Teatro Nacional to begin
2012 season Tuesday


The Teatro Nacional is ready to launch the new year with more than 3,200 artists lined up for its 2012 schedule. The opening day is Tuesday.

The inaugural event is the play “Pendulum,” an open performance by University of Costa Rica dancers at noon. This is the Teatro al Mediodía, inside the main hall. There are a total of 37 noon performances this year.

On the second floor of the Teatro Nacional, the Foyer, there will be 12 performances this year. The Foyer is a smaller room with a ceiling painting found on the old five colon note. The late afternoon musical acts, Música al Atardecer, will feature 32 different performances there.

Besides these performances the main theater will feature 122 events, including 18 dance, 44 musical and two flamenco performances, an opera, and the Festival de Poesía. The singer Pablo Milanes is the first big evening show of the year for the theater Feb. 23.

This year the theater has opened up a call center for those who have questions. Adriana Collado, director of the Teatro Nacional, said this year the theater is more accessible to the public. In the past, the theater catered to international acts, but now they have included more national acts.

“This is a theater that we can really say is ours,” said Manuel Obregón, minister of Cultura y Juventud.

Ticket prices vary on the performance. Teatro al Mediodía tickets cost 1,000 colons, and one for the Música al Atardecer costs 2,000 colons.


Nearby pig farm helps
keep expat a vegetarian

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

The article on the environmental problems associated with meat production made me think about life in my small village near Quepos. The piggery not far from my house shovels its considerable amount of pig excrement into a ditch that, when it rains, flushes into the nearby Naranjo river. When it comes time to butcher, this is done in front of the other pigs, with earth shattering screaming heard throughout the village. Unwanted meat waste is then flung into the field in the hope that the buzzards will take it, meanwhile creating a stink from hell.

The villagers seem to accept all this as normal enough, but it seems to bear little relation to the nicely presented piece of pork most of us see in the supermarket. I haven't seen it, but I don't think I would find the processes of the big industrial meat packing operations any more reassuring.

I have been a vegetarian for many years, and have yet to meet a Costa Rican who is one. In fact, when this comes out, I often get looks of confusion and concern. Perhaps a low meat diet is still seen as a sign of poverty.

Meat production probably will soar with its associated problems. But in the meantime, if anyone wants to join my vegetarian club of one, let me know!

Find out what the papers said today in Spanish By the A.M. Costa Rica staff Here is the section where you can scan short summaries from the Spanish-language press. If you want to know more, just click on a link and you will see and longer summary and have the opportunity to read the entire news story on the page of the Spanish-language newspaper but translated into English. Translations may be a bit rough, but software is improving every day. When you see the Summary in English of news stories not covered today by A.M. Costa Rica, you will have a chance to comment. This is a new service of A.M. Costa Rica called Costa Rica Report. Editor is Daniel Woodall, and you can contact him HERE!

From the Costa Rican press News items posted Monday through Friday by 8 a.m. Click a story for the summary

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