Reynaldo's Theatre

In Central Havana, Cuba, I stumbled across an old building in ruins. The name painted outside the building, Campoamor, was an old theatre built in 1921. There was a fire in 1949 and it never opened it's doors to the public again. When I walked through the side door, the familiar melodies of 'Swan Lake' filled the theatre. There, I met Reynaldo, who used to work as a lighting technician and sound engineer and after the fire (during the rule of Fidel Castro) chose to stay in this old, run-down theatre and make it his home. I walked around carefully, imagining what it used to look like with the ornately decorated balcony and the upper mezzanine level and how the ceiling was before it completely caved in. Over the years, a beautiful garden grew through the crevices of the building while remnants of human objects found itself frozen in time. Although the life of the theatre had come to an end, the friendships and life of a man who continued to called this precarious place his home, was surreal and beautiful to witness.