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A remarkable one-person show that revolves around the captivating life story of Victor Almanzar beginning with a near-death experience that lands him in a Queens, NY hospital during the peak of the Covid pandemic. His life flashes before his eyes: his relatively innocent childhood in the Dominican Republic, his move as a youngster to NYC and the ensuing culture clash which leads him to gang-life and drugs. He struggles with his identity, finds love, and discovers his adulthood in the Marines (serving in Kosovo and Iraq). After a troubling period as a civilian he finds redemption by committing himself to a life in the Theater. Through the Fire was developed at the Labyrinth Theatre Company by Actors Studio members Victor Almanzar (writer and performer) and Elizabeth Canavan (director). It is a story of survival and self-forgiveness driven by Almanzar’s original hip-hop music. Funny, shocking, not always polite, but always authentic, the performance is 90 minutes without an intermission and the school-time show is 60-minutes.

Through the Fire 

Written and Performed by Victor Almanzar 

Directed by Elizabeth Canavan

Developed at Labyrinth Theatre and Actors Studio

About Victor Almanzar

Victor Almanzar, is a New York based actor who came from the Dominican Republic at an early age.  He appeared as Oswaldo in the Pulitzer Prize winning production of Between Riverside And Crazy in both The Atlantic Theater and Second Stage Theater (NYC) and the Steppenwolf Theater (CHICAGO).  He also appeared as Oscar at The Steppenwolf Theater production of Grand Concourse.  He has completed a lead role in the feature film 11:55 (INDEPENDENT), a recurring role in the series Homeland as lieutenant Wenzel (Showtime), a recurring role in the series Power as Arturo (STARZ), a recurring role in the series Empire as Big Heavy (FOX), a supporting role in the feature film Brawl in Cell Block 99 (XYZ FILMS), a guest star role in Blue Bloods (CBS), a guest star role in Chicago PD (NBC), a guest star role in High Maintenance (HBO), and a role in LFE (a pilot for CBS). Before turning his attention to acting, Victor was in the United States Marine Corp, where he served in Kosovo and Iraq.  Since then he has worked on the New York stage, Regional Theaters, and in London.  He was nominated for The Lucille Lortel Award for his role in Between Riverside And Crazy. Victor is a proud lifetime member of The Actors Studio.

Q.  What motivated you to write Through the Fire?

A.  There was a play that I was supposed to be in.  During the process of the rehearsal my identity was put into question, as to who I am.  About where I’m from, the environment, I grew up in.  I was in a very painful place.  Liz Canavan, from LAByrinth Theater, reached out to me.  She knew I was troubled, and she encouraged me to write my story.  It is important for me to express myself.  It catapulted me to develop my one man show.

Q.  When did you start to work on the play?  How long did it take to write?  And then, once written, how long did it take before you were convinced that you had finished the production?  

A.  Throughout the summer of 2021, Liz Canavan and I met every Friday.  I started with being born in the Dominican Republic.  Even before I was born.  The mixing of races that produced me. Then I continued telling my life story. Then, there is a program at the LAByrinth Theater company for members, a summer intensive.  We had a deadline to submit a play.  Within 2 weeks we developed a rough-rough draft.  There was a good deal of material that didn’t make it into the show. After the intensive, LAByrinth was looking for a piece to produce to replace anotherwork already scheduled for the 2021 season.  They asked me, “Do you think you could get it to a place where it is produce-able?  I said yes.  I would give it a shot.  We called it a developmental production and had 2 workshops before starting the rehearsal process.  I invited writers to come to watch it and react to it.  Then I took a month off and went away to re-write on my own.  Away from distractions. I came back with what became, more-or-less, the production we have now.  It starts with me having an accident, where I’m caught on fire, and the story progresses through a flashback. Developing Through the Fire was a couple of very intense weeks.

Q.  What is your relationship with Actors Studio?  How long have you been a member? Are you a “Method Actor”?

A. I started with the Stanislavski system and Strasberg method when I got accepted to Actors Studio drama school at Pace University where I got my masters.  I graduated in 2016.  And then, two years later I was accepted into the Actors Studio.  I am a combination of a method actor and “instinctual of the moment.” I recently started to read books on Meisner, which I resonate well with.

