ABOUT THE PLAY

Making use of theater's power to communicate and acknowledging the need to know more about this cognitive disorder, the play explores the complex situation of those who live with Alzheimer's Syndrome. It provides the opportunity to reflect on - and so reinforce and refresh - the relationship between those who suffer from the devastating disease and their day-to-day environment.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Araceli Mariel Arreche has a licenciatura in Arts earned at the University of Buenos Aires and teaches film and theater at that institution’s Facultad de Filosofía y Letras and Escuela de Arquitectura y Diseño Urbano, in the Drama Department of the Escuela Nacional de Artes, at the Universidad Nacional de San Martín and at the Escuela Metropolitana de Arte Dramático. She is completing a doctorate in film theory, conducting research on Mapuche theater (funded by the Fondo Nacional de las Artes), on drama of the period following Argentina’s dictatorship, and on image policies and modalities of expression of memory and identity in Argentina’s 21st century cinema. Her publications include: Cuerpos a la intemperie I y II, Palabras en diálogo, Teatro de la palabra (an anthology of plays) and Entre silencios, a collection of poems and stories. She has written several plays, including children’s theater. In 2005 she received special mention in Spain’s María Teresa León awards program (devoted to female playwrights) for Notas que saben a olvido, which premiered at Teatro Payró in December of that year and was published by the awarding organization. In 2010 she obtained a fellowship from the Fondo Nacional de las Artes for the project “Voces de la historia, vientres de la memoria” and wrote the play Como quínoas, which premiered in 2013. In 2014 Qué lejos aún… won the competition Concurso de Dramaturgia Nuestro Teatro, sponsored by Argentina’s Secretaría de Cultura. In 2015, Como quínoas took part in the Women Playwrights International Conference in Cape Town, South Africa. That same year, Felice premiered. In 2016, a new version of Las voces del río came out and several of her plays were selected to appear in the series Teatro x la identidad around the country. She wrote the script for Notas que saben a olvido, which was selected to appear in the Festival Audiovisual Bariloche, sponsored by the Secretaría de Cultura of the Ministerio de Turismo, Cultura y Deportes of Río Negro province. Her short Somos repetición premiered in April 2017.

 

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

Mario Ernesto Sánchez, Founder and Producing Artistic Director of Teatro Avante and the acclaimed International Hispanic Theatre Festival of Miami, he received the Distinguished Career Award from the Florida Theatre Conference for his contribution to the development of theatre in South Florida. An accomplished actor, director, producer and playwright, Mario Ernesto has performed leading roles in many theatre productions and regularly works in film and television. His productions have represented the United States at international theatre festivals in Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, France, Guatemala, Japan, Mexico, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Spain, Venezuela, and in the U.S. (New York, Texas, New Mexico and North Carolina). He has also represented this country as a special guest at festivals and cultural events in several countries in Latin America and Europe. He has served as a panelist and judge on numerous arts boards at the local, state, regional, national, and international levels. Mario Ernesto has acted in more than 40 films with stars such as García, Stallone, Stone, Finney, Cardinale, Nicholson, Carey, Walken, Johnson, Crowe, Ryan, Foxx. He also worked in Die Fledermaus, his first collaboration with the Florida Grand Opera. In 1994, he received the Ollantay award, presented by CELCIT-Spain (Latin American Center for Creation and Research in Theatre), for his achievements in the Hispanic Theatre movement on two continents. In 1995, Mario Ernesto received the prestigious Federico García Lorca Award in Fuente Vaqueros (Granada), Spain, for his enormous contributions to the development of Hispanic Theatre in America. In 2004, he received the Kusillo Award, in La Paz, Bolivia. And in 2009, he received the FIT de Cadiz-Atahualpa del Cioppo, during the IberoAmerican Theatre Festival in Cadiz, Spain for the same reason. In 2012, he received the highest award in theatre in South Florida, The George Abbott Award at the Carbonell’s “for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts”, and in 2014, he received the highest award in Latino theatre in the U.S., the Legacy Award “in recognition of your commitment, leadership and contributions to Latino Theater. Recently, in 2016, he collaborated with Argentine playwright Patricia Suárez, co-writing El puerto de los cristales rotos (Harbor of Broken Glass) which successfully premiered at the XXXI International Hispanic Theatre Festival of Miami, presented at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. Mario Ernesto was appointed as Teatro Avante’s representative to the Board of Directors of The Performing Arts Center Trust (PACT).

