Notes from Brian (Juan)

Friday’s rehearsal was a great experience for me, I have never performed outside of a theater and I found it to be an incredible adrenaline rush. I was scared at first about the idea of performing outside, it was out of my comfort zone, but having everyone else there with me eased my worry, and was the main reason why I felt this was a unifying experience. We were all in this together and no matter how nervous a lot of us were in going out three we got through it and it added to the energy of the piece. I also liked the idea of bringing theater to the people for free and in situations they are not used to. Personally I felt in and out as Juan during the performance. Partly because I’m still on book and partly adjusting to performing outside and adjusting my blocking and volume. I also know I have to keep focus better as I was distracted a few times. There were some things about this performance that I felt added to some of my scenes, such as when I slept against the board, Susana was on the other side and as she pulled and rocked the board I felt it on my side and it added a physical dimension to Juan’s restless nights sleep, from the dreams he sees, I had a physical as well as mental reason to toss and turn. I also thought it may even appear as a foreshadow to when Juan is buried next to Susana during the second act. I’m really excited to see how the future alternative space performances go once I’m off book and I’m more secure with Juan.

Brian

Notes from Zoe

When I think about the outside run-through, one thing I remember feeling at the time was some anxiety about the order of scenes, and how I'm slightly more nervous about getting familiar with that in my mind, than I am about my actual lines. I just want to have a better sense of when each part of the play happens, so I know what's happening next most of the time (ideally).

On the other side of things, I'm so excited about how intense the whole thing seems to be! I feel like its impact is getting both smoother and stronger. My character still feels a little fractured, but much closer to being like a continuous, more-or-less realistic whole.

--
"I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains, I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways" -Dylan

Notes from Caila Lipovski

First full outdoor rehearsal of PP:

The outdoors blew a fresh energy into the show. The show felt more Real than prior rehearsals, scouting for the perfect nests for the scenes, street traffic breezing by... Less fabrication is required when you're surrounded by life.

Notes from the actors

We parsed my scene with Anita in Act One

I have just ranted at God to “Send Miguel to Hell” and am now entering Anita’s room, which is probably in my accommodations within the church.

“Anita, do you know who was buried today.” Anita’s in a shell and I’m trying to break the ice, to bring her out.

No.

“Do you remember Miguel Paramo?” I wanted this dropped because I thought it was a stupid question, but Hector said that I was in such denial that I hoped that she didn’t remember him. I always have trouble getting that line out, probably due to my own guilty feelings.

yes

“Well, that’s who. You are sure he’s the one, aren’t you?” I thought this should read, “You aren’t sure he’s the one, are you?”, but Hector wanted it more ambiguous. Mine was too obvious. Hector believes that part of Renteria acknowledges that Miguel raped Anita and that part came out here.

“You realize that he is responsible for your father’s death, don’t you.” Renteria is now blaming Anita for the rape, as is seen in the next sentence. I usually say “his mother’s death” instead of “father” for some reason, which I don’t think I’ll get into here.

Yes

“Then why didn’t you make him leave?”

Anita blows up and describes how awful Miguel was.

“You must have some way of being sure. His voice. Didn’t you recognize his voice?” Here Renteria is STILL trying both to affirm and deny that Miguel Raped Anita. At first, I said “His voice…” as a revelation, but Hector wanted me to say it more matter-of factly, as in offering a tool for discovering the truth.

Anita says she wants Miguel to go to Hell.

“Don’t be so sure of that. Who knows how many people are praying for him. You are alone (emphasis) One prayer against thousands. And amongst them, some are far more intense (emphasis) than yours (emphasis)…

Hector wants me to do this more solemn and smooth. More Priestly.

Interview with Yaya, UABC

The following interview about our show was via msn with Yaya, From UABC

en este caso, todo se desenvuelve debido a un amor

Yaya
yep...

Pedro Paramo, coming soon.. Y EL ODIN EN EL DF. says: (9:50:52 AM)
entonces donde radica el inicio de esto?

Yaya
la susy el peter

Pedro Paramo, coming soon.. Y EL ODIN EN EL DF. says: (9:51:10 AM)
ahhhh si

Pedro Paramo, coming soon.. Y EL ODIN EN EL DF. says: (9:51:18 AM)
susana y pedro

Yaya
sip

Yaya
pero espera
en el texto hay mas cosas q solo la historia de amor

Yaya
amor de pedro no correspondido pos susana por cierto

Yaya
no es una historia de amor, no en el sentido estricto

Pedro Paramo, coming soon.. Y EL ODIN EN EL DF. says: (9:52:16 AM)
aja

Yaya
el bato no se torcio por lo de susana

Yaya
el bato crecio en un entorno hostil

Yaya
su papa tambien era cacique

Yaya
y el tocio a su hijo -miguel?-

Pedro Paramo, coming soon.. Y EL ODIN EN EL DF. says: (9:52:49 AM)
pero esto es lo que lo lleva a aprovecharse de la comunidad

