The memory of a lady, who there in Camagüey, after seeing him act, thanked him and gave him some earrings made by herself, is the greatest treasure that Ury keeps in his memories as a stage artist.
Multi-award-winning playwright, vice president of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (Uneac) in Guantanamo, one of the founders of the theater project La Barca, but also remembered for his leading roles: Miseria and El chinito... summarize part of the long life of this man: Ursinio Rodríguez Urgellés, who in 35 years of professional artistic performance has one of the most interesting stories of self-improvement and devotion to art, which is why Venceremos dares to tell it.
All the roads that lead to the theater
Ury says, as many tell him, that his passion for theater began early, at the age of 10.
“A child, at that age, doesn't know what he wants to be -acknowledges the actor- but thinking back, for me, everything I did at that age was theater. It started as a game and look how I ended up. I owe Santa García the final decision that this was my path. She was one of the first professionals in the field and I fell in love with her doing her. She was one of my first references in art. I wrote theater texts with her, learned directing techniques and read many texts. Santa laid the foundation for what came next.
Ury Rodríguez is a versatile professional. The same thing is seen teaching that narrating a story, on the radio and even on TV. But, perhaps, one of the tasks that is best known is his role as puppeteer. The Guantanamo Guiñol was the path, the main guide, since in 1987 he attended a call for new actors.
“That world was new in my career, and although the truth is, at the beginning no actor wants to be a puppeteer, since it was considered a minor art, for me it was quite a discovery. The best ever.
“I am infinitely grateful to Maribel López and her team, because I owe everything I know about puppet animation to them. I even learned to design and build them, which was very useful to me in the trade”, points out the 2018 Caricato Award that Uneac awards nationally.
But the doors of the Guiñol were not the only ones that opened to the beardless young man with considerable potential yet to be discovered. His subsequent inclusion in the Cabildo Teatral group provided him with new knowledge and techniques in relationship theater, accompanied by intense dance and body training.
“There I learned folk and contemporary dance, which I had not mastered until then, and I began to use it as part of my way of doing theater. I think it was the right decision, since it allowed me to interact in a different way with the public”.
Virginia, Faces, the Crusade and The Boat
In the 1990s, Guantánamo experienced a boom in theater projects. Many initiatives arose, experiments... among the promoters of the new ways of being and bringing art to the stage was Ury.
“With Virginia López, an actress from the Cabildo Teatral Guantánamo and who had been the director of that group, we set up the Faces project, focused on investigative theater. We were looking for a way to reinforce the Guantanamo identity from our staging. We began to inquire about spiritualism and other oral traditions. We mix all this with the theater of relationships and puppets until outlining two well-defined aesthetic lines for children and adults.
“In that period I received the invitation to the Theatrical Crusade, and since that day I have not missed any edition. In the mountains I nurtured my art more by acting, changing, in constant detachment. About the Crusade I must say that I was even its director and I always insisted on research to find better links with the public. That event was another school that came to consolidate me as an actor and communicator.
“In 2000 I joined the drama project in Guantanamo. I spent five years at the Campanario theater, but at some point I felt that I needed something more. So I come back with Virginia, in an attempt to resume the idea of Faces, and we are approved, but as a La Barca project, a continuation of everything done before.
“The emergence of the name of the group was precisely from an experience lived during the Crusade, seeing how the little children of the fields made boats with coconut shells and leaf candles. They were my inspiration, I also have a work called Luna Nueva, which tells the story of a little boat. And, well, since in the end we are all on a journey in life, what better name than La Barca.
"In addition, Virginia and I have traveled a lot since 2009 until today, and we continue with our flagship research, exploring new shapes and styles on the scene to please those who come to see us," adds Ury Rodríguez.
And beyond the theater
Who will not proudly remember seeing Maestro Ury on Cuban television, directed by Roly Peña in the series Duaba, the Odyssey of Honor? A man from Guantanamo, wow! Another one who adds merit to himself and his native land, without migrating, from here.
“There I made a small character, but one that I adored- reveals Rodríguez Urgellés, with the joy of someone who receives a gift for the first time- I acted as Exequiel Rojas Ramírez, the Yateras Indian who caused the death of Flor Crombet. It was a difficult, negative role, but one learns from everything. Then I participated in the police series U.N.O, in which I played an Arab who wants to emigrate to the United States and dies. The last thing I did was Fight Against Bandits, there I play a santero, a very interesting character, by the way.
“I have also had a radio program on CMKS for two years called Pa´ la oreja un cuento, which has a lot to do with orality and another protagonist of mine: Macario, who comes from the theater, but brings all his beauty from the scene to the radio”, he comments.
Ury not only dedicated his life to acting. Indeed, he was, between cabbage and cabbage, president of the Hermanos Saíz Association in Guantanamo, vice president of Uneac... positions that required time and sacrifice, but he never interrupted his work because his commitment to art is more important. In fact, as part of this commitment to creation, he even traveled to Colombia to give workshops and receive feedback with wisdom that he always tries to radiate around him.
“I think that my greatest learning, and advice, from my travels and the accumulated experience, is that the Guantanamo theater needs to rethink its communication strategies. Right now there is a creative effervescence, there are better ways of doing things, more quality... but these proposals are not communicated well, and that weakens the creative process, because the most important thing for an artist is his creation and his audience.
“And that truth is confirmed to me every year by the Theatrical Crusade, because it is the people who motivate us to climb those hills, their hugs, looks, laughter. I remember a neighbor in Yumurí who in the middle of the show assaulted us with expressions of affection, but far from ruining the scene, he gave it something different. You would think that after so many years you are used to the fact that the viewer appreciates what you do, but that is not the case, each reaction that is experienced when you show your work is a new treasure that we keep behind the scenes”, affirms the enthusiastic playwright.
Ury is one of the illustrious sons of our province, a creator with several legitimized names among Guantanamo people for his peculiar way of making art, that art that has as much value as those sweet wire earrings that he still keeps, as a reminder that there will always be some public grateful for their proposals, in Guaso, in Camagüey, even up there in the mountains.
Taken from Venceremos