Pictured: the cast of That Must Be The Entrance to Heaven: from left to right (Peter Pasco, Edgar Miguel Sanchez, Rodney Nelson, Juan Ramirez. Photo by by Sorcha Augustine.

“We did Urbanite’s first ever call for commissions at the beginning of the shutdown in March of 2020. At that time no one could open their doors–it was a very uncertain time in which we weren’t sure of when we would be able to open our doors and produce like normal,” says Summer Wallace, Producing Artistic Director at Urbanite Theatre. “We felt called to be able to do some work and support artists so we launched the Charles Rowan Beye New Play Commission and playwrights submitted a writing sample along with their idea for potential plays they were interested in writing.”

One of the recipients of the commission was Franky D. Gonzalez’s That Must Be The Entrance to Heaven, which is making its world premiere on June 9 at Urbanite Theatre. The play, which is directed by Kathleen Capdesuñer, is steeped in magical realism–it follows the cosmic journey of four Latino boxers chasing a world title to achieve their personal versions of heaven. “I’m really excited for audience members to see this play,” says Wallace. “You have four men walking the line between life and death in this collision of combat and the cosmos, every single character is fighting for something whether it be survival, legacy, citizenship or glory.”

Creating a setting for such an ambitious story, however, is no easy task. Not only does the play involve multiple boxing matches, but cosmic interventions such as black holes. “We’re going to be relying on our lighting and sound designers pretty heavily to help create the set. The play does have a metaphor of a black hole which we will use lighting, sound and projection to help create,” says Wallace. “The set is very conceptual–there’s not a traditional boxing ring because so many different fights take place in different places throughout the play. The concept of the show, however, is that the set surrounds the audience so that they’re kind of sitting in the middle of the story.”

That Must Be The Entrance to Heaven, June 9 to July 9, Urbanite Theatre, 1487 2nd St., Sarasota.

Pictured: the cast of That Must Be The Entrance to Heaven: from left to right (Peter Pasco, Edgar Miguel Sanchez, Rodney Nelson, Juan Ramirez. Photo by by Sorcha Augustine.