Rine Leal Pérez

Distinguished professor, paradigm of theatrical criticism and research in Cuba.

He was born in La Habana. He completed his high school studies at the Instituto de Segunda Enseñanza de La Habana and began studying Law at the Universidad de La Habana, a specialty he abandoned after completing only the first years, for the classrooms of the Escuela Profesional de Periodismo Manuel Márquez Sterling, where he graduated in 1952.

He completely abandoned dramaturgy and dedicated himself to criticism. He served as theater critic for the newspaper Pueblo (1954-1958) and as a proofreader for carteles (1955-1959) and Información (1956). He joined the Sociedad Cultural Nuestro Tiempo and the Cinemateca de Cuba.

In 1959, a scholarship granted by the Dirección de Cultura of the Ministerio de Educación allowed him to participate in congresses, festivals, and theatrical events in France, Greece, and Romania. Theater critic for the newspaper Revolución and director of the Teatro Experimental de La Habana between 1959 and 1963.

He collaborated with the tabloid "Lunes de Revolución" as a columnist and organizer of activities promoted by the institution, where he published a large number of Cuban one-act theatrical pieces, as well as fragments of longer works.

Editor-in-Chief of the "Arte y Literatura" section in the magazine Bohemia (1963-1967). Head of information for the magazine Cuba (1965-1967). Editor-in-Chief of the magazine Conjunto (1967). As a cultural journalist and theater critic, he collaborated with the publications Nuestro Tiempo, Ciclón, Lunes de Revolución, La Gaceta de Cuba, Casa de las Américas, Unión, Islas, Santiago, Revista Revolución y Cultura, Tablas, among others.

He was one of the presenters of the television program Cine y Teatro (1959) alongside Guillermo Cabrera Infante and of the program Teatro en TV. Founder of the Instituto Superior de Arte (1976), he collaborated in the creation of its curriculum and was one of its principal professors.

He participated in numerous congresses, festivals, and international events of various kinds in the Americas and Europe. From these experiences and from his systematic activity as a theater critic emerged his first books, among which En primera persona (1967) stands out, which brings together his best theater reviews written in the 1950s and 1960s of the past century, a text of mandatory consultation for the study of the Cuban stage in the period, as well as the styles and structures of critical discourse in the arts.

His thorough investigative work resulted in several anthologies, which refer to significant moments of Cuban theatrical creation, and his masterwork, La selva oscura, an essential text for the study and understanding of the development of theater on the Island.

In the early years of the 1990s, he moved to Venezuela. There he taught classes at the Ateneo de Caracas.

He died in Caracas, Venezuela on September 16, 1996.

Courses He Taught

Academia Municipal de Artes Dramáticas where he taught courses in American theater (1957-1958)
Escuela de Instructores de Arte (1961)
Brigadas de Teatro Covarrubias
Conjunto Dramático Nacional

Works

"Desde adentro"
"Jorge ha regresado"
"El pequeño Miguel" (one-act pieces, 1951)
"El mar de nuevo"
"La selva oscura" (masterwork)

Honorary Doctor degree in 1990 (Instituto Superior de Arte)

Since 2000, the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones de las Artes Escénicas has developed the Taller de Investigaciones Rine Leal, a space for academic exchange and reflection.
In 2004, the publishing house Tablas-Alarcos created the Premio de Teatrología Rine Leal, to highlight the best book projects in the field of theatrical research and essay.