I met Alejandro Milian playing a woman in Escandala en la Trapa. An impressive character, wearing cardboard . And then we met again in Chicago, where he returned to acting and singing and dancing as a transvestite and (he told me later, when the degree of friendship let him), had a couple of beers at intermission. One day I showed up in his house to get photos for a media project about the decline of the Cuban musical theater. I was between the confessions of his life, exciting stories of his grandmother and a lot of bad words that unfortunately do not fit in this story.
It’s been awhile. Alejandro became a poet, playwright and director of theater for children, I’m not sure in what order. He starred in other productions, published a book in Brazil and got even more infatuated with musical theater. But he never ceased to intrigue me. Perhaps his yellow eyes or his extremely loud shouts while directing, which contrasted with the Ale poet I who also met.
I showed up at a rehearsal, an hour before the function he was directing and I challenged him. You have to give me an interview right now. He looked exhausted. Shoot! He said. Or maybe not. I tell you what I please
“I felt a sharp pain in the chest like a heart attack and did not know what was happening, it was the character of Enriqueta Faber fully clothed in cardboard and did not know what was happening. That happened in Friday’s function. I walked off stage when it was my turn and I almost had a panic going back again. But I went in. And on Saturday. And Sunday. On Tuesday they figured out what I had: a pneumothorax. Seventy-five percent of the right lung compressed. The doctor told me that two days more and I would have been dead. So it’s a character that I respect a lot. After that when I’ve done it again Escandalo en la Trapa, before entering the stage and that scene where I felt the pain, I take three, four deep breaths and I commend myself to the five thousand virgins, I say, “Enriqueta, please help me “and I go on stage.”
– That was the most difficult character?
-No. The most difficult of my career was Queen Elizabeth of England, because he was a homosexual drag. It was difficult for her character, being a very intelligent character. But it was also physically wearing, I had five meters of cloth in each hand, walking in heels, a leather skirt that was heavy, and more than that psychological work the queen took. I did get rid of many prejudices that I had as an actor, as a person. Tony Diaz, director of Mephisto Theatre Company, wanted the character to be played by someone with a very open, well developed mind. And I was only twenty-one and then I met Francisco Ors who was the author of the work and Francisco saw me and said, “ah, you’re the Queen Elizabeth … well, I’ll see you at the premiere.” On termination of the function he took the stage, took my hand and kissed it. I would love to do it again with the maturity that I have now, because it’s not like the other characters that you feel you already spent. I have never had the opportunity to experiment with it. So I have in my house a picture of Queen Elizabeth.
– When do you start in acting?
-I started in acting in ’96 with The Beehive and that was taking my first steps until I entered the National School of Art in 2001 where I graduated with Professor Liset Valdes Siverio who was at that time the director of the school. In 2004 I went to work with Jose Milian, but I lasted with him just a month because he drove me crazy. (Laughs) So the first thing I clarify when I tell these things is that we are not family. After that I joined Rita Montaner Company under the leadership of Gerardo Fulleda Leon and Tony Diaz as artistic director. With them I made my first work as a professional that was in Escandalo en la Trapa and then Contradanza … And then when Tony Diaz decides to separate and create Mephisto Theatre. And I went with him. I was one of the founders. And there I am to this day.
One day I got to experiment with video cameras. I made three short films: Smoke I and II and Shadows, but all got censored in the sample of new filmmakers. Then I met Jennifer Almeida, director of the Coro Estrellitas who later became my partner and she gives me a play called A Concert for Snow White never had anyone wanted to run, and I did. I realized that served, that people liked. One of the things that makes Mephisto Theatre is to enable young people to direct, Tony Diaz gave the opportunity to many people but no one would ever direct and one day I raised my hand and said I was going to do it, “What you’re going to direct? ‘,’ Cats ‘, «Cats, you can?’, ‘Yes, with children’ … And I did it.
Then I did Requiem for Mercedes written by me in honor of my grandmother, and then Vaselina, which my arrangement. Later I want to stage the French Moulin Rouge but in a very Cuban way at the same time. Do not look at me like that; I’m going to do it. Yes, I know that musical theater is an ABC: acting, dancing and singing … I recently was watching concepts of musical theater and said: one talent, two, production, three money. Unfortunately I only have the artistic talent. I have boys and other young people with whom I meet to work also unfortunately everyone asks you “How much you gonna pay me? ‘ And there is no budget, because it is a genre that has been lost because of that very problem.
– Alejandro, I know your grandmother means a lot to you and your career. Tell me about her.
– My grandmother was my first director. When I was three she staged the poem The Spanish dancer for me and I won a prize and everything. Unfortunately when I was four years she died and I took her room. I think her spirit is with me in that room…
Mercedes García Ferrer, that was her name, was a Cuban poet and director of theater group La Giraldilla. My house was in 21 and N and it was visited by Silvio Rodriguez, Pablo Milanes, Adolfo Llauradó, Daisy Granado, Serrat … It was like a celebrity house, but it was frowned upon because it was the era of the ’70s, ’80s, and she fell in that sack. Jose Milian was like a son to her, in all his works there is a character who represents or speaks of her. She left Camajuaní, at 14, wearing a goodies bag of white papers and seven pesos in her pocket to deal with Havana and realized that Havana is the drain because she was so innocent. She then returned to eat it when she was seventeen. They say that when I act I have much of my grandmother, especially when I impersonate female characters; that’s why I look good). And I know that yes, she’s there, and when people see how I direct they say it is close to what she did, at a high level of demand. Funny thing is that my grandmother worked with young people who had no schooling and today are great actors and I work with children and young people who have no professional training.
– Theater is a complicated, less popular than other arts and harder, I do not know if it is for its ephemeral life…
My life is the theater, I ‘m dying to do theater, I feel very envious when I direct a staging and I sit, because I feel you are enjoying it. They say that a play is like a child, it comes out of you. That’s why you argue so much, because you want to come out perfect because you have a vision since you start dreaming of it. The proposals that I have directed have been very bold. I know. For the references that people have of the film versions. So far I ‘ve done well , but …
But …
– … Failure. In Requiem for Mercedes there is a text in which Mercedes asks the fortuneteller ‘ what do I fear? Failure “And the fortuneteller answers:” failure … what is that word, one has never failed if it is happy. “And yeah boy, I ‘m afraid, terrified of failure, but you have to trust yourself and I have not had the misfortune to fail. I like the risk, that’s why when I was twelve I became a firefighter because I wanted to try the risk of fire, slide down the tube, the show … Life is a risk and you have to take risks. There’s nothing more similar to life than the stage….
