The actress is one of the youngest comedians in Cuba, although she seeks to escape from typecasting with her work in different spaces and media.
A couple of years ago, Lola Mento, an intrepid guajirita and in love with her, burst onto television, as we can see in her adventures on social networks, a character well built by the young actress Danay Cruz, who gives life to this character.
Precisely between television and theater, she has developed her career, the one born in Holguín, who decided to study acting at the age of 15, after having passed the aptitude exams of the Professional School of Art of Bayamo (EPA).
The theater has been one of the pillars in Danay's career although, as is common in Cuba, the jump to the small screen is vital to win the preference of a large part of the national public.
At this time, the COVID-19 pandemic has stopped all planned plans, just at the moment when the actress began rehearsals with the the slamming door theater group, for the staging of All Men Are Equal, where in addition of comedy, the actress can be seen dancing and singing, quite a challenge, she told us.
At the moment, comedy continues to be the driving force for Danay, “mainly in plays,” he tells us, “but it wasn't until July 2019 when I got to humor, because the humorous program Otto x was created for the summer programming. Otto, to which I was invited, it was there that I began to relate to the union for the first time and began to discover the difficult and admirable world of humor, thus the character of Lola Mento was born”.
But after the show you continued with the character
After the appearance of Lola Mento on the screen and the happy reception by the public, I decided that the character should not die there and I created a Facebook page and an Instagram account and began to generate content and upload it to the networks, nourishing myself always from my origins, because I am from the countryside and for me it is very easy because I only have to refer myself there, my experiences, my family, my neighbors.
Whenever I go, I come back with new phrases and stories for the character, without losing sight of and also serving as a source of inspiration for what is happening today, because I have never wanted Lola to remain stereotyped and radical, on the contrary. She is a guajira, yes, but informed and modern, in her own way.
I've known the slamming door almost since it was founded, we always met at festivals and there I had the good fortune to admire the great work done by Pedro Franco, its director. It was a surprise when one of his assistants contacted me because he wanted to one day be able to work with this group, but I was always very clear that this was going to be a great challenge.
The comedy All Men Are Equal is a super show that requires not only histrionics and great stage command, but also, being a musical, requires rigorous work in terms of singing and dancing, and in the latter I am not very skilled at all. .
But I am very happy and excited about the premiere and so far Lola Mento is not expected to be in the show, but it is a possibility that cannot be ruled out because our director loves to innovate and makes frequent use of his beloved phrase "he remains” (smiles).
You've also been able to act out of humor. How to avoid this typecasting?
Thank God I've been lucky enough to play various characters in both drama and comedy and I certainly wouldn't want to be pigeonholed because I enjoy both equally.
Those of us who do humor have the responsibility of not allowing ourselves to be pigeonholed by only accepting characters that require comedy.
Many times and sadly the directors label you, but those are only prejudiced because a good actor is capable of doing any genre perfectly.
Here I play Judith, a young woman who studies English and lives with her grandmother and finds herself in the dilemma between leaving the country to live in London with her parents or staying with her grandmother in Cuba, in addition to love disagreements.
I have several projects that will air this year, one of them will be the second season of the animated Yesapín García, to whom I lend my voice, a totally new experience for me and very satisfying because I always wanted to do animation.
Playing a character so loved by all has been a challenge that I hope people receive with the same love that I have bestowed on him.
How challenging is it to be a comedian for a woman in Cuba?
Humor in our country has been defended mostly by men and there are also many prejudices, sometimes even among women themselves, but even so, wonderful exponents of the genre have never ceased to exist, such as Eloisa Alvarez Guedes, Consuelo Vidal, Maria de los Angeles Santana, just to cite examples, all paradigms.
I think that Cuban humor needs a renewal more than a resurgence, as it happened in the 80s of the last century, there is a lot of young talent and being a woman should not be an impediment to make people laugh.
I love to sing and it imposes a lot on me, yes. I will have the opportunity to do it precisely in the musical comedy All men are equal and I also filmed the medium-length musical In the air a year ago, an incredible and totally new experience for me to be able to record all its songs at Curve.
