Shelves arrived today!

Well the lights are at the chapel, Mel and Sean took all of the costumes to the rehearsal place for fittings. We are now waiting for the truck to pick us up again so we cn mov e the stage over to the chapel. I've been puttering around this afternoon starting to clean up a little because they want to have a gala here after the show on the 27th. Now that it's pretty much decided what the lighting and sound rig will be for this show, I can start putting things away in a deeper spot.

A lot of metal shelving arrived today. Good thing. Mel and Sean will be very happy they can organize the shop a little more. I've got the storage room at the back starting to look like a proper ferreteria.

I've got this grave feeling that this is not going to come together. Personally, I think it will but I just can't see the light at the end of the tunnel yet. I won't be able to energize this dimmer rack I've got until Monday (hopefully early), so I still don't know if it even works. It came from Mick at the Studio Theatre and before that I Imagine it was at the Patterson Theatre so I have complete faith that it has been maintained impeccably but I still haven't seen it actually pass electrons yet. I'm not totally thrilled with my plan for hanging the lights. My giant table idea is very shaky to erect with a couple 20something yr. old kids. I think we've got a good plan now, and We'll make it an all hands project when that day comes (hopefully Monday). I could make it way better except there's no Canadian tire here. It'll be fine I'm just having a moment.

.....(it's 8pm now). SO I wrote the rest of this earlier we're going for dinner now. Tomorrow should me mostly a day off. I finally got a list of sound and light cues. I'll be on my computer all day so I'll post more later.

Mel's new shop! (and Sean's too)

Sean getting things done.

Mi muchachos!

A sight for sore eyes!

This was what we saw walking down the street after everyone in the square and all over town were telling us "it's here! it's here!" as we walked into Es artes that day.

I don't know what day it is...

It's Friday but I haven't been keeping track of the number of days we've been here. Tomorrow is we start to load-in to the chapel. Today we are prepping for load-in. Hopefully by this afternoon I will have a plot together. Ed still hasn't really decided on lighting and sound cues but we have a basic idea from our first story meeting when we all arrived a week or so ago. I only have 16 1.2Kw dimmers so there's definitely limitations. I think the structure I've worked out with Kee clamps and pipe will work out pretty good. It's going to be a giant table 4.8m X 3m and 5.4m high (that's approx. 18ft. for those of you who don't measure in Spanish. After I explain what size to make something, they all go looking for the bi-lingual tape measure.) My 'muchachos' are building it in the courtyard right now so I can be sure we have enough of the right fittings to make it strong enough and not sway too much. We did 2ft. little mock-ups earlier in the week to sort out the fittings. they actually made great work tables while we were soldering SOCA ends.

I seem to have the biggest and most eager crew so far. Saul, Josue, Manuel, Eric, Hector, and Douglas. Hector and Douglas are video guys who are interested lighting a little bit. They are with us sporadically because they are also taping alot of footage. I'm not exactly sure what for but there is often a camera lense over our shoulders. Hector is actually fixing one of the industrial sewing machines right now for Mel, and I found out the other night that Josue used to do audio editing for the radio station. Saul and Josue seem to be the oldest. I think they are in their early twenties. They all jump right in and own every project I set them off on. I've been really trying to make it theirs as much as possible. I wish I had my own translator, and we could do some more theory. There's still lots of time next week to show them why I suggested doing something a certain way. I've also been tryin to instill in them that we, as stagehands, do a bit of everything. We are the arms and legs of the organization. I sent Manuel off the get a sewing machine stand welded back together, and we build costume racks and storage in between lighting projects.

I'm glad I took the training we did in Ottawa. I hope everyone who comes down here does it. And does it all. I can see how easy it is for me to take ownership of this project for myself and it's not about me, it's about them. And at the same time, it should be what they need and want, not what we think they need or want. For instance, just because we think we need to get things done on a Sunday, doesn't mean that it fits into their culture. And we're not here to change their culture. I am constantly aware of not being the arrogant gringo from the north who 'knows better'. As I see it, we are here to help them tell their own stories and spread their own culture in their own ways. And hopefully I can give them guidance as to how to pull it off safer, or more effectively. I find myself taking ownership in this project the longer I am here. I can see how someone (maybe me eventually) could get frustrated with the pace or style of things here. I'm trying to balance, pushing their limits so they can grow, yet keeping in mind, that it's not my project. It's a very delicate balance with no time to assimilate and truly understand you surroundings and the community. Okay, rant over...

