We here at Cultist are stoked about the cultural uprising taking place in southwest Miami. Not only does it mean that we save wear and tear on our automobiles, but we can continue to stay away from Dolphin Mall. We hate Dolphin Mall.
One of the places responsible for bringing culture west of downtown is
Artspoken, a blackbox theater in Little Havana. On Thursdays, this small
space makes room for three big actors. The weekly Tómatelo Personal (Take it
Personally) consists of three actors each performing their own
self-written monologues on stage with a only a piece of furniture as a
prop.
The show begins with a piece about an emotionally immature, yet physically, ripe young woman who is aching to lose her virginity. As the young woman in La Sita, Mirla Pereira stunned us with her perfect delivery, especially considering that she is the youngest and least experienced of the three actors to take the stage. There are a few rare moments in life when you are able to witness au natural--this is one of them.
The trio of monologues is rounded out by veteran Venezuelan actor Myriam Amanda. She plays a typical 47-year-old female, divorced and looking for love and someone who can locate her G-spot. Her monologue made us slightly annoyed, perhaps because it reminded us of certain lovelorn female relatives, but also her delivery seemed a bit off. Her writing though was impeccable, capturing the annoying desperation of an aging divorcée so well, that we wanted to stand up and slap her three-quarters of the way through her performance.
These Spanish-only monologues are the culmination of a workshop headed by Artspoken's director Yoshvani Medina. During the ensuing Q & A with the actors, they heralded Medina as someone who cultivated the writer in them they didn't even know they had. We hope he continues to do so. We really hate Dolphin Mall.
