Ramos Escobar's play,
The Smell of Popcorn/El Olor del Popcorn, is an urban crime drama based on a real-life incident in which a college student and aspiring actress faces a career-thief who breaks into her apartment. The show was first written in Spanish and opened on August 17, 1993, at the Horacio Paterson Hall of Ateneo de Caracas,
Venezuela, part of the Jornadas Internacionales Series of the National Theatre Festival. It was directed by Mario Colón. On September 11, 1993, the production transferred to the Latin American Theatre Festival in
San Juan, Puerto Rico. The production subsequently played engagements in
Costa Rica,
Miami and the
Canary Islands (1994),
México (1995),
Santiago de Compostela,
Pontevedra and
Lugo, Spain (1996),
Alicante and
Murcia, Spain (1997),
Santo Domingo (1997),
Washington DC (1998), Luis Torres Nadal Theatre Festival in
Ponce,
Puerto Rico (2002),
Kansas (2003),
León,
Cádiz, Almagro and
Madrid, Spain (2003). A
Panama production was performed in 1998 and 1999, directed by Edgar Soberon-Torchia. English language productions were seen in
Adelaide, Australia, and the
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, United States, (1998). A new English language production premiered in
New York City on September 9, 2010, produced by IATI Theatre and World Player's Inc., directed by
Jorge Merced, featuring Luciana Faulhaber and Javier E. Gómez. The published edition of the script (available on Editorial Cultural) is dedicated to the real-life student at the
University of Puerto Rico, who one night faced off an intruder who forced his way into her apartment. Using only her wit and training as an actress, she defended herself by drawing her attacker into a psychological game that sought to distract and disarm him. The incident was widely reported in Puerto Rican newspapers. The themes of the show include the impact and causes of urban crime, gender equality, racial, social, and economic justice. ==References==