Primer Acto: Yvonne López Arenal.
PRIMER ACTO.
CUADERNO DE INVESTIGACIÓN TEATRAL.
(1957-2008) ESPAÑA.
No 311.
VI 2005
SEGUNDA ÉPOCA
DRAMATURGIAS CUBANAS / 3.
Rosa Ileana Boudet.
SEIS AUTORRETRATOS.
CUADERNO DE INVESTIGACIÓN TEATRAL.
(1957-2008) ESPAÑA.
No 311.
VI 2005
SEGUNDA ÉPOCA
DRAMATURGIAS CUBANAS / 3.
Rosa Ileana Boudet.
SEIS AUTORRETRATOS.
click in the box to see the document.
SEAGULLS FROM HAVANA
(La Avellaneda site in Contacto Magazine )
On May 4th, 2002 the Cuban-American Cultural Institute and La Avellaneda Group presented Seagulls From Havana by Yvonne López-Arenal at the Los Angeles Theater Center.
Seagulls... is the CACI event that has received more reviews in the local, national and international news media. It was part of an in-depth news feature written by critic and writer Rosa Ileana Boudet and published in Gestos magazine (San Diego). Other reviews were published in Encuentro magazine (Madrid, Spain), the online publication Teatro en Miami (Miami, global), and in both the online and print editions of Contacto magazine (Los Angeles, global). Tablas, a publication dedicated to review Latin theater and Listin Diario (Dominican Republic) also reported the opening of Seagulls... L.A. Weekly, an alternative newspaper of Los Angeles, announced the play staging, among other local publications.
Seagulls... narrates a story about two Cuban actors schooled in the arts academies of Havana, Cuba during the 1980's. Several years later they each leave the island and become reacquainted in Miami where they discover just how tied they are to their nostalgia for their culture, their religion, their dances and their high standards for what they consider to be art here in the Cuban exile capital.
Amidst their personal difficulties and confrontations in this newly discovered world, they unexpectedly/miraculously receive blessings from Ochún, an Afro-Cuban deity of the Yoruba pantheon who makes a pact with the young actor granting him his greatest wish; the possibility of doing great theater! Thus begins a complicated journey into the world of the stage and the personal lives of our two protagonists.
Using the theatrical structure of a play within a play, scenes from Blood Wedding by Federico García Lorca and Requiem For Yarini by Carlos Felipe, one of Cuba's greatest playwrights, are intertwined metaphorically to bridge the emotions and situations our two characters are playing out. Seagulls From Havana flows at times like a comedy with dance and then like strong melodrama where a generation is lost in a web of contradictions between familial values and subsequent professional experience inside and outside of Cuba.
The play transcends the framework of a simple comedy and is ultimately a tribute to artists throughout the ages who have succeeded in life and profession under difficult circumstances.
Yvonne López Arenal directed Seagulls From Havana.
The actors are Yvonne López Arenal and Joel Nuñez. Art direction by the renowned cinematographer Mario García Joya. Choreography by Juan Calvo Flores, former dancer and choreographer with the Conjunto Folklorico Nacional de Cuba and present founder of the group Raices Afrocubanas where he teaches dance and percussion.
On May 4th, 2002 the Cuban-American Cultural Institute and La Avellaneda Group presented Seagulls From Havana by Yvonne López-Arenal at the Los Angeles Theater Center.
Seagulls... is the CACI event that has received more reviews in the local, national and international news media. It was part of an in-depth news feature written by critic and writer Rosa Ileana Boudet and published in Gestos magazine (San Diego). Other reviews were published in Encuentro magazine (Madrid, Spain), the online publication Teatro en Miami (Miami, global), and in both the online and print editions of Contacto magazine (Los Angeles, global). Tablas, a publication dedicated to review Latin theater and Listin Diario (Dominican Republic) also reported the opening of Seagulls... L.A. Weekly, an alternative newspaper of Los Angeles, announced the play staging, among other local publications.
Seagulls... narrates a story about two Cuban actors schooled in the arts academies of Havana, Cuba during the 1980's. Several years later they each leave the island and become reacquainted in Miami where they discover just how tied they are to their nostalgia for their culture, their religion, their dances and their high standards for what they consider to be art here in the Cuban exile capital.
Amidst their personal difficulties and confrontations in this newly discovered world, they unexpectedly/miraculously receive blessings from Ochún, an Afro-Cuban deity of the Yoruba pantheon who makes a pact with the young actor granting him his greatest wish; the possibility of doing great theater! Thus begins a complicated journey into the world of the stage and the personal lives of our two protagonists.
Using the theatrical structure of a play within a play, scenes from Blood Wedding by Federico García Lorca and Requiem For Yarini by Carlos Felipe, one of Cuba's greatest playwrights, are intertwined metaphorically to bridge the emotions and situations our two characters are playing out. Seagulls From Havana flows at times like a comedy with dance and then like strong melodrama where a generation is lost in a web of contradictions between familial values and subsequent professional experience inside and outside of Cuba.
The play transcends the framework of a simple comedy and is ultimately a tribute to artists throughout the ages who have succeeded in life and profession under difficult circumstances.
Yvonne López Arenal directed Seagulls From Havana.
The actors are Yvonne López Arenal and Joel Nuñez. Art direction by the renowned cinematographer Mario García Joya. Choreography by Juan Calvo Flores, former dancer and choreographer with the Conjunto Folklorico Nacional de Cuba and present founder of the group Raices Afrocubanas where he teaches dance and percussion.
EL DISCURSO ESCÉNICO DE LA
por Matías Montes Huidobro
Año X Nº 57/58.
