International Hispanic Theatre Festival of Miami XXV July 7-August 1, 2010

This 25^th annual festival carried as a subtitle "A Tribute to Mexico," but the activities were truly international. The performance of sixteen different plays constituted the strong suit of the festival, only seven of which came from Mexico. But of those seven, a transplant from Argentina wrote one, two were staged readings, theatre groups from the United States performed three of them, and one was set in Colombia. Groups from Mexico, Spain, Brazil, Uruguay, Puerto Rico, Chile, Argentina, and the United States all performed plays, although not all brought plays written by their fellow citizens — a group from Spain performed a play by an Argentine/Ecuadorian playwright, and a group from Uruguay performed a Lope de Vega classic from Spain. Groups performed their plays up to five times each, but most provided just two or three performances. And beyond the plato fuerte, the festival featured a vibrant "Educational Program," the presentation of several significant awards, an exhibit featuring photos taken by Asela Torres of Mexican plays performed at prior iterations of this festival, and a pair of theatre workshops held on International Children's Day. As if all of the foregoing did not illustrate the enormous international dimensions of this festival, I would add that I have never seen a more extensive and varied listing of sponsors for a like event, which included 45 sponsors from four countries, ranging from governments to foundations to radio stations to banks to restaurants to airlines. The festival vividly reflected the vitality and internationalism of Miami itself.

Before moving to some of the festival's theatrical highlights, I will dwell for a moment on the "Educational Program" organized and directed by Beatriz Rizk on the Wolfson campus of Miami Dade College, and sponsored by the College's Prometeo Theatre, Mexico's National Center for Theatre Research (CITRU), and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. This was a two-day scholarly conference on Hispanic theatre with presenters from all over the Spanish-speaking world. Many of the presentations focused on Mexican theatre, given the theme of the festival in general, but Jorge Dubatti of the Universidad de Buenos Aires delivered the keynote address on the study and philosophy of theatre as an "acontecimiento," arguing that researchers need to be close to and study actual performances, an argument which participants immediately put into practice at the festival. Other highlights included the presentation by Rodolfo Obregón, director of CITRU, of a video montage of numerous Mexican plays, and the presentation of the International Hispanic Theatre Festival of Miami 2010 Life Achievement Award to Mexican director José Solé. Solé then spoke of his experience in Mexican theatre, which started at a very young age with small puppets, after which he formed a theatre group when he was 12 or 13, and has now included directing, in abundance, avant-guard as well as commercial theatre, including a stint directing Mexico's Compañía Nacional de Teatro. Many scholars and researchers also presented ponencias and entered into a dialogue on a variety of Hispanic theatre subjects, and undoubtedly many of these ponencias will appear in an even more polished format in the pages of scholarly journals and books in the months and years ahead. Another fruitful session introduced recent publications in the world of Hispanic theatre, including traditional journals such as Tramoya, Gestos, Latin American Theatre Review, and Artez, as well as the cyber-journal Karpa, books ranging from the latest publications of CITRU and AINCRIT, and books celebrating festivals such this one. In fact, Beatriz Rizk presented the first of a two-volume set of books paying homage to the 25 years of the International Hispanic Theatre Festival of Miami.

As if it had not been enough for Rizk to organize the scholarly portion of this festival and prepare the aforementioned book, she directed not one but two staged readings of plays by Emilio Carballido, Orinoco and Rosa de dos aromas. Here follows a list of the other plays performed at the festival during the month of July: Amarillo, a creación colectiva from Mexico directed by...