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?