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Sharing Grandmothers is an original, multidisciplinary piece that features two female artists – one from Africa and one from the African Diaspora – who are songwriters, musicians, storytellers, and dancers, as well as culture bearers of traditional Black artistic practices.

The project brings together two multidisciplinary artists who each embrace a rich cultural heritage and mastery of traditional songs, stories, rhythms and dances from their respective cultures. The intent of this collaboration is to devise a song cycle with a theatrical structure around music and lyrics, which serves as a vehicle to discuss issues that women face globally, and particularly speak to the double oppression of Black women both in the U.S. and Africa.

Inez Barlatier is a 1st generation Ayisyen-American (Haitian-American) multidisciplinary artist. Inez performs as a singer-songwriter, rhythm guitarist, recording artist, percussionist, dancer, actress and a hand drum instructor. She has performed nationally and internationally with Kazoots, Jan Sebon & Kazak International, Venus Rising Women’s Drum & Dance Ensemble and One Drum, as well as appearing as a solo musician and with her own band. Inez began her music career at the age of 12 years old as a member of her father’s band, Jan Sebon & Kazak International.  CBS 4 News Miami featured Inez and her work as a TYA artist in a segment called “Miami Proud” in December 2019. Her work has also been showcased on National Public Radio (NPR), WLRN (Miami), WDNA (Florida), Complex TV, Island TV, The Miami New Times and The Miami Herald. She was awarded a L.E.A.P. grant from Miami Theater Center which sponsored a children’s educational and interactive show entitled “Ayiti, the Pearl of the Antilles” produced and directed by Inez. The Knight Foundation partnered with Miami Light Project awarded Inez with a Knight Arts Champion grant in December 2017 resulting in her debut EP entitled MOUN | MOON co-produced by James Valsin. Her lifelong passion and exposure to multicultural and folkloric music is reimagined in her work creating fresh yet nostalgic and often emotional experiences. While performing internationally, Inez works as an accountant, a teaching artist, a drum circle leader, an actress and dancer. Her theatrical portfolio includes the presentation in Cuba, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua of “Writing in Sand”, a 3-women play written and directed by Carlos Caballero of FUNDarte, and upcoming contemporary works written and directed by award winning playwright, Teo Castellanos.  Inez strives to positively impact the lives of women and girls using the arts as a tool for self-empowerment. InezBarlatier.com

LORNOAR (Berthe Lebah Etono) is a singer, songwriter and dancer from Cameroon. Born and raised in Yaoundé, the capital city, she began her career at an early age. She made her debut as a professional singer in 2007, being featured in a prominent local night-club and was hired by a famous band that offered her the opportunity to tour extensively throughout the country and to back vocally most of Cameroon’s greatest singers. In 2010 she won First Prize in the nationwide competition of female voices “MASSAO” in Douala, and in July 2011 released her first solo album, earning numerous hyperbolic reviews. Her first video clip “Ote Ben Ma” was released in January 2012, followed by a second clip with her hit song “ZEN”. A popular TV show “Rendezvous with Lornoar” has been aired on the National TV Channel. In 2012 she toured through Paris, and in 2014 she performed in various venues in Harlem and Greenwich Village in New York. There, she recorded her second album «100%» under the supervision of the great bass player from Cameroon Francis Mbappe and Michael Jackson’s percussionist Bashiri Johnson (including the popular title and musical video “Moment in The Sun”, featuring US hip hop star Freedom Williams). That same year she performed before the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York at the Official Launch of the International Decade for People of African Descent. Since then she has toured extensively in Europe and African countries. In July 2017, she represented Cameroon in the” Chanson” category at the 8th Francophone Games in Ivory Coast. She was officially selected for the 10th edition of MASA (Marché des Arts du Spectacle Africain), World’s greatest market for African Performing Arts and is included in the official selection of 5 major Festival and Markets in various international cities. Lornoar’s work builds on the legacy of African oral heritage. Her music is made of various rhythms: from bikutsi to bossa nova, through makossa, batanga, ekank, ekomot, mbalax and reggae, even including highlife and pop. From her cabaret years she has retained a strong stage presence and the ability to adapt to any kind of musicians and audiences, which helped her enjoy great success in Europe and the USA. www.LORNOAR.com

Sipping Fury from a Tea Cup conceived by Elizabeth Doud and Jennylin Duany in collaboration with Carlos Caballero.

 Sipping Fury from a Tea Cup is a tale of a woman, a tea cup, and a roiling pot of fertility, mutiny, destiny and honey bees, which takes place in a not so impossible future when there are no honey bees left and our pollination systems become fantastic, reckless and uncertain. 

