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.