"A man can be destroyed but not defeated"

Ernest Hemingway

THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA NARRATIVE PROPOSAL

"The Old Man and the Sea" is the multimedia stage presentation of the arts and humanities program entitle "Cubans in Hollywood" on the 45 anniversary of commemorating the passing of Ernest Hemingway on July 2nd, 2006.
This symposium (1 to 7 PM at the 87 seats Ford Theatre) will become a multimedia performance at the 1,250 seats Ford Amphitheatre) from 8 to 10 PM featuring Canciones Transparentes of Aurelio de la Vega and the Francisco Aguabella Jazz Band. Front and rear projections of The Old Man and the Sea movie and visual digital artwork will alternate with presentations by performers and cultural bearers.

This presentation at the Ford Amphitheater is the main event of an arts and humanities program from October 21, 2005 to October 2006. Sponsorship, grants and advertisement income relates to and include the entire program and not only this production at the Ford.

Program description.

"Cubans in Hollywood" is an institutional project of the Afrocuban Research Institute acting as "independent research library" sponsored by Stage Of The Arts, Inc. for documenting and presenting to the general public the Cuban stories from the Hollywood community.

Nature of Partnership:

Stage Of The Arts, Inc requests the John Anson Ford Theatres partnership to support the presentation of the “Cubans in Hollywood Symposium” by a curatorial team of humanities scholars, cultural bearers and storytellers with the following goals:
- To explore Cuban American settlements in Los Angeles, California, through oral history and testimony of visual arts, film, music and literature.
-To present public program with lectures and discussions, a website about the Cuban contribution to American life and a main event concluding with a multimedia performance entitled “The Old Man and the Sea” on July 2, 2006.

An opening event will be conducted in the frame of the 11th annual Presencia Cubana Festival to be celebrated on Sunday May 21, 2006 at the Jose Marti Square (Echo Park) and a closing event will be presented Saturday October 21, 2006 at the Celia Cruz Square (Hollywood & Argyle Metro site) on the anniversary date of the birth in 1925 of Cuban American singer and cultural icon Celia Cruz. See the website of Celia Cruz at the Behing Center for the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

Introduction:

Theme statement:
Through the entertainment industry and the performing arts, Cubans have made substantial contributions to American life.
April 2006 to October 21, 2006 (to explore Cuban American settlements):
Themes and issues will be defined by research on Hollywood archival, reference bibliography and actual documentation compile at academic library collections as well as personal memorabilia and oral history. Revision and final call for a gathering of the curatorial team are to be made

April 2006 (to examine public programming):
A curatorial team will convene to examine conservation standards in the region and making recommendations for interpreting presentations and exhibition venues. Recommendations may include the establishment of permanent collections, recording and digitalization of testimonial records.

“Cubans in Hollywood” focuses in the geographic area of Hollywood, nevertheless, the scope of this research goes beyond the area and reach for the impact and the legacy of Cuban Americans in the entertainment industry as well as cultural dimension. Also there are other cultural issues to explore in the Symposium including the visual arts and the presence of artists, performers and writers in contemporary collections and filmmaking: “Sworn to the Drum”, a film by Les Blank about Francisco Aguabella will be showing at the Symposium as well as “Los Muñequitos de Matanzas. Live in LA” by Alvaro Perez Betancourt (*) The DVD release of this theatrical performance produced and presented by Stage Of The Arts Inc.
Cuisine, nightlife and the mass media communications revealed a whole community identity around the actual image of “Cubans in Hollywood”. Hollywood is also an international set of media values developed for over a century of show business, television and photojournalism; the broad public appeal of this subject should not be taken lightly. Example: Historic shows in the Palladium theater landmark became stage setting for the West Coast influence of singers like Benny More and Celia Cruz.

These luminaries of Hollywood inspire the extended revival of Cuban music, a contribution that continues to have an impact in nowadays American music and musicians. These humanities issues have a fresh print stamped in Los Angeles, including today actors and musicians…
The ventures of percussion performers like Francisco Aguabella who immigrated to the City of Los Angeles in the late 50’s, can still be traced nowadays when this Afrocuban master drummer continues performing live in popular stages and nightclubs .
The presence of Afrocuban traditions in contemporary Hollywood illustrates the development of the Afrocuban transnational communities in the current conditions of national life.

Audience and outreach

Fifteen thousand people gathers in the annual Cuban festival entitle “Presencia Cubana” taking place in the grounds of the metropolitan centric Echo Park, were a standing monument of Jose Marti was first erected 1976. The Cuban born sculptor was Sergio Lopez Mesa. The City of Los Angeles has named that intersection “Jose Marti Square” after the Cuban poet. “Cubans in Hollywood” will be the theme of the May 21, 2006 in partnership with the Cuban Cultural Foundation (producing/presenter organization).
Jose Marti lived 15 years in the United States were he promoted a whole humanistic program inspiring the birth of a Cuban Republic at the beginning of the nineteenth Century. Considered together with Ruben Dario the key author of Modernismo, he wrote while in the US fictional literature, founded a newspaper and a children’s magazine and covers the end of an American Century reporting for newspapers around the World. Humanities were for Jose Marti the fabric to re-define a Century of politics and philosophical values in the Americas.
Based on the preliminary research conducted 2005 a multimedia interpretative symposium may be presented July 2, 2006 (45 commemoration of the death of Ernest Hemingway) in partnership with The Ford Theatre Foundation (Latino Audience Initiative) toward a youth audience. The working title of this symposium and multimedia performance is “The Old Man and the Sea”.

REFERENCE: “The Old Man and the Sea”, a novel by the American writer Ernest Hemingway, was first published entirely in the September 1952 edition of Life Magazine (5,300,00 copies sold).
The novel is based in a true story of a poor Cuban fisherman that portrays man’s struggle for triumph in a world that seems designed to destroy him.
“The Old Man and the Sea” was awarded the 1953 Pulitzer Price and American academy of Arts and Letter’s Award of Merit Medal for the Novel and played a significant role in Hemingway’s selection for the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954.
Spencer Tracy stars as the fisherman Santiago in the 1958 Warner Bross’ adaptation of the literary work.
The Virgin of Caridad del Cobre is the patron saint of Cuba. Build in 1927, the “Ermita de la Caridad del Cobre” in Santiago de Cuba gather pilgrims from the entire island in the basilica. Hemingway, as for him, deposited there its gold medal of the Nobel Prize.
Hemingway was calling Papa Hemingway (Father Hemingway) by the people from the Cuban streets.

The Performance:

A concert of "Canciones Transparentes" ("Transparent Songs") composed by Aurelio de la Vega, for soprano, clarinet, cello, and piano (1995) on poems by José Martí (1852-1895). The aclaimed composer will attend.
Francisco Aguabella has successfully performed at the Ford Amphitheater. In this occasion he will start with his Latin Jazz Band during the second part of the night .
A digital media show is creating a multimedia frame to the performers as well as the short appearances by cultural bearers. Producing director is Jorge Luis Rodriguez.