Theatre alumnus Michel Hausmann ’14 Brings Theater to Vacant Miami Beach Storefronts
Theatre alumnus and Miami New Drama Artistic Director Michel Hausmann ’14 will stage 7 Deadly Sins — Temptation in the Magic City in vacant Miami Beach storefronts this fall. The series of short plays will be written by Hilary Bettis, Nilo Cruz, Moisés Kaufman, Rogelio Martinez, Dael Orlandersmith, Carmen Pelaez, and Aurin Squire.
Miami New Drama has been the resident theater company at the historic Colony Theatre on Lincoln Road since 2016. Founded by Hausmann and Kaufman, the nonprofit professional theater company believes in the “transformational power of theater,” calling it “a tool for change, empathy, reflection, and exploration.” Miami New Drama is dedicated to making theater that “is in conversation with [its] unique multicultural and multilingual community.”
Like many theater companies, Miami New Drama has had to come up with creative ways to connect performers and audiences safely in the age of Covid-19. Hausmann discusses this predicament in an interview for The Washington Post: “This pandemic has shown in stark light the fragility of our world. But theater has survived for thousands of years and through many world catastrophes. We must find new ways to present live theatre until we can gather indoors again.”
Now, newly empty storefronts along Miami’s luxurious Lincoln Road will help make these innovative ideas a reality. Miami has given cultural institutions and new retail shops permission to fill these spaces in a mutually beneficial exchange: fewer vacancies will raise revenue for the city while providing safe venues for performing artists. The Miami City Ballet has already established itself in one of the available windows.
Hausmann is a Venzuelan-born theater director, producer, and writer. He is the bookwriter and director of the original musical The Golem Of Havana, which premiered at La Mama in 2013, received its world premiere at Barrington Stage Company in 2014, and had a critically acclaimed run at The Colony Theatre. Hausmann's Off Broadway credits include the New York Premiere of Vassily Sigarev's Black Milk at East 13th Theater and the New York premiere of Nilo Cruz’s The Color Of Desire. In Caracas, Hausmann was the Artistic Director of Palo De Agua, a leading Venezuelan theater company, where he directed the world premiere of Isaac Chocrón’s Los Navegaos, as well as critically acclaimed productions of Fiddler on the Roof, Jesus Christ Superstar, and The Producers. He is a New York Theater Workshop 2050 Fellow, a Shubert Presidential fellow, an IRNE nominee, a Richard Rodgers Award finalist, and a Knight Arts Award recipient.
7 Deadly Sins — Temptation in the Magic City will be performed in November and December to socially-distanced audiences; groups of ten will use headphones to listen to the performances outside.