Imagine a world where there are no longer any bees. Imagine a day when the pastures of plenty that we think of as guaranteed to us cease to mature into fruits and vegetables.  Imagine a day when you only have enough viable soil to fit into a teacup. 

In the absence of these principle pollinators of the edible species we rely on for our food, and for our food’s food, the anti-heroine of our story toils in the search for revived fertility for her and the planet. This multi-disciplinary performance work explores the mystery of the disappearance of bee colonies (known as Colony Collapse Disorder), and what lengths one might go to in order to rescue our planet’s best and most threatened fertility mechanisms. 

Dates & Times

Saturday June 5^th – 8:00 p.m. at Byron Carlyle Theater (50071 ST Miami Beach FL 33141)

“If you’re going to pull a knife, USAlo” takes us to a visual plane where petroleum contaminated marine life frames the scenic horizon. Together with Samuel Beckett, the work reinvents the illusion of Ulysses’ mermaids and thrashes out issues of lost love between a petroleum platform worker and a Disneyworld character actress.

“If you’re going to pull a knife, USAlo” employs the texts of Samuel Beckett as a foundation for dramatic exchanges that touch on pessimism, hopelessness, and absurd sea life. This cutting-edge work mines these gloomy themes in search of something upbeat to cling to:  a magic solvent that will clean the ocean, the prospect of the perfect job that pays you to do what you love, or a piece of floating plastic garbage large enough to float on without drowning.

This work will be performed simultaneously in both Spanish and English, in keeping with the spirit of Beckett who composed in French and English, and was able to move between two languages fluidly.  Representing a linguistic reality of our community and local work lives, the story will play off tensions of opposites:  The mythical figure of the mermaid, and the very real horror of the pollutions of our oceans; the irreversible destructiveness of plastic, and the possibility to reinvent yourself over and over again; the Tower of Babel-like confusion of fused and multiple languages, and the perfect recognition of ourselves in the whole of humanity.

The play is presented in collaboration with Miami Light Project and Miami-Dade County Auditorium, as part of FUNDarte’s Miami On Stage series.

Dates & Times

Thursday-Saturday, September 8-10, 2011 @ 8:00 PM

Sunday, September 11, 2011 @ 5:00 PM

“Entre 2 Aguas” is a theater piece co-produced by FUNDarte (Miami, USA) and La Saraghina de Stalker (Extremadura, Spain), with artists from both countries. Written by playwright Manuel De, and directed by Carlos Caballero (Miami), the play will be performed by actors Mabel Roch and Eugenia Sancho, both based in Miami. It is supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s Knight Arts Challenge, which funds the best ideas for the arts in Miami. The play was premiered at the On.Stage Black.Box Theater- Miami Dade County Auditorium, on Sep. 7, 2018.

Synopsis: Two women: actresses who gave up successful careers upon emigrating from their native countries. Their friendship has survived the passing years and they currently act together in scenes for educational videos. Students learning Spanish have replaced large theater audiences, and the stage is now nothing more than a cheap video set. But the characters remain the same: Bernarda Alba, Antigone, Doña Ines, and others. Their dreams have also remained intact, as has their love of theater.

About the Artists

Carlos Caballero is an actor and theater director with an extensive international history in theater, film and television. Caballero studied Art History at the University of Havana, and graduated from the Institute of Fine Arts of Havana (ISA) with a degree in Theater and Acting. As a director, Caballero premiered the work “Writing in Sand” in Miami in 2015, which was selected by the National Performance Network to tour several cities in Central American and it was presented at the International Theater Festival In Havana in 2015. In 2001 Caballero wrote and directed a children’s play titled “The Witch of the Year” which was presented through the Miami-Dade Public Library System and in public schools across the county. Caballero has also received a Best New Work award from the Miami Herald for the widely acclaimed play “Sueño Americano” by José Eduardo Pardo, which he directed in 2003. He also directed a performance work by Elizabeth Doud called “Sipping Fury from a Teacup” in 2011, commissioned by FUNDarte’s Miami On Stage series.

In addition to his academic training, Caballero has also participated in workshops with theater artists such as Eugenio Barba and Carmelina de la Rocca, from Odin Theatre. His extensive career as an actor began in Cuba in 1985, with renowned companies such as Teatro El Publico and La Ventana. With these companies he performed in over 20 plays including works by Shakespeare, Garcia Lorca, and Cocteau, and toured important festivals in Spain and Latin America. Based in Miami since 2000, Caballero has received several awards and accolades, such as the Best New Actor award from the Miami New Times and El Nuevo Herald for his work in plays like “Cuentas Pendientes,” and “A Streetcar Named Desire”. He also worked with Gold Coast Theater in more than 80 performances dedicated to teaching children about environmental issues. In 2014, he won the Award for Best Male Actor at the Rainbow Festival de Cinema e Cultura do Brasil for his role in “Verde Verde.”

