Lina Hall and Odalys Nanin in "Garbo's Cuban Lover"
Twelve years ago I was looking for material for my next play. I had just finished producing my own lesbian adaptation of Garcia Lorca’s Blood Wedding, which received great reviews and a Critic’s Pick in Backstage West.
I believe that each play has a time and birthing of its own. Someone in 1999 had told me about Mercedes de Acosta and her lesbian relationship with Greta Garbo. I did some research and was able to buy her autobiography. I read about 25 pages and put it down. It just was not believable to me at that time.
Fast forward to a year later — 2000. While reading a magazine, I turned the page to see that the letters of Mercedes de Acosta to Greta Garbo, written during their 29-year friendship and until now kept sealed, would be made public!
Odalys Nanin
I immediately got in my car and drove home to retrieve de Acosta’s book from my bookcase. Was it really true? Did she really have an affair with Garbo and Dietrich? I had to read the letters. I called the museum, made an appointment and took the next plane to Philadelphia. On my way there, I finished reading the book I had put down a year ago.
I got to the museum and was greeted by a woman who led me to a small room. She gave me a pair of gloves and instructed me that she would bring only 20 letters at a time for me to read. I sat there for hours, devouring every word of love written to Mercedes de Acosta from Marlene Dietrich, Isadora Duncan, Eva Le Gallienne and of course, my Garbo.
As a Cuban woman and artist, it was amazing to be able to hold in my hands and read these love letters to another Cuban woman like myself 70 years ago. I felt like a peeping Tom as I read, my mind traveling back in time and visualizing them together. The letters from Dietrich and Eva Le Gallienne were the longest and most romantic. Garbo’s letters were short but to the point. There was no doubt in my mind now. Mercedes de Acosta’s book was not a lie, and it truly served as the sole testimony of her affairs with two of the most celebrated women during the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Upon my return to Los Angeles, I opened my laptop and started to write what would become Garbo’s Cuban Lover. I wrote the first draft in two weeks. My mind could not stop thinking about it, and therefore I could not sleep. I felt that I was channeling the voices of these characters. Mercedes became me or should I say, I became Mercedes de Acosta. The play took form as each page told the story that poured from my mind and heart. Like Ernest Hemingway, I believe that good writing is true writing. So, I created the Garbo and Mercedes love affair based on my own experiences with love and relationships.
Ginger Pennington
Once I finished the first draft, I called my friend Ivonne Coll who came on board as my co-director and we embarked in casting and rehearsing the play. I re-wrote during the rehearsals, and every day new pages were given to the actors. Two weeks before we opened, I changed the ending.
The play took over my life and nothing else mattered more to me than this play. The opening was scheduled for Sept. 15, 2001. Needless to say, four days before our scheduled opening, the Twin Towers were hit. Everyone told me not to open because of 9/11, but my heart told me that we should do so. After all, what better place to hide from the present tragedy? It seemed that everyone wanted to run away to another time.
Garbo’s Cuban Lover opened to a full house and received a standing ovation that night. It ran for 21 shows to full houses. I will never forget it for as long as I live.
It garnered several awards as well as Critic’s Pick in Backstage West and was chosen as one of the best 10 plays by The Advocate magazine. The birthing, development and final production of this play has been the most gratifying experience for me as a writer, producer, director and actor — so much so that this will be its third revival.
Next spring it will go to London and, I hope, tour in Europe. I also wrote the screenplay version of the play and am in the midst of raising money for its filming.
Elyse Mirto and Odalys Nanin
Garbo’s Cuban Lover is the story of one woman, who – in the middle of adversity and against all odds to the point of losing the love of Garbo, her soul mate for more then 29 years – stood up and said:
“I won’t live to see it but one day two women will be free to love each other. I’m a writer and this is the last book I write. The most difficult task in writing this book was to write about you (Garbo), but I believe that in spite of it all I must stand by myself and write this book.”
On June 23, 2011, New York State passed the same-sex marriage law.
Mercedes de Acosta died in NYC in 1968. Garbo died in New York City in 1990.
I dedicate this play to my father who passed away on July 18, 2001 and to all those people, like myself and Mercedes, who still believe in soul mates.
Garbo’s Cuban Lover, presented by Macha Theatre/Films. Co-directed by Laura Butler and Odalys Nanin. Fri.-Sat. 8 pm; Sun. 7 pm. Through October 30. Macha Theatre, 1107 N. Kings Road, West Hollywood. 323-960-4429. www.goldstar.com, www.Lastagetix.com, www.plays411.com/garbo or www.garboscubanloverthefilm.com
Odalys Nanin is the founder and producing artistic director of Macha Theatre Company located in the heart of West Hollywood. Her other original works include Skin of Honey, Beyond Love, The Nun and the Countess, The Adventures of the Lieutenant Nun, Love Struck, Naked in the Tropics, and Lavender Love (also set in the Golden Age of Hollywood). The Cuban-born writer is a graduate of the Drama Studio London and Rutgers University. Also an actor, she has appeared in over 30 plays in New York and Los Angeles.
***All Garbo’s Cuban Lover production photos by Chris Hume
