Carta de despedida

Hey people! I didn't bring this text to the rehearsal the other day. But both Vera and I (and also Niva!) think it is amazing. It may be useful!


If for a while God forgot that I’m a puppet and gave me a piece of life, probably I wouldn’t say everything that I think, but definitivelly I would think everything that I say. I would give more value to things not because of what they cost but because of what they mean.
I would sleep less and dream more. I understand that for each minute that we close our eyes, we lose sixty seconds of light. I would walk when the others stopped, I would wake up when the others slept, I would listen when the others spoke, and how much I would enjoy a chocolate ice-cream!
If God gave me a piece of life I would dress simply, I would lie on the sun, “showing” not only my body but my soul. My God, if I had a heart, I would write my hate on the ice and I would wait for the sun to rise.
My God, if I had a piece of light... I wont let a single day pass without saying people I love how much I love them. I would convince every single women and men that they are my favourites and I would live in love with love
I would prove people how wrong they are to think that they stop falling in love when they get older, without knowing that they get older when they stop falling in love! To a kid... I would give him wings, but I let him alone to learn how to fly. To the elder I would teach them that death does not arrive with being old but with forgetting.
There are so many things I have learned from you, people... I have learned that everybody wants to live in the pick of the mountain without knowing that the true happiness lays in the way “you get into it”. I have learned that when a new born grasp his father’s fist for the first time, he caught him forever.
I have learned that a man has only the right to look down to another when he has to help him to stand up. There are so many things I have been able to learn from you, but actually they won’t be that worth, because when they keep me into this suitcase, unhappily I will be dying.
Always say what you feel and do what you think.
If I knew today as the last time I’m gonn see you sleep, I would hug you so strong and I would pray the lord to be able to be the guardian of your soul. If I knew this is the last time I’m gonna see you going out through that door, I would give you a hug, a kiss and I would call you again to give you more. If I knew this was the last time I am gonna hear your voice, I would record each one of your words to be able to hear them forever. If I knew these were the last moments I see you I would tell you “I love you” and I wouldn’t assume, stupidly, that you already know it.
There is always a tomorrow and life gives us the opportunity to do things right, but in case I’m wrong and today is the only thing we have left, I would like to tell you how much I love you, and that I’m never going to forget you.
Nobody has for sure a tomorrow, young or old. Today can be the last time you see the ones you love. So... don’t wait more, do it today, because if tomorrow never comes, you will for sure regret the day you didn’t take time for a smile, a hug, a kiss, and that you were so occupied to give them their last wish. Keep the ones you love near you, tell them in their ear how much you need them. Love them and trate them good. Take time to tell them “I’m sorry”, “forgive me”, “please”, “thank you”, and all the love words you know.
Nobody will remember you for your secret thoughts. Ask God for the strength and the wisdom to express them. Show your friend how important they are for you.

It is not a bad dream - Alberto

In the middle of nowhere, but in my nowhere. In the middle of a valley, an unknown valley surrounded by unknown mountains. I see myself in this environment, this apparently faraway environment which is not so because I am part of it and it is also part of me.

I see myself next to “the old grandad”. A really old tree that has been there since ever. It has been part of the village since the village was not even a villge. Once, all the men in the village tried to embrace “the old grandad” all the way around putting all their arms together but they couldn't. It was too big for them. “The old grandad” was their protector ad they had respect towards it.

I used to live next to “the old grandad”. It used to be my protection from the heavy wind. In the hot summer afternoons, its uncountable branches used to cover my house, keeping it apart form the extreme heat and the dryness.

Everyone knew “the old grandad”. It was part of people's lives. Everyday it was surrounded by several people who used to come to relieve their thoughts, to tell the tree their most sincere secrets. They used to come to listen to the advice that “the old grandad” wanted to share with them through the branches, through the sound of the leaves and the birds that used to live within it. They used to come to feel happy.

But everything changed when “the others” came. “The old grandad” was embraced. Actually, embrace is not the appropriate word. It was apprehended, but it was not so by human arms, but by iron chains. “The others” wanted to take “the old grandad” out of the ground. “The others” said that where the tree was situated was, in fact, the best place to set “the baby”: an enormous building which would become the centre of communication for the whole area. Some of those who used to come to tell the “the old grandad” their secrets helped “the others” to get rid of the tree. “It is part of progress”, they said. To get rid of the tree was not an easy task. They managed to take it out of the ground. They even burn it, but they could not pull out all the roots, those antique roots. Those roots that were part of their hearts and those roots that would be inside themselves forever.

