Hispanic theater opens tonight; 8 countries will be represented Putting on the International Hispanic Theatre Festival has never been easy, director Mario Ernesto Sánchez will tell you. But why does it seem to be getting harder just as the event's reputation and prestige is growing? Sánchez struggled mightily to cobble together enough financial support to take the festival, which returns for its 17th season tonight, to five South Florida cities and then on to Los Angeles and Albuquerque, N.M., this June. Then came Sept. 11, and the resulting economic collapse that crippled arts groups of all sizes by cutting into grants and corporate sponsorships. Sánchez lost two major donors and a number of smaller ones -- but he never lost his vision.

''We have managed to come up with a wonderful program. Don't ask me how,'' he says.

The festival has become an important part of South Florida's growingly diverse cultural landscape.

Thirteen productions from eight countries will be part of this year's 17-day festival, including festival debuts from Slovenia and Nicaragua. Seven of the productions will be accessible to non-Spanish speakers either via spoken English or English supertitles, and there will also be performances by two dance companies, bilingual street theater and children's theater, an educational program and a photography exhibition.

''As long as the playwright, choreographer or composer is Hispanic or of Hispanic descent, we can invite any country, and the group may perform in any language,'' Sanchez says. ``This is why we are bringing the Slovenians because they will be presenting The House of Bernarda Alba, by Federico García Lorca, in English.''

Buñuel, Lorca y Dalí, a reconstructed memory that uses Spanish words and images to portray the artistic world of three friends, opens the festival at 8:30 tonight and Saturday at Teatro Avante in Coral Gables. It will be performed by Teatro del Temple of Zaragoza, Spain.

Also on the schedule is Sentimientos, from Juan Jones Company of Montevideo, Uruguay. The collage of universal texts plays in Spanish on Tuesday and Wednesday at Teatro Avante.

For International Children's Day on June 8, the festival will present Bichos do Brasil (Critters of Brazil) by famed Brazilian puppetmaster Pia Fraus. The free show without dialogue will be co-presented by Miami-Dade Community College's Cultural Affairs Department at MDCC's Homestead campus, repeating June 9 at MDCC's Interamerican campus in Miami.

The festival closes June 16 at Miami Beach's Colony Theater with Mira'm se dicen tantas cosas (Mira'm, You Say So Many Things) in which three actors and two dancers bring to life five characters who dwell in a dimension halfway between reality and distortion. A co-presentation with the Florida Dance Association, the performance will include English supertitles.

Even with the current financial difficulties, Sánchez continues planning for the festival's growth outside Florida.

''I have always seen [this] festival as one for the nation and wanted to create a route -- Puerto Rico, Miami, Atlanta, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Albuquerque, San Antonio and any other cities -- to join in the extensions,'' Sanchez says. ``But always making a point that this is a Miami or South Florida cultural event.''

KEVIN BAXTER(Miami Herald)