LA LECCIÓN DE PIANO
de August Wilson
Dirección: Manuel Francisco Viveros
Adaptación: Everett Dixon, Manuel Viveros, Diego Burgos y el Taller de Jóvenes Creadores
Dirección Artística: Everett Dixon
La Lección de Piano (de la selva) en el XII Festival Iberoamericano de Teatro de Bogotá
Marling Rentería y Jhonny Castillo como Berenice y Limón (Foto by Everett Dixon)
Historia Breve del Taller
El Taller de Jóvenes Creadores del Pacífico es un resultado de una iniciativa del Departament de Artes Escénicas de la Universidad del Valle y la Sección de Artes del Ministerio de Cultura, con el apoyo de la Sede Pacífico de la Universidad del Valle en Buenaventura.
Como está escrito en el documento original del proyecto, cuando fue presentado por primera vez: “Este proyecto busca promover iniciativas de entrenamiento en las artes y en el teatro a un nivel informal en partes del país que no tienen acceso a la formación artística.” Su primer objetivo era compensar por la falta de entrenamiento teatral en algunas partes del país, y de fortalecer la identidad cultural de la Costa Pacífica.
Los Jóvenes Creadores nos traen la identidad afro-colombiana, compartiendo en el escenario sus experiencias y creencias, creando nuevos públicos capaces de criticar las relaciones personales y sociales en su entorno.
Este proyecto no solamente ha cumplido son sus expectativas, sino con el tiempo ha vuelto una fuente de creación, investigación y conocimiento de las artes teatrales en la comunidad bonaverense.
Perseverar en este proceso es más importante porque este grupo de jóvenes artistas es un ejemplo de como la dedicación, el esfuerzo y la disciplina pueden traer verdaderas mejorías a las condiciones sociales y de seguridad en Buenaventura, y mantener este tipo de alternativa es un ejemplo dee spíritu y valor para todo un país.
LA LECCIÓN DE PIANO – UN CONFLICTO EN FAMILIA
La obra es la historia de una disputa entre un hermano y una hermana alrededor de una vieja reliquia del legado familiar: una herencia que representa a sus ancestros y los connecta con sus raíces. Pelao Willie llega a casa de Doaker con el deseo de transformar la historia familiar, y para hacer eso, él debe confrontar a su hermana Berenice, la cual se negará de liberarse del pasado.
The play talks of the moral and spiritual values of the African American culture, not just of the northern continent, but of the southern continent as well. In this way we must face the problems of adapting to western life, and the search for an identity that belongs to this continent and not to the exploitation of vestiges of an uprooted African heritage.
The piano becomes a metaphor for a poignant heritage which motivates and troubles all of the members of the family. The old relic is the only story left to them, the materialization of a painful past which still weighs down on them, a past which they don’t know what to do with anymore.
This is an adaptation of the original play, and of course our piano has its own characteristics. In our version, we have only changed names and places, but the original text is maintained almost entirely.
As far as we can tell, this is the premiere of this play in the Spanish-speaking world.
The Author
August Wilson (1945-2005) Radical and provocative playwright, born in 1945 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, whose original name was Frederick August Kittel. His father was a German immigrant who worked as a baker and almost never appeared at home, which is why his African American mother, Daisy Wilson, divorced him. The playwright would later take on his mother’s name.
Awarded the Pulitzer Prize en 1987 and 1990 for his plays Fences and The Piano Lesson, Wilson dedicated himself to recovering the stories of rebellion, dignity and happiness of the black community in the United States during the XX century, in a collection of ten theatre plays, one for each decade, eight of which were premiered on Broadway. He told the story of the arrival of the African slaves to America, the experiences of the grandchildren and great grandchildren of those slaves, and the actual situation of the many middle-class families who would prefer to forget this painful past.
The Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner, author of Angels in America, considers Wilson to be a “giant of the American theatre”. Kushner states that in the tradition begun by Eugene O’Neill and Arthur Miller, “he wrote dramas of social commitment, straightforward and realistic, y re-conquered for the theatre a territory which was considered lost.” However, the playwright’s conviction of the importance of connecting cultural creation with the social reality of a country also gained him enemies. There were some who called him a “separatist” who wanted to turn art into politics.
The Director
Manuel Francisco Viveros. African Colombian artist, graduate of the Theatre Arts Department of the Cauca Valle University, participant in more than five international festivals, Viveros is one of the most highly recognized African American actors of Colombia. He was a member of the former Corporación Teatro del Valle, with which he performed in various productions of the classical repertory, such as Condenado por Desconfiado by Tirso de Molina, Othello by William Shakespeare, and Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov. In 2004, he was named coordinator for the Pacific Coast Workshop for Young Artists, and has staged two productions, Beef, no Chicken by Derek Walcott (co-directed by Everett Dixon), and The Cretins by Roald Dahl. He is currently part of the directing team of the Fundación Teatro del Valle Independiente, of which he is also a founding member. In 2008, he premiered An Enemy of the People by Henirk Ibsen, which won a creation grant for the promotion of culture and tourism from the Cauca Valley Government in 2008. He also teaches theatre classes at the Pacific Coast Branch of Cauca Valley University.
CAST
Doaker Charles, retired, owner of the house - Ferley Salazar Balanta
Boy Willie, Doaker’s nephew - Luis Fernando Borja
Berniece, Boy Willie’s sister - Marling Rentería
Lymon, Boy Willie’s companion - Johnny Castillo
Marietta, Berniece’s daughter - Thalía Ivonne Meza
Harvey, preacher, suitor to Berniece - Oscar Javier Martínez
Wining Boy, Doaker’s brother - Juan Ricardo Buenaventura
Grace, an unknown woman - Jensy Renteria
Direction: Manuel Francisco Viveros
Production: Diego Fernando Burgos
Set Design: Angélica Lorena Hurtado
Costumes: Angélica Lorena Hurtado
Musical Arrangements: Mauricio Nieto Lugo
Project Director: Everett Dixon
CONTRIBUTORS: MINISTRY OF CULTURE/CAUCA VALLEY UNIVERSITY
Minister of Culture: Paula Marcela Moreno
President, Cauca Valley University: Iván Enrique Ramos
Vice-President, Research: Carolina Isaza de Lourido
Director, Four Words Theatre Research Group: Everett Dixon
Director, Cauca Valley University,Pacific Coast Branch: Jesús Glay Mejía
Theatre Arts Department Chairman: Gabriel Uribe
This is a co-production of the Four Worlds Research Group, funded by the Cauca Valley University Office for Investigation, and the Pacific Coast Workshop for Young Artists, funded by the Pacific Coast Branch of Cauca Valley University.
Buenaventura, 2009.