It's peculiar here, the things they have and the things they don't. Mario is fiber-glassing and Conejo is making jewellery with his Dremel. All of my guys have cell phones and they use them as their personal music player when they sit down to solder or make cables. Yet, we can't get shelving to save our lives. Electricity is another challenge at Es Artes (the office). All of the lights are wired with lamp cord stapled to the rafters, running from socket to socket. All of the walls are adobe so everything needs to be surface mounted, we have to hang bulletin boards etc. from the rafters too. (I believe they rent this space so that's another reason we can't make holes in the walls.) I bought them a bunch of sheathed wire (couldn't get BX) because Tito asked me if I could do some electrical work to the place. Then the container showed up so we've all been working on show related projects. However, Tim Hanson is a God send. In the container we had enough parts and wire to make many extensions cords with duplex boxes so while it's not ideal with all of the cords running along the walls, we've been able to keep two industrial sewing machines, one domestic, an iron, a soldering station, a test circuit for lamps and cables, some various grinders, hot glue guns etc and a sound system for the shop running smoothly.

Paramos para almoczar! means stop for lunch. That's my daily exclamation around noon. everyone giggles at my spanish but I think (and hope) they appreciate that I'm trying to speak their language. The project feeds everyone lunch everyday in appreciation for their help. We all walk down to Villa Balanza and eat together everyday. The cast also goes for lunch there before they start their rehearsals at 1pm. So it's that time now, I'm signing off. More later...

Mel - Day 10

Wow! What a thunderstorm last night. Incredible thunder and lightning. Intense downpours that lasted for hours. I had a moment of panic when I wondered if our room would leak (it is just that rippled tin after all) but was too tired to wake up enough to really care. I think the thunderstorms were a good metaphor for what was to come later in the day.

I think the heat is starting to get to everyone (no, the rain did nothing to cool things off – think pouring water over hot rocks in a sauna!) and the tensions due to our lack of time are starting to build. There were a couple of minor freakouts today from all involved (well, maybe not Mike but as I said yesterday his posse is awesome). I know, you’re all thinking awesome… just what we’ve been waiting for.

We had a production meeting this morning went well except no-one from Es Artes was really there. We knew that Tatiana couldn’t be as she had an important meeting in San Salvador but she had said that Evelyn (kind of the office manager) would replace her. I am not sure what happened but Evelyn was not at this meeting. It was fine and we managed to keep up communication between all of us and I sent out an email afterwards with minutes so that everyone could stay in the loop. It’s really the same type of communication gaps that happen in every theatre/business/project. I think we might feel they are amplified here because we already feel a distance due to our language barrier. Who knows? After all of our freakouts about various things I think we all realized (or reminded each other) that we need to take a moment and remember that we are not in our own country and that we need to be respectful of how some things might work differently here or that there may be extenuating circumstances as to why something is not happening that we think should be.

Due to my own freakout, Tito managed to get in touch with the welder guy at Esquela Taller, Mario and made arrangements to have the base of the sewing machine fixed. Mike figured out what needed to be done and sent one of his guys to the school with the pieces with Ed, the director, driving Patricia, the assistant director’s, truck. With a combined effort from everyone we had that sewing machine up and running by lunch. Yay!!!!! And a huge thanks to everyone who made this happen.

