Cuban Theater Digital Archive

Probably the the first theater group to put on plays in Spanish in Miami. Dr. J. Riis Owre established the Hispanic American Institute in 1938 at the University of Miami “to foster the dissemination of knowledge about Spanish-American countries, not only to the university students but to the public as well.” Integral to its activities was the university’s Hispanic Theater, originally led by Owre and then by Cuban student Luis Rodríguez Molina. When Fred Koch was hired to lead the university’s Drama program, he expanded the Spanish theater program and hired Dr. Luis Rodríguez Molina as director. In 1946, Puerto Rican writer and professor José Agustín Balseiro settled in Miami as Professor of Hispanic Literature at the University of Miami where he also served as advisor to Hispanic theatre.