La ópera de tres centavos

Firstly, there was very good scenery. They used only the necessary material. For example, to represent the jail they only used a structure of wood painted with a grey colour. They used little scenery for some scenes and you could still imagine where they were and you could understand it very well. Another example could be the prostitute house. They used a table some chairs, that was it, nothing else.

Secondly, the lighting was also fine. They played with the lights. On a normal scene the lighting was the same, without a change but when a character started to sing the lights automatically changed and focused on that character. When a character was singing the lighting was only for those characters and all the rest of the stage was dark.

The music was being played at the same time, real, it was not a CD. That´s from the beginning a positive point to the play because a lot of hard work and concentration is needed so that the musicians could understand the characters and so, make different sound effects and musical pieces at the beginning or at the end of each scene. Thus, the sound effects were played always on time without mistakes as well as the musical pieces. The instruments used were a bass guitar, a clarinet, some drums and a keyboard. The music helped by giving the audience the ability to feel the characters’ feelings. For example, when “Máquina baja”, a famous thief, was in jail the music was mysterious and then sad because he was going to be executed in one hour and those was his feelings.

The acting was great. I liked them a lot. It was clear that the actors sat and analyzed the play before acting it to make sure that everybody could understand their roles in it and their intentions and actions. This is a very important step when receiving a play. The audience could identify with any of the characters.

The character that I liked the most was the Maquina Baja´s girlfriend. It was very clear that the actress had a lot of experience, ability and preparation. To represent her character she used oppositions. Her head was in an opposite direction in contrast to the hips. It was amazing all the balance that she had and how she had total control of her body. I also liked her voice, it was very loud and it was like a doll. Her character was very funny because of her face expressions also. When you were watching her you could also see a doll; the creative make up helped a lot the face expressions to look like a doll.

In general, this Colombian play was very interesting and good. It was an example for us, the young actors, who are still learning from other performances. I´m glad to watch plays like this and not just bad performances, where you get bored very easily.

El Jardín de Mónica

We read in class the play and it was wonderful. I liked it a lot because it was very funny and it was very interesting. We all laugh and spent a good time. However, we went the same night to watch the play and it was a total disaster. The performance was totally different of what I´d imagined when we were reading the play.

The scenery was ok. They presented Monica´s garden like they imagined it. On the garden there was a box with bottle taps pasted on a side and brown papers on the other side, representing the garbage. There were a lot of brown bottles surrounding the scenery creating a barrier to indicate the end of the garden. On top of the box there was the representation of a tree, an artificial structure of wires. It was clear that they didn´t want to show the garbage as it is on the streets, they wanted to show it as a whole using brown bottles and brown papers. I was happy with the scenery because everybody has a different ways to imagine and interpret a text.

The music in the end, didn´t helps. The play had a sad ending because the boy was being taken by someone and he was desperate and shouting. When this final scene finished, a happy musical piece was being played. The music broke the effect that the spectators were feeling. It could have been better if there wasn´t music or maybe a sad song.

The lighting was interesting. When the actress was performing as the mum, shouting, a lot of lights started to appear and it gave us a scary atmosphere. However, this effect was constantly repeated. One time was fine but two or more was the same boring stuff. The play had a lot of lighting changes and games. It seems to me like if they were thinking that the play was boring and the only way to entertain the audience was by changing and using different lighting.

The performing was terrible, it was a bad experience. Firstly, the actors need to learn all their lines correctly. When they were performing it was very clear that they didn´t know their lines well. Sometimes they waited a long time to respond to the other person and these little silences gave the audience a boring feeling. They didn´t understand what they were saying.

When an actor receives a text, they must write on it. They need to know why they are saying the lines and for what reason, what is the intention. There was no interaction between the characters because they didn´t understand what they were saying as well as the reason why they are saying them. They were just throwing them up.

I´ve learnt a lot with this play, what an actor should´t do in a performance. I´m a 100% sure that I wouldn´t have been able to understand the play without reading it first. This representation taught me that a good text isn’t always the synonym of a good performance.

Meeting with Débora Correa

Today we had a meeting with Débora Correa, a member of Yuyachkani Theatre Group. In this meeting she explained how the masks were used and how.

Firstly she started to warm-up. She began to warm up with the backbone. When you are warming up its also like game, you are playing with your column. When playing with it, you can discover many different ways in which a character could be represented. The character’s position or way to walk will say a lot about the character. Just by watching a character you could tell more or less its age, and old man or a young one, just by looking them. So, the position of the column is very important in the process of creating a character.

It is necessary to keep in mind the imaginary triangle: the face, neck, shoulders, arms and hands. An actor needs to have a good use and control of levels, of velocities, volume, and equilibrium. She said that what help her to characterize some characters are the dances. All the process, the movements and choreography comes from the dances.

It is important to find a presence on the stage so that you can call the attention of the audience. Because your objective is to get the audience interested and focused on your character.

Then after warming up and giving us a little introduction, she started to talk about the use of masks. Any mask must be treated carefully, it’s like a face. When you receive a mask for the first time you must analyze it and observe it from all the possible angles and ask yourself the following questions:
· Who is it?
· Where does it come from?
· What does it want?
· What is it doing?

