• AMADA Morado is an actress who transmits impressive assurance. Her versatility is another characteristic to highlight in an extensive and intense career spanning more than forty years.

While awards do not always reflect reality, the ones received by this actress, mostly in theater, but with successful forays into television, have been extremely well-deserved. We can remember, then, the Caricato prizes from UNEAC (Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba) for her performances in "Los soles truncos", "Vientos huracanados", "Morir del Cuento", not to mention others like the Majadahonda and National Culture distinctions.

This actress of great talent, who enjoys portrayals, finds a challenge in every character she plays and assumes it with passion, quality and rigor, all of them, moreover, with a very high doses of modesty and simplicity.

Kindly in her demeanor, we spoke with Morado regarding La Travesía de Byron, an original play by Esther Suárez Durá (Pelusín enamora´o, Pelusín y la esperanza, Baños Públicos S. A., De hortensias y de violetas...) with which she is returning, powerfully, to directing.

She is moving no less than 14 characters on stage, and for that new debut, has set, costume and light design by Eduardo Arrocha, winner of the National Theater Prize; original music by Patricio Amaro, and soundtrack design by Lisette Vila and Antonio Tabares

I had one experience around 1993 with a group of children from the block where there was a house used for rehearsals by the Hubert de Blanck Company in Vedado. I was rehearsing with some young people for a production of Pinocchio and the children approached — let’s say they were the neighborhood mischief-makers — and began to pester until I came to an agreement with them and smoked the peace pipe. I asked them what they wanted and they said to put on the show. I said to them, if I let you put it on will you stop pestering me, and if you can’t, you’ll leave. Yes. They knew the play by heart, we were at it for three years, putting on different shows and participating in amateur and pionero (schoolchildren) shows. It was very nice as an experience, but that was the totality of my directing experience.

Before that, I had directed myself in a monologue, Etelvina del alma mía, a short story by Oscar Jurado. I created a version, and that’s how far I went. In 2007, I began looking at the idea of directing again; I considering it and I decided on the play by Esther Suárez, La travesía de Byron, for adolescents, the script says, but I think that it’s for all ages. I presented it at the Hubert de Blanck (Theater) with professional actors."

It is a play that can be very interesting and important, I think, because it deals with the question of solidarity among human beings. A 14-year-old girl who has conflicts at home, those misunderstandings, the one of not communicating among ourselves, but yelling at each other and getting upset. Through a little dog, the play leads us to appreciate what is produced in relation to animals and people."

The desire to express myself and to think that I have things to say, things that seem important to me. Such as, above all, that love and solidarity should prevail. Love between human beings, solidarity as part of a couple, with a friend. Love should outweigh everything else, and sometimes we pay a lot of attention to things that are really petty and insignificant, and we don’t pay attention to the real values of human beings. Those are issues that I think one has to address, because sometimes we focus on the talk and not the essence, and we waste time."

I’m an actress who really enjoys doing portrayals. When there are characters similar to me in age, or era, I love it, but I always like for them to be different, not to pigeonhole myself into any one thing — not the really evil one or the goody-two shoes. From a professional to a simple, modest housewife, to any profession, any social class, fundamentally where I have that possibility of portraying.

All of them. I like tragedy, it carries a lot of messages, but maybe I tend toward drama and comedy. I consider both of them to be very difficult; each one has its own peculiarities. You can say a lot of things with comedy. There are things today where I have my doubts. We used to call everybody a comedian who played with humor, with mischievousness, which shouldn’t be coarse, aggressive, marginal or offensive; and now comedies no longer proliferate, in fact they are scarce, and we dedicate ourselves to doing humorous sketches, or shows for a given situation, and we have lost a lot of what comedy is. Musical comedy too, which unfortunately virtually no longer exists, and we are very musical, a very lively people."

Almost all of them are difficult. Sometimes the character that seems the simplest is the most difficult of all, because all of a sudden you don’t see yourself in the situation. Among the plays that I have done, I will never forget the ones by Lorca, for which I have a passion. In my youth, I played Angustia and the Mother in The House of Bernarda Alba, with the same director, that excellent actress and teacher, Berta Martínez. I also worked in Blood Wedding, and in The Shoemaker’s Prodigous Wife. A Lorca is always something wonderful, and touches everyone."

Estorino with Parece blanca. I also played a character that was very satisfying for me — Inés of Los soles truncos, a play by Puerto Rican René Marqués, in a version by Doris Gutiérrez. A character that marked me in a lot of things. In all of these characters, you acquire something of them and leave them part of yourself. In Parece Blanca and Blood Wedding, I received a mention the first time I did them. Inés won me the prize for starring role. Afterward, there was a play by Julio Cid, Vientos huracanados, and I also have a lot to thank Maruja for. A freehand comedy that deals with the problems of a family in the midst of a hurricane.

I have to talk to you about characters that I’ve done in TV soap operas, because even though I’m essentially a theater actress, I feel good acting in any media, and I think they are all possible, it’s all about what you like, what interests you and that they utilize you.

On television, an unforgettable role for me was that of Emelina from Destino prohibido and Paula from Polvo en el viento.

There are smaller characters, like Cacha la Manca, in El año que viene, but there are still people who see me in the street and remember me. You have to find the characteristics of the different characters, try to make them real, believable, human, even if it’s a murderer. You shouldn’t criticize the character, but try to understand and defend it."

I think that without emotion, technique doesn’t work. You have to put a lot of love into the work you’re doing. Maybe people say this a lot, but no matter how much you say it, it isn’t enough. When I am doing a Lorca tragedy, by whatever author, I have to love what I’m doing, enjoy that suffering, enjoy the act of playing that character, demonstrating the facets, the possibilities, the humanity of that character, transmitting the sentiments of the character. You have to prepare for each character; it’s a not a question of isolating ourselves from the world, but being focused on what we’re doing, giving ourselves over to what we’re doing. Now, you have to have a technique for being able to play these characters better. If you have a lot of passion but no technique it can be like a runaway horse; you have to dominate the character, be able to transmit what the author wanted to say. Technique is important and sentiment, indispensable."