Unmerciful Good Fortune

Last updated

Unmerciful Good Fortune is a play by Puerto Rican-born playwright Edwin Sanchez which premiered in Chicago in 1996. [1] [2] It tells the story of friendship between Maritza Cruz, an assistant district attorney, and Fatima Garcia, a woman claiming to be clairvoyant who has killed 28 people. [3]

In December 2024, Rosario Dawson announced that she was producing and starring in a film adaptation of Unmerciful Good Fortune, described as "a supernatural horror thriller". [4]

Reception

The play won the AT&T On Stage New Play Award. [5]

A 2001 review in Back Stage magazine called the play "poetic...a deeply moving love story and tragedy". [2] A review in The New York Times said that "the conflicts that the conflicts that interest Mr. Sanchez – ones between good girl and bad, obedient daughter and independent woman, heterosexual and homosexual, and most pertinently, between Latina and American – are thoughtfully enmeshed". [6]

Related Research Articles

<i>The Rose Tattoo</i> Play by Tennessee Williams

The Rose Tattoo is a three-act play written by Tennessee Williams in 1949 and 1950; after its Chicago premiere on December 29, 1950, he made further revisions to the play for its Broadway premiere on February 2, 1951, and its publication by New Directions the following month. A film adaptation was released in 1955. The Rose Tattoo tells the story of an Italian-American widow in Mississippi who has withdrawn from the world after her husband's death and expects her daughter to do the same.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cuba Gooding Jr.</span> American actor (born 1968)

Cuba Mark Gooding Jr. is an American actor. After his breakthrough role as Tre Styles in Boyz n the Hood (1991), he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor playing a football star in Jerry Maguire (1996). His other notable films include A Few Good Men (1992), Judgment Night (1993), Lightning Jack (1994), As Good as It Gets (1997), Men of Honor (2000), Pearl Harbor (2001), Snow Dogs (2002), Radio (2003), Norbit (2007), Linewatch (2008), Red Tails (2012), and The Butler (2013). He has done voice acting in Home on the Range (2004) and The Land Before Time XIII: The Wisdom of Friends (2007).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Felicity Kendal</span> English actress (born 1946)

Felicity Ann Kendal is an English actress, working principally in television and theatre. She has appeared in numerous stage and screen roles over a more than 70-year career, including as Barbara Good in the television series The Good Life from 1975 to 1977. Kendal was born in Olton, England, but moved to India with her family from the age of seven. Her father was an English actor-manager who led his own repertory company on tours of India, and Kendal appeared in roles for the company both before and after leaving England. She appeared in the film Shakespeare Wallah (1965) which was inspired by her family.

<i>Chicago</i> (musical) 1975 musical by John Kander and Fred Ebb

Chicago is a 1975 American musical with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. Set in Chicago in the Jazz Age, the musical is based on a 1926 play of the same title by Maurine Dallas Watkins about actual criminals and crimes on which she reported. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Hare (playwright)</span> British playwright, screenwriter and director

Sir David Rippon Hare is an English playwright, screenwriter and theatre director. Best known for his stage work, Hare has also enjoyed great success with films, receiving two Academy Award nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay for writing The Hoursin 2002 and The Reader in 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosario Dawson</span> American actress (born 1979)

Rosario Isabel Dawson is an American actress. She made her feature-film debut in the 1995 independent drama Kids. Her subsequent film roles include He Got Game (1998), Josie and the Pussycats (2001), Men in Black II (2002), The Rundown (2003), Rent (2005), Sin City (2005), Clerks II (2006), Death Proof (2007), Seven Pounds (2008), Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010), Unstoppable (2010), Zookeeper (2011), Trance (2013), Top Five (2014), Zombieland: Double Tap (2019), and Clerks 3 (2022). Dawson has provided voice-over work for Disney/Marvel, Warner Bros./DC Comics, and ViacomCBS's Nickelodeon unit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Busch</span> American dramatist

Charles Louis Busch is an American actor, screenwriter, playwright and drag queen, known for his appearances on stage in his own camp style plays and in film and television. He wrote and starred in his early plays off-off-Broadway beginning in 1978, generally in drag roles, and also acted in the works of other playwrights. He also wrote for television and began to act in films and on television in the late 1990s. His best known play is The Tale of the Allergist's Wife (2000), which was a success on Broadway.

