La Colmenita to Celebrate 20th Anniversary
The Cuban children’s theater company, La Colmenita, is celebrating its 20th anniversary.
“The soul of Cuba,” as British actor Vanessa Redgrave once called the renowned group will be celebrating its birthday on February 14 with its traditional hike up the Pico Turquino.
During a press conference, the director of La Colmenita, Carlos Alberto Cremata, said that his troupe is organizing special presentations to celebrate the 20th anniversary including a show at the Ciegnaga de Zapata bio-reserve where they will premiere their latest production Elpidio Valdés and Los Van Van in salute of the Ninth Congress of the Communist Youth League of Cuba (UJC).
The group will also take part in the premier of the movie Pleiesteishon, directed by Ian Padrón; the presentation of a special edition of the magazine Excelencias, dedicated to La Colmenita; the filming of the staging of Y sin embargo, se mueve; 2010 CUBADISCO 2010; and in the premier of Fábula de un país de cera, by the new Colmenita, made up of senior citizens from the Belén Convent.
From its founding in 1990, the renowned theater group has worked towards promoting human values through artistic creation, reaffirming the works of playwright Bertolt Brecht who wrote about making the means of pleasure into an object of instruction in his essay Theatre for Pleasure or Theatre for Instruction.
Made up by more than fourteen actors between three and fourteen years of age, La Colmenita became in the year 2007 the first theater group on a world level that received the title of Ambassadors of Goodwill from UNICEF.
La Colmenita is an oasis where people may share among friends, as well as a vehicle to travel all around the country and all over the world, with unforgettable life experiences. According to Cremata, the biggest challenge is the communication between himself and his young artists. The discipline required for the theater is higher, and even though he does not know of the word patience, he can only reach an unspoken agreement with the children in order to take his creations forward. “There is a strange chemistry between the children and myself in order to understand the game,” he says. Apart from the many tours to the provinces and to foreign countries, La Colmenita has its permanent venue at the Sala de la Orden Tercera de San Francisco de Asís (Third Order Room of Saint Francis of Assisi) in the convent under the same name, in Old Havana. “I never wanted a place of my own in order not to loose my freedom of movement; we are a group of adventurous people who like to travel around on tours, especially around the country.
On the other hand I was afraid of the huge shows that have nothing to do with theater, but now, when I see the room filled with children who are the main characters of everything that goes on there, I have ended up accepting it,” says Cremata. The unique theater troupe also has a web site in Internet with current information, which can be accessed through the address www.lacolmenitadecuba.cult.cu.
