Esther Cardoso
Encyclopedia
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
n film and theater actress, producer, director and educator.
A graduate of the Instituto Superior de Arte
Instituto Superior de Arte
The University of Arts of Cuba - , Instituto Superior de Arte was established on September 1, 1976 by the Cuban government as a school for the arts. Its original structure had three schools: Music, Visual Arts, and Performing Arts....
, she holds a doctorate
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
in Stage Arts. Cardoso was a co-founder of two of Cuba's leading theater companies, Teatro Buendia and Argos Teatro. She has taught at the Instituto Superior de Arte and has given numerous workshops in Cuba, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. As a director, she has staged important shows, fusing genres and making used of diverse artistic strands.
In 1997, she co-founded Gaia
Gaia (Havana)
Gaia is an arts centre in Havana, Cuba, set up on January 1, 2000 as a not-for-profit collaboration between Cuban and international artists. The centre offers theatre, music and dance performances, workshops, programs for children and the physically disadvantaged, and exhibitions of works by young...
, an arts center in Old Havana
Old Havana
Old Havana contains the core of the original city of Havana. The positions of the original Havana city walls are the modern boundaries of Old Havana....
, dedicated to promoting creativity in theater, visual arts
Visual arts
The visual arts are art forms that create works which are primarily visual in nature, such as ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, design, crafts, and often modern visual arts and architecture...
, filmmaking
Filmmaking
Filmmaking is the process of making a film, from an initial story, idea, or commission, through scriptwriting, casting, shooting, directing, editing, and screening the finished product before an audience that may result in a theatrical release or television program...
and music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
. The center, which also uses performance to further social and educational ends, officially opened on January 1, 2000. http://www.cubaescena.cult.cu/global/loader.php?cat=noticia&cont=showitem.php&seccion=entrevista&item=1185
To commemorate Gaia's opening, on the eve of the millennium
Millennium
A millennium is a period of time equal to one thousand years —from the Latin phrase , thousand, and , year—often but not necessarily related numerically to a particular dating system....
, she co-directed A Millennium Night's Dream, a fourteen hour spectacle involving 84 actors, inspired by the mythical conflict between Dionysus
Dionysus
Dionysus was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy in Greek mythology. His name in Linear B tablets shows he was worshipped from c. 1500—1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks: other traces of Dionysian-type cult have been found in ancient Minoan Crete...
(god of pleasure) and Pentheus
Pentheus
In Greek mythology, Pentheus was a king of Thebes, son of the strongest of the Spartes, Echion, and of Agave, daughter of Cadmus, the founder of Thebes, and the goddess Harmonia....
(lord of reason) involving promenade performances, fire-eating, acrobatics
Acrobatics
Acrobatics is the performance of extraordinary feats of balance, agility and motor coordination. It can be found in many of the performing arts, as well as many sports...
, dance, poetry, and Cuban story-telling. http://www.amazon.com/dp/1904978835
In 2005, Cardoso directed and produced, 'Las cenizas de Ruth', a radical reinterpretation of the biblical story of Ruth
Book of Ruth
The Book of Ruth is one of the books of the Hebrew Bible, Tanakh, or Old Testament. In the Jewish canon the Book of Ruth is included in the third division, or the Writings . In the Christian canon the Book of Ruth is placed between Judges and 1 Samuel...
. In 2006, she starred in the movies 'Gozar Comer y Partir',http://www.habanafilmfestival.com/peliculas/peli_amplia.php3?ord=14491&festi=2006 and 'La Edad de la Peseta', http://listas.cult.cu/pipermail/cubart/2006-September/000008.htmlhttp://italian.imdb.com/title/tt0470290/maindetails. The following year, she took the leading role in 'La Piel de Elisa,' the Cuban premiere of a play by Carole Frechette.http://www.cubaescena.cult.cu/global/loader.php?cat=noticia&cont=showitem.php&seccion=entrevista&item=1185
She currently runs a permanent research workshop on the art of the actor, based at Gaia.