• Submitted by: manso
• Arts and Culture
• 08 / 20 / 2010

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The children’s theater company “Integración” will stage “Maria Moñitos, la lluvia y algo más” at the Theater Cafe of the Bertolt Brecht Cultural Center, in Havana’s Vedado district. The performances will begin at 11:00 am all Saturdays and Sundays in August.

With music from Enriqueta Almanza, this anthological play turns to the stage, now improved in the performance and deepening of its leading characters, and will alternate with a musical show that includes fragments from other previous stagings.

For children’s delight, “María Moñitos”, which represents a Caribbean character, retakes and revives the values of honesty, friendship and truth before lie, in an understandable language for children.

Directed by Raciel Reyes Geada, this play has its antecedents in the 1980s, when it was adapted for Cuban television first and for its staging by Julio Cordero later.

Created in October 1990, “Integración” has toured stages in Cancun, Mexico, and several of its actors have rendered services as art instructors in the “Corazon Adentro” (Heart Within) Cultural Mission in Venezuela.

With 45 workers, 16 of whom are mainly youngsters, they diversify their endeavors not only favoring quality stagings, but also taking part in prop, scenography and puppet making with own and non-returnable resources.

We should dedicate a separate remark for its systematic community work, developed in workshops every Saturday in its headquarters of the San Francisco Movie Theater, in 10 de Octubre Municipality, and now extended to the children’s oncology wards in several hospital centers in the Cuban capital and the National Red Cross.

Recently, they delivered a workshop on puppet construction, handling and technique at the Servando Cabrera Moreno Gallery, directed at students, and at National Museum of Natural Sciences, in Old Havana.

“María Moñitos”, staging that will delight children and will promote such values as respect and solidarity among them, now joins “La Cucarachita Martina” and “Buscando la lluvia”, premiered last year.

Its director Raciel Reyes stresses the particularities of this big-format troupe, where the actors characterize the characters of children’s works and also operate the puppets to achieve an interaction with the children who attend the show.

By Míriam Zito

Cubasi Translation Staff