Cuban Director Carlos Díaz Brings His "The Dog in the Manger" to Miami for Its North American Premiere

October 8, 2026

Cuban stage director Carlos Díaz, founder of Havana's Teatro El Público and winner of Cuba's 2015 National Theater Prize, brings the North American premiere of The Dog in the Manger (El perro del hortelano) to South Florida this weekend. The Lope de Vega comedy, in a contemporary adaptation by Cuban playwright Norge Espinosa Mendoza, is presented by FUNDarte, the City of Aventura and the Miami-Dade County Auditorium's Away From Home series. Performances are Friday, October 9, and Saturday, October 10, 2026, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, October 11, at 2 p.m. at the Aventura Arts & Cultural Center, in Spanish with English supertitles. Tickets are $45 to $50.

The play follows Countess Diana of Belflor, who turns away every suitor until she learns that her secretary, Teodoro, is courting one of her ladies-in-waiting, Marcela, and turns into a skilled schemer. Ysmercy Salomón plays Diana and Laura Alemán plays Marcela, with sets and costumes by Celia Ledón. It is the second production Díaz has directed for Spain's Classics Festival in Alcalá, after La Celestina, which Miami audiences saw in January 2024.

Díaz, who had never staged Lope de Vega before, told Artburst Miami that people haven't changed much since Spain's Golden Age: "Now the dog has a better sense of smell. Through social media, for example, you detect everything." FUNDarte founder Ever Chávez began his career as a stage producer at Teatro El Público, the company Díaz founded in Havana in the early 1990s.