On February 17, 2021, in Havana, the Tablas-Alarcos Publishing House, in its Cuadernos Tablas collection, presented the book Clownteo Regresivo, concept and selection by Ernesto Parra.
Symbologies emanate from the title itself. Here appears the combination clown with the suffix teo, creating a neologism that could seem like a regressive clownish journey- and it is a pretext for a theoretical exploration: teo as a theory of clowning, as an aesthetic metaphor. Regressive suggests an introspection of its author's contributions to the Cuban theatrical context and development. Reflection, also, on a narrative that pays tribute to modernity from a sociocultural perspective from the artistic values that emanate from the group Teatro Tuyo; this appears implicitly as a culturally constructed symbol.
A careful edition was in charge of Yudarkis Veloz. Credits are due to Annelis Noriega for the design of the collection, Dieiker Bernal for the cover, with a photo by Leonardo Linares, and Lisandra Fernandez for the composition.
Ernesto Parra, actor, artistic director, pedagogue, and playwright, knows how to walk the road and how to walk it. How to configure a dramaturgy that traps the spectators from the beginning to the end. He used these artifices in the handling, composition, and articulation of a text that goes in retrospect and apprehends the reader. He constructed a story in four chapters. Thus, he presents a compilation of articles, comments, evaluations, and reviews written by critics and scholars, outstanding voices of the Cuban cultural scene that establish Teatro Tuyo in the theatrical panorama of the country from a unique aesthetic: that of the clown.
These texts are grouped by coherent themes, as an investigative journey, weave an identity. Beyond this vision is the concrete, the genuine, and the unusual. On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the emblematic group, this text was published, and prior to the event, we enjoyed the staging of Clowncierto, winner of the Villanueva 2023 Award.
Of the chapters, I will begin with chapter 3, respecting the proposed arrangement, because chapter 1 deserves a sovereign distinction, is the minuet between “Allegro”, “Adagio” and “Finale” in the symphonic movement proposed by Ernesto.
In the third, What is Teatro Tuyo, Yudd Favier guides us on how a man became a clown. Ernesto, who still loves God and his neighbor too much, one day went to the divine encounter and, because destiny cannot be oriented like a compass, his altar turned out to be the theater, and like Christ the Redeemer, the vicissitudes were waiting for him, events that were shaping an obsession. Dear reader, I am only provoking you, I am not going to tell the story, you are going to find that wood of truths and vicissitudes, I propose you go into the invitation made by Isabel Cristina Hamze in Hacer el camino, a paper presented at the Colloquium Teatro Tuyo, irrumpir en la escena cubana desde el clown en el Tercer Taller Internacional de Payasos en Las Tunas (Make the road, presented at the Colloquium Teatro Tuyo, breaking into the Cuban scene from the clown, in the Third International Workshop of Clowns, in Las Tunas). The author begins by posing the question of how to explain that a collective of clowns from Las Tunas has positioned itself, sticking its nose among the most relevant of the Cuban scene in recent years. And she recalls a Festival Máscara de Caoba in Santiago de Cuba, with a full house and frenetic applause, as it is rarely done in the theater. To assert it, he creates an analogy of the fact with the great rock stars.
In this typification of the group, Indira Rodríguez continues with Teatro Tuyo: capacidad de asombro todavía (ability to still be amazed). As a critic, she does not want to explain the technical details, she prefers to return to the innocent spectator to feel the emotion before the enjoyment that allows to leave differently. Marielvis Calzada Torres continues in this section of the characterization of the group, who exposes another of the works presented in the already mentioned Colloquium, A personal note and four confessions. Teatro Tuyo: Breve boceto como expiación, here the writer has decided to confess from the reminiscence of some works of her repertoire a fact that changed her vision of this artistic expression.
This movement ended with the National Theater Award Rubén Darío Salazar, with the abstraction Teatro Tuyo, a group always different, taken from the compilation made by Alberto Estrada Segura, Teatro Tuyo. A story to be told. Editorial Sanlope, 2017. I quote the author when referring to what the group did when it entered the national scene: “Invade, occupy, conquer the tables of the island clinging to the difficult technique of the art of the clown” (page 22).
Time for the “Adagio” (chapter 2). What has Teatro Tuyo done? Here, Pun! is the center of something else that “Papote makes bloom among us... a meaning too precious” (page 27). Lenna María Caballero in No se venden se regalan knew a different universe. Now, a pun that makes the theatrical heart! Where: “The balloon is the rudder of a car with the gear lever, when the rain begins the lever becomes windshield wiper when it crashes, the rudder is then the halo of the angel in which the man has become..." (Ruíz, page 31).
