Reinaldo Povod


Reinaldo Povod was an American playwright.

Life

Reinaldo Povod, known to his friends as Rei grew up on the Lower East Side.
The son of a Puerto Rican mother and a Cuban father of Russian descent. In 1977, his play Cries and Shouts played at the Nuyorican Poets Café, where Mr. Povod was a protege of Miguel Piñero.
Bill Hart brought Mr. Povod to the attention of Joseph Papp, who invited him to become a resident playwright at the Public Theater.
In 1986, Cuba and His Teddy Bear opened on Broadway, with Robert De Niro in the lead, for which Mr. Povod received the George Oppenheimer/Newsday Award.
In 2009, Cuba and His Teddy Bear received its Chicago premiere by the Urban Theater Company and People's Theater of Chicago. Reinaldo Povod co-authored the play Super Fishbowl Sunday with longtime friend and collaborator Richard Barbour, which was produced in 2001 at the Krane Theater in Manhattan, directed by Mr. Barbour.
The play Super Fishbowl Sunday has since been adapted into a screenplay by Richard Barbour and Joseph Barbour and is in pre-production at Bergen Street Ent.
Mr. Povod died at the age of 34 from TB and complications from AIDS.

Awards

Povod's story has much incident but not a lot of plot. He relies on arbitrary action more than character development and takes too long reaching an ending. Moments might be cathartic except that these people, with the exception of the son, are not the sort to learn from their mistakes. But Povod knows his terrain, his dialogue is sharp and colorful yet fits the characters, he never bogs down in exposition, and he sentimentalizes nothing.