Its founder, although he was not alone at the beginning, later he was, Mario Ernesto Sánchez, managed to make the dream of a festival a reality, and over time this personal triumph has transcended him to become one of the best faces of Miami at an international level.
Diario Las Américas has been by the Festival since its beginning, has seen it grow, has evaluated and sponsored it. Once again the Diario is alongside the event, and expresses it with this interview with its artistic director, Mario Ernesto Sánchez and will follow him throughout the presentations.
-Festival 38 is about to begin. How do you feel about this long journey?
It is felt tremendously, in the bones and in the years, Luis, although I continue, let’s see if I reach 40. I see that my city has grown a lot, that the new skyscrapers beautify our horizon and complicate traffic more, that the tourists fill Calle Ocho with joy and that we have welcomed a large number of immigrants, mostly from Cuba and Venezuela, with whom I identify because I also did the same in 1962 through Operation Pedro Pan.
I have seen how the theatrical billboard has overflowed and no longer rests because the premieres multiply every week. This path has been long, difficult and complicated, it is true, but I have also seen how the Latin American artists who have arrived in recent years have made entertainment grow in Miami. In the case of Avante and its festival, I believe that we have achieved our mission of preserving Hispanic culture in the US. We have become one of the few longest-running Hispanic cultural organizations in this country. We are satisfied.
–This year the festival has 11 productions, how would you define this edition taking into account that they will have more presentations?
We have been able to invite eleven productions because our budget has grown, thanks to the Miami-Dade County Dept. of Cultural Affairs, South Arts and the National Latinx Theater Initiative. It is thanks to this reason that we will be able to open the Festival with Hamletfrom the La Plaza Teatro company in Lima, at the Westchester Cultural Arts Center, with fifteen members in the Peruvian team. We were also able to invite the musical Alanfrom the eleven-member Barcelona-based company WeColorMusic, which will open the Carnival at the Adrienne Arsht Center. And many more companies that make this year’s festival a treat for an audience eager to see some of the best productions from Latin America and Spain. A feat that we would not have been able to achieve in the past.
-To start the festival announces a version of Hamlet with actors who have Down syndrome. Tell us about the work we will see at the inauguration
I had the privilege of seeing this Hamlet from the Teatro La Plaza de Lima at the A Mil Festival in Santiago, Chile, where I met the tireless creator Chela De Ferrari, who took care of the adaptation and spent a year rehearsing (against all odds) directing the play with actors with Down syndrome. It was one of those nights when you don’t want to leave the theater, because you realized that you have seen something indelible. You fall in love with the group as soon as the performance begins and the rest is professionalism, creativity and imagination. We have been wanting to present it in Miami for two years because I know it will be an unforgettable, perhaps historic moment for our audience. The show also excites you because of how good all of its actors are. For me it is a cry to break the social stigma that this unique community still suffers because it confirms what human beings are capable of achieving.
The interest, enthusiasm and support that Olga Garay-English has put into this endeavour has been more than admirable. Olga has been our collaborator since 1984 and has supported our work at Avante and at the festival ever since. Returning to this excellent staging scenewhose logistics and funding requirements have been prohibited for a long time, has been possible thanks to the Miami-Dade County Dept. of Cultural Affairs, through the Miami Dade County Auditorium, which has allowed me to launch this beautiful work, which will Without a doubt, history in Miami.
–South American theater generally contributes a lot to the festival. This year companies from Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Uruguay and Venezuela will come, so it can be said that there is a notable participation. Perhaps the long absence of productions from Brazil is being noticed. How do you see the theater of the region?
No matter the vicissitudes it suffers in all its periods, theater will always emerge, better or not so good, but I don’t think anyone can eradicate it from the face of the Earth. However, it is noticeable when rulers do not support the arts. That has happened to Brazil, which has had a few years with very little support, as has happened to Mexico. And it is not that theater has gone out in those countries, on the contrary, the more they attack or abandon it, the more gracefully it is renewed. But the companies do not have the means to leave their country on international tours, even having a Ministry of Culture. As you know, we do not have a Ministry of Culture, the only thing we have, in the most powerful country in the world, is the National Endowment for the Arts, which governs as an independent federal agency to grant funds, but it is not a ministry.
The region’s theater remains active, creative and with high hopes for a better future. The actors, directors and others on the team are determined to survive doing theater, and they manage to present it in an impressive and dignified way, even in the midst of misery. That’s how it has been and maybe that’s how it will be, but we continue to strive to achieve excellence on stage.
–There is also a notable rise in Hispanic theater in the United States, and its absence is resented. What is your opinion of the Hispanic theater scene in North America?
Hispanic theater in the United States has had its ups and downs, and continues to have difficulties in obtaining funding to be able to better educate itself, rise and shine, especially theater that is presented in Spanish. I clarify this because the majority of Hispanic companies in the country present their works in English.
But we have to keep fighting. According to Latinx Funders, in 2021, Hispanic arts and culture organizations received $102.5 million. However, that same year, Grantmakers for the Arts announced that foundations had awarded $3.5 billion to arts and culture organizations. If we do the math correctly, less than 3% of foundation contributions reached Hispanic organizations. Although currently, we are 19% of the population in the US, and in 2050 we will reach 29%. Maybe I can witness it.
–The Lifetime Achievement Award is always a tribute to the awardee’s career. How do you rate the award that will be given this year?
Juan Margallo and Petra Martínez, talented creators, are also winners of the National Theater Award in Spain, and are considered one of the longest-standing and solid teams in Spanish theater. The festival invited them years ago to participate with Miss Doña Margaritaby Roberto Athayde, directed by Juan and acted with her innate grace and talent by Petra.
The selection of the annual award is as difficult and rigorous as the selection of the works. Through a panel led by Dr. Beatriz J. Rizk, director of our educational program, it is agreed to choose one or more people who have dedicated their lives to the performing arts, as indicated by the title of the award, initiated by maestro Francisco Morín in 1989, and since then, the festival has awarded this distinction to personalities who have more than deserved it. The list of the 34 winners that appears in the program represents very well the prestige of the award. The winners have to be Latin American and, as we have been doing this for so long, the country is repeated, especially where theater is not a luxury but a necessity. We have also selected celebrities from the Hispanic world of the United States, and Brazil, for its place in America.
–For the closing of the festival it is announced Dissonance, a text by Teatro Avante’s resident playwright, Abel González Melo. Being the work that you direct, what could we anticipate about what we will see?
Not much, because we want to try to surprise the audience, hopefully we will succeed. I can tell you that it is a play for four actors, and I think it is one of the best that Abel has written for us. I can also tell you that I have a luxury cast: Marilyn Romero, Julio Rodríguez, Claudia Tomás and Daniel Romero (they are not related). The Avante team of designers is already ready for this world premiere. And I am trying to eliminate the seams of the direction, so that the audience can enjoy the performances even more.
Directing these four actors has been a delight, I have hardly had to do anything, just praise what they are achieving in rehearsals. It is a work that deals with human relationships and lives trapped in a social project. It deals with pain, revenge and the possibility of granting (or not) forgiveness.
The 38th edition of the Miami International Hispanic Theater Festival, organized by Teatro Avante, runs from July 11 to August 4. Four weeks presenting shows from Argentina, Ecuador, Spain, the United States, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay and Venezuela. Program details and reservations, on the page www.teatroavante.org
