When they finally came,
they started to play creepy music and to act
by saying a beautiful monologue out loud. At
first I was a little bit shocked since I am
not used to seeing people act so dramatically
as they do in the theatre, but after a while,
I got into the monologue and it felt like I
was sitting in front of the stage and not in
the classroom. They performed some extracts
from Shakespeare’s plays that kept being
interrupted by Sandro, one of the three actors
that had come to act for us. He would explain
thing about the monologue we had just seen,
facts about how Shakespeare wrote it, and especially
how they wanted to focus on the importance of
supporting characters. The actors would start
arguing with each other about how annoying it
was Sandro interrupting the play all the time.
This gave a comical sense to what we were watching.
After a few
minutes, they went on to play a little extract
from ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Sergio
started talking in an Andalusian accent which
made us laugh because it came out as something
really random. They tried to highlight this
supporting Andalusian character who plays a
servant that brings a letter to Romeo so he
will be able to attend the party where he will
meet Juliet. If this character did not exit,
Romeo would not be able to meet Juliet. Sandro
also explained that his accent was strategically
meant to make people laugh, the same as Shakespeare
would use, let’s say a Scottish accent
in his plays.
After playing
an extract from one of the most famous plays
ever written, Adán and Sergio, the other
two actors, still complained about not having
a big role so they both got to perform ‘Romeo
and Juliet’. To decide who would play
Romeo and who Juliet, they started a play packed
with puns. Finally, they started preparing the
set for the scene while Adán told Sergio
how he had auditioned for a big role in another
play. This was just an excuse to start a dialogue
with lots of Latin expressions that we use on
a daily basis, just to show us the importance
of this “dead” language in our society.
I really enjoyed this part, and I wish I could
have recorded it to show it to all the people
who say it is useless to study Latin nowadays.
The Romeo and
Juliet bit was truly hilarious. It showed both
characters waking up and discussing about the
time it was judging by the sounds different
birds were making- a lark for the day and a
nightingale for the night. This was an excuse
for explaning how the people from the 16th century
understood the reference, which led Sandro to
justify that Shakespeare wrote his play for
peasants, not just for refined people. We were
told of the importance of theatre, as people
did not have many more ways of entertainment.
Plays had several intervals as they were really
long, and none of the roles could be played
by a woman, son when they had to play a woman,
they would choose an adolescent boy with a high
pitched voice.
They ended
with the skull scene from Hamlet. This part
was touching and for me, kind of disturbing
and fascinating since there used to be a brain
with ideas inside that skull, and all it remained
from him was just a cranium. It turned out it
had belonged to Yorick, the king’s jester.
When everything was over, they answered some
of the questions we asked about being an actor-
how hard it was to live off it, if it was hard
to learn the script, how they felt about acting
in front of a class, what meant for them to
move the public, and so on. When time was up,
we all applauded. They really did a great job.
We even got to touch the skull, which seemed
to be real. I wish we had more activities like
this.
"I
was very surprised by how good they were because
they were able do their job perfectly well in
a small space very close to us, connecting with
us all the time. I have learnt a lot of interesting
things such as the fact that comedy is like
math. If you don’t follow the rhythm,
the performance goes wrong. I was also struck
by the amount of time you have to invest in
training and practicing to become good actors."
Vlada
Ciuntu
"In December, a group of three
actors came to school not only to give a performance
but also to teach us a little bit about the
theatre world and most of all, about Shakespeare.
First they started playing some parts of Shakespeare’s
plays as if they were reharsing them so they
played both the actors and the characters. I
think that was a great idea because that made
you understand the feelings of the actors better
as well as the author and the meaning of each
play."
Ana
Lobeto
"The performance was very good and
I enjoyed meeting the actors and giving our
opinion about the play."
Claudia
Fernández de la Mela
"In my opinion, the play was excellent,
fun to watch and interesting thanks to the information
they gave us. Besides, the actors answered all
our questions and were extremely kind. If anyone
has the opportunity to watch this play, go and
see it! You will have a great time and you will
not regret it!"
Elsa
Gómez
"Their last performance was Hamlet.
I think it was the best, and the most emotional."
Manuel
Angulo
"In my opinion the
purpose of the play is to make young people
want to go and see plays so that they do not
think that the theatre is boring, quite to the
contrary."
Eric
Antolín
"The actors wanted to teach us the importance
of supporting actors."
José A. Bercianos
"The actors said their job was hard because
they must make sense with a lot of gestures
and with the modulation of their voice. They
also nee very good memory because they need
to remember a lot of lines, and if they forget
them, they will spoil the performance."
Carmen
Gutiérrez
“The actors were excellent and the performance
was perfect”
Carolina
Fernández
“It was such a pity I wasn’t there
because William Shakespeare is one of my favourite
authors ever.”
María
Buenaposada
"I wish I had seen it with my own eyes”
Arancha
Gutiérrez
“Alter the play, they were talking to
us, and they were funny, nice, friendly, and
really chatty!”
Laura
de Blas
“We were lucky to see the performance
of Jesters and Servants. Suporting characters
are the ones that trigger the action”
Eva Coso
"I had never lived this experience
of feeling part of a play. Every time the play
stopped seemed so real I wasn’t sure whether
they were acting or not. When they played Romeo
and Juliet, even the actor was moved."
Alba
Liaño
“These actors and the way they interacted
with the audience was very enjoyable.”
Betania
Macías