When using masks it’s like if you were lending your body to it and the mask will lend its face, so combining them both you will create an structured character.

Firstly, she showed us the Caporal’s mask. He was the devil of the Festival Puneño. She dressed as the character and then put on the mask. She started to dance and it was amazing. It wasn’t the Débora from before, it was a total different person.
An actor needs to have a lot of ability for the movements.

She mentioned that she had to practice some martial arts in order to be able to develop this character. The martial arts helped her because it has a sequence of cuts, kicks, punches and blocks which are needed to make the Caporal´s movements.

I learnt that the small masks that only covers the top/bottom part of you face are called Caretas in Spanish and Encubrirse means to cover all your body or to dress up.

Then, she showed us a mask inspired on a Huaco Retrato from the Moche culture. She confessed that she always uses inspiration models.
Then she interpreted the Ukuku. This mask was different from the others, it was woolen, this means that the mask can hit to the face. The Ukuku is a bear and it is a character based on improvisations. The actors improvise because the Ukuku interacts with the audience. When an actor interacts with the audience he will never know what will happen. Every audience is different.

Another character that she represented was the Cat of Los Músicos Ambulantes. She mentioned that she had to work a lot on her column to be able to represent the cat. At first, you must work in the characteristics of the animal. How does it moves, runs, make sounds, etc. The second step, is the voice, starting from the animals’ sound. You must imitate their sound and try to find a way to talk and the voice will come out. Apart from the voice, an animal could also give the rhythm and the agility.

Finally she concluded giving us some advice when working with masks: The feet are very important because they are like your guide. Sometimes is better to close your eyes when using a mask because you can get distracted very easily when performing. She finished the meeting by saying that masks are a work with a lot of details and therefore a lot of patience is required.

Paucartambo - Musical Instruments

Music is used a lot in plays. They are used sometimes for the introduction of a play, when there is a change of one scene to another one or sometimes when characters enter to a scene. The musicians can be visible or invisible. When I refer to them by using the word visible, I mean that they appear on stage using their own musician’s costumes or sometimes they are dressed as a character but they are just the musicians. However, a theatrical representation could also have characters that are musicians.

The most demonstrative example of the importance of music is, without a doubt, the Paucartambo Celebration. I will know show the instruments used in some comparsas in the Paucartambo celebration.


Majeños

The Majeños personify the merchants who, during the republican period, crossed the Andes from their valley home of Majes to trade in wines and spirits. On horseback or on foot, they go through the streets during the festivities with a bottle in their hand, except when they find themselves in the presence of the Virgin.

They are known as the rowdy Majeños, this is because their music uses a lot of high volume instruments: snare and bass drum, trumpets, trombones and drum plates. I think that the orchestra wants to stand out the wind instruments like the trumpet or trombone because these instruments are the ones that produce a lot of noise, and the other percussion instruments are just in the orchestra to accompany the melody.The music contributes a lot with the theatrical representation of the Majeños.

Music helps them to have a coordinated pattern when dancing because their choreography consists of big steps going forward and backward. They carry beers and dance with them. They interact with people by offering them some beer. They dance in all Paucartambo. Between the streets, at the plaza, on the bridge, etc. Anyway, this is an example of popular theatre.

Chuqchus

Chuqchu means the action of trembling and it is a symptom produced by the infection of Malaria. As I explained before these are the sick people representing the diseases. Their masks are painted with a yellow colour to show that they have the yellow fever from the jungle. We went to their house and they were like in a party. There were Chuqchu’s musicians playing their music while some other Chuqchus and also tourists were dancing together. This was a good opportunity to analyze the instruments used in the Chuqchu´s comparsa.

I saw for the first time two new instruments used in a comparsa apart from the accordion. The “rasgueo” in Spanish. This instrument is like a guide for all the different instruments and is useful to maintain the rhythm of songs. The other instrument is called timpani. This instrument is most commonly used in the salsa type of music. These instruments help a lot to stand out the Chuqchu’s actions, especially the timpani. When the Chuqchus are performing on the streets, the timpani helps them to stand out their action of trembling. The timpani starts from a low volume and its volume also starts to increase.

Meanwhile, the Chuqchus are also increasing their intensity of their movement that represents the trembling. So, the music would increase the tension and excitement created to the audience and will also help them to have a more realistic Chuqchu and they would believe that game.

Cápac Q’olla

Is a ceremonial religious dance which symbolizes the merchants of Ccollao who would travel to Paucartambo carrying a variety of products to be offered in trade. Some say that it was the Qollas who brought the Virgin to Paucartambo. I had the opportunity to walk next to their comparsa and I took some pictures of them and their instruments.

The instruments used in the Cápac Q’olla´s orchestra are: a flute, an accordion, a violin and a harp. The harp and the flute used are not expensive ones. The people in Paucartambo do not have a lot of money, their social stratus is very low. They are poor people. However, they have good instruments, not high quality ones but just some good ones. They have the instruments which are necessary to create a good dancing atmosphere.


Guerrilla
Another example apart from the Paucartambo Celebration is the Guerrilla. This was the time when I realized that music was playing an important role in the celebration. When the Guerrilla started I was very excited because I had waited almost half year to watch it. The Guerrilla’s musical piece is the Qolla’s piece.

