17 May 2007

Latin American Youth Enthusiastic About Theater Amigo

Theater professors hold workshops in Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua

 

Kerry Skalsky collaborates with the Theater Amigo actors during rehearsals. (Dennis Mosley)

By Jeffrey Thomas
USINFO Staff Writer

Washington -- Three American theater professors who are in the midst of a U.S. State Department-sponsored series of workshops for youth known as Theater Amigo are receiving enthusiastic responses as they tour four Latin American countries.

“It’s been completely revelatory: the responses we’ve gotten are exactly what we’ve been after,” one of the professors, Kerry Skalsky, told USINFO May 16. “It’s about how art can supersede political problems and bring people together and work toward something that touches everyone and is cross-cultural. It’s just been wonderful.”

In the first series of workshops, in Bolivia April 9-21, Skalsky and colleagues Rebecca Martinez and Hal Ryder taught acting, voice and movement skills to 25 students at Teatro Trono, a youth community theater group based in El Alto that was formed about 10 years ago. Teatro Trono seeks to provide a constructive alternative to drug abuse and violence and to act as an agent for social change -- participating, for example, in public service and environmental conservation campaigns through street theater.

“We learned that theater for them is about expressing their immediate concerns and problems with their situations economically, politically, socially. They’re very vibrant,” said Skalsky.

The professors were amazed by the dedication and abilities of the Teatro Trono students "because we didn’t know what to expect -- but we weren’t expecting such enthusiasm,” said Ryder, the leader of the group presenting the workshops, Educational Arts Resource Services Inc. “These kids sort of embraced us and just would go to the ends of the earth to help us create a piece of art. They were highly motivated.”

Ryder said his experience in Bolivia confirmed his belief that theater brings people together and helps them overcome differences. The participants demonstrated their newly acquired skills in a public performance of two short plays in downtown La Paz on April 21. “Our final performance there was stunning,” Ryder said. “It was a very difficult work situation in many ways, but we had 300 people in the audience who were absolutely transformed by the experience.”

In each city, a two-week workshop has culminated in a performance, and a television crew has been filming a documentary on the Theater Amigo initiative. The performances have been “very well received,” Skalsky said, “and the talks afterwards with the audience have been the highlight, really, because we met with great response to the program and ... the students themselves have been absolutely thrilled.”

Theater Amigo presented a second series of workshops in Caracas, Venezuela, April 23-May 4, and a third in Quito, Ecuador, May 7-May 18.

“Going on to Caracas was another kind of transformation," Ryder said, "... in terms of the fact that we had some belief that the work we were doing was doing a kind of healing we hoped it would. We’ve seen that in Caracas, and we’re seeing that now in Quito. As someone who has put [his] life into theater 34 or 35 years, it’s just rewarding to know that the art form that I chose can bring people together and move people.”

Skalsky said that while Bolivia’s Teatro Trono was “a very tight-knit theater group,” the groups in Caracas and now Quito are a mixture of young people and “most of them don’t know each other. ... It’s a huge mix and a very different energy -- just as exciting but quite different.”

The final series of workshops will take place May 21-June 1 in Managua, Nicaragua.

In all three cities, Theater Amigo has met with a warm, friendly response from the community as well as the workshop participants, Ryder said. “People feel like theater is beyond politics and beyond borders,” he added.

As a second phase of the Theater Amigo initiative, two participants in the workshops from each country will travel to the United States for two weeks of follow-up training. “Not only will they see performances and work with American theater artists and Latino theater artists and make those contacts, but they also will put on some kind of presentation,” said Ryder.

Skalsky said the experience has changed the perceptions of all concerned. “We’re learning from every city ... how there are boundaries that are difficult but possible to cross. ... We’ve had to give a little bit; it’s been a balancing point to meet them halfway. It’s been really interesting and exciting.”

For more stories on the influence of artists in society, see The Arts.

(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)