Now everything is different. Nothing protect us. My house is where it used to be, but actually it it not that place anymore because that place is a completely different one now. The wind comes through all the doors and windows. The sun's radiation is reflected off the walls of “the baby” so in the summer, staying in my house is like staying in the middle of the sun.

People keep on coming to the place they used to come, although it is a completely different place. They do not come happy anymore. They come to work in the communication centre but they do not communicate anything at all. They are all sad. They do not feel comfortable sharing their thought as they used to do.

I don't know why “the others” behave like that, why they do those sort of things... I cannot understand... I don't know what is happening...

--He is waking up!

The doctors told me that I had been in the hospital for five years in a deep dream but that now I was awake again and I could meet my family. I was lost but I kind of undertood the situation. I had had an accident and had lost consciousness for five years. It was all a nightmare.

At that moment, my only thought was to go outside the hospital and see my dear village, with its nature and all its people.. but I couldn't find it. What I saw was not the place where I used to live. It was full of buildings, cars, full of people. People who were all together but everyone on their own...

I realised that everything I saw in that long nightmare was what had actually happened. It was not a nightmare but the reality. I felt sorry. I felt angry at “the others” for having done what they done. I felt angry at myself because I was part of “the others” because I did nothing to change the situation.


27 March 2008. Environmental Day, UWC in Mostar

Circus characters

For those who still didn't find their characters, I just found an interesting page which may be helpful for you.

http://www.timboucher.com/journal/2008/04/24/circus-characters-history-symbolism-archetypes/


=)

CARTA DE DESPEDIDA – GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ

If for a while God forgot that I’m a puppet and gave me a piece of life, probably I wouldn’t say everything that I think, but definitivelly I would think everything that I say. I would give more value to things not because of what they cost but because of what they mean.
I would sleep less and dream more. I understand that for each minute that we close our eyes, we lose sixty seconds of light. I would walk when the others stopped, I would wake up when the others slept, I would listen when the others spoke, and how much I would enjoy a chocolate ice-cream!
If God gave me a piece of life I would dress simply, I would lie on the sun, “showing” not only my body but my soul. My God, if I had a heart, I would write my hate on the ice and I would wait for the sun to rise.
My God, if I had a piece of light... I wont let a single day pass without saying people I love how much I love them. I would convince every single women and men that they are my favourites and I would live in love with love
I would prove people how wrong they are to think that they stop falling in love when they get older, without knowing that they get older when they stop falling in love! To a kid... I would give him wings, but I let him alone to learn how to fly. To the elder I would teach them that death does not arrive with being old but with forgetting.
There are so many things I have learned from you, people... I have learned that everybody wants to live in the pick of the mountain without knowing that the true happiness lays in the way “you get into it”. I have learned that when a new born grasp his father’s fist for the first time, he caught him forever.
I have learned that a man has only the right to look down to another when he has to help him to stand up. There are so many things I have been able to learn from you, but actually they won’t be that worth, because when they keep me into this suitcase, unhappily I will be dying.
Always say what you feel and do what you think.
If I knew today as the last time I’m gonn see you sleep, I would hug you so strong and I would pray the lord to be able to be the guardian of your soul. If I knew this is the last time I’m gonna see you going out through that door, I would give you a hug, a kiss and I would call you again to give you more. If I knew this was the last time I am gonna hear your voice, I would record each one of your words to be able to hear them forever. If I knew these were the last moments I see you I would tell you “I love you” and I wouldn’t assume, stupidly, that you already know it.
There is always a tomorrow and life gives us the opportunity to do things right, but in case I’m wrong and today is the only thing we have left, I would like to tell you how much I love you, and that I’m never going to forget you.
Nobody has for sure a tomorrow, young or old. Today can be the last time you see the ones you love. So... don’t wait more, do it today, because if tomorrow never comes, you will for sure regret the day you didn’t take time for a smile, a hug, a kiss, and that you were so occupied to give them their last wish. Keep the ones you love near you, tell them in their ear how much you need them. Love them and trate them good. Take time to tell them “I’m sorry”, “forgive me”, “please”, “thank you”, and all the love words you know.
Nobody will remember you for your secret thoughts. Ask God for the strength and the wisdom to express them. Show your friend how important they are for you.

