"Yeah, I was in the show. I was in the show for 21 days once – the 21 greatest days of my life. You know, you never handle your luggage in the show, somebody else carries your bags. It was great. You hit white balls for batting practice, the ballparks are like cathedrals, the hotels all have room service, and the women all have long legs and brains." – Kevin Costner as Crash Davis in Bull Durham

Melico salazar For Crash, the show, the "bigs", is getting to play in the major leagues. That's the big time. For us (you know, the Cuckoos), the show, the big time, is getting to play at the Melico Salazar. Which we will do this Wednesday night, 7pm.

We are doing a benefit performance of Cuckoo's Nest for Raquel Ramírez, Costa Rica's beloved mezzosoprano:

Raquel has leukemia. While treatments here are a fraction of the cost of treatments in the U.S., it's still expensive. $50,000 expensive. And this is her second bout. The first one wiped them out.

Afiche musica ingles How did this event come about? Like everywhere else, it's all who you know. The mother of one of the actresses in the play has an uncle who works at the theatre. She also knows Amelia, Raquel's mother. And Amelia knows everyone. We met at Amelia's house a week ago to discuss the finer points of Un Acto De Amor. I have a really fun video of the meeting – everyone speaking rapid fire Spanish which Hal followed beautifully – it was very impressive! But the pix and vid are with Hal in the states… to follow.

Melico orchestra Did I mention that the Melico Salazar seats 800 people? Our biggest audience so far at the Teatro Lawrence Olivier, home to the Little Theatre Group, was 96 people. Which is pretty impressive for the TLO! Playing to 800 seats, even if half of them are empty… that's major league.

But we expect to fill every seat. As far as any of us knows, there has never been an English-language play performed at the Melico since it was built in 1928. The ticos in the play are very excited to be playing at the Melico. Definitely our 15 minutes of fame! There's even a local TV commercial playing!!!

If you are in town, come witness an historic event and help Raquel pay for her treatment. Tickets are 5,000 colones (about $10) for orchestra and first mezzanine, 4,000 ($8) for the middle two balconies and 3,000 ($6) for the tippy top seats. Tickets will be on sale at the theater box office today, Monday, June 13. Box office hours: 9am to noon and 1:30 to 5pm. The theatre is on Ave. 2 at the corner of Calle Central. See you there!

P.S. If you'd like to donate anything from afar, here's a pdf with bank account info. You can donate at any Citibank in the U.S. The account number is #36905856, account name ASEMECO, memo Acto de Amor-Raquel. There is also local bank account info if you are here in Costa Rica and can't make the show.

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