Miami
 Una Tempestad
(A Tempest) adaptation
by Raquel Carrió
Teatro Avante, Coral
Gables, Florida
Miracle Theatre, June 8, 2006
Una tempestad was a kind
of prequel to William Shakespeare’s The Tempest. It is important
to note that within Shakespeare’s Tempest, the play opens with
Prospero, Miranda, and Ariel already on the island and only briefly
mentions Sycorax in the beginning. However in this interpretation of
the play, Sycorax appears as a major character, who creates the storm
that brings Prospero and Miranda to the island.
The set used was quite simple: a
platform with a hinge, allowing it to split in the middle and create a
wider narrower platform. Changing the positions and angles of the
platform, changed the location of the action. It also allowed the change
of time. Since the platform was able to move across the stage, it
permitted the cast to use the entire stage more efficiently rather than
move around a fixed platform. This platform was covered in tulle, and
other sheer material; the combination of the light fabric and a fog
machine made the stage very airy and buoyant.
The costumes were beautiful, but
not necessarily fully thought-out. For example, Ariel’s body was
painted beautifully with vibrant colors and depictions of nature and
animals. These pictures where to represent the animals into which his
powers allowed him to morph, snakes and birds, etc. He used his body in
drastic animal like movements in order to help depict when and what
animal he had morphed into. However, after the first few scenes, the
paint began to chip off, and fall off this body, drawing attention away
from his movements and toward his malfunctioning costume. The chipping
of his costume disrupted the illusion and reminded the audience they
were watching a play.
Similarly, Prospero’s costume
was very intricate and had many layers of clothing, he looked like a
scholarly man clothed in his best. However, the costume designer did
not account for the heat that these layers would cause. Throughout the
play Prospero was sweating profusely and by the end of the play his
costume was drenched in sweat.
Miranda also had some issues
with her costume, in that it was extremely long and too low cut. The
length of the dress she was wearing caused me to worry about her
tripping and falling as she walked or danced across the stage. The
dress’s neckline was extremely low and had a hard time containing
Miranda’s chest, which threatened to pop out.
Calaban, presented in this play
as a young and handsome indigenous boy, seemed to fit well in his loin
cloth as it suited his character and did not end up as problematic as
the others. It did, however, seem as though it was a purposeful ploy to
please female audience members.
Syxcorax’s costume seemed to be
the most successful. Her costume was magnificent and well suited to her
character. Adorned with conch shell jewelry and a long flowing brown
dress, the color emphasized her age and earthiness and the long flowing
garment emphasized her mystical supernatural powers. Combined with a
powerfully deep register and a beautiful voice she created a character
full of pain, anger, and strength.
The music was evocative even
while anachronistic. The songs in the opening were Caribbean and they
had voodoo chants. The performers had lots of percussion instruments and
made noises with shakers and sticks. Besides the percussion, the play
involved much chanting, which Sycorax often performed herself. Sycorax
was a smaller woman, but her voice was hollow, clean, deep and mature,
which made it easy for it to carry throughout the entire theatre
creating an eerie feeling. The effect of her voice carrying and filling
the room added an intense deep feeling even though the lyrics were
nonsense words.
The play had traces of Cuban
nationalism and at one point Sycorax reminisces about ‘the good old
days’ in ‘Cuba’. It is interesting that in Shakespeare’s Tempest,
Prospero is a character who dominates and has the ability to control the
rest of the cast, while Sycorax is not even a character that appears on
stage. In this interpretation, however, it is Sycorax, a female
character, who is the domineering player and makes Prospero look like a
fool. Sycorax is the native to the land and thus has the power and
control, not the intruder Prospero. This mentality critiques the idea
of imperialism from a postcolonial perspective.
Although it was helpful to have
read Shakespeare’s Tempest for some background information, it
was not necessary to understand the play since the director chose to
take a different spin on it.
This play was the most developed
play of the three plays that were seen in Miami, not only because it was
seen in a conventional theatre setting, but also because of the
production values and resulting depth of the design/technical elements.
 Kuña Rekove: Vidas de mujer
(Kuña Rekove: Women’s
Lives) by Edda de los Ríos
La Farándula, Asunción,
Paraguay
“Balcony Theatre” at the Miracle Theatre, June 10, 2006
The stage was divided into three
areas of focus: on the far right a grocer, in the center a multipurpose
area, and the far left was a kitchen. It was well divided and would have
made for a great intimate performance had there not been pillar in
between the seats and the stage. The set was very prop heavy to help
convey where the scene was meant to be taking place. They had things
like buckets, baskets, vegetables, pots, burlap sacks, and a washing pan
for clothes. Some things were prop pieces meant solely to dress the
stage, while others were brought on to be used the actors.
It was a play that took place in
a small town in Paraguay and used in part an indigenous language they
still use today. It seemed to be a Paraguayan version of The Vagina
Monologues. It consisted of three actresses playing all the diverse
characters of the play. The play was in a staged testimonial,
oral-history format, detailing the life stories that typical women in
Paraguay experience in their daily lives. The content of the play
addressed feminist issues such as abortion, rape and marriage. The
women played characters of young little girls, women their own age, old
women, and even the same character progressing throughout the years.