The bass and snare drum is used a lot in this cases to increase the tension of the spectators and also to increase the expectations. Also the wind instruments and flutes were other important instruments in the orchestra because they also helped to increase the tension. When the Chunchos were chasing the Qollas the orchestra was also helping us, the spectators, to see it clearer and to believe that it is actually happen and it is not just a performance of popular theatre. In other words it helps you to get involved in the Guerrilla.

Suddenly something happened and the music stopped. I didn´t know what happened, they stopped for six minutes approximately. Those six minutes I was thinking that the Guerrilla was empty. You could see how the Qollas and Chunchos were running but there was no tension anymore. You could feel that something lacked: the music. I was getting interested in the Guerrilla but when there was no music I realized the important role of music. When there was no music, but the Chunchos were still chasing the Imilla and the Qollas were running, I felt an emptiness sensation. It was strange because I was so involved in the Guerrilla and suddenly the tension went off because music wasn’t being played anymore.

In conclusion, the role of music is comparsas is very important. Music makes a big contribution to the theatricality of the Paucartambo celebration.

The Paucartambo celebration would be the same one, as it is today, without music?

It’s all business – The performance day

It was a wonderful night, everything went well. I made one mistake, I repeated YOMI two times because I got confused but in general, everything went well. I´m very happy and proud of my classmates and Roberto, we are an excellent group but I´m also kind of sad because this was supposed to be our last One Act Play. We are about to leave school and It's all business was one of my last plays with the school. I gave my best. A lot of friends went to watch our play, the theatre was full. I remember that before the performance, when the director was speaking, I was on the other side of the curtains concentrating and thinking that I had to give my best because this was my last One Act Play. I was nervous but also excited.

I heard the music and it was my turn to open the curtains and so the play begun. I think that people had a lot of fun watching our play. They laughed in almost all the play. We didn’t expect them to laugh at some parts but I think that their laughter gave us the necessary confidence and so we understood that we were in the correct path.

We made some mistakes during the play. Mistakes are sometimes originated because actors and actresses are nervous. However, I think that we made some mistakes because we never acted It´s all business in front of people. We only rehearsed it with Roberto and no one else. So we didn’t know if the audience was enjoying the play or if they were getting bored. The first clue that made us confident that people were focused was their laughs. We didn’t have any experience with the play; I mean a real performance with real people.

We had a lot of responsibility because we were the first British School performing and there was a lot of people who were going to watch our play and so our tension also increased. I felt really comfortable interpreting my character, Mr. Kawabata Jr. I was nervous at the beginning but then I started to play and have fun, in other words I was enjoying my character.

Although the play was very difficult to watch, people understood it very well I think. The play was difficult to watch because there were three stands, all of them acting at the same time and people at the beginning didn’t know if they needed to look at the first one, the second one or the third one. Maybe they were thinking that if they focused on one stand then they were not going to be able to watch the other ones. This is the reason why some people were confused at the beginning but finally they understood our little game with the stands.

After the play everybody congratulated us and said that it had been an amazing performance. I was very excited. Later that night, at home I had time to analyze the performance and I realized the big influence that the audience has on a play. There is a lot of difference between acting in an empty theatre than acting on a stage with a big number of people staring at you.

I have noticed that I have a big problem when creating a character: I always repeat the same type of movements for my characters. For example, while I was representing Mr. Kawabata Jr. I did some movements that remind me about the Governor in El Rabdomante, my first play. I’m a little worried because it’s hard for me to change and look for other types of movements.

How am I going to be able to change and look for innovations that I need instead of repeating the same stereotype of movements and actions? What do I need to do in order to achieve that?

It´s all business – Building my character

The play was planned and everybody knew how their character would be. I was totally lost, my mind was empty. I didn´t know what to represent or characterize. However, I received some advice and the idea of being the man who charges the rent arose. I wasn’t totally convinced. Talking with my IB partners, we decided that my character could be the son of the charger, and he always goes to the market to charge the rent, but the guys of the DVD store instead of paying him the rent, they give him porn movies so that he cannot charge them any income.

This idea was really cool. I liked it from the first moment but I didn´t have a character to represent. I was a little it worried because I could see that everybody had a character and I was the only one without one. However, I had an idea. I thought of my Tae Kwon Do teacher and I said that maybe I could be a Japanese charger of the rent. That was a great idea. So I started to work on the Japanese guys. I started to watch videos like Heroes and especially focus on Hiro Nakamura, or the MTV show, I survived to a Japanese challenge. This helped me a lot to build my character. Also when I went to practice Tae Kwon Do, I also observed every movement of my teacher and how did he talk.

There was a time when I wanted to quit; I wanted to change my character because I didn’t like the idea of being a Japanese man. The idea that people had was to be typical Japanese, without movements, calm and serious, and I wanted to be a funny character. Off course I was confused and disgusted.

When I was going to bed one of these stressful days I imagined my character, but not the one that some of my classmates wanted, I imagined a combination of both, a funny one and a calm one. In some parts my character could be calm and serious and in other parts it could be very funny. I worked on this idea until I finally found a way to represent my Japanese character.

