Welcome to the blog for the Suchitoto Project. For those who do not know, this project is a joint effort between The Stratford Shakespeare Festival, CUSO-VSO, and the town of Suchitoto, El Salvador. The ultimate goal of this project is to create a technical theatre school as well as an acting company which will support a couple of theatre spaces within the town of Suchitoto, El Salvador. It is hoped that the creation of these schools and theatres will serve a number of purposes, namely, to provide the youth of Suchitoto with career opportunities and to attract a larger tourist base. This will ideally serve as an economic stimulus for the town and allow it to grow and flourish in new ways in the coming years.
Currently, this project is just in its beginning stages. We are eagerly preparing for the event which will serve as the project's formal launch. Three props/carpenter people have just returned from a 3 week stay in Suchitoto where they taught the students of the technical school and created the set and some props for this launch performance. You can read about their adventures at the blog http://speakingofsuchitoto.blogspot.com/
In about 10 hours myself and my husband, Michael, will be picked up by a shuttle and taken to the airport where we will embark on our 3 week journey and endeavour to complete this launch event. Our goal is to install all of the lighting and sound equipment within the chapel space we are using for this performance. As well, with the assistance of the designer for the project, Sean Mulcahy, we will also be creating costumes for all of the actors in the performance. At last count the actors numbered around 52 people!!!!!
Finally, we need to move all of the set and props that were created by Ted, Frank, and Eric over to the Chapel and put the finishing touches on all of the other elements for the show.
We have only a couple of weeks to complete these tasks so it should be an entertaining experience for all involved. Oh... and did I mention that none of us speak Spanish!
But, I can't really think about that now. Now, I must concentrate on packing and perhaps getting a couple hours of sleep before heading out at 5am. (As if I am going to be able to sleep with all of the adrenaline that I have coursing through me right now!)
I realize this was a bit of a dry post to begin with but I wanted to set up the situation and project for you so that perhaps you have a better understanding of what this crazy adventure is all about!
Stay tuned. If all goes well my next post will be tomorrow from sunny Suchitoto!
Oh... P.S. .... If you would like to find out more information about this project you can do so at:
or logging into Facebook and searching for 'Suchitoto Project'
Hable con usted mañana
Looking forward to your blogs lady. Hope you are there, safe and sound.
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