Here’s the story of how the “the roof of Terry theater was sold” to save the building. It is not an ordinary roof or transaction involving a sale. First we had to take stock of what made nonfunctional this nineteenth century coliseum, given to me on July 1, 1996 with a gear of only six scene lights and four operating microphones, the stage floor cracked and rotten, barely three yards stage machinery that could be used, most of the audience seats broken ... and many more could be mentioned, aesthetic and heritage values that were almost lost.
But the building still retained its majesty. It was opened on February 12, 1890 and declared a National Monument in 1978; it was a building of splendor as there had been no other in its time in the countryside.
To restore the building and rescue its programming the seeking of funds was necessary, mainly in convertible currency. The idea of showing the heritage and charge for it to reinvest in the theater gained strength in the workforce of Terry.
The newly appointed Minister of Culture Abel Prieto came to town on April 1, 1997 and toured the cultural facilities that had been destroyed a few months earlier by a strong cyclone. He ended the tour in the Terry, whose devastation was great. The occasion was propitious for a game of chess in the side yard of the theater. I think Abel lost and was caught by us, and we told him our idea. The authorization came. Fifty percent of those revenues were to restore the Terry, the rest was divided to run the programming and production of theatrical groups in the province.
The self-financing mechanism allowed the opening of the Café Teatro Terry, the Ateneo Chamber Armando Suarez del Villar and a Documentation Center and Hall of History. More than 160 functions are performed annually in the main hall and more than 350 throughout the facility. Its program includes two festivals: Latin American Monologue and Alternative Music. They have been established with annual character the Terry Awards, all of which gives the theater a corporate identity renowned nationally and internationally, and one very important level of affluence of public and significance in the cultural life of Cienfuegos.