Mr. Kawabata Jr. is the son of the man who charges the rent. But Mr. Flash and Captain, the ones of the DVD stand, instead of paying this boy with real money, they convinced him to pay him with porn movies. So Mr. Kawabata Jr. has a secret: he doesn´t receive money for the rent.

My character is kind of nervous because he does not want the other people to know about his secret of the porn movies. If someone discovers, they could call his dad and that's it, end of the job. This kind of movies are like a vice for him, he can't say no to them.

It´s all business - Creating the Scenery

After the successful play, La Vida es Sueño, we had to prepare for the One Act Play Festivals. I was, as always, very excited about it. The IB Drama club had some meeting before the holidays to plan our new play. We decided that the scenes were going to develop in a market like Polvos Rosados and so we agreed to have three stands.

We again had to focus on different tasks about the production process. I was in charge of the scenery and Diego was my partner. We designed the scenery. We all decided that the scenery will consist of three different stands. The first one, from left to right, is a DVD and PlayStation stand, the second one is a fruit and flower stand and the third one is a shoe stand.

Creativity and a lot of planning is needed. It is a production process totally different from the one that I did in La Vida es Sueño where I was the assistant director. In order to create the scenery, Diego and I, first draw a sketch of the scenery. We designed how the stands would be.

The first stand, the one of the DVDs and the PlayStation games, it has been painted with a gray colour. We decided that it was going to have a table and another big one, the table used to put the school´s projector during assemblies. So, we decided to paint the tables black so that it could make contrast with the walls. We also planned to have a TV on top of the big table, a joystick, some toys and we also planned to hang up some game posters.

On the second stand, the one where you can buy some fruits and flowers has been painted with a type of painting that would make it look like wood. We decided that the flowers were going to be dead and the fruits were going to be rotten. So, it is going to be clear that he doesn’t take care of his plants and fruits very well. We also designed the stand with two shelves; they were going to be necessary to put buckets with the dead flowers. The shelves weren´t painted because it already had a wooden colour. Finally, it was going to have also a table, the same wooden colour as the walls. The table is where the fruits are kept and exhibited.

The third stand is the one where shoes are sold. It has been painted with a light blue colour. It was designed with some shelves; they are useful because this is where the shoes are exhibited. The shelves are painted with a very white colour. This stand has also a mirror especially for customers, to look in it their new shoes.

To conclude, I knew from the beginning that being in charge of the scenery was going to be a very difficult and demanding job. There is a lot of pressure because everything has to be perfect, according to plan. You had to hurry the school stuff because if not they would have taken so long building up the scenery. Diego and I had to pursuit the painters and our school stuff in order to get the scenery done. I really enjoyed designing the scenery for our last One Act Play Festival.

Danza Abierta

2/07/09

On Thursday, we went to watch a dance for the Danza Nueva XXI International Festival. We watched a group called “Danza Abierta” from Costa Rica´s University. It was amazing, I was surprised. The dancers were really good, they jumped, they runned, they did strange movements, they did different shapes and they interact with each other in a very interesting way. These movements require a lot of concentration and some of them require a lot of strength. That was the first thing that shocked me, the movements.

The dances were the representation of a story, they didn´t talk, they just dance. There were three different dances, I liked all three. They had little props, some tubes, where they used to dance and to do some acrobatics.

The second thing that shocked me was the costumes. They wear very nice and colorful costumes. Some of them were very elastic ones and it stretched a lot to represent different moments of the story.

Another thing that I like and it is very important when acting or dancing is the face expressions. In this case, they had a neutral face expression but in some occasions they changed to sadness, happiness, angriness, mysteriousness but in general they were neutral. Some of these faces were frightening.

The lighting is another reason why this performance was very successful. The lights gave to the scenes a very important aspect, it gave them life. There were some red, blue and white reflectors that help to create the environment; the lights combined with the costumes. There were some lights that gave like a cage view; it was a white light but with black lines, just amazing. We could use these concepts of lighting in posteriors performances.

Is this considered a dance or a type of theatrical representation?

La Vida es Sueño - Final Day

20/06/09

Today, everything went all right. I think it was the best day, we didn´t make any mistakes. I am very happy because at last I could do the whole play without making any mistakes. All the rehearsals helped me a lot with my lines and I managed to do a perfect performance on Saturday as well as my partners. After the performance we had very good comments of the play. First they told me about the acting, they said that it was amazing how I was on the tower with the chains making my character suffer. I told them that those chains were real and I had a lot of pain. This real pain helped me a lot because I was feeling what Segismundo was feeling and so I could performed this role in a realistic way.

Children also congratulate me. They told me that it was a fantastic play and I was surprised because I thought that this was a play for older people: adolescents and adults. Kids did understand the play.

Before going to sleep I was a little sad because we did a big process and it was all over. I was pleased with the three performances but I think that I could have done it better. I´ve also learned that the production process is very difficult and it takes a long time. If I had the chance to change something of the play I would say to be back on April and have a better plan about the production. Plan with more time the scenery, the costumes, have more rehearsals and not leaving everything to the last moment.

