Magaly Alabau

Magali Alabau (born 1945) is a Cuban-American poet, theater director, and actor. Born in Cienfuegos, Cuba, she has lived in New York since 1966. She co-founded the Spanish-English ensemble Teatro Dúo/Duo Theatre with Manuel Martín Jr. and the lesbian theater Medusa's Revenge with Ana María Simo. She began writing poetry after retiring from theater, and published eight books between 1986 and 2015.

Early life in Cuba
Alabau was born in 1945 in Cienfuegos, Cuba.

Following the Cuban Revolution, she received a government scholarship to study theater at the Escuela Nacional de Arte de Cubanacán (National Art School) in Havana. After three and a half years, she was expelled along with a group of students on suspicion of homosexuality. They decided to form the theater group Teatro Joven and staged Abelardo Estorino's one-act play Los Mangos de Caín. It premiered in the auditorium of the University of Architecture (Havana) on August 15, 1965. Shortly before the planned third performance of the piece, the Executive Bureau of the Young Communist League shut the show down. Under the increasing homophobia and cultural intolerance, Alabau left Cuba for the United States.

Theater in New York
Alabau left Cuba through the help of her friend Inverna Lockpez and her mother, who claimed Alabau as a foster daughter. She received an exit permit in 1966 and traveled to Miami through the Freedom Flights. They settled in New York City, where she continued her theater training and worked as an actor and director. She also studied religion and philosophy at Hunter College. She acted in productions at INTAR, Greenwich Mews Theater, and La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club. She also directed theater.

In 1969, she partnered with Manuel Martín, Jr. to co-found the bilingual theater project Teatro Dúo/Duo Theatre, one of the first Spanish-American theater companies in New York. In January and February 1973, when Teatro Dúo/Duo Theatre mounted a bilingual production of Tom Eyen's The White Whore and the Bit Player (in Spanish: La Estrella y la Monja), Alabau played the role of La Estrella. In the English-language version of the same production, that role was played by Candy Darling. When the company staged Martin's Francesco: The Life And Times Of The Cencis later that year at La MaMa, Alabau played the role of Beatrice Cenci. In 1974, she appeared in Ahmed Yacoubi's The Night Before Thinking, directed by Ozzie Rodriguez. In 1981, Alabau appeared in La MaMa's production of Jose Triano's The Night of the Assassins, directed by Endre Hules.

In 1976, wanting to create a lesbian community space, she co-founded the lesbian theater Medusa's Revenge with Ana María Simo. Medusa's Revenge was the first lesbian theater in New York City.

Poetry
In the mid-1980s, Alabau retired from theater and devoted herself to poetry. In 1986, she debuted with the poetry anthology Electra y Clitemnestra. In the book, she reinterprets the Greek myths of Clytemnestra and Electra, transforming the context from heterosexual to lesbian. Central themes in her poetry include intimacy, eroticism, and lesbian love. Her collection Volver (2012) deals with her exile and her relationship to her homeland of Cuba.

After living for 28 years in Manhattan, she moved to Woodstock in upstate New York in 1996. She retired from the literary world and devoted herself to the rescue of abandoned pets. In 2009, she began writing poems again.

Selected works (poetry)
Amor fatal, Madrid: Betania, 2016 Ir y Venir: Bokeh Mordazas: Bokeh 2017
 * Electra y Clitemnestra. Poema. New York: Maitén Books, 1986.
 * La extremaunción diaria. Madrid: Gedichtband, Rondas, 1986.
 * Ras. New York: Medusa, 1987.
 * Hermana. Madrid: Betania, 1989. ISBN 84-86662-96-6.
 * Hemos llegado a Ilión. Madrid: Betania, 1991. ISBN 84-86662-91-5.
 * Liebe. Coral Gables: La Torre de Papel, 1993.
 * Dos mujeres. Madrid: Betania, 2011. ISBN 8480173025
 * Volver. Madrid: Betania, 2012. ISBN 8480173130

Awards and recognition

 * First prize in Lyra's Magazine poetry contest, 1988
 * Cintas Fellowship, 1990
 * Latin American Institute Writers Poetry prize for best Spanish-language poetry book for Hermana, 1992