Cuban children's theater company La Colmenita: an attitude toward life

July 25, 2019

For the founder and director of the Cuban children's theater company La Colmenita, Carlos Alberto Cremata, nothing is more gratifying than being among children, a task to which he has dedicated almost three decades of his life as a creator.

"I feel that I have Peter Pan syndrome, because never, in my entire life, have I felt comfortable at an adult gathering, that is, I haven't felt at ease or comfortable, however, among any group of children whatsoever I am absolutely happy", Cremata commented to Sputnik.

The interview with Cremata, known as Tin – his nickname since childhood – takes place amid the bustle of children, the hustle of instructors and musicians, and between answer and answer, the director gives signals, instructions, makes requests and smiles at the constant interruptions.

"I have never wanted to be pretentious when speaking about this group, but I always remember that (actress and professor) Corina Mestre told me a phrase one day that I love: 'La Colmenita stopped being a theater group a long time ago to become an attitude toward life' and those are weighty words", he commented.

Founded in February 1990 by Cremata and his mother Iraida Malberti (1936-2018), a veteran director of children's programs on Cuban television, La Colmenita began a journey through the stages until becoming in 2007 a Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef).

In addition to touring all of Cuban geography, it has performed on stages in Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, United States, Haiti, Japan, Panama and Venezuela, among other countries.

Carlos Alberto Cremata, founder and director of the Cuban children's theater company La Colmenita

Cremata holds a degree in pedagogical sciences specializing in artistic direction from Ukraine, and in theatrical direction from the Faculty of Performing Arts of the Higher Institute of Art of Cuba and representative of Latin America on the Standing Committee for Care of Children and Youth in the World Organization of Theatre.

"Children enter La Colmenita from age 3 to 15, but we have had to find alternatives because over the years, these children grow, surpass the age, but they don't want to leave the company, which is why I say that I have children from 3 to 30 years old, that is, I have children of 21 years, 25 years, 27 years, who continue to be my children and I cannot take away that possibility from them", he said.

Currently 114 children perform at the company's main headquarters, but only in Havana there are 14 "colmenitas", as a result of the expansion of this project, in addition to others that exist throughout the island, even in other countries, such as El Salvador and Venezuela.

As part of its community work, "colmenitas" have been created among the children of members of the Cuban Culinary Society, among children and grandchildren of the National Revolutionary Police, and another in the Combinado del Este prison in Havana, made up of children and grandchildren of inmates with more than 20 years of sentences.

"Thousands of children have dressed as beekeepers in these 30 years", said Tin Cremata.

In the last three years the main task of La Colmenita is aimed at learning from the ideals of national hero José Martí, and for children to recognize the greatness of his thought.

"We believed ourselves to be fervent Martians and I realized that we were simply surfers over Martí, as I have later discovered happens in many sectors of society, that with Martí many times we choose the phrase of the moment and put it on two little boards in the activity and there it stayed", he said.

Cremata set out to "dive deep" into Martí's thought.

"We started doing an exercise some years ago where children memorize the 210 simple verses of our apostle, because that is the most beautiful way to truly know the life and work of Martí", he said.