Arts & Entertainment
Cuban Kids Theater Performs in Nyack
La Colmenita is currently on an American tour and stopped at Rockland BOCES on Monday
After the wedding, the bride and groom—as well as their guests—jumped off the stage and danced with the crowd. Within five minutes, a conga line was shimmying around the Rockland BOCES auditorium, slowly growing larger at each turn.
The wedding wasn’t real, thankfully, as the bride and groom might be 16-years-old if you combined their ages. It was part of a performance of “La Cucarachita Martina” by La Colmenita, a children's community theater troupe made up of 22 kids ages 6-16 from Havana, Cuba.
Monday morning, the group performed for 400-plus students and faculty members at BOCES in Nyack, where they had many dancing in their seats during the show and in the aisles by the end of it. Joan Raynor, the family resource center coordinator for Rockland BOCES, said the students and faculty were made up students from the Nyack campus as well as students bused in from classes around the district.
Actor Danny Glover is a supporter of BOCES, Raynor said, and he saw La Colmenita perform, and told staff members they should try to bring them in for a performance.
“It’s good for our children to be exposed to theater on any level,” Raynor said.
La Colmenita, which is in its 21st year, is currently on its second tour of America, with the first coming in 2003. After their BOCES performance, the group, which was named a UNICEF Goodwill ambassador in 2007, also performed at the United Nations. Earlier this month, they were in Washington DC, and they will conclude their trip by heading out to California next.
The group, who has multiple theaters in Cuba and performs at schools, brings a message of happiness and strives to help kids discover their creativity, according to Llanisca Lugo, a supporter and writer for the group who is on their current tour with them.
“The kids are not professional actors, they play with the acting and play with the art,” Lugo said. “Everyday is an opportunity to make something good for someone else.”
She added that at the end of the day, the group gets in a circle and shares things they learned that day.
