This poignant and poetic Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Nilo Cruz captures 1929 Florida at a time when cigars are still rolled by hand and lectors are employed to educate and entertain the workers. The arrival of a new lector is a cause for celebration. But when he reads aloud from Anna Karenina, he unwittingly becomes a catalyst in the lives of his avid listeners, for whom Tolstoy, the tropics, and the "American Dream" prove a volatile combination.

Includes a conversation with actor Jimmy Smits.

Recorded before a live audience at the Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles in June of 2005.