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.