Ángel Ernesto García Brito: the right to dream of a young actor

By Jordanis Guzmán Rodríguez/Cuban Television Portal.

These days, a new Cuban soap opera has aroused the attention of not a few, thanks to this brilliant idea of ??paying homage to a medium that has accompanied Cubans for a hundred years, that has set important guidelines from the point of view of art and that has been essential in the formation of a national identity. The radio is the medium to which the new soup opera El derecho de soñar will pay tribute during 60 episodes, in which men and women from the medium will be the absolute protagonists of their stories.

Divided into two stages, the novel features a large cast of veteran and new actors. One of the young people making their debut in the soup opera genre with this installment is Ángel Ernesto García Brito, a dreamy, passionate young man with extensive experience in radio and with an immense need to tell something from his profession.

According to himself, his participation in the soup opera will be brief, but forceful enough to fully see his histrionic skills and that accumulation of emotions that accompany it. In addition to being an actor, Ángel Ernesto García Brito works as general director of the children's variety company Lokimundo and is a presenter in various spaces on radio and television; in fact, this summer, we will see him integrate the staff of the Surprise XL participation program. An artist with such a great capacity for work had to be interviewed and understand where so much passion and commitment to acting comes from.

With the humility that characterizes him, Ángel Ernesto gave us this interview, despite the fact that his mind and heart were lost in the fields of sadness, due to the physical loss of his mother, whom he considers the driving force of his career and that will always accompany you and guide your path. In this way we took steps to the questions that the young man answered loquaciously and promptly:

How were your first approaches to acting?

My beginnings in acting were with the very first actor, director and teacher, José Antonio Rodríguez, with whom I was able to spend two workshops to approach acting. I dare to assure you that 90% of what I am today as an actor is due to these workshops and to the maestro José Antonio. Under his mantle I discovered how to get out of myself many traits and emotions that I did not have, and that you must build together with your character and thus give him the scenic strength that he needs.

What moved you to make the leap to professionalization?

By not passing the ENA tests, where the great actress and teacher Corina Mestre encouraged all the boys who were eliminated on that occasion not to give up, I set myself the goal of continuing, not giving up, showing myself that I could somehow walk the path of acting, even if it wasn't from the academy.

In this way I continued studying, I became a cultural promoter, then came the desire to direct my own shows, and that is how I passed the artistic direction course at the Félix Varela center. During this time I was also able to enter the Art-Studio company El hombre verde, where I learned a lot. Then I joined the professional puppet company Hilos mágicos and later, in the same way, I was able to enter Teatro Cimarrón, where I also learned many things that in the long run helped me in my future career.

But there came a time when I wanted to feel like I belonged somewhere professionally, and that's how I created my company Lokimundo; a children's variety company that emerged as a community, sociocultural project, which gradually expanded and collaborated with important personalities in the country, which opened many doors for us. This allowed me to enter the ACTUAR agency, which in turn brought me closer to radio and managed to become professional. In this way, that first adolescent impulse to not stop in the face of setbacks and difficulties finally bore fruit.

What place does the radio occupy in your heart?

Radio is very important to me. It has a very special place in my heart, because in it you have to deliver everything through your voice; Compared to other scenic media, on the radio you have to solve everything artistically with sound, it's very difficult; there are actors who do not dare to do so because of the complexity of the radio technique. My first professional opportunities have been in the radio, for which I owe a lot, both to Radio Arte and Radio Progreso, and to directors like Vicky Suarez, Maykel Chávez or the great Carmen Solar, who gave me the opportunity to star in the latest radio soap opera who directed

The histrionic skills that the radio has given me are invaluable, since interpreting different characters in a very short space of time, far removed from my psychology, is a great gift for any actor. It is a medium that must be supported and that will surely never die, since there will always be a radio listener willing to be informed, entertained or educated from the radio waves. The radio is a loyal companion that is always there when the listener needs it.

In addition to acting, you carry the role of announcer and artistic director very well. Tell me about those two passions that complement your acting career.

I always had the concern of conducting a space, of being able to take skills in the locution, know the technique, and at the same time direct, which is something that I am passionate about. This is how I was able to study both voiceover and artistic direction, which prepared me to take on these two artistic edges from which I cannot separate myself. I have tried to bring these two passions together with acting, which allows me to leave a radio studio where I am playing a character, to enter another where I host a youth magazine, and then arrive at my company where I do it everything: acting, driving and directing.

