While 4 Guys Named Jose...and una Mujer named Maria! is still in the works for an engagement in Florida, Miami offers in trade its International Hispanic Theatre Festival, which will make its way to The Duke on 42nd Street, giving New York audiences another taste of Latino theatre June 20-30.
The Festival Internacional de Teatro Hispano boasts the talents of five theatre companies from around the globe. Following their three-week run in Miami, Compañía Nacional de Teatro de México, Cia. dos Atores, Teatro de los Andes, Grupo de Teatro Malayerba and La Zaranda will all arrive to make their New York stage debut. Performances will be in Spanish with English supertitles.
First up are Mexico's representatives, Compañía Nacional de Teatro de México, with their De Monstruos y Prodigios: La Historia de los Castrati (Of Monsters and Prodigies: The History of the Castrati). The play written by Jorge Kuri explores the sexual popularity of androgynous celebrities by looking at the historic Castrati whom were singers castrated before puberty to maintain their soprano vocal range. The production directed by Claudio Valdes Kuri performs June 20-21.
Brazil's Cia. dos Atores present Filipe Miguez's Melodrama June 22-23. The play satirizes everything from Latin movies to American television to tell the story of a radio soap opera starlet, an incestuous and adulterous family, and a soul-searching amnesiac and alcoholic. The play runs in Portuguese with English supertitles under the direction of Enrique Diaz.
Las Abarcas del Tiempo (The Sandals of Time) by César Brie follows a man on a visit to a friend in the world of the dead. Brie also directs his play for Bolivia's Teatro de los Andes. The play will run on June 24 and 26. Grupo de Teatro Malayerba from Ecuador bring their Nuestra Señora de las Nubes (Our Lady of the Clouds) to the stage June 27-28. The play written and directed by Arístedes Vargas, an Argentinean exile himself, is about two outcasts who find themselves drawn to each other for their mutual love and hate for their homelands.
A young woman journeys through a wild and tumultuous labyrinth of the past to reach her dreams in Eusebio Calonge's La Puerta Estrecha (The Narrow Door). The play helmed by Paco de la Zaranda for Spain's La Zaranda company will play conclude the festival June 29-30.
The IHTF, now in its 16th year, is presented by Arts International in association with Teatro Avante and The New 42nd Street. For more information on the entire program and additional free events, visit www.newvictory.org or http://www.teatroavante.com.
For tickets to IHTF, call Tele-Charge at (212) 239-6200 or visit the box office for the Duke, 229 West 42 St. Tickets are also available at the New Victory box office at 209 West 42 St.
— by Ernio Hernandez
