HePerforming Arts Trust is a project that dates back to the 1980s when Julia Thompson Poventud and María Eugenia “Cuca” Mercado were appointed professors of the Department of Drama at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus.  After completing their master's degrees in theater education and beginning their lives as university professors, both dedicated themselves to the development of the aptitudes, competencies, skills, and abilities of the Puerto Rican actors that we see today in film, radio, television, and digital media.  ;

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Julia and Cuca's commitment to Puerto Rican theater was consolidated during their thirty years of service at the UPR. Since their beginnings as educators, they have contributed to the staging of countless productions with students and professionals graduated from the Drama Department. His focus was to educate our generations to achieve a theater of excellence, rich in colors, dynamism and truth. The most recent contribution to the national and international scene of both was the production and direction of a free version of the textPlatero and me by Juan Ramón Jiménez. 

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HePlatero and me de Cuca y Julia explores the cycle of human life through the experiences of a donkey (Platero) with his inseparable friend from childhood and youth (Yo, the Poet). This analogy of childhood and adolescence by Juan Ramón Jiménez reflects on the relationship of the human being with his environment at each stage of life, the importance of our rural and cultural heritage, and the most enigmatic mystery of our reality, death. The spectator traveled through vivid and colorful prints that staged impressions, sensations and memories of Moguer del Poeta. The vignettes were spun like episodic stories among the multiple memories of yesterday. The text, rich and abundant in vocabulary, exalts the Andalusian culture with a lexicon of global understanding and abundant in rhetorical figures in the form of metaphors, similes and personifications, as well as adjectives, question marks, admiration and ellipses. Platero y yo had productions in the years 2007, 2012 and 2018.

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The first production ofplatero and me (2007) celebrated the 90th anniversary of the complete publication of the original text by Juan Ramón Jiménez. This production was produced with students from the UPR Department of Drama and achieved a vibrant, emotional and minimalist aesthetic with an emphasis on props, costumes and stage movement. 

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The second montage ofPlatero and me (2012) visited the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Scotland.  To take the production off the Island, the cast raised funds at venues such as: the Puerto Rico Museum of Art, the Julia Theater in Burgos, the University Theater, the La Perla Theater in Ponce, and the Sol Theater in San German. After representing us at the Fringe Festival with loas and as a result of this exchange, Platero and I received the invitation to represent Puerto Rico at the Kennedy Center for the Arts Collegiate Theater Festival (KCACTF). 

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The presentations ofPlatero and me In the United States, on the occasion of this festival, they placed the Department of Drama of the UPR-RP at the forefront of American theater. Platero y yo was awarded by the juries of this festival in 2012 with the national awards of: Best Direction, Best Choreography, Best Cast, Best Lighting and Best Lead Actor. The KCACTF annually receives and awards the best college theater productions from across the United States.

 

The third representation ofPlatero and me(2018) was in celebration of the Centenary of the original text by Juan Ramón Jiménez. 

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After retiring from their responsibility as university professors, Cuca and Julia intend to continue their role in the evolution of the Puerto Rican theater scene. With this task present and in force, they recruited their best students, artistic professionals in Puerto Rico, to organize, structure, and produce events and workshops of excellence. With this goal in mind, thePuerto Rico Performing Arts Trust and its managing agent,Arts, Inc.