Douglas Wright is an American playwright, librettist, and screenwriter. Known for his extensive work in the American theatre in both plays and musicals, he has received numerous accolades including the Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evelyn Preer</span> American actress and singer (1896–1932)

Evelyn Preer, was an African American pioneering screen and stage actress, and jazz and blues singer in Hollywood during the late-1910s through the early 1930s. Preer was known within the Black community as "The First Lady of the Screen."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean Parker</span> American actress (1915–2005)

Jean Parker was an American film and stage actress. A native of Montana, indigent during the Great Depression, she was adopted by a family in Pasadena, California, at age ten. She initially aspired to be an illustrator and artist, but was discovered at age 16 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer executive Louis B. Mayer after a photograph of her was published in a Los Angeles newspaper when she won a poster contest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denise Chávez</span> American novelist

Denise Elia Chávez is a Chicana author, playwright, and stage director. She has also taught classes at New Mexico State University. She is based in New Mexico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Ortiz</span> American actor (born 1968)

John Augustin Ortiz is an American actor. He is known for his antagonist role as Arturo Braga in Fast & Furious (2009) and Fast & Furious 6 (2013), and Clyde in Jack Goes Boating (2010), which earned him a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actor. He is also an artistic director/co-founder of the LAByrinth Theater Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caroline O'Connor (actress)</span> Australian actress and singer

Caroline Ann O'Connor is an Anglo-Australian singer, dancer, and actress. For her theatre work she has won three Helpmann Awards: Best Female Actor in a Play for Edith Piaf in Piaf in 2001; in the same category for Judy Garland in End of the Rainbow in 2006; and Best Female Actor in a Musical for Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes in 2015.

<i>A Few Good Men</i> 1992 American legal drama film by Rob Reiner

A Few Good Men is a 1992 American legal drama film based on Aaron Sorkin's 1989 play. It was written by Sorkin, directed by Rob Reiner, and produced by Reiner, David Brown and Andrew Scheinman. It stars an ensemble cast including Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon, Kevin Pollak, J. T. Walsh, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Kiefer Sutherland. The plot follows the court-martial of two U.S. Marines charged with the murder of a fellow Marine and the tribulations of their lawyers as they prepare a case.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eric André</span> American comedian and actor (born 1983)

Eric Samuel André is an American comedian, actor, TV show host, writer, producer, and musician. He is best known as the creator, host, and co-writer of the Adult Swim surreal comedy series The Eric Andre Show (2012–2023). His other notable roles include Mike on the FXX comedy series Man Seeking Woman (2015–2017), Luci on the Netflix series Disenchantment (2018–2023), and the voice of Azizi in the remake of The Lion King (2019). He also performs music under the stage name Blarf.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diana Bellamy</span> American actress (1943–2001)

Diana Alice Bellamy was an American character actress of stage, film, and television, during the 1980s and mid-90s who was often cast in both comedic and dramatic roles to great acclaim. Bellamy is known for her starring role as Head Nurse Maggie Poole in the NBC comedy 13 East, as Principal Cecilia Hall in Popular, as Mrs. Pananides in Outbreak, and as Switchboard Operator in Air Force One.

Jennifer Wynne Webber is a Canadian writer, actor, dramaturge, journalist, and television producer currently living and working on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

Baņuta Rubess is a Latvian-Canadian theatre director and playwright. She co-wrote This is For You, Anna as a member of the Anna Project. Rubess was a co-recipient of the 1988 Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award for children's theatre for her play Thin Ice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chapter 13: The Jedi</span> 5th episode of the 2nd season of The Mandalorian

"Chapter 13: The Jedi" is the fifth episode of the second season of the American television series The Mandalorian. It stars Pedro Pascal as the Mandalorian, a bounty hunter trying to return "The Child" to his people, the Jedi. The episode is part of the Star Wars franchise, set after the events of Return of the Jedi (1983), and was written and directed by executive producer Dave Filoni.

Edwin Sanchez is a Puerto Rican-born playwright, novelist, and educator, based in New York City for many years.

References

  1. Pixler, Joe (February 8, 1996). "'Unmerciful Good Fortune' lifts playwright's profile". Chicago Tribune . Retrieved December 14, 2024 via Newspapers.com.
  2. 1 2 Toomer, Jeanette (April 27, 2001). "Unmerciful Good Fortune". Back Stage. Retrieved December 13, 2024 via EBSCOhost.
  3. Connors, Thomas (March 1996). "Destiny's Disciple". American Theatre. Retrieved December 13, 2024 via EBSCOhost.
  4. D'Alessandro, Anthony (December 10, 2024). "Rosario Dawson Will Have 'Unmerciful Good Fortune'". Deadline. Retrieved December 13, 2024.
  5. Garmel, Marion (January 23, 1997). "Six plays scheduled for Humana Festival". The Indianapolis Star. Retrieved December 14, 2024 via Newspapers.com.
  6. Weber, Bruce (April 4, 2001). "Navigating a Dreamlike Land of Assimilation, Fluent in Passion and Hope". The New York Times . Retrieved December 13, 2024 via Gale General OneFile.