Havana’s Carnavaleando Interactive Theater Co.

Photo Feature: Elio Delgado Valdés

Text: Elvira Pardo Cruz

HAVANA TIMES — Walking around the center city we came across by chance an event taking place on the San Rafael Blvd. pedestrian zone on the grounds that was once the El Encanto department store.

The Carnavaleando Interactive Theater Company was holding one of their street performances. The show drew a large crowd of passersby like us making a large circle around the actors in their costumes.

The presentation was titled “Fantasy Farm”, where the animals of the farm mixed with the characters from Little Red Riding Hood. The parody proved attractive as they played amid jokes and popular songs in a make believe forest.

A community project called the “Jardin del Colibri” (Hummingbird’s Garden) joined in with a children’s dance choreography.

It was clear that the children and their parents had a good time, perhaps, for a while, the latter forgetting the difficulties of their daily lives.

The Carnavaleando troupe has revamped its project. It dates back to 2002 when the director, Alexis Matos, dreamed of creating bigger than life dolls. The dream became a reality and today the group performs in different neighborhoods with its 36 characters. The headquarters of Carnavaleando is at Belascoain and Neptuno in Centro Habana.

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