ARCA IMAGES AND MIAMI-DADE COUNTY AUDITORIUM PRESENT WITH THE SUPPORT OF THE CITY OF CORAL GABLES
A one-time concert event, with the poetry of Nilo Cruz in song – A Three Times Cruz
Produced by Alexa Kuve
SATURDAY JUNE 13. 2026
Sanctuary of the Arts – 410 Andalusia Ave, Coral Gables, FL 33134
TICKETS
$17 general admission.
SYNOPSIS
Conceived as part of Three Times Cruz, this musical evening brings the poetry and dramatic imagination of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Nilo Cruz into song. With music composed and performed by Miranda, musical arrangements by Carlos Silva, and a script by Alexa Kuve, the concert creates an intimate journey through memory, exile, childhood, disguise, language, and the secret signals by which human beings insist on being seen.
Songs performed by emerging talent Miranda and Charles Sothers as the narrator, “Whistling to Death” unfolds as a lyrical concert work in English and Spanish. Songs emerge from Cruz’s poetic world like messages folded into paper and released into the air — prayers, disguises, games, warnings, and acts of resistance.
The show takes its title from the image of a whistle: a small sound, almost fragile, yet sharp enough to survive. In Cruz’s writing, the voice is never merely decorative. It becomes shelter, defiance, memory, and transformation. A child’s signal, a secret language, a song across borders — each becomes a way of saying: I am still here.
Through a sequence of songs and narration, “Whistling to Death” explores the recurring landscapes of Cruz’s theatre and poetry: the body as a room of memory, language as a refuge, exile as both wound and invention, and beauty as an act of resistance. The concert invites audiences into a world where ordinary objects — a scarf, a bicycle, a piece of fruit, a bundle of papers — become charged with longing, danger, and revelation.
In this musical setting, Cruz’s poetic imagination finds a new dimension. The spoken and sung word meet in a space between theatre and concert, where English and Spanish coexist as part of the same emotional geography.
Miranda, Music Composer and Performer
Miranda is an emerging singer-composer and performer whose work brings a fresh and expressive musical voice to “Whistling to Death: The Poetry of Nilo Cruz in Song.” Recently accepted to Berklee in Boston, she represents a new generation of musical talent, combining vocal sensitivity, theatrical instinct, and original composition.
Her music gives melodic form to Cruz’s poetic universe, creating songs that move between prayer, memory, play, and resistance. For this concert, Miranda brings together voice, presence, and composition in a performance that treats song as both intimate confession and public act.
Charles Sothers, Narrator
Charles Sothers serves as the narrator guiding the audience through a concert work shaped by poetry, music, and theatrical storytelling.
His narration contributes to the evening’s central dialogue between languages, bodies, and identities, creating a space where Nilo Cruz’s poetic images can resonate with clarity, intimacy, and emotional depth.
Carlos Silva, Musical Arranger
Carlos Silva provides the musical arrangements for “Whistling to Death.” His arrangements shape the concert’s musical architecture, supporting the emotional journey of the songs while preserving the intimacy and lyric force of Cruz’s poetry.
About Nilo Cruz
He premiered “Anna in the Tropics” on Broadway starring Jimmy Smits, and was the first Latino to win a Pulitzer Prize for this work. He is the author of more than 16 plays and four translations, and earned a master’s degree in theater from Brown University. Additionally, he is an accomplished theater director who has frequently staged his own works and directed other classic and contemporary pieces. Cruz’s works have been presented at the Public Theater in New York, New York Theatre Workshop, and McCarter Theatre, among others. His numerous accolades include two NEA/TCG National Theatre Artist Residency grants, a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship, a Kennedy Center Fund award, and a PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater award. He has taught playwriting at Brown, Iowa, Yale, and Miami universities. With Arca Images, he served as Artistic Director for 8 years and has presented and directed more than 13 of his own plays, including the recent world premieres of “Hotel Desiderium” and “Kisses Through the Glass,” commissioned and produced by Arca Images, and “Thirst on Water Street,” also under Arca Images’ production.