Preview of “Storytelling in many forms ignited Joann Maria ...Storytelling in many forms ignited Joann Maria Yarrow’s imagination Joann Maria Yarrow is a theater artist with an

Performing Arts JULY 1, 2015

Storytelling in many formsignited Joann Maria Yarrow’simagination

Joann Maria Yarrow is a theater artist with anexpansive world view, and no wonder. Born inBarranquilla, Colombia, she traveled the globewith her parents while growing up and lived fora time in Singapore. Serving since 2006 asartistic director of Teatro Prometeo, anenduring South Florida theater based at MiamiDade College’s Wolfson Campus, Yarrow also

Joann Maria Yarrow, artistic director of TeatroPrometeo, remembers falling in love with literature inher grandfather’s Colombian library. | postprocessing by Bradley Marsh

Storytelling in many forms ignited Joann Maria Yarrow’s imagin... http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/performing-arts/arti...

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runs the only Spanish-language actingconservatory in the country.

Her work as a director and choreographer —she once dreamed of being a dancer — hasbeen presented in Miami, Denmark, London,Madrid, Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Braziland, later this summer, in Chicago. She’s gettingready to open Cena para seis (Dinner for Six) byCristina Rebull, which she describes as “a verydark comedy-murder mystery,” which she’sco-directing with the playwright. It will run July10-11 as one of the XXX International HispanicTheatre Festival’s opening weekend shows,then play through July 26 (in Spanish, withEnglish supertitles) in Prometeo’s theater at300 NE Second Ave.

Yarrow’s passion for storytelling in many formswas born during summer visits to hergrandfather’s “amazing library” in Colombia.


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“I picked up his copy of the complete works ofShakespeare — I was 8 — and thought that thepoetic way he described things was sobeautiful,” Yarrow says. “I love literature, I lovestories, I love good writing and how really goodliterature can ignite the imagination, whether asa story or as something adapted into theater. ...It invites us as dreamers to relate to each other,so that not only has it ignited my imaginationbut, hopefully, it will ignite yours. For me, that’sthe magic. ... I can be as affected by aJapanese folk tale as I am by Shakespeare orGabriel García Márquez.”

One of her most vivid arts memories?

“I got into performance through dance. When Iwas in high school, Rudolf Nureyev performedat the Jackie Gleason Theater in a modernadaptation of Eugène Ionesco’s The Lesson. Heplayed a ballet teacher, and I remember hisenergy was tremendous,” Yarrow recalls. “I wasa dance student then, and I went backstage andbegged him to sign my toe shoes. He did.”

Christine Dolen

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Preview of “Storytelling in many forms ignited Joann Maria ...Storytelling in many forms ignited Joann Maria Yarrow’s imagination Joann Maria Yarrow is a theater artist with an