Dreaming in Cuban @ CAFE ONDA

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Dreaming in Cuban: Cuban Theater and the Miami School
By Jorge Luis Morejon

"Despite profound decentering from its source, Cuban theater has had a consistent representation in Miami. Mirrored by a repertoire of embodied theatrical practices, Cuban theater constitutes an important system of knowing and transmitting knowledge about Cuban culture. Using its own positioning, these epistemologies, in conjunction with actor’s training have gone unrecognized; yet, they have survived expatriation in the midst of divergent perspectives on both how to perform theater as knowledge, as well as how to generate knowledge through theater. Sainetes (or one- act farces), musical comedies, zarzuelas, and serious dramas in particular, are the fabric of this historically and culturally specific communicative process. Overall, the retention of the art form and the formation and maturity of Miami’s exiled actors has depended on the Cuban modern theater performed in exile."


http://howlround.com/dreaming-in-cuban-cuban-theater-the-miami-school

The Healing Power of Expression at DCFA

Jorge Luis Morejon during the performance of the piece The Healing Power of Expression: A Journey of Pain, Trauma and Transformation within the context of Critical Readings in Caribbean Arts and Culture, Friday 12th September, 2014 at the School of Education's Auditorium, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine.

Students in this course are drawn from all disciplines taught at the Department of Creative and Festival Arts or simply dcfa (Dance, Music, Visual Arts, Carnival Studies and Drama) and are required to work together to develop common understandings and appreciation of the arts they practise. Our talk was intended to help with this learning. In Mr. Rawle Gibbon's words, the course leader, sent to the guests in an email,  he specifically, wanted us "through [our] own experience, to share:

1. What is the nature of your art/discipline?

2. How is the art made?

3. How do you recognize a product of your art as 'good'?

4. What is the state of reflection on your art in Trinidad and Tobago/ the Caribbean?  

All this in 30 minutes max!

The full panel was integrated by Dr. Louis Regis, Mr. Raf Robertson and Dr. Jorge Morejon. 

"Thanks much for the example you set in our class yesterday. Your performance showed us the courage and risk-taking that makes art genuinely 'rewarding', the self-discipline that's the gift of training and the clarity of the gifted teacher." Rawle Gibbons