Pocket Theaters - "Sala Teatros"
Pocket Theaters - "Sala Teatros"
In Miami's Cuban exile community of the 1960s and early 1970s, the unifying bond remained the enclave's ties to the homeland. These ties influenced how Cuban theater developed in Miami, reflected in the concept of the sala-teatro (pocket theater) and in venues opening across Miami with names borrowed from Havana, such as Las Máscaras, Teatro Martí, and La Comedia. Havana experienced a theatrical renaissance in the mid 1950s with the proliferation of the salitas, small pocket theaters, most of them with air conditioning, a sign of Cuba's (read Havana's) modernization. Ranging between 84 and 392 seats, many of these spaces would stage the theatrical successes of Paris, London, and New York. The repertoire ranged from commercial plays to avant-garde/experimental productions such as Francisco Parés' version of Sartre's La ramera respetuosa (The Respectful Prostitute) in 1954 which elicited a debate in the press on the question of decency on stage.FN By 1967, the concept of the salitas would move to Miami.
Map of Miami's salitas - to be developed
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