Boeing Boeing

I saw a play called Boeing Boeing in the “Teatro Peruano-Japonés”. It was about a business man who had three different wives which were flight attendants. The business man lived in a big house with his three wives and with the maid. The wives didn´t know about the other two because when one of them was at home the other two were working in different countries all around the world.

I enjoyed a lot the play. The scenery was amazing. They used big scenery to represent the house with big exaggerated picture frames on the walls and a big door. The furniture used was green, yellow, blue and red. The different colours used made a good contrast and attracted the attention of the audience.

The costumes were also very colourful. One of the wives was wearing a red costume; the other one was wearing a yellow costume and the last one was wearing a blue costume. The three different costumes made a lot of contrast with the greenish furniture.

The lighting was very simple. They had a lot of Follow Spot lights and some Profile Spotlights that were lighting all the stage. The intensity of the light varied a little but the lighting in general was the white-yellow light and didn’t change very much.

The actors were very good actors. It was very clear that they worked a lot on their characters because the flight attendants had different nationalities and so it demanded to speak with the country’s accent. One was from Germany, the other one from Colombia and the last one from France.

In conclusion, it was a very good play in terms of acting and of set design. I enjoyed a lot watching this play.

Second rehearsal

Yesterday we had the second rehearsal for our play. It went very well. We started again with ha hondom because it is important for the actors to have a lot of energy and we can get this energy by playing this game. Then felipe did a relaxing exercise that helped each one of them to be conscious of their body parts and what they are capable of doing with them.

After this Diego did another exercise that helped them to build their characters starting from an animal. This exercise was useful because it helped them to explore their body and movements by imagining that they were an animal.

Then, we told them to separate in groups: villains, superheroes and normal people and they had to do a little sketch to show how their characters were and what power did they have. This was a useful exercise because we could see the different actors interpreting for the first time what his/her character is like.

In general, this rehearsal went better, we organised it well and we succeed.

The First Rehearsal

On thursday we had the first rehearsal for the school play. A lot of people went so we needed to had a lot of activities to entertain all of them. We first divided into groups and played a ha-hondom competition. This was to help them to get the energy necessary in order to have a good rehersal. Then we presented each other, to all the people and told them about this year´s play.

They were very interested an excited about superheroes. Each one of them, told us what character they wanted to be in the play, maybe a super heroe or maybe a villain. They also chose a super power for each of the characters.

I think that the rehearsal went well but there were some mistakes that maybe we can fix them for the following rehearsals. When we were playing "match improvisations" we didn´t have anything planned, the themes and number of players, etc came to our mind in that moment and so, we didn´t had good ideas or sometimes we were taking so long.

Overall, I felt it was a good rehearsal and I think the next one will be better.

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?