Cuban director and actor. Rubén Darío Salazar Taquechel graduated from the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana, where his teachers, Freddy Artiles and Mayra Navarro, guided him into puppetry. In 1988, he starred in Okin eiyé ayé, a solo show written and directed by René Fernández Santana. After joining Teatro Papalote, he was, in fact, central to many of its productions.

In 1994, he founded Teatro de Las Estaciones, a leading Cuban puppet theatre. He is currently the company’s Artistic Director and General Manager as well as one of its leading actor-puppeteers. Among his most noteworthy productions are La niña que riega la albahaca y el príncipe preguntón (The Girl Who Waters the Basil and the Inquisitive Prince), Pelusín y los pájaros (Pelusín and the Birds), La caja de los juguetes (The Toy Box), La virgencita de bronce (The Little Virgin Made of Bronze), Los zapaticos de rosa (The Little Rose-Coloured Shoes), Federico de noche (Federico by Night), and Por el monte carulé (By the Carule Mountain).

He has won numerous awards at festivals and competitions, both for staging and acting. His company participates in domestic and international festivals and fairs. As an educator and researcher in drama, he has given lectures and workshops on puppetry and theatre in Cuba and other countries.

He has published three anthologies of Cuban drama written for the puppet theatre, a book of essays, Retablo abierto (Open Puppet Stage), and co-authored with Norge Espinosa Mendoza, Mito, verda y retablo: El Guiñol de los hermanos Camejo y Pepe Carril (Myth, Truth and the Puppet Theatre of the Camejo Siblings and Pepe Carrill), which was awarded the Teatrología Rine Leal Award (2009) and the Premio Nacional de la Crítica Literaria (National Literary Critic Award, 2013).

Rubén Darío Salazar is currently General Secretary of the UNIMA centre in Cuba.

(See Cuba.)