The only problem is that we don’t have enough people to be running 2 machines right now. The lovely seamstress, Soyla, was back all day today and she went to town on putting together the tunics (she is rapidly catching up to everything I have cut!) And, Ojenia was in this morning continuing on preparing the material for the God tunics. However, by after lunch we were down to just Soyla and me. 2 people with 38 tops and bottoms to cut, sew, alter and finish in under a week leaves me feeling very, very worried. I think that we were under the impression that the school was more up and running and that each department would have a pool of volunteers from the school. Mike certainly has a very dedicated crew who show up at 8:30 and don’t leave til 5pm and diligently work away at any task he gives him (even when it is soldering Soca ends!) But I think Sean and I are feeling a bit adrift. We’ll have more conversations with everyone at Es Artes and I am sure they will find some more volunteers for us. I feel kind of bad right now though as I don’t feel like I am really teaching them anything new – that instead I am the one who is learning so much. (Spanish, all about local natural dying processes and techniques)

Despite the bit of tension in the air I do feel like we had a very productive day. We now have all but the God tunics cut and almost all of the community and hunter tunics put together. Sean has agreed to ‘simplify’ the basic design just a bit so that the bottoms of the costume will either be a pair of capris/short pants, a short or a long wraparound skirt. I drafted a pattern for the pants this afternoon (Good Lord I hate pattern drafting – it takes me forever!!!!!). So now all of the pants are cut for the hunters. Sean had a couple of women preparing the quilted bits for the maypole (I think he talked about this element of the set design in his last blog) and we will have Soyla start on that tomorrow. All in all, it is going quite well. We have 2 days before costume fittings and so far I feel confident that we should have a top and a bottom for everyone by that time. Then comes the altering and finishing!!!!

Mike’s day seemed be very productive as he had his crew working on a mock-up of the larger lighting grid we hope to erect in the chapel. We cannot hang anything or lean against anything so anything that we do has to be free-standing. From the mock-up they did it seems like everything should work very well. They are a funny group of young guys – very machismo. Every time I wander out there to see what’s going on they all look at me like I am crazy. I was checking out the mixer that we brought with us and Mike and I had a bit of a conversation about it’s various features and the guy he had been showing it to gave me this look of complete and utter confusion. We decided tonight that I should go out and give them a soldering lesson tomorrow or something just to shake them up a bit more! :)

By 6:30 the light had faded enough that it was difficult to work and so off we went to dinner. We went to a new restaurant this time – Harlequin. Fancier than where we have been going and still very yummy. I had the ‘Plato Tipico’ which is a piece of beef, refried beans, avocado, fresh cheese, a salad and some fried plantains. Very, very tasty! We wandered to the square and our favourite hangout, Lupitas, for a couple of night caps and some cards. Then we sleepily meandered home while stargazing and the intense night sky and lamenting that we only have 2 more weeks in this crazy, amazing little town.

