“Looking for my First Applause” Festival

Santo Domingo, August 19, 2019 – Last Thursday, August 15, the “Cúcara-Mácara, Inc.” Cultural Foundation and its Artist Training Academy held its annual end-of-school-year event by presenting the “First Applause Festival 2019.” During the event, Festival organizers presented the academic results of those who participated during the 2018-2019 school year in the Foundation´s theater program. Also, personal and group awards were issued to the boys, girls and teenagers who participated in the Academy´s various artistic programs.

Two of the plays presented during the activity were “Tres Somos Tres”, a modern-day version of The Three Little Pigs story, directed and staged by professors Casandra Rossó and Dennis Cruz. The other was “La Tragicomedia de Don Cristóbal y Doña Rosita”, written by renown Spanish playwright Federico García Lorca, adapted and directed by Johanny García.

Children between the ages of 5 and 18 participated in both plays, showing the attending audience the various techniques they had learned at the Academy during the school year, such as scenic performance, vocalization, diction, expression of emotions and body control. The packed audience that attended the Teatro Monina Solá, at the Narciso González Cultural Center in Santo Domingo, reacted by offering the participating students standing ovations for their performances.

“At the end of the year we are very pleased to see how our Academy contributes to the children´s learning process, because we not only work with providing them with artistic training, and how we contribute to a future generation of artists. But we also work on such important areas as discipline, ethics and values, because we believe it is our institutional responsibility. These are all necessary tools needed to reach high academic standards and obtain significant results,” stated Basilio Nova, President and General and Artistic Director of the Foundation.

The “Cúcara-Mácara” Cultural Foundation has been involved in the country´s theater development for the past 38 years. It is situated in the city´s University Zone, at Benigno Filomeno Rojas Street #54. The Foundation also offers dance, theater, painting, music and singing lessons for children, adolescents and adults.

The Festival´s teaching, production and administrative team was headed by Casandra Rossó, Winiffer López, Dennis de la Cruz and Johanny García, under the academic coordination of Ana Jiménez Grullón and Basilio Nova.