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Claudia Avariño

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Malú Tarrau

The Black Alice Many got astounded as they watched, during the closing ceremony of the 2002 World Children’s Th eater Festival in Germany, a stage presentation of “Alice in Wonderland” starred by a black girl.

Sahilys Cisneros Torres dreamed of becoming a ballerina, a singer and even a Taek-Wan-Do fi ghter. She was in a children’s choir when Tim Cremata found her. He needed a girl who could really sing. She left La Colmenita to study music in an elementary school. “But I couldn’t take it not even for a couple of months.

Classes were a drab and I was missing my girlfriends, the people here.” Since then, she’s been clung to the company, even following her “retirement” at age 14 when she enrolled in the school of arts. As soon as she graduated, she headed back to the beehive. She can’t act anymore, but she does teach ballet and acting.

She admits she dreams of singing one day with Anacaona, a famous all-women Cuban band. But way deep inside I believe she pictures herself swarmed over by other little bees.

I Feel Like Acting Again Jorgito Milo has traveled halfway around the world on a fi lm entitled after this island nation. “Viva Cuba” was thought up for them by Juan Carlos Cremata Malberti. He’d already seen them put their dreams and hearts onstage with La Colmenita, the prodigious children’s company run by his brother Tim.

“When I was four or fi ve years old I started at the La Colmenita de Plaza workshop where I stayed for roughly a year. Th en I joined the main company. It felt a tad awkward at the onset, but little by little I caught up with the others. Gloomy characters were the hardest to play because I’m not good at crying.

“But everything could be worked out in the company because we helped each other like bees do. That’s precisely the one thing I miss the most now that I’m out of the group. I spent ten years living with them every day of my life, sharing with them. I used to see Tim more than I saw my dad, so you may go fi gure.

“I’m now studying Accounting at a Technical Institute in Vedado, but as soon as I’m done I’ll take the trials at the Higher Institute of Art. Th e point is that every time I think of La Colmenita, I feel like acting again.”

Muma: Jiminy Cricket When one of the kids has a problem, he or she rushes to see her. She’s like a blue fairy, like Pinocchio’s cricket, Tim Cremata’s right hand and the big sister of all the children.

It’s been a long time since her real name vanished inside La Colmenita.Come asking around for Claudia Alvariño and people would shrug. Say you’re looking for Muma and anyone will point in the right direction. “I came here when I was 7 because my mother knew Tim. Since then, I haven’t walked out of it. La Colmenita is my family, my life and my people.”

Muma is a graduate of the National School of Arts and she’s now doing her social service time. And nothing comes handier than La Colmenita. She’s starred in TV miniseries and is making plans for a soap opera. However, she can’t imagine life out of the beehive. She either narrates a play story, helps around whit the costumes or comforts a little kid who calls her to go to bat for him or her before Uncle Tim.

La Colmenita Was My Home “I started in La Colmenita at the age of 3. My mother used to take me to the rehearsals and one day we asked Tim if I could climb onstage.

He nodded and there I began acting till the age of 15. Then I took the trials at the National School of Art (ENA is the Spanish acronym) and I passed. Now I’m a freshman student. You bet I’ll be back as soon as it’s my turn to do the Social Service time.”

When saying this or remembering how children recognize her in the streets and mention the “Viva Cuba” fi lm –the movie she and Jorgito starred in- Malu Tarrau’s face beams with a smile. But her eyes shine even brighter when an ENA professor refers to the little bees’ company –her former group- as an example.

“I always got along pretty well with all of my classmates at the company from the very beginning. I used to spend more time at the company than in my home. Th at was indeed my home and I cherish so many memories of that venue and of all the plays we acted in.

“I used to be a very shy girl, but that shyness was gone altogether when I joined La Colmenita. Tim was a great help in that sense. He never was a knock-down-and-drag-out kind of director, but rather a good dad to all of us.

“I remember a show we made in a faraway location and there were only four children in the crowd. Th ey were the only kids in that small rural town and we had managed to bring them together. I’m sure they’d never ever been to a theater before, so we brought the theater to them. Wasn’t that a reason to celebrate?”