Robby Ramos’ play “The Walls Have Ears” is about three Cuban siblings who’ve taken diverging paths in the early years of the Fidel Castro’s Cuban revolution, only to find themselves confronting those differences in an unexpected encounter at Presidio Modelo, a notorious prison on Cuba’s Isla de Pinos. In writing the script, Robby drew not only from the life of his own grandfather (who had himself been a political prisoner in Cuba), but also from the stories he’d been told by others in his family who lived through those early days of what would become the most most brutal, influential and durable dictatorship in the western hemisphere.

While the subject matter makes “The Walls” an inescapably political work, Robby didn’t go about the project with an activist motive. Instead, he was looking to tell a compelling story about a family and a people torn apart — from a perspective that is too often handicapped by too much emphasis on the politics and too seldom explored outside of Cuban and Cuban exile circles.

In this conversation, Robby Ramos talks with Nick Jiménez about his play, how growing up in his Miami Cuban family informed his politics and his views on liberty and why moving to New York to pursue theater opened his eyes to the need for work like “The Walls Have Ears.”

The two also talk about Robby’s broader acting career, including his work in theater and TV — especially his role on the cast of the pro wrestling drama "Heels" — and the business side of “The Walls,” which was as much an entrepreneurial venture as it was a artistic passion project.

Finally, Robby and Nick talk about the strikes by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and SAGAFTRA (which, at the time of this recording, were in their last days).

01:00: Introducing Robby Ramos
04:00: The Walls Have Ears
06:34: Telling a Cuban story that isn't corny
08:00: Robby's connection to Cuba
11:00: Robby's family, political prisoner grandfather
15:45: Heterodox views in the New York theater scene
19:30: Managing the politics of a play about dictatorship
28:10: Nick, Cuba, and Madison, Wisconsin
36:14: Reception to "The Walls Have Ears"
41:50: Creating a space for thinking and writing freely
50:12: Immersion in pro wrestling
54:07: Getting paid on "Heels" opened the door to "The Walls"
59:03: Lessons from producing and financing a play
01:02:00: SAGAFTRA & WGA strikes

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