Sean - The Story in Short

Back again, taking a break this afternoon briefly from mask and shield building to tell you all about what's been shaking down the pipe, as they say. First off, the weather has been incredibly humid and much to the disbelief of the community, it has been raining in March which hasn't helped. When the crate finally arrived yesterday morning from Stratford and the sky began to pour, you could only laugh. I think it was a test from the Mayan gods to our determination!!! We unloaded the truck with several helpers and directed them to the courtyard and workrooms, trying as we went to pile like with like. With the boxes labelled in English only and the helpers uni-lingually Spanish, there was a lot of arm-waving and pointing. It was how I imagined my career as a airport runway director, only far more exciting because the supplies had finally arrived. The next 48 hours have been spent unpacking and digging for the materials needed to proceed with the show. We are at a loss for shelving at the moment, so there has been a bit of frustration and a significant lack of floor space, but with some ingenuity we have managed to construct a few things to help with storage. A storage skid has been upturned and nailed to 1x3 to create a rocking painting corner, housing the brushes on nails. Some cinder-block and plank shelves have been used to create our swatch wall full of bits and pieces from Stratford's scrap fabric collection. Having a place to put things has made today go so much smoother. We managed to get the first sewing machine up and running yesterday (with a few choice words that can't be printed and a TON of oil up and down my arms), and today a local guy from the trade school managed to weld the legs of the second table back together and it is now running just as smoothly. Thankfully all they needed was a little TLC to get them going and not a full overhaul. By the end of yesterday we were all ripe and filthy but so pleased that we finally had the beginnings of a proper workspace with the equipment needed to get the show underway. We've had a ton of volunteers chipping in and Mike has been holding an electrics 101 for some local boys that seems to be going really well. They're not so keen to help with the wardrobe side, but with a little encouragement, (or bribery of cool beverages), they've been helpful with some of the more menial tasks of sorting thread spools. It seems that gender roles are still played out in the workplace and there's a definite divide between MANual labour and craft-work. I think that'll change soon once they see how much fun props can be! We've had a lovely seamstress in who spent the early part of the week dying some fabric in the traditional indigo technique for our story, which has been great. It's really nice to be able to use the skills that are here and to draw from the culture for the telling of our myth. I think the audience will really connect with the colours and textures of the show and recognize the effort. Speaking of which, you might be asking what is the show? Well, it's a short myth loosely based on classic folklore from the Mayan and Aztec culture. It begins with a group of Hunters who are granted special help in finding their sport by the gods if they remain humble and serve the community. A group of troublesome spirits arrive to corrupt the morals of our proud group and soon the game is being used for riches and not survival. Once this is discovered by the community and the gods, the Hunters are threatened with exile, but plead for a second chance. In our story they get one, under some serious conditional terms, but in the authentic tale they are sent to live in the woods invisible from society forever. I have been researching the Mayan and Aztec culture, drawing from their art and tools to design the props and costumes. I'm using a lot of symbolism, giving each character their own role in the community. As an example, the Mayans believed that the directions of North, South, East and West were connected with colours from their world so I have been assigning roles to the hunters that coincide with these beliefs labelling a character, Hunter of the North with his matching colour as a companion and so on. Their costumes will reflect traditional Mayan simplicity, indigo dyed with their symbolism painted on as a crest for others to recognize them by. I will also be using stones and local beads to enhance and denominate the social structure of the tribe. We've managed to pull together some wonderful natural textures from the scraps that Stratford sent and will be incorporating these into shawls, bundles and baby wraps. In addition we have a multi-level stage for playing on that has a centre insert for a style of maypole to celebrate the riches of the hunt. I'm taking more scraps to create a patchwork collage on the ribbons to give the piece some extra depth and bring some natural life to the ceremony. Masks will play a role in the misgivings of our trickster spirits, disguising them from the world as they try to stir up doubt and distrust with in the community. All of these projects are fairly loose in the way they are laid out, so there is some room for the local volunteers to participate and bring their own style to the piece. I'm really looking forward to seeing how it all comes together. That's about it for now. Lots to do so I should run before someone thinks the designer is slacking. Thanks for all your support, some costume renderings will be posted soon for you to get a clearer idea of what the traditional garb might have looked like in the period. Buenos, Sean xo

Mel - Day 8 and 9

As the days are getting quite busy now I find I do not have the time to do my leisurely morning writing and blog posting. So, I will endeavour to type them out at night and post them first thing when I arrive at Es Artes the following morning. This has resulted in two days in one posting.

Day 8

We've been here a week already! Crazy! We had quite a productive day today - albeit a bit of a stressful one at times. Shortly after our arrival at Es Artes this morning a woman arrived and started watching me as I worked. I went to the office to ask who she was and was told she was here to help sew. ‘Great’, I thought, ‘my first volunteer’. I have to say, I am a bit proud of myself as I managed to converse with her enough to exchange names (her name is Soyla – sp?) and gather that she does not speak any English. Apparently I did the well enough that she was convinced that I spoke ‘un pocito’ of Spanish. The rest of the conversation proved that I, in fact, do not know un pocito and I finally gave in and went to find someone to translate and we set to work. An hour and a half went by and we still had not seen the woman who we were told would be there at 9am to discuss the dying of the fabric. As I may have mentioned already, I was quite nervous to get this dying process started as we are dying a great deal indigo and I have heard that this process takes quite a bit of time. So, back to the office I go to ask if we knew when this woman was going to show up. They replied, ‘She’s in there already.’ I said, ‘What do you mean? You said she was a seamstress.’ The said, ‘Yes, she is that too!’ After quite an intense discussion involving about 7 people (3 of whom didn’t necessarily need to be there) we established that yes, she is doing the dying for us. We gave her all that we wanted dyed and she left to get started. Sigh! With that settled, I finished cutting the tunics for the Traviesos (or Tricksters) Oh! Have I mentioned the four categories of characters yet? There are: Tricksters = Traviesos