All three are part of me, and although I prefer acting, I think I need all three to develop artistically. In the case of my company, it is my life project, which I will always defend, above any project that may appear, because more than a project we are a family, made up above all of great human beings. In Lokimundo everyone has a space; people with physical or intellectual disabilities, or others who have simply had their opportunities cut off in other places, but who have great talent and something important to say.

Is your third year directing courses at FAMCA. How much do these studies contribute to your training?

FAMCA for me is a great opportunity that has been given to me to be able to develop in that facet of director that I love. As a child he always told my mom that he wanted to be a film director; That is perhaps why I am embarking on this adventure, despite the fact that my work consumes me a lot of time, and that sometimes I cannot fulfill everything I would like with the rigor of the university; but I believe that I will be able to graduate from FAMCA and make the dream that I shared with my mother since I was a child come true.

How did you get to The Right to Dream?

My arrival at the right to dream was very peculiar. Working on the radio I have the great fortune of regularly sharing microphones with Ángel Luis Martínez, one of the writers together with Albertico Luberta of this soap opera. Ángel Luis thought of me for a small character, because the main cast was already formed, but I was happy anyway, because participating in a television project of the magnitude of a soap opera is something that any actor dreams of.

But it happened that that first character had to be given to another actor, which made me settle and give up working on the soap opera; one fine day he calls me Albertico Luberta himself to tell me that he had another character for me. I was even happier, because he is a character who, although small, has great importance on a dramaturgical level; He accompanies the leading character of the first stage in 1948, played by the actress Yaremis Pérez, with an outcome that sets the tone of the work in the later stage.

Then this character in the second part of the soup opera is played by the very first actor Luis Rielo, which is an honor and a great commitment for me as a young actor. I think that the public will enjoy this telenovela, which is the first for me, and I hope that I can do many others. I have to thank Luberta, Yailín Coppola as director of actors, the producers of the telenovela, Ángel Luis and the actors with whom I was lucky enough to interact in the scenes.

How important do you think this tribute to radio from television is?

Paying tribute to the radio in a space with as much audience as the Cuban soap opera is of the utmost importance, since the history of the radio will reach the new generations; the strength that the medium had in the first years of its creation and in our country. Many generations of Cubans still follow and remember that golden age, where there were so many artists and filmmakers who gave everything for the medium.

It will also be a great tribute to El derecho de nacer, that founding radio soap opera of the format, written by the most human of authors, Felix B. Caignet. All this mixed with the current stage, in which you see how the radio is made today, will affect the public, especially those who follow the radio programs with such fidelity. This tribute to the radio was owed a long time ago, but the fact that it is now in its hundred years means a more than deserved gift for radio operators and faithful listeners.

Will the radio always be part of you?

Like many actors and actresses, one must expand in different media professionally speaking. There are many cases in which the artist must leave the radio forever, because they decide to dedicate themselves to other media that indisputably absorb time and disposition. But there are actors who decide to stay until the end in it, and I am one of them.

The love that is given to the radio, the respect that it deserves and its eternal presence makes me remain faithful to it. My gratitude towards the radio is proportionally equal to the love I have for it. Radio is magic, it is delivery, and it is immediacy. Fortunately in these times I have a lot of work in it: as a presenter I am part of the team of Disco Fiesta 98 ??of Radio Ciudad de La Habana, at the same time I host De joven a joven at COCO, and I recently had the opportunity to join the team of Vision at Radio Rebelde, under the aegis of Luis Ríos Vega.

In addition, I support myself as an actor doing unitary, theater or stories, and I continue in the first dramatized program in which I acted: In nine minutes. All these elements, plus the love I have for him, are what keep me on the radio until time and life so decide."

Dreams to fulfill?

So many! I want to graduate from FAMCA, I want to direct projects, I want to have more opportunities on television, do more soap operas, I would like to be able to work in the movies. I dream that my company Lokimundo reaches the greatest number of people, and that it serves to comfort their spiritualities; that the artists in my company continue to grow, that my children are proud to be trained in our academy, and that we can perform a children's musical that we are working on and that the public likes.

On a personal level, my dream is to pay homage every day of my life to the person I will always be most grateful for, and for whom I have come to do everything I have set out to do: my mother, who I recently lost physically, but I know that I will be caring and protecting all the time. I know that she left this earthly plane very proud of the artistic results that I have had and of the path that with effort and dedication I managed to trace myself.

Despite his young age, Ángel Ernesto García Brito is an actor who has traveled many paths in search of a place where he can feel fulfilled and where he can share his experiences and knowledge with others. His perseverance has borne fruit and confirms that we all have the right to dream in this life. (Photos: Cuban Television Portal)