Pun! It made her the mistress of her joy for an instant, a very special gift from Las Tunas, full of devotion. Waldina Almaguer, in such convulsive times, loved and came out clean, converted into what Papote wants his spectators to be.
Alberto Estrada Segura, who was close to the group since its birth and also grew up with it in the difficult world of the tables, presents us in this volume with the name La olimpiada de Teatro Tuyo a thorough analysis, that, starting from reminiscences of classic Cuban clowns, goes through the work of the group from the personal experience and affirms that from the divertimento the work was born to dialogue about the limits of human beings, the contrast between the unseemly and the clear, the ethics, the solidarity, and the life. The reader who approaches Clownteo regresivo will undoubtedly feel the joy of the human and ecumenical in a range of cultured and wise meditations. In this representation, I suggest Una llama que crece.
Another section is announced by Superbandaclown, here initiated by María Laura Germán, with Una corazonada score for young performers (only in Spanish), and continued by Oda a la alegría (Ode to Joy) according to Teatro Tuyo. I want to point out the critic's judgment: “The visuality and the spirit of the staging correspond to a completely new aesthetic (...). Ernesto Parra and his group has devised a strategy to follow different paths in each delivery” (Ruíz, page 45). Interesting is the text by Andy Arencibia Concepción, who establishes significant references and incorporates another singular observation of the staging regarding the fact that in it “the dissimilar ways in which music is inserted, linked to a discourse in which a long-standing concern such as national identity makes possible an inquiry into the place occupied by the own in the face of the universal, will surprise” (page 47).
The second movement (chapter 2) is spacious and profound, as expected. It is a critical compilation of 25 years of uninterrupted artistic production of a group that, with its work, made Las Tunas known not only for the Jornada Cucalambeana. Teatro Tuyo is a shared pride, and when the symbols transcend the collectivity, and when they are based on the sense and feeling of belonging, those identity particularities build the “we”. This is how Caras blancas (White Faces) come to the surface in three assessments: that of Rubén Darío Salazar, Bárbara Labrada Rodríguez, and Yami Montoya. Here, Papote appears with his son Jean Paul, Papotico, the title of the mise-en-scène is part of a song written and performed by Yaxela Hernández and José Adrián Rodríguez.
Then, like a sigh, Clownteo regresivo offers a photographic appendix, in which the reader can visually rejoice in moments of the works reviewed so far. Then comes Caminantes, performed by Adrián Bello and Aixa Prowl. This memory of two nomadic clowns, where the actress makes use of her circus skills interpreted with the codes of clowning, is reflected in the book by different appreciations, and all of them contribute to new approaches. I would dare to say that this catwalk of shows is already part of Cuba's theatrical heritage. We arrive at Gris, as author Alberto Estrada Segura says in Absurd Pretext for a Title, it is a divertimento in which he subtly warns us of an inevitable ecological disaster if the excesses with the habitat continue (page 75). We will also find the views of Roger Fariñas Montano, Lázaro Valdés Pérez, and Laudel de Jesús.
Narices, an appendix made up of five works, is the next invitation. It subjugates the fact of stopping to read judgments on this work of names, among others, such as the theatrologist Omar Valiño, who was an advisor to the group, and the journalist José Luis Estrada Betancourt, already in eternity. To return happiness to a person, to a friend, requires joining wills to grow a tree of purity, lush, with red noses, in which love can reproduce. The reader will also be able, also, to go through images of the referenced stagings.
There are necessary leaps when you propose a treat, and the trilogy of shows deserves it: La estación, Charivari, and Parque de sueños, in a retrospective that congregates the birth, the extraordinary and incredible, and also, the rebirth, the fantastic, the superb, and audacious. Findings are symbolized by voices such as those of Jesús Barreiro Yero and Marilyn Garbey, which could not be missing in a Teatro Tuyo concert.
Chapter 1: What is a clown? This section deserves special attention. Here, Ernesto shines between a theoretical approach born from the systematization of a practice in which he is the protagonist and the contribution of a referential framework to be taken into account by anyone who studies, investigates, or approaches in any way the aesthetics of clowning. Conceptual generalizations about his observations give rise to a coherent and interrelated union of doctrines. He considers that “The sum of diverse stage experiences throughout these 20 years have helped me to formulate this concept: to be a clown (...)”.
Do not believe, reader, that I am going to be so naive as to say it, you will discover that I only encourage you to stop in this chapter of regressive Clownteo, perpetrated by the one who has registered in the Cuban Theater Academy the School of the Clown.
Thus, we arrive at the “Finale” or “Chapter 0”: The Master.
