Intercultural Exchanges

Since its founding, our group has collaborated with high-caliber international companies such as Buendia from Cuba, Unitec from Colombia, Picadillo Band from Spain, Talabot Theater from Mexico, The Carpentry Organization from France, Cabecas Theater from Portugal, Axe Festival from Canada, and Liberart Theater from Argentina.

Our works have been presented at international and national theater festivals like Spain, Portugal, St. Louis, Memphis, Argentina, Canada, France, and Cuba.

El Ingenio is an interdisciplinary non-profit organization dedicated to producing, disseminating, and promoting high-quality Hispanic theater, preserving Hispanic culture, and deepening Latino heritage through the performing arts. We do this by fostering intercultural exchanges promoting Latin artwork in South Florida and abroad and utilizing visual and performing arts to rekindle interest in the classics and original texts that form the bedrock of our shared culture.

We expect and have seen that the benefits of this program are primarily demonstrated by future collaborations of distinct artists who were first exposed to each other at our event. We connect these various cultural groups, often separated by language or cultural bias, and bring them together to engage on topics they may believe are unique to them but are a collective experience among other minority groups.

Given El Ingenio’s goals of growing and expanding as a bilingual theater company, establishing itself internationally as a significant player in the Latin American theater scene, and increasing our international offerings to the local community, these collaborations contribute to achieving all those goals.

This program establishes a connection between El Ingenio Teatro and community members. They share a common interest in a commitment to showcasing music’s artistic endeavors and using music to transcend language and culture and foster the integration of diverse cultures, especially within Latino and American audiences. Also, it becomes a necessary cultural force in the local community by providing much-needed Spanish-language professional employment opportunities and bilingual theater instruction for people with little or no English language proficiency.

Departing from its own multicultural identity, El lngenio has, as one of its main objectives, to ease any form of discrimination or barriers. The company creates innovative international projects to reach diverse audiences. They have specific social functions promoting dialogue across cultural and racial divides.

2024: The Blue Eye. Collaboration with Argentina.

Alfonsina Storni inspires this original story. She was a brave Argentine artist who lived at the beginning of the 20th century. She faced censorship then because of her feminist ideas and controversial sexual preference. Alfonsina considered herself a man trapped in a woman’s body, so she suffered the consequences of belonging to a hypocritical and cruel society where she was never accepted. She was an actress, teacher, literary critic, writer, and poet. Her writing has transcended all of Latin America due to her strength and courage. Alfonsina’s poems defend freedom and the right to live with love. Her controversial issues gain strength and relevance in this world premiere of El Ingenio in collaboration with the Argentine theater company Liberart.

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2023: The Last Flight of Matias Perez. Collaboration with Portugal.

“The Last Flight of Matias Perez.” It was a Portuguese/USA collaboration to develop and produce a bilingual play incorporating live music on the subject of the unique hot air balloon Portuguese pilot Matias Perez. The play was presented in the U.S. and Portugal in the venues proposed and was recorded and viewed as a movie on Ingenio’s YouTube channel.

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2022: Celia, a Gift from the Soul. Collaboration with Canada.

“Celia, a gift from the soul.” It was an international collaboration between El Ingenio Teatro from Miami and Axé World Company from Canada. The project was a world premiere of a bilingual play incorporating actors, musicians, live music, and multimedia images about the unique artist Celia Cruz. Celia was an Afro-Cuban singer who became an icon and symbol of diversity and freedom for all Latinos.

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The Oriental Organ. Collaboration with France.

Estreno de la actuación callejera de la adaptación de El Ingenio “La Dama del Mar”, realizado con el apoyo de la Knight Foundation. Fue presentado durante el 2 ° Festival Anual Internacional de Teatro dedicado a la Mujer: Casandra. La actuación original se realizó utilizando el Órgano Oriental, instrumento musical actualmente en desuso y desconocido por las nuevas generaciones.

Hace diez años, se estableció Knight Arts Challenge para permitir a los habitantes de Miami dar vida a sus ideas artísticas. Este año (2018), 43 ganadores de todo el sur de la Florida ayudarán a hacer que el arte en Miami se vea, se sienta y se escuche en toda la ciudad y en muchos vecindarios. Nuestra compañía El Ingenio Teatro fue uno de los ganadores con el proyecto “Rescatando el órgano oriental”. El proyecto consiste en el rescate de este instrumento musical callejero utilizado en los bailes populares en Cuba, actualmente en desuso y desconocido por las nuevas generaciones. Sin embargo, son múltiples sus inigualables aportes musicales y la riqueza de su legado. Para esto creamos una partitura musical especial junto a Eugenio Cuayo, inmigrante cubano perteneciente a una estirpe de constructores de órganos, quien elaboro el primer Órgano Oriental de la ciudad de Miami con maderas de muebles inservibles y otros materiales. Esta partitura musical se usara en un montaje teatral callejero inspirado en el texto de Ibsen: “La dama del Mar”. Hemos elegido este texto y a que nuestra ciudad está anclada en el mar y conformada por jóvenes inmigrantes entre otros y es a ellos a quien va dirigido este proyecto.

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