The Cuban theater company Teatro del Caballero, directed by José Antonio Alonso, was invited by Juan Roca, director of the theater company Havana fama, and by Miami’s Teatro 8, to stage in Florida the plays De París un Caballero and Retrato de un hombre desnudo.
“In 30 years I have been in many places of the world –first with Buendia Theater and now with Teatro del Caballero. Not everyone has the chance to do what they like and succeed. That’s not easy. There are three basic elements for happiness: a house of your own, a job you enjoy and allows you to survive, and some love. I have found those three things in Cuba.”
“People ask me why Ii haven’t left from Cuba considering all the travelling opportunities I have. In my country I found the focus of my life”, says this actor and theater director José Antonio Alonso, who leads the Teatro del Caballero company with which he will perform starting on April 25 and through all the weekends of May at the Teatro 8 in the popular 8th street in Miami, Florida.
José Antonio Alonso is a Smart, sensitive man who loves the theater. Ever since he founded Teatro del caballero he has chosen plays addressed to the inner search of human beings that lead spectators to find out the center of the universe is within oneself.
It is precisely the Gentleman from Paris – a character from the piece De París un Caballero which will be staged on April 25 and 26 at Teatro 8 conveys an essential message in the opinion of its director: “I’m the king of the world because the world is always at my feet”.
“I’m eager of making theater to heal the people in a world that is polluted with hate, anguish and greed”, noted one of the founders of the Buendia Theater.
Retrato de un hombre desnudo
How did Teatro del Caballero emerge?
“It emerged as a result from my divorce with Buendia Theater. After almost 20 years working with Flora Lauten I realized I wanted to run a particular search. Teatro del Caballero is precisely the result of the human being I am, is to show on the stage everything that I can discuss at home with close friends.
“I have worked with small formats because that’s the best way to talk about me and to do it authentically. That gave birth to my first piece, La octava puerta, on the different social masks of human beings. In 2001 I premiered De Paris un Caballero which also talks about who we are, what we want and where we go.
Before writing the script I looked into the Gentleman from Paris, a Spanish immigrant that had arrived in Cuba a hundred years ago and I linked it with how the members of my group –and many other Cubans—felt the need to migrate. They just left for other places and didn’t come back. And I wondered: what is happiness: leaving or staying?
I tell the anguish of this Gentleman simultaneously with our own. At the end of the story, a young man sitting on the Malecon, realizes that happiness is with us, and that the journey must be done to the inside, to reflect about who we are, what we want to become and how to make it. Then, people can either leave or stay but always keeping in mind that happiness is inside ourselves rather than in material objects.
Fortunately, this piece has received multiple national and international awards. Since 2001 till present day people demand it and I’m thrilled because it is still valid”, explained the author.
Retrato de un hombre desnudo arrives after the stage of so many plays such as Rico and Historia de Burros, and brings a lot of satisfaction as well.
“Retrato de un hombre desnudo is another reflection on how hard it is to grow old and loose ccertain qualities. It is a debate between a human being and that same human being 30 years younger, which establishes a love-hate relationship where they both seem to be gay, but in the end they are but the same person.
The audience is thankful for it because we have all experienced that crisis at some point in our lives. Besides, the play is hilarious. In Latin America it has succeeded: in Chile, Colombia, Brazil, and also in France. It has certainly achieved a dimension that really pleases me.”
Actor Roberto Moreno and you received an invitation to stage the piece in Miami. How is your relation with the audience in Florida?
“The first time I was in Florida I participated at the Miami’s Monologue Festival (May 18 through 25, 2001). I went back two times in 2012, when we also visited Chicago. During that visit we staged De Paris un Caballero. The critic was very positive and it had a large audience. Many people were not able to enjoy it though so they wanted us to return.
Now I have returned with De Paris un Caballero and Retrato de un hombre desnudo –our latest piece. I’m looking forward to see the reaction of the audience. I’m confident that it will be excellent as it was in Chile, Colombia and Brazil –where the critic and applauses were tremendous. I have loved the reaction and the laugh it caused in people, despite that they don’t speak Spanish.
The people in Miami enjoy my work. I have several friends in the business of theater who know my work and are thankful for my visits”, pointed out the director who is already making preparations for his departure to Florida to meet his fans.
