This marks the international premiere of Huanita, a production from Teatro en Construcción, as it premieres beyond Spain for the first time. The project has already earned a net of prizes, and this moment sits at the heart of a window of opportunities during a prominent international amateur theater festival held in Muravera, Sardinia, from September 5 to 9. The Elche-based company stands among four selected companies, gathering audiences and critics from Madrid, Morocco, and Portugal, and showcasing a narrative that travels across borders with ease.
The challenge for the team has been substantial. The screenplay and direction come from Marcos Altuve, a Venezuelan artist connected to Elche, who crafts a bold, timeless piece that blends fantasy with reality. The piece weaves Italian and Spanish languages with a distinctly Venezuelan rhythm. The performance leans on gestural storytelling, music, and choreography to convey broad meaning, as one performer explains. The cast includes Stephanie Bottle, Vera Corsario, Laura Lorts, Roberto Rodríguez, and Altuve himself, with J. Adrian Rodríguez serving as co-director and handling technical aspects of lighting and sound.
Huanita, conceived by Marcos Altuve over fourteen years ago, debuted in Venezuela and Argentina before reaching Elche as a representation five years ago. The drama blends humor with serious themes, offering a candid look at the role of parents in raising children. It presents a cross-section of the author’s family life and touches on migration, cultural clashes, and the generation gap. Italian dialogue is interwoven with a striking portrayal of a family that has emigrated to South America, set against the stark landscapes of the Venezuelan Andes, highlighting a historical convergence of two cultures in the early twentieth century.
The festival invitation to the company was clear: the project gains international visibility, a crucial step given the challenges of performing abroad and the limited number of international competitions available. The company emphasizes that it does not dedicate all resources to theater alone, and the organizers supported the group to open the festival with a company carrying an amateur label after years of effort, productions, and awards.
During the festival week, the company will perform four times, alongside workshops, concerts, and other educational activities. In a broader outreach, Elche hosts a technique workshop called Vase Rit — a collaborative soil-mixing exercise where four companies blend soil from their regions into a glass sphere. This ceremony symbolizes unity across cultures. The Elche company still weighs two potential sites for the soil collection, considering Clot de Galvany or Elche Park.
Orbit
Theaters in Construction traces its roots to 2009, with its first professional production, Seven Screams at the Sea, following in 2015. Huanita, produced with L’Escorxador in Elche, premiered in 2018 and has since been showcased at fifty festivals across the country, collecting numerous awards. On its return from Sardinia, the troupe plans to extend its reach through national competitions, with Huanita set to feature again in October and November alongside its newest work, Watch of the Brush. A prior adaptation of a book, prepared by J. Adrián Rodríguez, had its first screening at L’Escorxador in 2023, and this year includes related presentations as well.