 

ABOUT THE LITERARY CONSULTANT

Beatriz J. Rizk, Ph.D. born in Colombia, Dr. Rizk is a college profesor, critic, theater promoter and theater researcher. She has published more than one hundred essays and edited seven special issues of the journal Tramoya. Her books include El Nuevo Teatro Latinoamericano: Una lectura histórica (1987); Posmodernismo y teatro en América Latina: teorías y prácticas en el umbral del siglo XXI (2001; 2ª. Edición 2007); Teatro y diáspora: testimonios escénicos latinoamericanos (2002) and Imaginando un continente: utopía, democracia y neoliberalismo en el teatro latinoamericano. Tomo 1 & 2 (2010). She is co-author of Latin American Popular Theatre: The First Five Hundred Years(1993) and a Senior Fellow at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC. A longtime associate of Teatro Avante, she directs the International Hispanic Theater Festival of Miami’s Educational Program.

 

ABOUT THE COMPANY

Founded in 1979, Teatro Avante is a non-profit, tax-exempt cultural organization whose main goal is the preservation of our Hispanic cultural heritage. The company has staged works by Albee, Alomá, Ariza, Assad, Cabrujas, Cocteau, Ferrer, García Lorca, Manet, Matas, Pinto, Piñera, Reguera Saumell, Santana, Triana, Valle-Inclán, Williams, Orwell, Camus and Shakespeare, among others. In 1994, the Atlanta Olympic Committee’s Cultural Olympiads honored Teatro Avante with the Regional Arts Award. Teatro Avante organizes and produces the annual award-winning International Hispanic Theatre Festival of Miami. The group has represented the United States in Mexico, Costa Rica, Spain, Japan, France, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Portugal, Venezuela, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Peru, and Slovenia and, domestically, in New York, Albuquerque, Los Angeles, El Paso and Buffalo. Thanks to the generous support of the International Cultural Exchange (ICE) Program of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, Teatro Avante had the privilege of staging its acclaimed production of Aire frío (Cold Air), freely adapted from Virgilio Piñera’s play by Raquel Carrió and directed by Mario Ernesto Sánchez, in five Spanish cities, as well as in Costa Rica, Brazil, Puerto Rico, and Peru. Teatro Avante’s International Hispanic Theatre Festival of Miami has received five prestigious international awards: Federico García Lorca, Ollantay and Fit de Cádiz- Atahualpa del Cioppo in Spain; Kusillo in Bolivia; and UCSUR in Peru, for “its enormous contribution to the development of Hispanic theatre in the Americas.”

  

ABOUT THE CAST

 

ALINA INTERIÁN (Anita) 

The co-founder of Teatro Avante, Interián produced many of the company’s early plays. She showed her acting talent in the 1970s and 1980s, earning critical and audience praise for her starring turns in Electra Garrigó, Las niñasricas de Camagüey (an adaptation of The House of Bernarda Alba), A Streetcar Named Desire, Agnes of God, Extremities and The Miracle Worker. In the late 1980s, she focused on literature, working at Miami Dade College, where she founded the Center for Literature and was the moving and creative force behind the growth, recognitionand prestige that the Miami International Book Fair enjoys today. She directed the event for 25 years, and had other Miami Dade College cultural programs, such as the Film Festival, Museum of Art and Design, Tower Theater and Teatro Prometeo, under her jurisdiction. She has now invested her experience in the arts in a new consulting firm where her services include the design and implementation of a variety of events and the coordination of cultural program exchanges. Alina returned to the theater in 2015 in the revival of René R. Aloma’s A Little Something to Ease the Pain at the 30th International Hispanic Theatre Festival of Miami, in the role of Ana, which she played in the piece’s first production in 1986, also by Teatro Avante.  In 2016 she was an audience favorite as Lina Berman in Harbor of Broken Glass, and in 2017 Alina did an outstanding and moving portrayal of Anita, an Alzheimer's patient, in Forgetting, both of these plays produced by Teatro Avante and part of the annual International Hispanic Theatre of Miami. 

 

GERARDO RIVERÓN (Saverio, Carlos)

A graduate of Havana’s Instituto Superior de Arte, he enjoyed a long and successful career in Cuba, achieving star status in the theatre and on radio, television and film. He made ten Cuban films and performed in innumerable plays, but his most intense and fruitful work was on radio and television, in which he labored for more than 20 years. Upon arriving in Miami in 1993, he joined Teatro Avante and took part in almost all its productions: Tres tazas de trigo, Cenizas sobre el mar, La feria de los inventos, El vuelo del Quijote, Yerma, La Celestina, Por las tierras de Colón, Aire frío, El no, Años difíciles, Alguna cosita que alivie el sufrir, El puerto de los cristales rotos and Notas que saben a olvido, with which he has participated in several international festivals. Locally, he has acted in Esperando a mamá and Algunos prefieren fresa y chocolate, for which he earned a Carbonell Award and critical acclaim. Other vehicles have included La lechuga, El arte de quejarse, El súper, Si me pudieras querer, Regreso a casa, El método Gronholm, Encadenado and Hortensia y el museo de los sueños. He frequently works in Univision and Telemundo productions, for which he has also earned praise, and for different dubbing and advertising companies.

