Massiel Dueñas

Massiel is a graduate of acting from the National School of Theater in 2008. She currently works as a professor of body expression at the University of the Arts, a position she also held in the theatrical group La Colmenita, which led to her collaboration in creating similar groups in Venezuela and Colombia.

Since childhood, she saw acting as a way of life. She grew up around 1996 in the children's theater company La Colmenita. This group instilled in her a love for this career, respect and discipline for the stage. From childhood she was clear that she wanted to be an actress, she dreamed of standing on stage, dreamed of living new experiences that had nothing to do with her. She liked learning texts and La Colmenita was her springboard to see that dream become closer, more tangible. "When you're a child you see everything as very big and idealize it, but suddenly as you grow up you realize it's a career that isn't so easy, it takes a lot of effort and even more when you start as a child like I did, with rehearsals from Monday to Sunday. Thanks to this company I traveled to more than ten countries, I met new cultures, people from around the entire world. They were the ones who made me discover how much I loved teaching, I love teaching, working with children, so because of that I wanted to be an actress."

"I presented myself at the National School of Art and out of eight hundred people, eleven of us from Havana made it, and I was one of them. They were difficult years, especially the first year of the career, but I never stopped. I fell many times, I cried tears of blood, I got up and moved forward because I always had clear that this was the career I was going to live from, that is, as a way of life. For me it's a pleasure to do what I do. I believe that I should pay for acting instead of being paid. The actor is a being that lives within a unique world. They don't live for art but rather live in art. We are special beings."

After her return to Cuba, she founded the Grupo Teatro Abril, for children and adolescents, in 2012. This collective is based at the Centro Loyola in the Centro Habana municipality and in addition to the acting workshops for young people it offers, it fuses music and dance in its shows, for which it has had the indispensable help of graduates from ISA and ENA in musical staging and voice work. We do musical theater, live music in the productions, they sing, dance and act. Always trying to bring children closer to good music, to elevate their cultural level, so they are children that have tools for acting.

The works she works with are by contemporary authors, mostly living authors where the characters are children. They are neither fairies, nor princes, nor frogs, nor elves. They are children with current situations, Cuban children. In the first work we approached the music of Pablo Milanés, one of the greatest singer-songwriters the country has produced. Later we did something with the music of Leoni Torres, American music from the seventies, music from Los Zafiros, Los novios, from Senel Paz, a work where she changed the names of the characters and associated them with the music of Los Zafiros.

The group members contribute proposals in the selection of music and Massiel, accompanied by her husband and co-director Alexis Martín, takes on the productions and choreographies. One of the training lines of the group is acting for television and film. This effort has found recognition from directors like Magda González, Mariela López, Fernando Pérez and Arturo Soto, who have integrated the newcomers from "Abril" into their casts.

The fact that the children in the group grew, other young people joined, and giving classes at the National School of Theater led the actress to specialize in casting children and young people and directing actors, mastering a select catalog. The series Calendario, by Magda González Grau, was one of the productions in which her casting proposals were taken into account. In that project, she directed extras and bit players and also acted. Two of her students participate in the telefilm Buena Estrella, directed by Armando Toledo.

Massiel chooses to work with children over 10 years old because she understands that at that age, they should be able to read very well and be receptive to a love of reading, which she considers essential for having a broad vocabulary and interpreting texts, a key factor in acting. After turning 10, they can develop opinions about a dramatic situation close to reality and their own experiences, so the works she involves them in address themes and situations they can understand and internalize. As for the table work she does with her students, it consists of adding to the reading of the script, conversations about the play, the author, appreciating and discussing audiovisuals related to the theme being addressed, listening to music and including all information that can contribute to understanding the conflict.

When asked about her working method, she states:

"I think it's key that children and young people understand what they're saying and what happens in the story. I don't mark tones for them, I invite them to seek associations with dramatic situations. The ideal is that they don't corrupt the text by reciting it from memory, so it's better when the director offers a certain freedom so the child feels comfortable with their lines. The family is very helpful in this, as they can contribute to better understanding. I suggest they look for synonyms of words they don't understand, so they can make the terms their own and express them with sincerity. For the child, it's very valuable the time they can spend with the actors who will play family roles, because that relationship can be felt on stage and screen."

The director of Grupo Teatro Abril expresses her ideas this way:

"It's important to instill in them teamwork, responsibility for the craft, ethics, respect and understanding with the work team in general. When I take on children under 10 years old, I prefer that they propose the actions of their character, as it brings truth and freshness. In professional practice a tension is created that shouldn't involve the child, the adolescent. For them acting is a game, when it becomes a job it loses its essence. Sometimes they share scenes with big figures and if you add to that an environment full of people, cameras, lights, microphones, the pressure is very great. So you have to motivate them, encourage them, guide them. That's why I think acting direction as a specialty is essential, since the general director doesn't always have the time to do that work."

About Massiel Dueñas' work with children, acclaimed director Mariela López expressed:

"Her students are very well prepared, they have tools to face creative processes, it's impressive how she gives them wings to pursue their dreams" and she expressed her admiration concluding that there is no greater responsibility than forming children and adolescents to equip them with tools for life."

I find Massiel Dueñas' dedication admirable. Her colleague from Sopa de Palabras, the experienced actor Carlos Treto, describes her as "a young actress with great potential, mastery of technique and for the sense of truth she expresses in each scene."

She has been part of the casts of the second season of UNO, Rompiendo el Silencio, the teleplay A solas and Tras la huella in the cases: Cuentas Claras and Cuestión de Negocios and ¿Quién controla? In the latter she played the lead character and shared scenes with Luisa María Jiménez and Leo Benítez. The story was directed by Loysis Inclán and received very good acceptance from the public.

About her performance in ¿Quién controla?, director Inclán stated: "Massiel is one of those actresses you can trust with a character and she makes it grow extraordinarily. The character in this case, Rosa, was nuanced by doubt and uncertainty. Her performance was believable, precise, sensitive and austere. It was the character we believed in and that we were shaping and there is the result."

We will soon see her act in the series Promesas, in Pepe Cabrera's teleplay Por culpa de las gallinas and in the telenovela Asuntos Pendientes, now in production, under the direction of Felo Ruiz.

This woman doesn't rest. She has a YouTube channel with thousands of followers, proposing videos with over 200 thousand views about Cuban actors. She is a personal trainer at a gym, divides her time between her 8-year-old son Marcelo who also acts, a 90-year-old grandmother, her marriage and fostering the dreams of each new actor who passes through her hands.

The YouTube thing has been a surprise. It's a platform she ventured into as an unknown to the subject and the medium. Finding herself confined within four walls because of the pandemic and with the aim of finding another alternative to make art and bring her knowledge to people.

The channel starts precisely by giving advice to young people who want to pursue acting, showing physical cardio training for actors and the general public.

She believes she's building a bridge between all Cubans around the world so they can reconnect with their artists and their culture and that makes her very happy. She wants to be able to connect more people every day so they know who Cubans are, so they learn more about the artists. Connecting beings around the world.