sense of humor. “They laugh hysterically,” she says. “It is a joy to see them enjoy it like that, to give you instant feedback. It’s the only medium where you have that instant feedback.”

Natalie Salins and Odalys Nanin

Although comedy is one of Nanin’s goals in Naked, the show goes much further. “When I write a show, I like to lead the audience to do different things,” says Nanin. In Naked, Nanin wanted the audience to learn about the increasingly important and controversial issue of immigration. But using theatre to teach an audience isn’t as simple as putting together a lesson plan.

“I can’t just write a play on immigration, no one will come to see it,” says Nanin. Thus, she had to be clever. Amongst the antics and hilarity, she embeds knowledge for the audience to take back with them into the real world. When one of the characters faces deportation, Nanin uses this plot point to discuss the implications of the U.S.’s current system and how it affects its citizens.

After Nanin makes you laugh and think, she will make you feel. The jokes and lessons of the show are all framed within the story of a web of intertwined relationships and the power of love that brings, then keeps them together. “It’s about how a mother’s love for her child is ‘blind love’,” she says. With no children of her own, Nanin first got the idea for Naked while talking to her girlfriends about their problems with their teenage children.

“I was shocked and fascinated about all the things these kids were doing with drugs and what not,” says Nanin. “I come from a generation where everything is simple and you didn’t do anything without your parent’s permission; now, it’s like what the heck is going on?”

Nanin remembers her mother, who was a Cuban immigrant, raising kids and how much she sacrificed for her children. Even in scenes like “The Birthing Song” which is at the surface comedic, Nanin has a deeper message and purpose. “I wanted to honor women and magnify their experience. So many women around the world do this one unselfish thing.”

Although the love of a mother for her child is central, in the end Naked honors all forms of love. “The play reveals the love each character has for another and connects that love to another character, and so on,” says Nanin.  “It’s all about love.”

In a recent review of her play, critic of Accessibly Live Richard Borowy says it best: “It’s not too often one single stage work can be three plays in one…It bares it all and it does all in the name of love in more ways than one can imagine!”

Nanin’s play brings the characters onstage and the audience together with comedy, education and a universal emotional message. As a writer and actress Nanin believes in channeling the play as it comes and letting it have a life of its own. “You have to go with your best feeling. Once you put your words onstage you are naked, baring your soul to the world; you have to be confident.”

Feature image of Daniel Rivera (l.), Carlos Moreno, Castille Landon and story image by Michael Helms

Article by Greta McAnany