Manuel De is a theater arts graduate of the Carlos III University of Madrid, where he received training in different areas with such renowned instructors as Juan Mayorga, Enzo Cormann, Carles Alfaro, Alfredo Sanzol, Andrés Lima, Miguel del Arco, and others. He also studied artistic direction, directing actors, and scriptwriting at the Art School in San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba, in addition to video and film production, theatrical production and distribution, audiovisual postproduction, lighting, dramaturgy, and set design. He has studied and apprenticed with Antonio Malonda, Jaroslaw Bielski, José Sanchís Sinisterra, Eliseo Altunaga, Francisco López “Sacha”, Yolanda Barrasa, Jesús Cimarro, Miguel Ángel Pérez, Juan Tébar, Julio Bao, Nicolás Fischtel and Mauricio Rinaldi, among others. In addition to directing his own company La Saraghina de Stalker, which he founded in 2007, he creates lighting design, soundscapes, and audiovisual components for companies likeTeatro de Cámara de Cervantes. He was nominated for best director and best play for “Eduardo II” at the Premios Jara in Spain, and for “La otra voz” at the Teatros Vegas Bajas Spanish National Festival, where the play won the award for Best Actor.

Other directorial and dramaturgical projects include “Eterno Creón” 2015, “Sonia, Aitor y un Extraterrestre Del Montón” (Children’s Theater) 2014, “La Otra Voz” (adaptation) 2013, which also appeared at the Havana International Theater Festival and the National Vegas Bajas Theater Festival, “La Esclava De Andrómaca” 2013,“¿Para Qué?” 2011, which appeared in the Merida Festival 2011, “Eduardo II” (C. Marlowe) 2010-2013, which appeared at the Visible International Festival 2010-2011, the Cáceres Classic Theater Festival 2011, the Alcántara Classic Theater Festival 2012, and the Badajoz Contemporary Theater Festival 2012, “La Señorita Julia/Miss Julie” (adaptation) 2009-2012, which appeared at the Strindberg Centennial and the Círculo de Bellas Artes 2012, “Sabes Que No Me Importa” 2009, which appeared at the Visible International Festival, and “La Otra Voz” 2008- 2010, which appeared at the Visible International Festival in 2008.

Mabel Roch is a theater actress who has also worked extensively in films and television, establishing herself as a powerful and versatile performer. Roch graduated from The National College of the Arts in Havana, Cuba, in 1981. After graduation she worked as a member of several theater companies including Pinos Nuevos, Cubana De Acero and Teatro Estudio, under the direction of Raquel Revuelta. During this period, she performed in the following theatrical works: “Huelga” by Albio Paz, “Mirandolina” by Goldoni, “La Opinion Publica” by Aurel Baranga, and “Manteca” by Alberto Pedro, among others. Her television performances in Cuba include the adventure series “El Tiempo Joven No Muere” and “Shiralad”. Roch also worked in several Cuban Soap Operas, including “El Pedraplen”, “Antonia”, “Tiempo De Maquina” & “Mi Prima Raquel” among others.   She has had a privileged career in the Cuban film industry, her credits include “Doble Crimen A Bordo,” “Un Hombre De Exito,” directed By Humberto Solas; “Mujer Transparente,” directed by Orlando Rojas and Mayra Vilasis; “Amores” directed By Kwesi Dickson; and the short film “Momentos De Tina.”

In 1994, Roch emigrated to the U.S., and has since performed in several theatrical works, including: “La Noche” by Abilio Estevez, “La Chunga” by Mario Vargas Llosa, “Chejovianas” by Dany Jacomino, “Amaneci Como Con Ganas De Morirme” by Indira Paez, “Cartas De Amor A Stalin” by Juan Mayorga, “Contigo Pan Y Cebolla” by Hector Quintero, “Cercania” by Rolando Diaz, “Anna in the Tropics” by Nilo Cruz “Writing in Sand” by Carlos Caballero based on text by Griselda Ortiz, and “Yellow Dream Road” by Rogelio Orizondo directed by Carlos Díaz, Teatro El Público, which was also an international cultural exchange project produced by FUNDarte.