La Vida es Sueño - Second Day

19/06/09

The IB Drama Club was afraid that the actors were going to be very distracted this night because the comments of the play day before, were very good. All people that went on Thursday, enjoyed the play. I felt happiness and nervousness because we had a lot of pressure. We had to do it better than the night before and I think it was but I made a mistake again with one of my lines. This time was a big monologue, the most important of the play. I was acting this monologue on stage and suddenly………….nothing. I forgot. I was standing alone on stage and like about three hundred people were staring at me. Five maybe seven seconds without talking. It was like an eternity to me of course. The rest of the play was ok. The people were again amazed.

When we finished, Roberto talked to me. He told that what was happening, why I was making those mistakes. It was distraction I suppose. He told me to go home and practice those parts whit my script and so I did.

I was a little worried, two days making mistakes. These weren´t THE mistakes but mistakes are mistakes. I had only one day left to do it perfect and to show that I could actually do it because if I couldn´t do it I was never going to be calm thinking that I could not do it perfectly.

La Vida es Sueño - Premiere

18/06/09

I was sure that the play was going to be successful but I was nervous, I didn´t know what to expect. I dressed up and it was finally the time, we had to act. The play begun, it was very good. People were enjoying the play. I confused a little bit in the third act, for a second I forgot my lines but then I remembered them.

When we finished the play we were very happy, we managed to do it for the first time complete without stopping. However, we made some mistakes that we had to correct the next day.

People were very happy and surprised because they said that it was a good production. If they didn´t like the play they had Las Aceitunas, Las Garapiñas and el Baile to have a good night. I was very happy.

Final Rehearsal

17/06/09

This Wednesday was the most important day, the final rehearsal. We were all nervous because we never did the whole play once and we were running out of time. We only had 24 hours before the premiere and when we were going to start our final rehearsal we received a call, it was the costume maker. He add a new problem to all our worries by saying that costumes were going to arrive like an hour later. Nooooooo!!! We never did the whole play before and now the costumes weren´t ready? It was like a nightmare, I was really worried. We just had to begin the final rehearsal without costumes; that was just the beginning of a terrible night.

The play begun, we had some mistakes: people weren´t totally concentrated. We confused our lines and people didn´t enter to the scene where they had to act. Some people were concentrated and hard working while others were talking in the backstage like if they don´t care. Roberto was very angry and in the break between act 2 and 3, he talked to us in a very furious way. When he finished I realized how wrong we were. But I trusted all my IB partners and the whole cast. I knew that the third act was going to be better and it was.

Back at home I couldn´t sleep. I was thinking about what had happened hours before but something was saying to me that everything was going to be all right. I was very secure that the play was going to be very successful.

Finishing up the scenery

16/06/09

On Tuesday we stayed at school after rehearsing La Vida es Sueño to finish the scenery. This meant to finish painting the tower, finishing with the palace, with the mountains in the desert, etc. We had to organize and finish with all props and scenery because tomorrow is our final rehearsal before the premiere. We knew that we were running out of time because we never did the whole play complete. We always stopped. I am worried, I don´t know what will happen. However, we had to put this problem out of our minds and finish with the production process at once.

We planned how we were going to paint it, at first. Then we planned who was going to do which thing and we managed to do it. In the end, we had good results. I painted the tower with the help of my IB partners, while others were in the palace decorating the railings. After painting the tower, I also helped with the decoration of the railings.

I also fixed the swords because the part where you grab the sword was very thin and we couldn´t fight, it was very painful. You could feel the pain in your hand. As a result, we buy two sponges and adhesive tape and I lined it where you grab the swords in order to have a thicker one and be able to fight much better.

After 2 hours of working we finally finished with all the scenery, it was all ready for our final, and most important, rehearsal.

La Vida es Sueño

On Saturday we had another rehearsal for our play, “La Vida es Sueño”. At this moment we are running out of time. There´s only 3 weeks left before our first performance and I´m nervous because I don´t know if we are going to make it. I always try to be positive but that´s the true, we are running out of time. Anyway, every rehearsal I find a new movement and way of talking for my character, Segismundo. He has different movements and voices, it varies. When he is in his tower he is more violent and he talks like a beast. He doesn´t know nothing about the outside world. In the other hand, when being in the palace, he tries to be a gentleman but he can´t. He is just a beast and everybody is afraid of him.

He never saw a woman before and when he sees Estrella or Rosaura he feels a sexual attraction. Segismundo is a bad prince, he treats everybody bad. He is most of the time angry. As I´ve said he changes when he sees Rosaura and Estrella. I am still discovering my character and finding new ways to represent him.

Am I going to be able to show the Segismundo that I have in mind?

Nuestra Señora de las Nubes

Last week I went to see “Nuestra Señora de las Nubes” a play written by Arístides Vargas. I saw the same play but from two different theatre groups. One was the original version of “Malayerba” from Ecuador and the other performance was in “Teatro Racional”.

I´ve never saw the same play being represented by two different theatre groups. It was a very good experience because I´d realized the director´s perspectives. One play was completely different from the other one. The first big difference is that “Malayerba” had two actors and “Teatro Racional” had four actors.

I think that a play is successful when the director and the actors understand the play. If they understand the play, everything will be easier, the acting will be clearer; they will find different variations and actions, and a wise election of props.

