HALF A CENTURY OF TEATRO ESCAMBRAY

I got in contact with Teatro Escambray when I was fifteen years old. We traveled from Santa Clara for that meeting: a large group of girls and boys already more seriously interested in theater. To the purpose of the anniversary was added the interest, especially by Corrieri, the founding leader and general director of the group, to express our opinions on that play not yet premiered: Molinos de viento, by Rafael González and produced by Elio Martin.

That happened in December and it allowed me to see La Macagua under the moon, and become dazzled forever with theater. Needless to say, those meetings between October and December 1983 were decisive for defining my vocation and my life. It was just as simple as that.

From there, the relationship began. I have returned to La Macagua again and again for years. There I did my thesis on what I called «The adventure of Escambray.»

Teatro Escambray had capitalized on the best experience at the end of the sixties, when Cuban theater was just trying to find new ways of social insertion. The aesthetics of the group is characterized by an accentuated social perspective, which places what is Cuban first before the contradictions of the historical process of the Revolution.

With the passing of time, the group changed and new thematic approaches were assumed in accordance with the transformations of reality, but always with the interest for the human being in his particular Cuban circumstances governing the destinies of the group.

Teatro Escambray has fought in the last few years for a constant rebirth from the natural and constant internal recompositions. In this open fight against death, it reveals its main need: the emergence of artistic directors and performers who know how to translate, according to the present, the broad legacy, the enormous accumulated experience, as well as the questions of today. It is, in short, to overcome the weight of history.