Extract from “Rise and Shine”

‘Don’t touch me!’ ‘Let’s talk about it. Let’s talk about it first, and then if you still want to leave, well OK but let’s talk first! We’ve got to discuss it, haven’t we? For God’s sake, we’ve got to discuss it!’ So he was nudging me towards the ‘discussion’. (Points to the bed.) And he makes me sit down, and he says yes, I was right… but he was used to being spoilt by his MOTHER… and he treated me like his MOTHER… but he was wrong, he was going to change… in fact he was well into the famous so-called SELF-CRITICISM… and he did it so well… he was so sweet… that I started to cry!
[I didn’t read what follows, but I think it can be interesting]
And the more self-criticism he did the harder I cried, and the harder I cried, the more self-criticism he did! I had a really good cry last night! What about the key? (She suddenly remembers.)

[Don’t you think that mentioning the key can be such a good link to whatever we put next? Comment on the post also if you have some thoughts about it now! You don’t need to be registered]

The Dancing Mistress: On the Assembly Line

Warning! It seems longer than it really is. I encourage you to read it (I hope so! It took me a while to type it!!) because it has such a good sense of humor and irony. I can imagine the woman maybe on those walls Alberto used to jump to the roof. Or also inside the bars that are like half a meter high. Or anywhere! I just love the space.
So yeah, read it (cause this afternoon I only read the first speaker's lines) and comment below what do you think about it!



SPEAKER: (offstage voice) Today rhythm and harmony are at the root of production specially in modern firms. As we have seen in Japan for some time, qualified dancing instructors have been called in to train and teach workers on the shop floor.

Enter the dance teacher. The stage is completely empty.

TEACHER: (towards the wings) Come on you three we chose yesterday.

Enter the young women workers, rather hesitantly, and line up downstage beside the teacher. They carry out the movements under her direction.

Come on darlings, please. It’s not good putting you straight on the assembly line if you haven’t learned the twenty-four simple precise movements you have to make, keeping exact time to the music. It’s simple, not tiring; you’ll find it’s elegant even, and enjoyable… But you’ll have to pay close attention! Our motto is ‘Work with joy!’ Let’s imagine that the high conveyor belt passes along at this height, and the lower belt moves at this level. You’ll find the screws spaced out ten centimetres apart on the higher belt; each one of you, with both hands, must pick up two of them and insert them, first one hand then the other, in the holes in this structure on the lower belt. Now let’s try… that’s right, like that, slowly… don’t go too fast… slowly does it… good, well done!

That wasn’t difficult, was it? … One two… one, two… Now listen carefully: you’ll see a kind of metallic cigar moving along on the higher belt, which you must pick up in your teeth… like this… ahmm… watch out it’s coming… ahmm… well done! Now, without stopping what you are doing with your hands, insert the fuse into the hole in the other end of the piece which will come along on your left at that precise moment. There’ll be two more fuses to thread on… ahmm… one threaded… so now with two sharp blows with your forehead you tap home the fuses… ohpp! Ohpp! … start again with the basic movement… one, two… steady does it… you mustn’t get tired… Isn’t it fun? Simplicity itself and great fun! Now, the third movement: using your nostrils on the lower belt… breathe in, come on breathe quickly… go! … Well done. Now you will see some tugs to straighten them out… and then you wrap them around the sprockets on the left-hand engine section. Three turns is all they need. Right, go… one, two, three… that’ll do.

Now you... [I skipped around 7 lines] … be careful to pull back your hands, or else zac… a quick blow… and trac… you’ll cut off your fingers and we’ll have them all over the floor… the boss doesn’t want that! It makes such a mess! Off we go… well done… that’s perfect! Now you stop the rive belt with a sharp blow with the right thigh on the left piston… good… and now two blows with your hip on the right-hand piston like when you do a saucy walk! Another with your left… zam! Bend the knees… pelvis forward… until the tummy touches the rubber sucker on the drill handle… push it… there! Gyrate the pelvis… yes, that’s right, just like the belly dance… great… again! Now pull back the pelvis with a jerk… strike the level just behind with the buttocks (Reacting to the mystified air on the faces of the women.)… yes, I mean stick on your arse, and the cycle comes to an end so a new one can begin. Come on stick it out!! Ohpp!

See how easy it is? And you’ve got the additional advantage of toning up the pectorals and fighting the flab. Goodness knows how many women would pay to be in your position! Right now, off we go again: […]

[I skipped around on page of the book]

They continue with a fanatic rhythm, while the voice from the loud speaker says.

