Zarrabeitia, Laura

Person

Zarrabeitia, Laura

1937-

Laura Zarrabeitia is a Cuban actress (b. 1937) who formed part of Cuba's Teatro Estudio from 1960 to 1970, with which she acted in over 50 plays. Zarrabeitia became a part of Teatro Estudio when it was still an academy just at the beginning of the Revolution, when the people were still enthusiastic about it, although she admits she was hesitant about the future of the dramatic arts in Cuba. Before beginning her acting career, she worked as a secretary for a radio station, and spent a lot of time listening to dialogues and was exposed to acting in that capacity. Her supervisor left the country through Brazil, and Zarrabeitia was left without a job and so she entered Teatro Estudio Academia, directed by Vicente Revuelta and his sister Raquel, which within months became the still famous company Teatro Estudio. In that era, she performed in all of the works put on by the company. She stayed in Cuba for only 11 years after the Revolution of 1959. Her decision to leave was impacted by a change implemented by the Castro government around 1961 where all of the theater companies were dissolved and directors would choose which actors to contract on an individual basis instead of directing groups with a fixed cast of actors that worked together on all their productions. Eventually, she resigned from the theater and worked 23 months of voluntary labor in order to be able to leave Cuba. She left for Spain in 1972 and stayed there for only 1 year. She left mostly because of the cold climate, but during her time there she worked on zarzuelas, and acted in a film. She left on a ship for Venezuela with a zarzuela company and found the climate there much more agreeable. She was in Venezuela for 36 years, a longer period of time than she had lived in Cuba.

In Venezuela, she began to work with a small zarzuela company, then an operetta company with Maria Francisca Caballer, a soprano. While working on the operettas, she met a Cuban gentleman who knew of her from her acting in Cuba and he published an announcement about her. Televisión Canal 8 del Estado hired her to work on improvised programs such as “Sea Usted El Juez.” She became one of the regulars in the cast. She also did a lot of voice-overs. She acted in 10 episode continuous contracts for supporting roles in telenovelas on Radio Caracas Television for 12 years and then after that at Venevisión. She recalls having to memorize as well as improvise a great deal on television. Since she was trained as an actor with the Teatro Estudio, she would take the lines given to her and interpret them, but many of those who she had to work with simply parroted back the lines and this was a downside of the work. This was remedied, however, by also acting onstage with the company El Nuevo Grupo of the famous playwrights Isaac Chocrón and José Ignacio Cabrujas, which she said was like a Venezuelan Teatro Estudio because they would stage their own works. Then the Venezuelan government began to implement similar principles as Cuba had with Consejo Nacional de Cultura de Venezuela. Feeling her freedom restricted, she distanced herself from that.

Around 1987 during the government of Rafael Caldera things began to go downhill. The Radio Vision 11 and Venevision was purchased by a Mexican conglomerate and her contracts ended because she preferred short-term contracts. She began to lose work and left television. She joined another group to do “teatro leido” to make a salary, they would do the readings for free in the libraries. It occurred to her to do sessions of Cuban theater as a theme. Her group read works by playwrights like Virgilio Piñera, Montejo Idobro, Julio Matas, Antón Arrufat, and Ida Granco. These sessions garnered the most audience. Then, Zarrabeitia decided to do her own production of Santa Cecilia de La Habana Vieja by Emilio Estevez and invested all of her money into it, including in renting out a small theater. However, the location of the theater discouraged attendees and the press did not cover the premier. She then did La Soga de Panico about two Cubans who wished to leave the country, but the scenery was stolen. After these distressing experiences, Zarrabeitia left Venezuela in 1998 and joined her brother and many friends in Miami, Florida. At this point she retired from acting due to health issues. She notes that for her, there is nothing more delicious in life than passing a few hours at the theater. She also recalls that the first play she saw was William Inge’s Picnic with actress Antonia Rey, an incredible experience that she would never forget.

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Biographical note written by Kate Villa, 2020-2021 UGrow Fellow for Manuscripts and Archives Management.

1. Laura Zarrabeitia and Lesbia Varona – StoryCorps Archive