Pedro Paramo, coming soon.. Y EL ODIN EN EL DF. says: (9:53:05 AM)
el querer ofrecerle todo a susana

Pedro Paramo, coming soon.. Y EL ODIN EN EL DF. says: (9:53:13 AM)
lo dice en el texto

Pedro Paramo, coming soon.. Y EL ODIN EN EL DF. says: (9:53:25 AM)
claro que hay otros contextos,

Pedro Paramo, coming soon.. Y EL ODIN EN EL DF. says: (9:53:39 AM)
pero me fije uno en mente

Pedro Paramo, coming soon.. Y EL ODIN EN EL DF. says: (9:53:50 AM)
que es el amor, sera que era un egoista?

Yaya
claro!!

Pedro Paramo, coming soon.. Y EL ODIN EN EL DF. says: (9:53:58 AM)
o un ciego?

Yaya
nop

Yaya
el personaje de pedro paramo

Yaya
NO AMA

Yaya
desea

Yaya
posee

Yaya
no ama

Pedro Paramo, coming soon.. Y EL ODIN EN EL DF. says: (9:54:31 AM)
pero a veces el amor es enfermizo

Yaya
nop

Yaya
si esta enfermo no es amor honey

Pedro Paramo, coming soon.. Y EL ODIN EN EL DF. says: (9:54:42 AM)
siiiiii
Yaya
es una torcedura

Yaya
pero no es amor

Yaya
el amor forzosamente es algo sano y limpido

Pedro Paramo, coming soon.. Y EL ODIN EN EL DF. says: (9:55:07 AM)
entonces por que ya que muere la susy deja que el pueblo se muera con el?

Pedro Paramo, coming soon.. Y EL ODIN EN EL DF. says: (9:55:09 AM)
ella?

Yaya
si se ensucia ya no es amor

Yaya
pero es q el nunca ayudo al pueblo!!

Yaya
ni antes de susna, ni con susana, ni depsues de susana

Pedro Paramo, coming soon.. Y EL ODIN EN EL DF. says: (9:56:37 AM)
aja! ese es precismente el conflicto que traigo. me he enfocado en decir que a pesar de quien tenga el poder, si tu no haces nada, el pueblo seguira bajo este malsano poder

Yaya
lo q si hace es vengarse en la figura del pueblo de su amaragura y frustracion

Pedro Paramo, coming soon.. Y EL ODIN EN EL DF. says: (9:57:22 AM)
por eso muere Pedro al final, alguin cansado de este sufrir,

Pedro Paramo, coming soon.. Y EL ODIN EN EL DF. says: (9:57:35 AM)
hace algo por acabar con esto

Pedro Paramo, coming soon.. Y EL ODIN EN EL DF. says: (9:58:09 AM)
pero para esto ya es muy tarde y el pueblo queda abandonado

Yaya
no. no.. bueno no se. pero jamas lo habia visto desde esa perspectiva, creo q tiene mas q ver con la deSOLacion q con un paro q le hace al pueblo

Yaya
con morirse y q el q el pueblo quede jodido sea solo una consecuencia

Pedro Paramo, coming soon.. Y EL ODIN EN EL DF. says: (9:59:57 AM)
si, pero viendo la politica de este pais, fue que tome esa decision como director

Yaya
me parece q lo q se trata de mostrar en esa obra es precisamente lo torcido de la naturaleza humana q aunado a la miseria y a la ignorancia corrompe y genera mas podredumbre, y la vision de rulfo es pesismista.. es decir: no hay nadie vivo en la obra!!

Yaya
todos son recuerdos difusos, ecos, fantasmas

Pedro Paramo, coming soon.. Y EL ODIN EN EL DF. says: (10:02:34 AM)
de verdad Yaya, cuando Damiana dice el texto de que este pueblo estalleno de voes y ecos que parecen estar encerrados tras las paredes.... veo claramente a todas esas personas que por la manana van rumbo a su trabajo con walkmans, un cafe y leyendo un libro

Pedro Paramo, coming soon.. Y EL ODIN EN EL DF. says: (10:03:13 AM)
estan tan ocupados en evitar un contacto visual, que parecen muertos, no fantasmas, sino muertos

Pedro Paramo, coming soon.. Y EL ODIN EN EL DF. says: (10:04:14 AM)
se que el hecho de presentar Pedro Paramo, es un reto, para empezar por el paquetote que es,

