The theater in Pinar del Río is in danger. This is not an exaggerated view of the matter, but rather a conclusion emanating from the marked shortage of actors in the province and the lack of solutions in the nearest future.
According to data provided by the Provincial Center for the Performing Arts (CPAE), of the 57 approved performance spots, only 25 are currently filled. This numerical difference represents creative processes that are interrupted, works that must be discarded from the repertoire, a cultural programming that cannot be sustained with the stability demanded by the public and for the good of the artistic manifestation itself.
Emigration and the search for more profitable work options within the country have increased a lack that has existed in the territory for several years, despite the strength of the artistic education system in the national context.
TO ACT OR NOT TO ACT?
“The actor is the fundamental axis of a staging, especially in Cuban theater and in Pinar del Río practices, which are mostly focused on the work of the actor,” says the turn-baja playwright Iran Capote, who considers, consequently , that the lack of actors constitutes one of the most pressing problems on the provincial scene.
For her part, theater director Dorys Méndez Lanza, leader of Alas Teatro, regrets that her group today only has two actresses on staff. “As an alternative, I work with double-contracted actors, even those who are not professionally evaluated, in addition to two students from the National Puppetry School who do their pre-professional internships here, but it is not a certainty that they will decide to stay in the group when they graduate” explains the experienced artist.
Being a graduate of Artistic Education is a requirement to join the payroll of any of our theater groups. However, in Pinar del Río there are very few students who pass annually in the recruitment exams for the National Theater School in Havana. To cite an example, in the 2023 call, five places were granted to the province, only two applicants were approved.
Theatrologist Aliocha Pérez Vargas observes with concern the fact that “there are fewer and fewer people interested in taking these exams, although in the past artistic careers were very seductive to boys and there was that kind of romantic ideal of the artist, that ideal has has been transforming, today there are other contingencies that have forced youth to change their vocational patterns, and artistic careers no longer attract as much attention.”
Meanwhile, it is a general rule that those who manage to enter the career and complete their studies opt for work proposals in the capital itself, where there are more attractive options and also the possibility of venturing into television, film and other media that are not available in the Pinar del Río context.
Those interviewed agree that low economic remuneration also leads to a lack of actors. “The young man who enters one of the groups as an actor needs another alternative to seek financial solvency, and when you are hired you have schedules to meet, a programming mechanism, rehearsals, that absorbs a lot of your time for a salary that is almost a kind of stipend,” says Pérez Vargas, general director of Teatro Rumbo.
“I myself have arranged for the actors to have other work in their free time, which is not exactly artistic work,” says the director of Alas.
In this regard, Iran Capote highlights that unlike the local reality, provinces such as Havana and Matanzas have other means of commercializing theater, which favor the economic income of actors and other stage specialists.
A GROUP IS ALSO AN ACADEMY
Going on stage, facing the audience, taking on another skin, embodying other lives and times, are not virtues that correspond to the majority. Acting is a gift for few, and that is why those who possess it are usually deeply admired by viewers. However, there is generally more talent than schools recruit.
“Every year I see students with aptitudes who fail exams. The jury sometimes comes looking for a special prototype for that growth; However, as a director I may be interested in other characteristics,” highlights Dorys Méndez, alluding to the talent that these boys represent and that today the province does not take advantage of because it does not have a legal mechanism for it.
“You could train these students within the group and then give them the opportunity to evaluate themselves; they would end up being as much actors as those at the Academy,” adds the theater director.
Prestigious exponents of the art of tabla in the territory, such as Sandra Pérez and Midiala Ríos, had a similar training, institutionally endorsed by 9.1C, an authorization to enter the sector that, although it has not completely disappeared, in recent years Its granting has ceased in the case of theater groups.
“There is a certain reluctance on the part of the National Council of Performing Arts to return to these solutions, I don’t know if the alarm call has been enough to make it understood that the situation in the province is very different from that of Havana,” considers the current director of Rumbo .
Graduated in Theaterology from the Higher Institute of Art, Daysi Díaz Padrón has extensive experience working with actors, which allows her to confidently affirm that “the actor has to be born”, then there is the Academy to train in terms of technique. , methods and other issues.
“But theater groups are also perfectly academies, in all of them there are professionals who can take on that training and with the province’s need for actors, I think there must be an opening to allow us to reach the talent that is on the street and we can nourish professional groups with this type of actors,” he asserts.
With the approval of the CPAE, Rumbo started an acting workshop for young people two months ago. First, the participants engaged in group dynamics and self-knowledge exercises; They also received basic notions of body expression, as well as voice and diction. The workshop leaders are now working on scenes from classical Cuban theater plays that will be united into a final show.
According to Díaz Padrón, the students have shown enviable discipline and dedication, so that “they have managed to appropriate the basics, the most urgent alphabet, at the same time that we provoke in them an interest in general culture, not getting tired of to read, to observe, to have all the wisdom that the actor needs to go on stage.”
However, this type of initiative does not have the necessary institutional endorsement to allow entry into the theater sector.
In the opinion of the artists interviewed, the creation of an acting academy in the province is a viable alternative, as well as an old demand that must be insisted on.
“The criterion that there is no specialized personnel for the training of actors in the territory is something that is truly infamous, but what is most worrying is that the artists themselves at the time have not combated this criterion. What is an inconvenience is the issue of the property to house that school, the professional talent is there,” analyzes Aliocha Pérez VARGAS.
REQUESTS THAT GO, REFUSALS THAT COME
According to the statements of Jessica Domínguez Hernández, deputy director of the CPAE, the institution is aware of the alarming situation of the theater in Pinar del Río. In that sense, she alleges that on several occasions they have requested the National Council of the Performing Arts for approval to open alternative schools, that is, teaching units within the same groups.
“Last February the province was even visited by specialists who suggested opening a teaching unit within Alas Teatro, which we thought was wonderful. After designing that strategy with subjects, teachers, class hours, and everything necessary, the National Center for Art Schools did not approve it nor did the National Council.”
Domínguez Díaz explained that they have received as a recurring argument the fact that Pinar del Río does not cover the places granted for the National School of Art, which is why they consider the creation of teaching units unnecessary.
In the opinion of this reporter, the above represents a superficial analysis of the phenomenon, since the history of recent decades has shown that those who go to study in Havana do not then meet the need for actors from the province, and that there are talented people who do not take exams for various reasons, ranging from the cost of studying in the country’s capital to insufficiencies in the dissemination of the call and in the prior preparation of those interested. Our art instructors in schools and cultural houses could help a lot with the latter.
In relation to the authorizations to enter the sector known as 9.1C, which could be the most immediate solution, the deputy director explained that they were suspended by the national management since before the Covid-19 pandemic and that they do not know the reasons for the decision.
“Recently they offered us the possibility of processing authorizations of this type for dancers who can join the folklore company of the province, which is about to disappear; However, this is not happening with theater groups,” she said.
The official insisted that the institution has not stood idly by in the face of a problem as complex as the lack of actors in the province, and that they are aware of its negative impact on the creative processes of the groups.
“Yes, we look for alternatives, but we are not the decision-makers, it is not in our hands whether it is yes or no.”
And so, between requests that come and refusals that come, the future of the theater in Pinar del Río is at stake. This is an issue that requires deeper analysis that is truly adjusted to the provincial reality. Likewise, it is necessary that more voices be raised from the institutional system of Culture and the direction of the province in general. The time is now, tomorrow will be too late.