A good example is “Malayerba”. They were two actors and they used only two bags containing the different props. The props were to change from one character to another one because there were a lot of characters and only two actors. They changed from a character to another just by adding a prop to their body. In the other hand, “Teatro Racional” had two more actors and they changed all the costume to represent the character. I think that “Malayerba” developed better their characters. There was only one character, Memé, which was better represented by “Teatro Racional” than “Malayerba”. It was very funny and it was more realistic than the Memé from “Malayerba”. Memé was a boy with a mental problem. There we can see the hard work of the actress in “Teatro Racional” building her Memé. Maybe she had to watch videos, talk with some real children with mental problems and analyze their movements and the way they talk. She was just amazing compared to the Memé from “Malayerba”.

Honestly I had a lot much fun watching the “Malayerba” representation. It was very funny having in mind that it was the same text for the two representations. Here we can see how important the acting is. It doesn´t matter if the play is a comedy, what does matter is how the actors will represent the character doing or telling that joke. If it is just a normal play without jokes you can still make the audience laugh and have some fun. It depends all on the actors. And then we realize how important is to understand the text, in order to do a better representation of your character.

In my opinion, I preferred by far “Nuestra Señora de las Nubes” by “Malayerba”. They were just better. The actresses from “Teatro Racional” were amateurs; they were new in the business.

Could I and the IB guys apply this knowledge to “La vida es sueño” and have a very good performance?

Teatralidades y Representaciones Andinas

Conferencias del Festival UCSUR de Teatro

En esta conferencia hubo una pequeña sorpresa, el expositor era Roberto y nosotros no estábamos enterados.

El primer tema del que se habló fue la performance. La Performance de definió como la ejecución de acciones. En otras palabras, la performance es aquello que nosotros conocemos como actuación, cuando un actor representa a un personaje definido haciendo acciones que acompañan al personaje. Con estas acciones te dan una mejor información sobre el personaje que está siendo representado. El performance se asocia al ritual, puede ser una misa, un evento o un pasacalle. Ritual, es cuando hay un cambio. Si nos referimos al ritual es porque hay un antes y un después. Uno ejemplo de ritual puede ser un bautizo: antes, el niño no pertenecía a la iglesia pero después del bautizo, después del ritual el niño forma parte de la iglesia.

Por otro lado, la performance refuerza identidades, esto significa que la gente se reúne. Un cumpleaños por ejemplo, éste refuerza el sentimiento por las personas. Un claro ejemplo de cómo la gente se reúne el fiesta de Paucartambo.

Luego, los expositores nos hablaron un poco más acerca de Paucartambo. Para ser más específicos Roberto nos habló sobre “La Guerrilla”. Ésta es una representación teatral en el tercer día de la fiesta de Paucartambo. “La Guerrilla” es un enfrentamiento entre los Ch´unchu y los Qulla. Estos se encuentran en el pueblo para intercambiar sus productos; entonces los Ch´unchu intentan raptar a la Imilla, mujer de los Qulla, lo que da origen al enfrentamiento entre ambos grupos. Han habido muchos cambios a través del tiempo. Se mencionó también que el objetivo del rito es fortalecer y preservar los lazos de la ciudad.

En “La Guerrilla” se usan escenarios circulares, la audiencia alrededor de los actores. Los espectadores también forman parte de la acción al ver su reacción con la acción. En esta fiesta los actores le dan más énfasis a la voz y a las acciones.

En conclusión, las charlas fueron muy útiles y me muero de ganas de viajar a Paucartambo.
“La Guerrilla” es sólo el tercer día de la fiesta de Paucartambo, pero imagínense lo maravilloso que serán los otros días. Serán tan interesantes y llenos de acción como "La guerrilla"?

Contraelviento de Ecuador

La Flor de la Chukirawa

On Thursday 23rd of April an ecuatorian drou called Contraelviento presented a play called "La flor de la Chukirawa", for the Ucsur festival of international theatre.

It was a very good play. When we entered the theatre we saw the actors like statues. The migration was the play´s theme. A poor boy has parted to the United States looking for better days; there, he decides to be enlisted in the army and he dies in Iraq. The play has as starting point a supposed interview carried out by a reporter of television to a rural mother, by the way of the death of the son.

It was amazing how the actors used their centre of energy to be like statues, without moving. There were 3 actors. The first one was the rural mother. I liked a lot the way she acted. The actress used a lot the different levels as well as different face expressions and movements. Fast and slow, direct and indirect movements. She was an old woman. She used to represent her character using a hoarse voice.

In the other hand the actor representing used a lot his centre of energy. He was “running” in the same place and it was amazing because it seemed that he was really running. There was one scene were he was representing death, when the son has been killed, and he stayed in that position a lot of time. That position was like the guys of “Matrix” when avoiding a bullet. It is very important to have a centre of energy and use it because you can say that you have one but you really don´t really use it.

The other actress was the one that I didn´t like. She was representing the reporter of television doing an interview to the rural mother about his son. She always talked like a radio and it was boring. But in general I liked the combination of characters. And the theme was very interesting.

When I go to a play there´s always something that I don´t like about it. ¿Could the next play cover all my expectations?

Performing a funny play doesn´t mean that it´s always a good one!!