 

YANI MARTÍN (Martina)

Born in Cuba, she graduated form the Escuela Nacional de Arte. She has worked on television, in the children’s show Sopa de palabras, the soap operas A pesar de todo, Aquí estamos and Amores de verano, and in the made-for-TV films Misión casting and Un fantasma con insomnio. On the stage, she has performed in Una casa colonial, La profana familia, Cuatro menos, Galápagos, La viuda alegre, Sangre and El día que me quieras. She earned Best New Actor and Best Performance by an Actress awards for El último bolero. In microtheater, she has appeared in Perras o lobas and Las manos de Lady Macbeth. She performed in Lorca en un vestido verde, directed by Nilo Cruz.

 

JULIO RODRÍGUEZ (Enfermero, Juan)

The actor began his theatre studies at Cuba’s Escuela Nacional de Arte in 1969 and upon graduating in 1972 joined the prestigious Teatro Estudio, where he remained until 1994. During his time with the company, he worked with prestigious Cuban actors and directors. In 198, he earned the best performance award at the Francisco Covarrubias national theatre competition conducted by the Unión de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba. In 1994, he moved to Venezuela, where he worked with the country’s major theatre companies. In 200, he traveled to Rio de Janeiro to take part in TV GLOBO’s first Spanish-language production. In the course of his 43- year artistic career, he has performed in Mexico, Costa Rica, Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Spain, Portugal, Greece, the former Yugoslavia, Slovenia and the United States. Another success was his performance in the world premiere of Abilio Estévez’s La última función, co-starring Rosario (Charín) Suárez, produced by Nobarte and directed by Lilliam Vega. He currently lives in Miami and has worked with Teatro Avante for 12 year in the plays La feria de los inventos, El filántropo, Una tempestad, Yerma, La Celestina, Por las tierras de Colón, Aire frío, El malentendido, El no, Años difíciles, Alguna cosita que alivie el sufrir and El puerto de los cristales rotos.

 

EDNA SCHWAB (María, Raquel)

Schwab has worked on many Teatro Avante and International Hispanic Theatre Festival of Miami productions, both Spanish- and English-language, such as Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, Cocteau’s Les monstres sacrés, Orwell’s Animal Farm, Reguera Saumell’s Recuerdos de Tulipa, Miller’s Las brujas de Salem, Lorca’s El amor de Don Perlimplín y Belisa en su jardín, Alomá’s Alguna cosita que alivie el sufrir and Araceli Mariel Arreche’s Notas que saben a olvido, among others. At Dreamers Theatre she played The Queen in an adaptation of Camus’ The Just Assassins. She has worked in the New Theatre in McNally’s A Perfect Ganesh, Gurney’s Love Letters, E. Pérez’s Unmerciful Good Fortune, Mario Diament’s The Book of Ruth and Pulitzer Prize winner Nilo Cruz’ Anna in the Tropics. She is a founding member of the board of direcetors of Teatro Avante, the organization that produces and presents the International Hispanic Theatre Festival, which celebrates in 32nd birthday in 2017

 

ABOUT THE DESIGNERS

 

MIKE PORCEL (Original Music)

The composer, musical arranger, guitarist and singer-songwriter was born in Havana and is a naturalized U.S. citizen. From a young age, he studied classical guitar, composition, harmony and orchestration with distinguished Cuban masters. He debuted as a professional in 1969 with the rock group Dada. His compositions have earned him kudos and have been recorded by major singers, including Elsa Baeza, Nacha Guevara, Argelia Fragoso, Beatriz Marques, Carlos Luis, Bobby Jiménez and Danny Rivera. In 1973 he joined the company Teatro Estudio in the role of conductor and musical adviser, and in those years developed his skills as an arranger. In 1977 he co-founded the group Síntesis, an unprecedented effort to amalgamate the roots of Cuban rural music and different currents of symphonic rock. In 1978 he won first prize at the Festival Mundial de la Juventud y los Estudiantes with the song “En busca de una nueva flor”. In 1980, along with thousands of other Cubans, he tried to flee the island. For nine years, he was barred from leaving and blacklisted from cultural activities. Finally, in 1989, he succeeded in fleeing to Spain thanks to the intervention of the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. In Spain, he recorded a series of 52 programs for Radio Martí, produced, arranged and directed the CD “Mis momentos felices” for Cuban-Spanish singer Elsa Baeza; composed original music for various projects of Spain’s TVE public network; put together a musical and dramatic special based on the poetry of Spanish mystics John of the Cross and Theresa of Jesus; and performed a second version of Que hablen los poetas throughout Spain and Belgium. He composed music for an animated series (Mimi and Mr. Bobo) and for several documentaries in Switzerland and Spain. Since 1995, he has worked with Teatro Avante composing original music for a range of plays, including Matecumbe, La peregrina, Cenizas sobre el mar, Aire frío, Por las tierras de Colón, El malentendido, El no, Al pie del Támesis. Alguna cosita que alivie el sufrir y El puerto de los critales rotos.

