• Submitted by: manso
• Arts and Culture
• 12 / 20 / 2010

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By Elizabeth López Corzo. The name Rosa Vasconcelos is very familiar to those who like theater. She is one of the best actresses of the Cuban stage today. And although she has spent some time on stages, the character Iluminada, in Juan Carlos Cremata’s El Premio Flaco, made her really popular. Her performance was so good that Hector Quintero himself said: “She is the Iluminada I thought when I wrote my original play”.

I met Rosa in a way completely alien to journalism, and it was very easy to understand that the woman capable of playing several roles was also a great person.

Since you were a child you were linked to small theater groups, why did you want to be an actress, what is the thing you like the most in theater?

Yes, I liked make up stories since I was a child. I dressed up, competed in school singing contest and wanted to win but I was not good at singing. At 9, I had my first acting workshop and I joined the Cultural House in Arroyo Naranjo in an amateur theater group, led by Ever Méndez, my first teacher. What I like about theater is that I feel free. It is the space where I feel confident. I can have direct contact with the audience and each function is unique.

Tell me about your experience at El Público Theater, how much have you learned from Carlos Diaz, the works that you enjoyed.

Well, I'm very fond of Carlos Diaz and I love what I do, but to be honest, I've learned more watching how he directs than being directed by him, because I dream of having the opportunity to play more important roles in the group, because working by his side is also a dream of many...

You have performed important plays of Cuban playwrights like Eugenio Hernandez and Abelardo Estorino, from your actress and public point of view, how do you see contemporary Cuban theater? What are the main subjects? Does it comply with its social function? Do you believe people feel identified with what is being done...?

I think the Cuban contemporary theater is a renewal of theatrical reality, having a new aesthetic and another way to reach audiences that are interested and can be identified with the various subjects dealt. I'm seeing interesting things from young artists recently graduated from the Superior Institute of Art. I would like these young artists could develop such fresh ideas.

What is the character you´d like to play and what you wouldn´t?

In the theater, I would like to do something of Lorca, though I know I will not play Yerma (laughs) but I can play Bernarda, can´t I? And I would love to perform a mean, dark, contradictory character in movies, different from Iluminada. I want to explore more complex forms of interpretation, because I like challenges. I would not perform a character that may degrade me as a human being. In fact, I rejected once a character for television where I was proposed to perform a woman who was rejected by a man for being fat and if he kissed her, this man wiped his mouth with disgust and I felt that I was indeed a fat actress and had been treated like a fat actress.

You have talked at times about loss of values (something tackled in El Premio Flaco), you are a very simple person. What do you appreciate most in a person?

Honesty and sincerity are the things I advocate above all in human beings. I am honest and I have had a bunch of troubles because of it. But I am transparent and authentic. I hate hypocrisy and lies.

Although you have spent time in theater and have made some films, the protagonist role in Cremata’s movie has been a boom in your career. When Hector Quintero himself saw you, he said you were the Iluminada he always thought of. How do you see it? What do you feel for such character?

Yes, I can say that Iluminada has taught me a lot. This character has brought me love and fears. I feel love and happiness because I was able to give it to my father, the person I love the most in this world; the happiness of having reached the people who identify themselves with their misfortune. In these tough times we are living, many Iluminadas are needed.

Now, I confess I am very afraid that Iluminada can become a stigma in my career because between filming and the premiere of El Premio Flaco, it has been almost 3 years and during that period of time very few projects have emerged. I am worried about the future. I cannot distinguish the horizon right now. I would love to be preparing a new character right now while talking about Iluminada.

What were the efforts you did to embody Iluminada? I guess you had to gain weight. How did you see Iluminada and how do you see her now?

I must thank my body weight to be part of El Premio Flaco (laughts). I had an 18 years training in theater. It’s undeniable that having a good script, experience actors surrounding you and a director like Cremata, make you say, "Well Rosa, you are Iluminada”.

What are you doing right now?

I was doing a project earlier this year in the film Marina, directed by Kiki Alvarez. I played a very small character, called Toña, but I enjoyed it a lot and it was shot in the middle of the Gibara’s Festival of Poor Cinema. I also worked with Eylin Abreu in her thesis named Rewind.

As you can see, everything is in the past tense. I have done nothing more.

Right now I'm picking up a monologue entitled The Last Foutté, written and directed by Carlos Borbon, a young playwright and filmmaker. It tells the frustration story of a woman who wanted to become a ballet dancer.

Source: Cubasi Translation Staff