By Anett Rios and Alien Fernandez
But the group’s members decided the show must go on — and they kept turning up. Cuban theater, alongside music and ballet, has long been hailed as a cultural hallmark of an island with a tradition of promoting the arts that spans centuries. “But it comes at a cost.
“It became impossible for the actors to arrive on time; they were exhausted and struggling to cope,” said Linda Soriano, director of theater group Impulso Teatro. “I told them they were free to leave. “What keeps us making theater is the determination to ensure … that it does not die out,” said 88-year-old Carlos Perez, a winner of Cuba’s national theater prize and by far the oldest of this small company of 14 actors. Many actors and stagehands work multiple jobs to make ends meet in a country where prices have soared alongside the plummeting local peso currency, Perez said. “I don’t know if I could have managed if I had been in their shoes at 25,” he said. Amanda Feijo, attending a recent performance at the makeshift theater, said the show had provided its own snippet of light amid all the darkness.