 

JORGE NOA / PEDRO BALMASEDA (Set, Costumes and Props)

The team of Jorge Noa and Pedro Balmaseda includes in its work artistic, architectural and interior design. They are known and respected within Miami’s performing arts scene for their theatrical designs, as well as for their important mission of reclaiming the most beautiful traditions of Cuban art. Jorge was born in Camagüey and graduated from the Instituto Superior Politécnico of Santiago de Cuba with a degree in architecture. Pedro was born in Havana and graduated from the University of Havana with a degree in dentistry. InCuba they earned two Máscara de Caoba awards for their set designs for many theater groups on the island. They moved to Venezuela and concentrated on designing sets for television, including national channels like Televen and Venevisión. Living in Miami since 1998, they head the firm Genoah Interior Design, Inc., which has created comercial and residential environments throughout South Florida. At the same time, they head the artistic production company Nobarte, which in addition to artistic presentations offers set and costume manufacture for various groups. They do major work for Miami Dade College’s Teatro Prometeo, designing more than ten productions in recent years. Their creations have been used by many other theatrical companies, such as Teatro Doble, Galiano 108, El Ingenio Teatro and Wolfson Opera/Musical Ensemble, among others. Since 2006 Teatro Avante’s productions have been graced with their accurate and beautiful set and costume designs. Those productions include Una tempestad, Yerma, La Celestina, Aire frío, Por las tierras de Colón, El malentendido, Elno, Al pie del Támesis, Años difíciles and Alguna cosita que alivie el sufrir. They have participated in a range of theater festivals and their creations have enhanced stages in Brazil, Costa Rica, Slovenia, Spain, United States, Puerto Rico, Peru and Mexico. As part of the 28th International Hispanc Theatre Festival, the team presented a retrospective of their designs titled Journey to the Center of the Stage. 

 

ERNESTO PADILLA (Lighting Design)

Padilla, as he prefers to be called, was an art curator and restorer in Cuba and subsequently, for more than ten years, in Buenos Aires. Since 2000, he has been working with Teatro Avante and the International Hispanic Theatre Festival of Miami, first as a technician, then technical director, and in recent years in charge of lighing design for all Teatro Avante productions, including Por las tierras de Colón, Aire frío, El malentendido, El no, Al pie del Támesis, Años difíciles and Alguna cosita que alivie el sufrir. Padilla currently heads his own company, Ernesto Padilla Productions, which offers lighting, sound, video and staging services of all kinds for public and private events.      

                                              

ADRIANA CARBONELL ALPÍZAR (Assistant Director, Hair and Makekup)

Carbonell studied violin and choral singing from 1990 to 1994 at the Escuela Vocacional de Arte in Matanzas, Cuba. In 2001, she earned a degree in acting from the Escuela Nacional de Are de La Habana with the play Historia de un Caba-yo. That same year she emigrated to Spain and worked in Cádiz as a cultural manager for Escena Cultural – Portal de Cultura Iberoamericana while studying hairstyling. After moving to Miami in 2012 she joined the staff of Teatro Avante and the International Hispanic Theater Festival and has served as, among other things, assistant director and hair and makeup stylist in Teatro Avante’s recent productions, directed by Mario Ernesto Sánchez. At present, she is setting up her own cosmetology business while working at Teatro Avante.

 

THANKS TO:

 

ALZHEIMER’S ASSOCIATION (www.alz.org)

EASTER SEALS SOUTH FLORIDA (www.easterseals.org)

EMILIA MAS

GLORIA ORLANDI-KASS

CELSO PERUYERA

BEATRIZ J. RIZK

ZULIMA C. SÁNCHEZ

EDNA SCHWAB

JAVIER SIUT

 

 

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY CULTURAL AFFAIRS COUNCIL

Adolfo Henriques, Chairman

Alejandro Aguirre

Mitchell Bierman

Mireille Chancy-González

Xavier Cordada

Denise Gerson

Susana Ibargüen

Roberto J. Jensen

Jorge Luis López, Esq.