Eugenia Sancho is versatile actress, singer, composer and playwright. Born in Valencia, Spain, she is a graduate of the Escuela Superior de Arte Dramático in her hometown, with an emphasis on Direction and Dramaturgy. She continued to develop her talents as an actress with the Shakespeare Foundation in Spain, and soon began working professionally in Latin American music and folklore. Throughout her career she has worked as a theater actress in numerous plays, including classics such as

“Bodas de Sangre (Blood Wedding)” by Federico García Lorca; “Macbeth” by William Shakespeare; “Tío Vania” a Spanish adaptacion of “Uncle Vanya” by Antón Chejóv; “Electra” by Eurípides, and “La Gata sobre el tejado de zinc caliente,” a Spanish adaptation of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” by Tennessee Williams, among many others. She recently performed in “Cartas a Peer Gynt”, written by Norge Espinosa and directed by renowned Cuban director Carlos Díaz. Sancho has also worked extensively as a director, dramaturge, voiceover actress, and scriptwriter for radio and television.

Writing in Sand, a multidisciplinary stage production directed by Carlos Caballero, featuring actress Mabel Roch, choreographer and dancer Lucia Aratanha, musician Inez Barlatier, and the writing of Griselda Ortíz, opens a dialogue that explores themes of displacement, immigration, trauma, personal crisis, and assimilation as a mirror of Miami itself. Three female performers – one Cuban, one Brazilian and one Haitian, each also representing a different artistic discipline – come together to explore these individual themes, as well as the relationships between the various ethnic and artistic communities in Miami.

Writing in Sand is a work of performance that specifically explores Miami as a place and mind-set, with all of its issues of migration, assimilation and the process of creating and maintaining a cultural legacy. Using music, acting and dance, three immigrant women artists unpack their personal baggage, reveal their truths and experiences, and weave together a tapestry from the threads of their similar and disparate realities as immigrants, and as artists living and working in Miami.

Writing in Sand utilizes the individual autobiographical experiences of each performer to explore the universal reality of migrant women artists in Miami, a city of immigrants in which everybody has baggage to unpack. This riveting performance relies on poignant stories based on the artists’ real lives, as well as humor, music, dance, and personal anecdotes to compose a moving portrait of Miami, a city in which – though the sea may wash away our stories daily – we persevere and continue writing in sand.

This project is made possible with support from the Knight Arts Foundation, and presented as part of FUNDarte’s Miami On Stage: Knight New Works series, dedicated to the presentation of original new works by Miami-based artists.

About the Artists

Carlos Caballero is an actor and theater director with an extensive history in international theater, film, television, and multimedia performance. Caballero studied Art History at the University of Havana, and graduated from the Institute of Fine Arts of Havana (ISA) with a degree in Theater and Acting. He has also participated in workshops with theater artists such as Eugenio Barba, and Carmelina de la Rocca from Odin Theatre. Caballero has worked as an actor in theater since 1985, most notably as a company member with Teatro El Publico and La Ventana in Cuba. With these companies, he performed in over 20 plays including works by Shakespeare, Garcia Lorca, and Cocteau, among others, touring his work to the leading festivals in Spain and Latin America. Caballero has been based in Miami since 2000, where he received the Best New Actor award from the Miami New Times and the Nuevo Herald for his work with Grupo de Teatro La Mateodora in the play “Cuentas Pendientes,” and a Spanish-language adaption of “A Streetcar Named Desire” with Teatro Miami. He has also worked with Gold Coast Theater in more than 80 performances dedicated to teaching children about environmental issues. In 2001, Caballero wrote and directed a children’s play titled “The Witch of the Year” which was presented through the Miami-Dade Public Library System and in public schools across Miami. In 2002, Caballero directed the widely acclaimed play “Sueño Americano” by José Eduardo Pardo, which received a Best New Work award from the Miami Herald. In addition to his acting and performance work, Caballero recently collaborated as an acting coach with Jose Manuel Dominguez and Lucia Aratanha on their theater production of “Hilo” in 2010. He directed a performance work by Elizabeth Doud called “Sipping Fury from a Teacup” in 2011, commissioned by FUNDarte’s Miami On Stage series. In collaboration with Doud, he also recently developed, premiered and toured “If you’re going to pull a knife, USAlo/Si Vas a Sacar un Cuchillo, USAlo,” an experimental bilingual work based on texts by Brecht, and commissioned by Miami Light Project and FUNDarte. This work was directed by Teatro El Publico’s Carlos Diaz as part of an international collaboration involving artists in both the US and Cuba. Caballero also has extensive experience in film and television, having worked in Italy, Spain, Brazil, Panama, Peru, and Mexico. He recently appeared as a protagonist in the film “Verde Verde” by Enrique Pineda Barnet, released in Cuba in 2012. Caballero was most recently seen in a Spanish adapatation of Albert Camus’ “Caligula” presented as part of FUNDarte’s Out in the Tropics Festival in Miami Beach, FL in June of 2012.

