R&R...

Today was my day off!  Slept in, ran, went to the mall, spent a few hours in the hotel's business center at their computer... now I'm sitting poolside, listening to loud dance music, waiting for my hamburgues de vegetales... it's not terribly exciting but kinda swell at the same time. My glass of vino tinto has arrived.

Last night they had a terrific salsa band playing but not many people were dancing. This courtyard is their open air nightclub, small groups sitting on cushioned rattan furniture eating sushi.  I'm leaning back on a chaise lounge.  And not only is this a nice looking place, the folks who work here are great. If you're ever in Tegucigalpa I highly recommend the Hotel Real Intercontinental...

At the mall I had an interesting conversation as I was sitting eating my pupusas de quesilla (Honduran cheese) with an older gentleman who sat down near me and identified himself (much later) as a catedrático, a professor, but of a higher rank, a dean? In any case, his knowledge was encyclopedic. He started off talking about how happy he was to finally sit down after running errands all day and soon he was talking to me about the Roman Republic, which preceded the Empire.  How the Republic had conquered Greece at Corinth.  Sometime soon after, at the Olympics, the Romans announced that the soldiers guarding Greece should be Greek, not Roman (though they would still be Roman subjects). This caused a day of celebration in Greece, and the Olympic games were paused. His point was, the US shouldn't have taken over the lands that were gained by Treaty of Guadalupe (the Southwest) but should have allowed Mexico to have retained some control.  If they'd done so, he figured, the US would have controlled all of Mexico by now.

I invited him to see the show I'm directing with the students.  He warned me not to speak to anyone about the government.  Also urged me to reconsider the title of the play, Esperanza para un nuevo país (Hope for a New Country).  He felt it might insult the people.  I could see his point.

The image today is of Lempira, a war chieftan of the Lencas of western Honduras during the 1530's. Lempira led the resitance to Francisco de Montejo and the Spanish Conquistadores who attempted to conquer and incorporate the region in to the the province of Honduras.  Based in Cerquin Hill, Lempira managed to gather an army of almost 30,000 soldiers from 200 villages.  As a result other groups took arms in the valley of Comayagua and Olancho.  Spanish attempts to stop him were unsuccessful, until 1537. 

His name was given to Honduras currency in 1931 and his image is on the 1L. bill.  

Timbers won today...

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...