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.