Mabel Roch is a theater actress who has also worked extensively in films and television, establishing herself as a powerful and versatile world-class performer. Ms. Roch graduated from The Escuela Nacional De Arte/National College of the Arts In Havana, Cuba in 1981. In Cuba, Ms Roch worked as a member of several theater companies including Pinos Nuevos, Cubana De Acero and Teatro Estudio, under the direction of the world-renowned Raquel Revuelta. During this period, she performed in the following theatrical works: “Huelga” by Albio Paz, “Mirandolina” by Goldoni. “La Opinion Publica” by Aurel Baranga, and “Manteca” by Alberto Pedro, among others. Her Television performances in Cuba include The adventure series “El Tiempo Joven No Muere” and “Shiralad, ” along with several plays adapted for Television, inlcuding “Zoologico De Cristal” (a Spanish adaptation of “The Glass Menagerie”). Ms Roch also worked in several Cuban Soap Operas, including “El Pedraplen”, “Antonia,” “Tiempo De Maquina” & “Mi Prima Raquel” among others. Her Cuban film credits include: “Doble Crimen A Bordo,” and “Esta Larga Tarea De Aprender A Morir,” as well as “Un Hombre De Exito,” directed By Humberto Solas; the short film “Momentos De Tina,” as well as the feature “Mujer Transparente,” both directed By Mayra Vilasis; and “Amores,” directed By Kwesi Dickson. In 1994 Ms Roch Emigrated To The U.S. and has since performed in several theatrical works, including: “La Noche” by Abilio Estevez, “La Chunga” by Mario Vargas Llosa, “Chejovianas” by Dany Jacomino, “Amaneci Como Con Ganas De Morirme” by Indira Paez, “Cartas De Amor A Stalin” by Juan Mayorga, “Contigo Pan Y Cebolla” by Hector Quintero, and “Cercania” By Rolando Diaz.

Lucia Aratanha is a performing artist and director with over 35 years experience in the field of dance and theater. She began her career in her native Brazil, where she worked extensively with well-known choreographers and directors. After relocating to Miami, she became active in the local arts community, and continued to perform while developing movement training for dancers and actors. She has applied her years of technical, choreographic, and theatrical experience to providing directorial support for dozens of original works by artists such as Heather Maloney, Jose Manuel Dominguez, Elizabeth Doud, Jennylin Duany, Giovanni Luquini, and Gary Lund. In multiple productions, Aratanha had the honor of collaborating with playwright and New Theatre director Ricky J. Martinez and experimental filmaker Dinorah de Jesus Rodriguez. Her own theatrical and choreographic work has been presented by Miami Light Project, The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, and FundArte, among others, and she was commissioned through MLP’s Here and Now Festival in 2007. Since its founding, Lucia has been a core team member at Inkub8, which is a laboratory studio for creating new works in the contemporary, emerging and hybrid forms. For the last three years, she has been a teaching artist for Karen Peterson & Dancers’ YEP Program, and for VSA Florida. Both organizations dedicated to bring the arts to sudents with disabilities. Currently, Lucia is a staff teacher at Kalos Music and Art School.

Inez Barlatier is a Haitian multifaceted performing artist. Her career in the arts began at age 12 under the guidance of her father, Jan Sebon, an international performing musician and visual artist for over thirty years. Today at age 23, Inez performs as a singer-songwriter, rhythm guitarist, recording artist, percussionist, dancer, actress and a hand drum instructor. She has performed nationally in the U.S. and in Haiti  with Kazoots, Jan Sebon & Kazak International, Venus Rising: Women’s Drum & Dance Ensemble and One Drum. Along with eleven plus years of live music performances, Inez has also collaborated with visual artists and filmmakers; recently with Vincent Moon. She has been featured on National Public Radio, Channel 10 News, Channel 2 News, The Miami Herald, Tom Tom Magazine, The Miami New Times, The Sun Sentinel and America’s Got Talent in front of celebrity judges Sharon Stone, Morgan Pierce and David Hasselhoff

Griselda Ortíz is a writer and dramaturge from Cuba who worked as director of dubbing and subtitling, as well as assistant director, screenwriter, and style editor in the Cuban film industry for many years before her arrival in the U.S. where she currently works in dubbing and subtitling for film, translation, and as a freelance screenwriter and television producer.

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