Mario Ernesto Sanchez, who moved to Key Biscayne when he was 21 years old, is undertaking a lifetime dream. His Teatro Avante produces the International Hispanic Theatre Festival each year, and it’s already gotten a decade under its belt. There have been tough times, especially lately, but last year a grant allowed them another two years of funding. Some people might take that opportunity to relax and rest on their laurels, and for this company there are a lot of laurels, but relaxing is very far from his mind.

He would certainly like to relax, and spend more time away from the city so he can enjoy all that the island offers, but there’s simply too much work to be done. He’s been able to mobilize large numbers of people to move forward with his vision, but he’s still the one who likes to drive the bus. The festival happens every year in the summer, making it the perfect time for travelers to book hotels. Key Biscayne is a wonderful place all year round, but this is a particularly good opportunity to check out the island life as well as enjoy some of the world’s best theatre.

The 2010 Festival focuses on Mexico with a sumptuous offerings of plays from one of the most exciting countries making theatre right now. The plays are usually subtitled or supertitled, in order to make them more accessible to audiences who don’t have the Spanish language. This is a vital step in introducing ways of entering into the theatrical worlds, and in Latin America, it’s much more common to see work in other languages. But in the Miami area, and in many places in the U.S., it’s not yet a part of the culture, and efforts like these to change that will open up the audiences so that they can enjoy some splendid work.

London for me has always been a place where things turn into something else.  Stories of fantastic beasts and monsters from childhood stories enchanted me early on, and perhaps even especially Shakespeare’s plays would fill my head with all the things that can happen to a person in a forest.  For some reason, all of these things made me feel like I couldn’t wait to get older.  It seemed as though these transformations happen to people when they’re a little older, at least a teenager, and sometimes even older than that.

Today, there are many opportunities to get to London, where hotels offer a sophisticated hospitality to make a trip exceptionally nice.  And there are many opportunities to get to see the new version of Midsummer, or any of those plays where things are not what they seem.  There’s a lot that’s changed, and a lot that’s still very much the same.  The largest difference between then and now is probably a measure of belief.  Today, I’m not so convinced that trees can have spirits living inside of them, and I’m not entirely certain that most of the things that creak in the night aren’t just imagination.

It might be that the small degree of doubt, however, that has replaced my faith, is just as strong, if not stronger.  On a recent trip, I was going to do a little bit of research, and a little bit of sightseeing.  I’ve been carrying around a sense that I had entered into another phase of life.  Less magic was entering into my world, and I had been deciding to adjust, and was starting to feel this was working.  However, there was a small sense that maybe there was something else, but that sense had been disappointing.  But I couldn’t get rid of the nugget.  When I was sitting in the theatre, watching the Tempest and thinking about Mirandas of the past, someone brushed my arm, and when I looked, a stranger was smiling and apologizing at once, saying that she thought I was somebody else.  Then, we got to talking.

Kevin was just leaving work one day and as he got into his car his cell phone rang. It was his best friend from high school Travis who he hadn’t seen in almost three years. And it just so happened that he was calling from a Los Angeles cheap hotel. “What on earth are you doing here?” Kevin asked his friend. It turned out that Travis’ wife Peggy, who Kevin had only met twice before, was attended a work related convention and Travis just happened to be have tagged along. “I’m on my own all afternoon tomorrow and would love it if you could show me around town a bit.” Kevin was completely taken by surprise and drove right over to the hotel where Peggy and Travis were staying.

They had dinner in the hotel lounge where they had started talking and just never stopped to make alternative decisions. So, there meal consisted of the happy hour offerings of the resort, which none of them even noticed until Peggy claimed exhaustion and mentioned that she needed to get some sleep. Kevin promised he would call in sick the next morning and be there around ten o’clock to show his old friend the sights of Los Angeles.

When Kevin arrived the next morning, Travis was ready to go and Kevin had to admit, he looked a bit like a tourist with his Disney Land cap and camera around his neck. “Are you really going out like that?” he asked, knowing full well that Travis didn’t care what Kevin or anyone else thought. In fact, the first place he wanted to go was to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. “Are you sure you wouldn’t rather go when Peggy can come along?” asked Kevin. Travis said that Peggy wouldn’t be interested so Kevin didn’t hesitate and the two of them spent most of the morning looking at signatures and handprints up and down Hollywood Boulevard. Of course it was no surprise when Travis wanted to grab a star map and look for the celebrities homes immediately after.