SPEAKER: In the Siemens factory in Milan, the assembly line workers achieve four thousand five hundred movements in a single day, three thousand of which are made with the hips to work the shearing machine pedal. The violent blows to which the pelvis is subjected have caused most of the women to suffer from gynaecological and pelvic disorders; some have had undergo operations which have left them unable to have children.

Lorca research

BIOGRAPHY

Lorca was born on June 5th 1898 in Fuente Vaqueros, a small village near Granada. Although they were quite a common family, his father (Mr. Federico García) was a respected and prosperous landowner, who decided to move the family into the main city, Granada, in 1909. However, Federico García Lorca wanted people to call him Lorca, which is her mother’s surname.

In 1919 he moved to the famous Residencia de estudiantes in Madrid, to continue his university work. There he met all kind of artists, including Salvador Dalí, with whom he had a relationship. He went to United States in 1929-1930 after a depressive period. He spent his time mostly in New York, where he wrote surrealistic poems and plays.

He went back to Spain, where the re-establishment of the Spanish Republic in 1931 allowed him to fully participate in the cultural life. He became director of La Barraca, a touring theatre company with the aim of bringing classical plays to rural audiences, which otherwise would have been so far away of being able to see this type of theatre. It was with La Barraca that he wrote his three most famous plays: Bodas de sangre (Blood Wedding), Yerma and La casa de Bernarda Alba (The house of Bernarda Alba). It was also with this company that he produced first his “rural” triology plays.

When the civil war started in 1936, he went back to Granada, although he knew it was one of the less secure places he could go: first of all, because of its conservative elite (almost the bigger in the whole Andalucia) and second of all, because he was already quite known.

On 16th August, 1936 he was arrested by the nationalists, tortured and, on 19th August he was shot because of his homosexuality and left-wing position and contacts. Lorca was thrown into an unknown grave somewhere between Víznar and Alfacar, near Granada.

______________

The society of its time, at least in the countryside of Andalucia, was so rural (practically all the economy was based on agriculture) and, in a way, basic. It was far away from the rationalism of the rest of western Europe, and there were still some magic beliefs going on there.

Lorca was really aware of this, and he wanted to preserve it. In fact, lots of people call him as a land poet and land playwriter, confirmed by what he said once: "I love the land. All my emotions tie me to it. The first memories I have are of the earth." And from here we can understand his attempts, during all his life, to keep the culture connected with its roots. These attempts were not only in theatre, as we can perfectly see with the two plays we are studying, but also with music (creating first amateur festival of Andalusian "Cante jundo", in order to protect Andalusian music from commercialization) and poetry (Romancero Gitano [Gipsy Ballads], with the same purpose).

However, he was not the only one who wanted to shake the current conventions of his time. Actually, he was a member of what is called the “Generation of 27”: a group of authors that started their course with firm connections to land and, later on, also used surrealistic techniques. His surrealistic works can be seen with “El Público” (attack to commercial theatre and the social order) and also “Así que pasen cinco años”. Apart from trying to criticize the rationalism in theatre, he also challenged audiences introducing controversial topics such as: homosexuality, class system and role of the women in society.

Due to this kind of rebellion we can perfectly see that he broke the conventions and, furthermore, he did it in two ways. The first one comes, as we commented before, from moving away from the rationalist tendency that provoked the decadence of tragedy, that provoked a high amount of empty comedies that just wanted to please middle class audience. At this point it’s important to note the completely failure of Blood Wedding in New York because, as Lorca similarly said, New York it’s only about money and oneself; how was that society going to understand the blood, mystery, speaking moons and old traditions from our still rural countryside?

The second convention he ignored was the theoretical problems that ancient Greeks set up for tragedies, and that European dramaturges tried to follow. He just wrote, wrote from and for the land, from and for the common people.

There are so many things that can be said about Lorca, but the last important one I want to comment is the double character he had towards the end of his life, due to the celebrity he started to become, that made him keep inside his real character. Perhaps from here we can understand better how the worries about what the others will say, are reflected in most of the characters of his plays.

To sum up, I wanted to quote three things Lorca said that, at the end, are the best material we have to understand him:

http://uwcimtheatreclass.blogspot.com/2008/02/lorca-quotes.html (I already posted them some days ago)

Neus.