They played women of all different ages, class status, intelligence, and
relationship experiences. In an interesting reversal, a tape recorder
was used to represent an interviewer’s questions when none of the women
there could play the interviewer.
It was interesting,
entertaining, and yet sad. There were times where there was a brilliant
mix of emotions. The author of the play was also one of the three
actresses. She certainly felt passion for what she was doing. It was
excellent what she did but it did not seem as original as was hyped. In
many ways, it was reminiscent of The Vagina Monologues. The play
we saw obviously related situations specific to Paraguay, but female
oppression is still unfortunately a universal experience.
The base costumes were
peasant-like outfits, which allowed the actresses to change persona by
adding a piece worn over it. They used scarves, hats, coats, props, etc.
that personified other characters well, and also used a change in voice
or dialect to delineate character.
The music and the women’s vocal
inflections were important, as in most other plays, to tell the story.
The music was used as underscores during the scenes as well as for
transitions between scenes. There were points in the play where the
characters danced to typical Latin American music and others where the
music was used to give them time to do a scene change. Some of the music
was up to date and the other music was the kind of music the previous
generation listened to in their youth. They played modern music mostly
at the transitions between scenes. The most captivating part for me was
the music. The actual length of the musical segments were short and
choppy, but they fit with the rest of the play.
Overall it was nice play and a
great way to get to know a culture that generally is not really known.
It spoke to the good times and the bad. The play explored the
relationships, motherhood, and poverty people from Paraguay suffer. It
was a mature exploration of personality and sexuality from a woman’s
perspective.
 Puck "El Duende" / La alegría del Amazonas
(Puck the Fairy / The Happiness of the
Amazons) by Antonio Vásquez Valencia
Mask!
Entertainment, Bogotá, Colombia
Miami-Dade College InterAmerican Campus, June 11, 2006
The play Puck "El Duende,"
a children’s show presented in honor of International Children’s Day,
was set in an outdoor space under a pavilion with folding chairs. The
adults stood toward the back because it was hard to see. This atmosphere
was appropriate because the play was performed for a large group of
children who were able to run around and have fun before the play began.
The bright colors of the set made the atmosphere carefree and similar to
a festival or a carnival. The Miami summer heat added to the tropical
atmosphere. The event was free to the public, so both parents and
children were pleased to be there.
The play was like A Tempest,
a play that we saw earlier in the week, in that it departed greatly from
Shakespeare’s text of A Midsummer Night’s Dream; in fact, the
only resemblance this play bore to Shakespeare’s is the name of Puck and
the pastoral setting. It seemed to be a spinoff. Puck, in this play,
was the son and stepson of the King Oberon and the Queen Titania of the
Fairies. The plot was about a long journey of discovery for Puck the
prankster, whose powers were stripped just before he was called upon to
defend the forest from utter destruction by a Siamese-twin like serpent
whose clam-like face looked inappropriate for children.
Since the play was intended for
children there were many synchronized dances with sing-alongs. It was
obvious that a few of the cast members were trained dancers by their
grace and the correct footing that they displayed throughout the entire
play. One of the dancers, a fairy, loved to stand on her tiptoes en
pointe and by the end of the play it cost her all of her energy.
Although the idea of holding the play in an outside
pavilion may have been a good intention, the technical aspects of it
were not easily executed. The set consisted of a few pieces place here and there
around the stage floor. Obviously, the sound support was not
well-thought-out; it seemed that they had to work with local people
under circumstances for which they did not rehearse. The sound
technicians had a difficult time with the microphones and the actresses
and actors had to yell in order for the large crowd to hear them. The group
performing the play was from Colombia, and they had to transport their
costumes with them to Miami. It was clear that these costumes and props
had been through a long journey, and some had been damaged along the
way. Puck’s wings at the end of the play were ripped and torn and were
barely staying attached to his arms. They seemed a bit unprepared to put
on such a big show with a good turn out, at least in terms of the visual
and audio design.
The fantastical costumes at times hindered the actors’
ability to move and act. Costumes for all were elaborate and did not
always make sense, such as the outfit that the fairy queen was wearing.
The two-person serpent had a hard time getting in and out of the
offstage doorway.
Several times the cast
interacted with the children sitting in the front row. The children
seemed to be mesmerized by the performers. At the end of the play a
confetti bomb, cleverly hidden in the hat of an actress, blew small
pieces of paper into the audience. The actors used exaggerated motions,
and since their text was often inaudible, it was easy to follow and
understand the plot because of the movement occurring on stage.
Overall, it was a very silly
music- and movement-oriented play. It was highly entertaining for
children as it had everything they would want from a show, singing,
dancing, fighting, friendship, enemies, and a cause to fight for and
people to save. The children seemed pleased with the performance
and didn’t seem to mind the bad sound or damaged costumes. It finished with a moral and inspiration to kids to be
mature and appreciate others because no one can be successful alone.
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