Gods = Dioses

Community = Comunidad

Hunters = Cazadores

In the afternoon I set to work drafting the pattern for the camisoles/tanks for the Gods’ underlayer. Sean and I also had the opportunity to go and see Soyla at work dying the fabric. There is a woman’s centre in Suchitoto where local women make a variety of different products (mostly sewn) and there is space there for dying as well. I don’t have the details yet on how it works – whether they rent space or are paid to be there. But it was great to see and they were so welcoming and friendly and we went through. The indigo dying process is long, intense, and very smelly. First, you need to wash and treat the fabric in preparation for dying. It must they dry completely before the dying happens. Then, depending on how dark you want the finished product, you need to dip it in the dye 4-8 times (for medium to dark fabric). I think it needs to dry somewhat between each of these dips. It takes a very patient and committed person to do this process. Soyla is definitely both of these things. I’ll try to post pictures soon.

Day 9

The container is here!!!!!!!! They said it would be today but I didn’t truly believe it until we walked around the corner and there it was. Tons of people had arrived to help unload and we quickly set to work. The mood in the air was difficult to describe as mere words don’t really capture the joy, optimism, excitement, relief and just absolute glee that was in the air. People kept remarking that it was just like Christmas not quite believing all of the materials that were sent.

For the most part, everything made it quite successfully. One of the sewing machines busted the welds that were holding the legs on and so it had fallen over and dumped machine oil over a couple of toolboxes. Some of the lights on the rack had loosened off their C-clamps and a couple of shutters had popped out (as we had anticipated) but there was not any real damage that was done. Overall, the equipment and materials had survived the trip very well.

The rest of the morning was spent sorting and organizing for us. Sean had a couple of people that had shown up to help him with props but so far, I was on my own. We tried to organize our props/wardrobe workroom as best as possible but we are still waiting on shelves and so could only do so much. Mike had 4 guys that had shown up to work with him on sound and lighting stuff and they were so eager!!!!!! Mike set them to work right away sorting and organizing. Checking all of the lighting fixtures and fixing anything that needed it. I’ll have to post pictures of the Intro to Electricity lesson that Mike gave mid-morning. They are all listening so intently! I watched them afterwards putting twist-lock plug ends on cable and being so careful to do exactly what Mike had taught them – never grumbling when Mike had them re-do something, just intense concentration as they tried to make it perfect. They worked all day in this sweltering heat never once complaining (even when Sean and I made a couple of them sort spools of thread until Mike could find another project for them). Our North American teenagers and young adults could take a lesson from these guys!

After lunch Soyla arrived with the newly dyed indigo fabric. It looks amazing!!!! I tried to ask if she was here to help for the rest of the afternoon. Words failed but actions didn’t as she quickly got the jist of what I was doing and jumped right in. By mid-afternoon Sean and Mike had managed to get one of the sewing machines working (while I continued cutting more fabric). I took over to thread a bobbin and then thread the machine and try it out. Soyla and I had this fabulous exchange with her holding the manual and me threading the machine. I am not quite sure if she was asking me about the features of the machine - telling me about how to make the stitches longer or shorter, adjust the tension, move from zigzag to straight stitches. I do feel however that the smiling she was doing at the end of this was really saying ‘Good job little girl on learning that machine!’ :) The whole thing just makes me chuckle. She left soon afterwards but she is coming back tomorrow and is ready to sew! Oh, I also found out that two of her children are in the show. Sean showed her a costume sketch of what her son will be wearing and I truly don’t think I have seen a prouder mother.

After this I was on my own again and set to work cutting the dark indigo cloth which will be the tunics for the hunters. It was a bit nerve racking as we didn’t quite have enough fabric for all 8 tunics so I had to make some interesting adjustments on the fly and I was so nervous about screwing up the beautiful work that Soyla had done. It worked out in the end and by 6 tonight all of the hunter tunics were cut. We were all hot and sweaty from out long day so we finally packed it in around 7pm and headed out for dinner with Patricia and Capitan Roca. (I did get the story on the Capitan part of his name but it is too cute to share via blog.)

