In a culture not much concerned with history, the Cold War that shaped American politics and thinking for so many decades has almost faded from memory, replaced by the misnamed War on Terror. But playwright Rogelio Martinez was born in Cuba, where Russian astronaut Yuri Gagarin was a national hero, and as a child, he moved to the United States in time to share the excitement of the space race here, the launch of the space shuttle Columbia and the horror of the Challenger explosion. From his vantage point, the dissolution of the Soviet empire, the attempts at cooperation in space, must have seemed as poignant as they were surprising. And he has also witnessed the fading of hope for democracy in Russia and the returning tension between the... More >>>