Teatristas...

Top L-R: Playwright Blanca Estrada; actors: Alejandra, Gaby, Siria, Adaza
Center: Armando, Alex, Ana
Front: Luis, Johny, Alex and Elsa

There was a strike this morning of the public transportation services and so a few of our students (as well as the person who had the key to our rehearsal space, the new Francisco Salvador theatre) arrived a little later than our planned 8am start time... nonetheless we got a lot done this morning, most importantly auditions, the identification of a few more roles, and casting!

The most fun part was when the actors were asked to work in small teams and come up with songs and choreography to accompany the political campaign song of our play's villain, El Lunar (the man with the beauty mark)!  One version was set to the music of  "Hi-ho, Hi-ho, it's Off to Work We Go!", another was a beatbox rap.  The third included drumming on a cardboard box and traditional dance moves of the Garifuna, the second-largest ethnic group in Honduras, descendants of the Carib and Arawak Indians and Africans, that now populate the entire North Coast and Bay Islands of Honduras.  Last but not least, the fourth team came up with a Broadway-style choreography complete with "jazz hands"!

In the afternoon was my first meeting with the students of the Escuela Nacional de Arte Dramatico (ENAD), the only professional acting training program in the country.  We split our two-hour session into physical work for the first hour, and what we called 'emotional' work for the second.  'Outside' and 'inside' work.  Outside exercises to build flexibility, balance, awareness, impulses and reflexes.  Inside work to build "presence".  Sometimes this word is used to describe charisma or star-quality.  In this case we were just working on being here, now.

This is the view from my hotel window. Across the street is the mall where I had lunch, and beyond are the beautiful mountains that are everywhere in this country.  I learned that Honduras got its name from the ups and downs of its topography.  Ondas means waves.

I have been welcomed to estas Honduras...