We have decided to have a brief production meeting every morning at 8:30am so that we can be sure that everyone is on the same page as we all head into the rest of the day (as communication has been a bit of an issue – just like it is in most theatres, businesses etc.)

I’ll post pics as soon as I can or can perhaps get Mike to!

So much excitement here. It’s truly amazing.

Mel - Day 7 (sorry it's a bit late)

Ahhh…. Sleeping in… what a beautiful thing. We agreed that after our crazy disco night that we shouldn’t push ourselves and so agreed that we would meet for breakfast at noon and then head over to Es Artes after that.

When we arrived we discovered that the room was finished being painted and we set to work. Over the next couple of hours I drafted the pattern for the small and medium size of tunics, measured out the fabric to be dyed and the other fabrics we will be using, and Sean and I finalized what fabric would be used for which group of characters and had some further discussions about the design of the show. It was a very successful afternoon and this greatly helped put my mind at ease knowing that at least this pattern was done – pattern drafting not being my forte!

We had a let down when we found out that the pool closes at 5pm on Sundays :( so we headed off to the Town Square for cervezas instead. Let’s talk about the Square shall we. What a vibrant, welcoming, wonderful place the Town Square is. On the weekends there are food and slushy carts that come out and a whole market of craft stalls is set up. During the weekdays it is bustling with people as soon as they are done work and on Sat. and Sun. it is like this all day long. It seems like all the town’s children were gathered there – some playing soccer, three were having a race from the fountain to a tree, and two more were hopping from cobblestone to cobblestone. Grandmothers and grandfathers, moms and dads, neighbours and friends all gather in the Square. Life is vibrant here. It made me sad for Stratford (and many town and cities in Canada) whose town life is being pushed out of its core and into suburbs and shopping centres. Where is the human connection? We seem to have forgotten the importance of taking the time to say ‘Hello! How was your day?’ and truly taking the time to be interested and listen to their answer. Perhaps if Stratford’s downtown core was more than a parking lot and bus depot we would have this kind of vibrancy here. I should be clear that we definitely have this kind of connection and attitude within the shops themselves, however it is when you leave those spaces and walk outside to concrete that that joy is lost. I realize that this also takes a change in people’s attitudes as well and maybe I am putting the cart before the proverbial horse in wishing for a re-design of our ‘town square’ but I can’t help but ruminate over what might be… Alright. I will get off of my soapbox now. :)

Well… wait… I have to sort of step back up there for a moment - but on a completely different topic. We were also told a story today by one of the actors working with us that has upset me quite a bit. I can’t do anything to change the situation but I feel the need to share it with you and maybe this same kind of thing can be avoided in some small way elsewhere. It seems that the main job of this actor is to teach acting to a group of – how do I put it politely – disadvantaged youth in San Salvador. Basically this arts program (acting, drawing, dance etc.) is what keeps most of these kids going as it gives them some positive thing to look forward to during their week. Well, this teacher showed up at the school on Sat. to teach their class only to find no students at all and all of the rest of the teachers crowded around wondering what was happening. Eventually, someone arrived to announce that the program had been ‘suspended’ while the new government (who took control under a year ago) was reviewing all of the old governments programs. Really what is happening is that the new government is just canceling any program that was created by the previous government. The teachers, understandably, are truly devastated. Not only do they all lose their jobs with no warning at all but hundreds of children are left to suffer the consequences of this decision. Argh!!!!! Politics!!!!! Who is going to be harmed by this – the previous government, their policy makers, their supporters? No! It’s innocent children who now have one less good thing in their lives. In a city and country that is so plagued by gang violence and criminal activity why on earth would you cancel a program that was keeping the youth from gravitating towards these activities? Arghhhh!!!!! Ok… now I’m definitely getting off my soapbox. (and hopefully will not be imprisoned for it! :)

We ended our evening with a lovely dinner at Gringos with Patricia and Ojenia. I tried the Tortilla Soup. It was spectacular! We found out at dinner that we have apparently come to El Salvador at the worst time of year. It’s the time of year that is the hottest, with subsequently the most disease, when even the locals get sick! (I feel slightly vindicated regarding my recent intestinal woes)

Travel Tip of the Day:

Don’t come to El Salvador in March – wait til December instead :)