Editor’s Note: Some of Carla Solari’s quotes were translated from Spanish.

Second-year University of Minnesota acting students are starring in a production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Anna in the Tropics,” which opens Nov. 15 at the Kilburn Theater.

Written by Cuban-American playwright Nilo Cruz, “Anna in the Tropics” tells the story of a cigar factory lector who reads Leo Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina” to the workers. The play and the novel revolve around complicated love affairs, exploring themes of jealousy, loyalty, hypocrisy, faith and, of course, love.

Director Cooper Lajeunesse said he was drawn to the script because of how well-written and complex its characters and story are.

“The play begins and ends leaving you wanting more, which is exactly how I think theater should be,” Lajeunesse said.

“Anna in the Tropics” will be the first play that second-year acting students will perform. Lajeunesse said helping aspiring actors in the cast learn about the craft is as rewarding as directing a great play.

Associate director Carla Solari said the young cast reminded her of herself when she was their age, studying acting in Buenos Aires.

“They have the same desire, the same energy, the same drive,” she said.

“Anna in the Tropics” is set a few months before the Great Depression when demand for cigars fell drastically. Cigar companies began to mechanize their production in order to make up for the lost profitability, which made the tradition of hand-rolling cigars obsolete.

Cigar factories employed cigar rollers who hand-rolled every cigar. They also often employed lectors to read stories to the workers and to keep them entertained while they rolled.

In “Anna in the Tropics,” the lector, Juan Julián, reads passages from Tolstoy’s 1878 Russian novel, “Anna Karenina,” about a married socialite who has an affair with a bachelor cavalry officer. The novel also features plots about the relatives and friends of the lovers, emphasizing the contrast between each character and the story.

Through telling the story of Anna’s affair, her brother’s infidelities and his sister-in-law’s marriage, Tolstoy touches on themes of love, desire, justice and fidelity from multiple perspectives.

The play is not an adaptation of the novel but an original story about literature and searching for understanding in works of art, Solari said. Audience members do not need to know the novel to understand the story of the play.

Characters in “Anna in the Tropics” draw contrasts between the stories in the novel and their lives, which are full of love affairs, quarrels and complications. Even Juan Julián himself is involved in a bizarre love triangle.

The play tells two stories simultaneously, similar to the many subplots in Tolstoy’s novel, Solari said. The relationship between the intertwining plots of the play and the novel is the emphasis of “Anna in the Tropics,” she said.

“You receive the story through human relationships,” Solari said.

Tolstoy’s novel is centered around high-class members of Russian society, while “Anna in the Tropics” follows the lives of working-class immigrants in Florida. Despite the stark contrast in lifestyles, Lajuenesse and Solari said the characters in the play relate to the play deeply, showing how universal the themes of the book are.

“Both of these stories are told at times when things seem like they’re not going to change,” Lajeunesse said. “But there’s a big event that’s coming up that’s about to change everything for everybody.”

The novel is set right before the Russian Revolution, while the play is set in 1929 Ybor City.

Ybor City is a neighborhood of Tampa Bay, Florida, constructed as a company town by Spanish cigar industrialist Don Vicente Martinez Ybor.

Ybor moved his company, Ybor & Co., to the U.S. after he fled Cuba for persecution of aiding Cuban rebels. He originally moved his company to Key West, Florida,  but due to labor and transportation issues relocated to Tampa Bay.

Other companies followed, opening several hand-rolled cigar factories in the area. Ybor and other industrialists controlled the town, developing houses, businesses and public infrastructure.

Cuban and Spanish cigar factory workers initially populated Ybor City. Italian, Chinese, Jewish and Eastern European immigrants came after, opening stores, restaurants and other local enterprises.

By 1910, over 200 factories in Ybor City were producing more than a million cigars a day, earning Ybor City the honor of “Cigar Capital of the World.”

Solari said she was unaware of Ybor City’s history before she began working on the play.

“The play brings history to people,” Solari said.