Closure of the Successful VIII Emilio Aparicio Festival

More than thirty groups from around the country and from Puerto Rico and Venezuela participated in the VIII Emilio Aparicio Theater Festival organized with great success by the Ministry of Culture. This year the festival was dedicated to amateur theater enthusiasts.

For this year’s festival, the Ministry of Culture raised the prize money. Groups competed for 100,000 peso prizes for first place, 50,000 for second and 25,000 for third place in the Semi-Professional category. In the Amateur category the prize money was 75,000 pesos for first place, 50,000 for second place and 25,000 for third.

The increase in prize money was announced by Basilio Nova, National Director of Drama and Director of the Emilio Aparicio Emilio Festival, the day the festival opened. It was seen as a way of contributing to the professionalization of the amateur theater groups who normally receive no remuneration for their participation.

At the closing ceremony, Bernarda Jorge, National Director of Fine Arts, talked about the importance of culture adding that every year the programming and organization of the Festival gets better due to the participation of new groups and the follow-up of former participants from earlier years.

Ms. Jorge said that theater fulfills a social need and awakens the creative potential of individuals and for that reason, “it is so important for us not only to offer applause as a prize for talent but also critical analysis, observation and suggestions to the participants as well as the viewing public so that each year the event will grow and become an essential experience for the general audience.”

The Director of Fine Arts thanked the technicians, writers, actors and support staff that made the Festival a success. The Festival was dedicated to its namesake Emilio Aparicio, founder of the National Theater Arts School which today is known as the National Theater Company. In 1942 Emilio Aparicio gathered together a group of young actors and opened the door to professional theater in the Dominican Republic.

Later, the A-Theater Group of Venezuela presented “A Special Man” (“Un hombre especial”) based on the original work by Eduardo Pérez and directed by Alberto Carbonell who acted in the play along with Rubén Jiménez y Gabriela Davanzo.

The piece narrates the story of Abel who discovers that life with and its daily routines, is evil and has always been so and that one must do something to change it. He decides that the solution lies in the value of sharing and appreciating the joyous moments that make life special and worth living.

Plays were seen at the Manuel Rueda Hall at 5:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. while staging was carried out at 7:00 p.m. in the Experimental Hall. Attendance was full at all the shows and was mostly made up of theater students and scenery and staging enthusiasts.

Among the work represented was “The Return of the Rainbow,” “Monocró,” “Farce and Justice of Mr. Corrector,” “The Little Medal,” “Men Are Unfaithful and so Are Women,” “Pepito”, “For Adelina, Until We Meet Again,” “Tato nítido,” “Triangle,” “Flight of Madness,” “Agony Until the End,” “Fantasy of Theater,” “Strange Dreams of a Drunk Man,” “The Proof,” “The Heroine,” “Juan Bobo,” “Father Mateo and the Gossip Confessor,” and “I Am Happy and the Talkers.”

The long list of plays ended with “Fairy Tales,” directed by Edgar Quiles Ferrer, of the Conservatory of Dramatic Arts of Puerto Rico. Ferrer’s play was seen at the inauguration of the festival to great critical acclaim from the public.

The staging and scenery was done with new theatrical techniques involving transposition of space and time that, combining reality and fiction, was able to show how a central character could destroy his/her notion of the real world as a result of alcoholism.

Bernarda Jorge speaking to the public at the closing of the VIII Emilio Aparicio Theater Festival.

A scene from the play “A Special Man”

A-Teatro Group of Venezuela performing.