Jorge M. Pérez

Janá Sigars-Malina, Esq.

Phyllis Simpkins

Rosa Sugrañes

Monty Trainer

 

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS

Michael Spring

Director

Deborah Margol

Deputy Director

Patricia Arbeláez

Theater Manager

Miami-Dade County Auditorium

Javier Siut

Assistant Theater Manager

Miami-Dade County Auditorium

Celso Peruyera

Theater Production Manager

Miami-Dade County Auditorium

Valentine Medina

Assistant Theater Production Manager

Miami-Dade County Auditorium

 

CAST

 

Alina Interián

Anita

 

Gerardo Riverón

Saverio / Carlos

 

Yani Martín

Martina

 

Julio Rodríguez

Nurse / Juan

 

Edna Schwab

María / Raquel

 

CREDITS

 

Beatriz J. Rizk

Dramaturge & Literary Consultant

 

Mike Porcel

Original Music

 

Jorge Noa & Pedro Balmaseda

Set, Costumes & Props

 

Ernesto Padilla

Lighting, Technical Director & Lighting Operator

 

Adriana Carbonell

Assistant Director

 

Leiter Padilla

Sound Operator

 

Nobarte.com & Ernesto Padilla

Set Construction

 

Nobarte.com & Julio Rodríguez

Costume Tailoring

 

Adriana Carbonell

Hair & Makeup

 

Karina Gilbert

Supertitles

 

Lexy Perera

Setup and Operation of Supertitles

 

Gabriel Cutiño

Video

 

Asela Torres

Photography

 

Mario Ernesto Sánchez

Producing Artistic Director

 

TEATRO AVANTE

Production

 

ABOUT THE MIAMI-DADE COUNTY AUDITORIUM

Miami-Dade County Auditorium opened its doors in 1951 and has achiveved a splendid history as one of South Florida’s premier performing arts centers. This popular multipurpose theatre features Art Deco Revival décor. It offers three dynamic presentation styles: a 2,372-seat theater that can host major dance, theatre and music performances; a “mid-stage” theatre that can accommodate up to 450 patrons and is well-suited for small concerts, dance and theatre presentations, giving mid-sized organizations an ideal setting to showcase their work; and a 200-seat black box theatre in which both audience and performers share the stage of the auditorium, adapted into an innovative studio theatre for more intimate - and often cutting-edge - shows. In January 2012, the operation of Miami-Dade County Auditorium was transferred to the Department of Cultural Affairs, which has a track record of innovation and artistic excellence.

 

ABOUT MIAMI-DADE COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS

The Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council develop cultural excellence, diversity and participation throughout Miami-Dade County by strategically creating and promoting opportunities for artists and cultural organizations, and our residents and visitors, who are their audiences. The Department directs the Art in Public Places program and its board, the Art in Public Places Trust, commissioning, curating, maintaining and promoting the County’s award-winning public art collection. Through staff, board and programmatic resources, the Department, the Council and the Trust promote, coordinate and support Miami-Dade County’s more than 1,000 not-for-profit cultural organizations as well as thousands of resident artists through grants, technical assistance, public information and interactive community planning. The Department receives funding through the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners, The Children’s Trust, the National Endowment for the Arts, the State of Florida through the Florida Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture, and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Other support and services are provided by Ticket Web for the Culture Shock Miami program, the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau, the South Florida Cultural Consortium and the Tourist Development Council.

 

SPONSORS / PATROCINADORES: MIAMI-DADE COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS, THE CULTURAL AFFAIRS COUNCIL, THE MAYOR AND THE MIAMI-DADE COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, MIAMI-DADE COUNTY AUDITORIUM - ON.STAGE BLACK BOX THEATRE, NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS, STATE OF FLORIDA DIVISION OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS, DIARIO LAS AMÉRICAS, UNIVISION23, THE MIAMI HERALD / EL NUEVO HERALD, NUPRESS OF MIAMI, INC., BACARDÍ USA, THE ISLANDER NEWS, I’M NOT YOUR BORING NEWSPAPER, JACK P. ATTIAS, ESQ., JAMES F. & JO ANN M. O’NEILL, AGUSTÍN A. & ISIS RECIO.

 

ON.STAGE BLACK BOX THEATRE

Miami-Dade County Auditorium

2901 W. Flagler St., Miami, Florida

305.547.5414

www.miamidadecountyauditorium.org

Feb.1, 2, 3 - 8:30 pm & Feb. 4 - 5:00 pm

 

INFORMATION: 305.445.8877 tel. / 305.445.1301 fax / info@teatroavante.org