Desdichado Deleite del Destino

On Monday, we went to see an Argentinean play called Desdichado deleite del Destino in Maria Alvarado School. The play was very funny. However I was a little confused. They started talking about the roses. The old man all his life have looked after roses. But there were too many ants that ate the plants. So he told her daughter to buy a poison to kill the ants. I was confused because they didn´t finished with the same theme. They were changing a lot. They presented us the problem about the roses and suddenly it changed to football. The old man was the coach of a football team. Finally a CD seller appears and tries to sell his CDs. The play´s theme was changing very fast and they didn´t finish developing the scene.

On the other hand, I liked very much the girl. I liked her column position and we could see how she used a lot her centre of energy. She was a very shy girl. When his father dies, she changes totally from being a shy girl to a very good singer. Another thing that I liked about her was her voice although she didn´t talk too much. It was very soft. I think that she was shy because she was scared of his father. He treated her sometimes badly.
In general, I think that it was a very funny play but they never finished a theme. The character that I like the most was the shy girl.

Divinas Palabras

On Tuesday we went to see a Spanish play called Divinas Palabras in “Teatro Segura”. I didn´t understand the play but I liked the different characterizations and the variety of characters, their different ages, postures, the props and costumes. The different types of voices of the characters were very interesting, some of them had a high pitch and some had a low pitch. However, I couldn´t understand sometimes what they were saying.

A lot of props were used but the main one was a kind of wooden wheel that was also used as tables, a wheel chair, etc. It had many uses. There was a scene were they used them one on top of the other and it had the shape of a little tower. The actors were half naked and made like a dance while climbing the tower. Everything was calculated. If there was one mistake they could have fall off the tower and that´s it. But happily that did not happen. Although I didn´t understand the play, I enjoyed it.

There was a character that looked like one of my characters. He was an old man with a strange voice and he did a lot of face expressions. When he started to act my IB partners said that he acted like me. JaJaJa He acted like me, but not me acting like him!!! That needs to be very clear.

This play was also very useful for the next school play La Vida es Sueño because the costumes used were examples of how our costumes could be. Seriously I enjoyed a lot this play.

Finally, after going to the theatre to see these plays I´d learnt a lot more about acting: what it should be done and what it shouldn´t. However, I wonder how the next plays will be, full of new conventions and knowledge that I can learn as an actor? As exciting and full of different characters and characterizations like the ones I´ve just talked about?

The body language isn´t enough!!!

Yesterday was the first date of the 4th UCSUR festival of international theatre. We all went to see a play called Dominicanish - Ayombé from Dominican Republic. Seriously I didn´t understand the theme of the play and I didn´t like it. However, I did like the actress´ way of acting. Her body movements were amazing. She used a lot the three different levels and she worked also with her column. She did a variation of different column positions using her centre of energy. Her movements were very good ones. I understood how important is to have a centre of energy. All that positions that she did requires a lot of concentration and a wisely use of your centre of energy. She also, while singing, made drum rhythms with her feet. I was surprised; you need a lot of coordination to do that.

I´ve learned that a good acting, full of actions, column movements and use of levels isn´t always a good play. The acting was, as I´ve said, excellent but I couldn´t understand the play. Also, I didn´t like it because it was very confusing. While the actress was performing, a video was being played in the background and you couldn´t concentrate. You had to look either the actress or the video, confusing.

To me, this play was like a lesson of what an actor should and shouldn´t do in a play. It was a new and different experience.

To what extent will the plays help in my way of acting?

Segismundo is a cave man !!!

18/04/09
Today we rehearsed the first scenes of the second act. In general, it was a good rehearsal. When Segismundo arrives for the first time to the palace, he is surprised because he never saw something like that. He was being attended by a group of female servants. The servants give all types of commodities to him. He feels like a King and he cannot believe all this.

However, I had some problems. I was just repeating my lines in verse and no action was taking place. Roberto helped me by explaining the different actions that I could do because now Segismundo is a kind of cave man.

Then, I practiced alone and wrote on my script next to the text all the actions that I could do when saying my lines. I´ve learned that you cannot just say your lines because it´s your turn to say them, you have to understand what you are saying, how are you saying them and what actions will complement your lines.

Now that I know about the importance of actions, could I interpret Segismundo without making those mistakes?

16/04/09

Today was the first time that I acted as Segismundo in La Vida es Sueño. It was very exciting. I was thinking to represent Segismundo as a prince. Like a normal one. Always a gentlemen, respectful and generously but when I started to act, Roberto explained to me more about Segismundo´s situation. The fact that Segismundo is a prince doesn´t mean that he is a good one. His father, the King Basilio, kept him prisoner inside a tower almost all his life. So, Segismundo didn´t know what was meant to be a respectful person or to be a gentlemen. The King Basilio was afraid of Segismundo´s attitude because the stars told him that Segismundo was going to be a bad King, and that he will destroy all the city and a lot of people will die. In the other hand, Segismundo is like a cave man. Almost all his life had passed inside of a tower. So, when he gets out, everything is new. He met Estrella and Rosaura, he feels a sexual attraction and all what he wants is to have sex. I thought Segismundo to be different, how long could I take to create a new and different Segismundo?

26/03/09

Today, we rehearsed after school for the play. The best opportunity that we have to select the characters and watch all the actors´ habilities is in a rehearsal. It is very important to have different activities prepared that will tell you which actor or actress could be an specific character.

