INSPIRED

magandang umaga!

the last two days have been an amazing! just filled with lessons. lessons about the art of creating shadow theater, story telling, and kulintang electronic music fusion.

Friday, May 16
went to the mission cultural center in the mission to watch an open rehearsal of Ghosts of the River. Here's a short synopsis:

A new shadow theatre work about the lives on the both sides of the US/Mexico Border, directed by Larry Reed with an original script by Octavio Solis, Art Direction by Favianna Rodriguez, and shadow design by I Made Moja

since this was only a rehearsal of a work in progress, only 2 of the 6 stories has been done so far. i think it's the most awesomest thing for them to allow an audience to check this out. plus, i think it was meant to stir up some buzz... which i guess i'm trying to do with this post! anyways, the theater was packed for this first open rehearsal. oh, before i forget, THANK YOU LORNA for the comp tix and for letting me know about this. the first story combined video and "human" shadow puppets. the story was about a ghost of an older woman who had been beaten and left in the el paso desert between the us and mexican border. the woman was seeking revenge for her death, but meet a couple of younger muchachos whom she tells her tale to. my favorite effects where of the narrator changing sides of the shadow, and the transformation of the old to young woman in shadows. incredible. then there was the story of the border patrol woman who befriends a young kid who was a cayote, a person who arranges for people to cross the border.

the best part of the evening was the chance for the audience to go behind the big paper screen to watch them perform the second story again. it was so cool to see how the story was told by the effort of the whole team: there were the narrators/actors, the AWESOMEST lighting person, and a series of puppeteers and scene changers. just seeing how some of the effects they used kinda pulled the curtain of a magic act. i so want to do something like this one day.

what happened today was so cool too! but i'll talk about that after some shut eye. had a long day :)

paalam!