Yaya
claro

Pedro Paramo, coming soon.. Y EL ODIN EN EL DF. says: (10:04:49 AM)
pero es mi manera de decir que el pueblo norteamericano esta jodido, por eso audicione a muchos gringos

Pedro Paramo, coming soon.. Y EL ODIN EN EL DF. says: (10:05:39 AM)
el sueno norteamericano que no existe, el falso individualismo, necesario para sobrevivir, o que ellos creen necesario

Yaya
sip

Pedro Paramo, coming soon.. Y EL ODIN EN EL DF. says: (10:06:23 AM)
y el poder de un hombre que no tiene ni la menor idea de lo que el pueblo realmente necesita, que esta ocupado en planear mejores maneras de robar a otros paises

Pedro Paramo, coming soon.. Y EL ODIN EN EL DF. says: (10:06:29 AM)
solo para tener mas

Pedro Paramo, coming soon.. Y EL ODIN EN EL DF. says: (10:06:38 AM)
y el pueblo, que se lo lleve la chingada

Pedro Paramo, coming soon.. Y EL ODIN EN EL DF. says: (10:07:08 AM)
y no solo el pueblo en general, tambien la politica artistica esta llena de ecos y voces que nadie escucha

Pedro Paramo, coming soon.. Y EL ODIN EN EL DF. says: (10:07:33 AM)
solo unos cuantos tienen el "reconocimiento" que solo se encierra en

Pedro Paramo, coming soon.. Y EL ODIN EN EL DF. says: (10:08:03 AM)
teatro musical u obras que no hablan mas que de lo se puede lograr con una sonrisa en la cara

Pedro Paramo, coming soon.. Y EL ODIN EN EL DF. says: (10:09:06 AM)
pero esto no refleja en absoluto la vida, ni de aqui ni de ninguna parte del mundo, el teatro aqui ha dejado de existir ara decir o alzar la voz

Pedro Paramo, coming soon.. Y EL ODIN EN EL DF. says: (10:09:36 AM)
sorry me acelere!!

Yaya
nooo esta chido!! q padre

By Zoe Kiama: Eduviges

On the last run-through, I was starting to feel present enough in the situations to be actually sad at some points, even when it wasn't "my" scene. I went through some of the process of realizing Susana was really dying, before the scene where the priest tells her she is... so during that scene itself, I was already somewhat adjusted to it.

It's interesting getting in depth into the 2nd part of the play, because my character seems to be slightly different from how I thought I was during the first half. I'm wondering how it will be doing some of the earlier scenes again now.

By Andrew Quint: priest Renteria

I want to expand on the remarks I made at the end of tonight’s
rehearsal.About 30 years ago, I had an experience while
watching O’Neal’s “The Iceman Cometh” that I’ve never had
before or since.  For about two hours, I forgot that I wan in
the audience passively watching actors on a stage pretending
to be somebody they’re not, but actually believed I was in a
bar experiencing real people playing out their real dramas and
it truly was a shock to my system when the play ended and I came
back to what we take for every day reality.

I want our audience to experience that, but in order to
accomplish it,each of us must inhabit our characters, meaning
that we believe in our guts that we are who we’re pretending
to be.  How to do this?  I don’t know, but I’ll make a stab at
it anyway.  Whenever we say or do anything we must determine what
we’re trying to accomplish by performing that action or saying
those words.  Then, we must determine how we’re feeling and why when
we are trying to do that thing.

Let’s get down to earth and give a concrete example.  At the end
of Act 1, Renteria responds to Ana’s concern by telling her that
he isn’t sick, but instead he feels bad because he’s a bad man.
Well, why did he say that? What was he trying to accomplish?
Here’s a clue:  He says this to Ana.
Maybe Renteria feels this way because he took Pedro’s filthy lucre
while turning a blind eye when his son, Miguel, raped Ana, his
niece.
That's all well and good, but it doesn't tell us why Renteria
said what he did to Ana.
Maybe he needed to “confess” to Ana that he was a “bad” man.
Maybe it’s because he needed to unburden his sins to his
niece in the same way the whole community confessed their sins
to him.  Was he asking Ana for forgiveness?
Was he asking God?  Did he know that he was going to
murder Susana soon?
After I come up with answers to these questions, I must
dredge up the appropriate emotion by thinking of bad acts I’ve
committed in own my life that make me feel extremely guilty.
Needless to say, this ain’t a lot of fun, is it?

I’ve flogged this one line Renteria speaks to death to
demonstrate the processI believe each of us must go through for
everything we say and every action we take in this play if we
want inhabit our characters and, thereby to give our audience
the experience I had watching that magnificent production of
“The Iceman Cometh”.  Do our spectators deserve any less?

Andrew Quint