Today Roberto assigned each of us a different activity. Well, we had to prepare an activity for the rehearsal. An activity that was very useful to select people to interpret the different characters of the play.

Our objective was to relax everybody making them to rest in the floor in position A. Then they had to wake up little by little every part of their body and then they had to stand up as their character assigned.That was the plan but we made a lot of mistakes during the process.

Once we finished our activities we realized that we didn´t plan it very well. It was a little disorganised. One of te mistakes that we had was to separate all the people in different teams. One team was made up of soldiers. The Second team were a lot of princess and finally the las team were old men. While one group was still waking up their body the other groups were watching them doing nothing. And they started to get bored, and one of our objectives is always to keep an actor busy, giving him something to do. They have a lot of things to do, they need to prepare their voice, body, face expressions, movements, warm up, etc. A lot of thing that an actor needs to do before they start to act.

Anyway, we know what our mistakes were and we learnt how to do it next time. I´ve learnt how I need to plan in order to have a better and a good result.

Did we really learnt or we are still going to make mistakes?

16/03/09 - The actor´s training

Our class today, was a theorical one. I´ve learnt that an actor trains its imagination. He puts his imagination un practice. It also trains to focus on something. An actor needs to train with his body and mind, to discover, to pay attention and finally to be ready full of energy.

I´ve learnt that training never ends. It is needed to improve, to learn and to get better. The warm-up is necessary to prepare yourself to train. It´s when you get your body ready to perform or to train. The rehearsal is the moment to explode what you have learnt in the training. There are two ways to rehearse:

• Individual: at home, alone, trying all possibilities. The director must choose from your proposals.
• Group: On stage, when you put in practice all your rehearsed possibilities.

An actor´s concentration and mood are very important for training. You have to forget about the outside world.

I´ve also learnt that when you warm up you have to focus on your voice and body. I usually start with the body but today I´ve realized it´s better to start with the voice and then the body.

The Starting Points - to have a proper warm up

1. Breathing
2. Centre-the main engine of your body. It´s were you put all the strenght. Everything starts from the centre.
3. Column-It is the guide for all your movements of your body.

Finally, I´ve dicovered that I didn´t know a lot about these simple things about acting. Having now all this information very clear, could I improve my way of acting and have different variations and not repeat always the same?

13/03/09

13/03/09
Yesterday we had homework; we had to read an extract from the book The Theatre and It´s bubble by Antonin Artaud. The chapter assigned was PREFACE: The Theatre and Culture. We had to ask two questions about any part of the text that we didn´t understand. My questions were:

1. Why for Asiatics, white has become a marñ of extreme decomposition?
2. What is “the Serpent Quetzalcoatl´s multiple?

In class, everybody help me to awnser them.

After awnsering, Roberto prepared a different activity. There was music and we were resting in position A on the floor. We then, had to wake up little by little our parts of the body. First my face, my head, my arms and so on. Once we were totally awake we started to move all our body using different levels and moves. Fast moves and slow ones, direct and indirect ones.


I´ve realized that I need to change my moves. I feel like if I were inside a big bubble. I act inside but I cannot get out. I need to change my way of acting. I need to have more and different variations. I think that I´m almost always the same.


Is it so hard to brake this bubble?

12/03/09

Today, we performed a 30 second play to show the “Rodrigo” that nobody knows, outside of school. It was a wonderful experience because I realized things that I´d thought were different about me. It was also difficult to act as myself because I discovered new things about me. I didn´t think that I always use the same shoes for everything, jajaja. But don´t think that those are the only ones uuuhhh!!!

I have more shoes, but that pair, is my favourite. My performance was almost what I do every day. I put on my shoes, always the same ones, and I play the drums while listening to the oasis´ song wonderwall. I also did a Tae Kwon Do kick because that´s what I do almost every day.

I enjoyed a lot this activity because it let me know my other classmates better. How they really are outside school. I know them a lot, but I´d realized I don´t, the way I thought.
So, is it necessary to act with your friends to know them better?

05/03/09

Today we were assigned to change the position of the class’ furniture. This was amazing because while we were organizing everything I saw this like a play. It was a training to teach us how to set a play. It was very useful because we saw the importance of things. Today I learned that every object has a meaning. I’d realise how difficult is to place the scenery and props for a play.

We also, in class, did sculptures. Mr. Robertoouu prepared an special task. buajajaja. We were divided in two groups and we were allowed just to use four chairs, two cubes and one bench. It was very interesting because we had to open our minds and start to imagine. We had to put meaning to every object and in general for the sculpture.

What we were trying to demonstrate was how the civilization destroys nature. We represented nature with four green chairs altogether. They were representing the lower part of a tree and on top we putted the two black cubes in some geometrical positions. These cubes represented the civilization. It was on top of the “tree” because we are destroying the nature.

On top of the cubes, we put the green bench. It is like a crown representing nature that the civilization wears. For example; we sometimes take some flowers from our garden and put them on our house like decoration but the flowers are dead and we are destroying our own nature. That´s why it has a crown, for decoration, but it is actually destroying nature at the same time.

Do we really need to look after every object in a play? Do they have really a meaning?