I've experienced several days of complete artistic stimulation and inspiration, and it's great. Our first day of "class" consisted of learning about Puerto Rican social and theatre history, and then seeing the performances of several of our instructors here, which were incredible. The first performances featured the masks you see here, part of a one-woman piece by mask maker and performer Deborah Hunt. Fun fact: in case you can't tell--I mean, duh--these masks use sea urchins as eyes. Wha...?? We've been learning about Boal and Theatre of the Oppressed, and dance, and visual art, and what it means to truly be an experimental theatre committed to resistance and transformation.
Yesterday we traveled to Cayey in the south of the island, where we worked with Rosa Luisa Marquez, the woman who runs our class here, and her collaborator Antonio Martorell, one of the island's best known artists. Besides being the most charming souls ever, they're the type of people that don't seem real...they're involved in everything, and it's hard to believe they have time for everything they do, from performing and teaching to writing books to making tons and tons of art. We did a workshop on transforming spaces, then had a big party in the tent that we had "transformed" for the occasion. After Cayey, we went to the biggest Three Kings Day celebration on the island, in the town of Juana Diaz. It was hot and crowded, but quite the experience. Everyone in the parade dresses up as shepherds and wise men and every other character in between. Several of us put grass for the camels under our beds last night in hopes that we might get gifts from the Tres Reyes, but to no avail. Oh well.
I'm exhausted, but I can't wait to see what they have for us tomorrow.
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