More Than 90 Miles From Home/Mas que 90 millas de casa
90 miles separate the Cuban coast from Key West.
Ninety miles of darkness, hope, waiting, and light.
In here, those ninety miles could be ninety thousand.
Distancia infinita.
(Poetry and opening text to the work by Colette Krogol)
Cuban-American artist Colette Krogol, of Orange Grove Dance, takes the stage to share her personal journey reconciling the recurring dreams she has for a country she’s never touched. More Than 90 Miles From Home weaves together movement, poetry, and projection design within Krogol’s intimate chronicling of her family's exodus from Cuba during the 1980 Mariel Boatlift. A solo, one-woman-show, More Than 90 Miles From Home takes the audience inside the bilingual thoughts, memories, and dreams of Krogol.
"Even though I was born five years after the Mariel, this event has impacted my life in a myriad of ways. These dreams are my bridge to the stories I have been told since I was young and the places I've stil never touched."
-Colette Krogol
Research and History shared with audiences prior to the performance:
More than 90 Miles From Home is a personal journey through memory, dance, and dream that shines a light on the Mariel Boatlift of 1980 - a historic inflection point that changed the trajectory of more than 125,000 lives emigrating from Cuba to the United States. The Mariel Boatlift began in April of 1980, when Fidel Castro responded to the thousands of Cubans gathering at the Peruvian Embassy to seek asylum. He announced that anyone who wanted to leave Cuba could as long as someone came by boat to pick them up from the United States.
The Cuban point of departure was the Port of Mariel. Even after relatives from the U.S. arrived, Cubans has to wait days in barren camps at the Mariel Bay and were stripped of all of their belongings. On April 14th, President Jimmy Carter agreed to accept 3,500 Cuban refugees. By the end of the Mariel Boatlift six months later, about 125,000 Cubans had arrived in the U.S.
Program Information:
Direction and Choreography: Colette Krogol and Matt Reeves
Projection and Sound Design: Matt Reeves
Lighting Design: Peter Leibold VI
Associate Lighting Design: Faryn Kelly
Original Music: Dylan Glatthorn
Performance and Poetry: Colette Krogol
50 minute live solo performance
DC Theater Arts Review:
https://dctheaterarts.org/2022/05/25/flying-v-presents-a-visceral-more-than-90-miles-from-home/