Q.  What is your relationship with LAByrinth Theater?  

A. I am part of the leadership committee that represents the members of the company.  There are 100+ members.  I have been “in the family” since taking a summer intensive in the summer of 2012.  Through them I got my first professional job, a production of Between Broadway and Crazy by Stephen Adly Guirgis produced by the Atlantic Theatre in 2014.  And later I was in the production at the Second Stage Theater where it won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Q.  What were some of the highlights of being in the cast of Between Riverside and Crazy, written by Stephen Adly Guirgis?  Would you call the play a comedy? Or a tragedy? Or what?  As a writer what did you learn from the experience?

A. I have done it 4 times.  Atlantic Theater for the premiere. Second Stage, and Chicago’s Stephen Wolf Theater.  And then the Broadway production.  The last time [the Broadway production at the Helen Hayes Theatre] featured a rapper and actor named Common who played Junior.  I consider him one of Hip-Hop’s music legends.  He is. It was really good to share the stage with him, since I am a huge Hip-Hop fan. The biggest highlight, though, was working with Stephen McKinley Henderson once again. To be across from him on the stage is one of the best moments of my acting career. Also, it was so special to have the Broadway premiere with the same people from the original cast. That was a big highlight, too. The family reunited!

Q.  Who are some of the actors that you admire, and why?

A. Stephen McKinley Henderson. He loves the Meisner technique. The give and the take. Living truthfully on the stage moment by moment. He is very generous with his acting.  Also, Bobby Cannavale, who has an ability to be very scary, really serious and intense, and really funny all at the same time.  I think he can do it all.  Another actor, because of what he has transcended, is John Leguizamo.  He did it his way, he created his own lane.

Q.  Artistically, who have been the most influential persons in your life?

A.  It comes by in stages.  When I was in high school, Helen White and Chris Vine had an acting program for youth. We would meet at some NYU facilities and then CUNY.  They gave me and nurtured the ability to think and to give a voice to any and every issue I might have been dealing with. To express myself clearly about the world I was living in. The company is called the Creative Arts Team (CAT).  When I came back from the Marines, Ben Snyder and Ari Isler wanted to develop a film script based on my life (11:55, currently on Showtime on Demand, it won Best Film at the LA Film Festival in 2016). They believed in me as an actor and gave me a lead in a feature film. And gave me the capacity and ability for my first shot as a writer of something that is close to me. Stephen Aldy Guirgis, who gave me the role of Oswaldo and believed in me as an actor. He took a shot at a newcomer.  He championed me in the theater world. And recently, Liz Canavan, who helped me develop my one-man show, is more than generous, both as an actor and as a human being. She is exceptional in bringing out those specific details on any given scene. She directed me with grace and truly knows the craft.

Q.  Why would a person want to see Through the Fire?

A. There are different things that should interest people.  It’s a coming-of-age story.  An immigrant story—how a change of culture changes someone.  It shows someone in street life.  Someone finding himself.  Someone who has gone through the military, gone through major world conflicts like Iraq.  It has original Hip-Hop music.  Someone who finds himself through love and family.  You’ll want to see it if you want to see a story of forgiveness (of self and of life’s circumstances and others’ failings) compassion and redemption.  It’s funny, heart-breaking.  It’s beautiful.  It is a glimpse into who I am—there’s a lot more I want to develop.  For instance, on the effects of PTSD.

Q.  What has been the reaction to the piece by retired military personnel?

A.  People have come up to me to thank me for expressing what I have expressed. When we see military films and plays, often we see the glamor and the glorification of war.  We don’t see the pain and struggle, the pain that military personnel go through. Especially afterwards as veterans.  It has been a relief for them.  One man came up to me with teary eyes, he was Dominican, in the military, been through the same things that I had been through.  It is a release; a little bit of medicine for people who have been in the military or have known people in the military.

Q.  You are very frank about the trouble you got into as a teen in the Bronx.  How painful was it for you to revisit those days?  How did your family and friends react to the show?

A. It wasn’t the Bronx, it was Corona, Queens. That’s where I lived when I first arrived in this country.  It is all the same.  Reliving those things was painful.  My childhood was robbed from me in a way.  We had no resources.  No good after school programs. There was a wave of immigration at that time.  I had to adapt and overcome it very quickly.  I ended up doing things I would have never imagined I would when I was in the Dominican Republic.  My family and friends, after seeing the play, came to a deeper understanding of things that I had to do to adjust—and how I became what I became. How I dealt with things. “Thanks for telling this story,” they said to me.  “This is something that needs to be heard.”  I like giving a voice to people who come to places where I come from, places not common in the entertainment world.

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