To say that I´ve been burning the candle at both ends this week would be something of an understatement. Rather, I made a bonfire of several candles and danced around it Bacchanalia-style for 8 days. I don´t know if that extended metaphor worked, but maybe that more clearly demonstrates my current state. That is all to say that today ends a week in which I worked 12-14 hours every day (between normal work and the theater), attended upwards of 15 plays, had a birthday, and saw the sunrise a couple of times from the night end of things. Despite the chaos though, or more probably because of it, I was just rereading my journal entries for the past few days and found several notes saying, "write blog post about how super this week was." So now in no particular order: this week.
First for the theater. What I initially interpreted as charming albeit annoying disorganization proved instead to be irreparable and unabashed mismanagement. Every single play started at least 30 minutes late (letting us out around midnight some nights), volunteers rarely knew exactly what we were supposed to be doing, and no one was sure if the group from the Congo was actually going to come until 4 days after they were supposed to arrive (they didn´t come). This last part was particularly frustrating for my friend Hortencia who was supposed to be their assistant and received absolutely zero communication until the festival director mentioned it as an afterthought. Despite the myriad problems with the festival itself, I saw some really great performances and worked with actors and volunteers from all over Bolivia and the world. The "chief" of my theater, Andrea, and I have become really good friends and a few nights we went out with the cast that night´s performance. We settled into a really comfortable routine and she helped Hortencia and me get into some of the more popular plays (the group from Holland being the stand-out in our opinion). All for free!
Another great part of the week was having Hortencia stay with me. We´ve developed a really natural and comfortable dynamic and we´ve spent the majority of the past two weeks together. Despite my usual aversion to doing things for my birthday, at Hortencia´s insistance we went out with some friends to my favorite bar and had a fantastic time. She left today to travel around Bolivia for two weeks but will be back for a few days after which we´re hoping to take a weekend trip to Sorata.
Lastly (but really kind of firstly) I had a really enjoyable birthday on Monday. My co-worker Liz got me a big, extravagant cake and an acquaintance who works in a jewelry store in the same gallery gave me a great necklace and bracelet. I went out to lunch courtesy of the store and had a peaceful night volunteering before going out with friends. Pretty much perfect.
And that´s about the extent of it. I´ve left out the substantial amount of social life and work that went on as well, but suffice it to say that although this week was really one of my better ones, I´m ready for a cup of tea and a nap. This week expect to find me keeping monastic hours and a strict regimen of NPR podcasts and lemon teas.
Coming soon: the living hell of visa applications and an immigration-required stint in Chile
28 March 2010
19 March 2010
The Theater, The Theater, What´s Happened to the Theater?
So a few weeks ago I signed up to volunteer with the International Theater Festival of La Paz (FITAZ) which brings companies from all over the world to a relative dramatic backwater for two weeks every March. My friend Hortencia signed up as well and having a bit of theater experience from high school, I was excited to get involved on the professional level. While I´m still excited, thus far my encounters with the festival´s colorful characters, chronic organizational malfunction, and demanding hours seem to be teaching me more about Bolivian culture than the world of international theater.
One of the first surprises I encountered in this volunteer experience was when I sent in my form listing all of the times I was available to work for the festival. Whereas in the US when you say you could conceivably work for 5 hours every night for 9 days, you probably will not be asked to do so, this has proven not to be the case in Bolivia. I´m sure the volunteer director lit up at seeing what he obviously interpreted as my eagerness and now I´m the theater assistant in Teatro de Cámara from March 20-28, 7:30-12:00.
Another surprise has been the drastically different expectations of theater etiquette between my past experience and what I´ve encountered here. Not only do most theater patrons loudly munch snacks during the performance, leave and enter seemingly without consideration to timing, and treat humble theater volunteers with contempt, but several people I´ve seen hardly act differently in the playhouse than they do in the soccer stadium. Don´t get me wrong, I´m really enjoying the theater (run-ins with aggressive 60-something women included) and have met a few great people. But at the same time this has maybe been the biggest cultural shock of my time here.
For the most part theater in the US is an almost sacred space with pretty concretized rules and expectations (although obviously several American theaters purposefully try to subvert that system). To compare that structure with the chaos of theater in Bolivia highlights one of the biggest differences in our national cultures. While Americans aren´t as disciplined or timely as the Swiss or Germans for example, Bolivian disorder makes the US seem like a utopia of systematic precision. If you´re into that.
I don´t think it´s possible to make a blanket statement about which is better. Certainly in some circumstances a bit more organization would be nice (I would love for one of these plays to start on time for example) but not in all. As much as I don´t like being the bullied volunteer (I´ve always been a martyr for the arts), the unruliness also makes the theater more accessible in a way. Maybe I´ll lose that relativistic perspective as the week wears on, but my theater outing has been a great test of my ability to adapt, go with the flow, and for at least 5 hours a day, adopt a more "Bolivian" mentality.
One of the first surprises I encountered in this volunteer experience was when I sent in my form listing all of the times I was available to work for the festival. Whereas in the US when you say you could conceivably work for 5 hours every night for 9 days, you probably will not be asked to do so, this has proven not to be the case in Bolivia. I´m sure the volunteer director lit up at seeing what he obviously interpreted as my eagerness and now I´m the theater assistant in Teatro de Cámara from March 20-28, 7:30-12:00.
Another surprise has been the drastically different expectations of theater etiquette between my past experience and what I´ve encountered here. Not only do most theater patrons loudly munch snacks during the performance, leave and enter seemingly without consideration to timing, and treat humble theater volunteers with contempt, but several people I´ve seen hardly act differently in the playhouse than they do in the soccer stadium. Don´t get me wrong, I´m really enjoying the theater (run-ins with aggressive 60-something women included) and have met a few great people. But at the same time this has maybe been the biggest cultural shock of my time here.
For the most part theater in the US is an almost sacred space with pretty concretized rules and expectations (although obviously several American theaters purposefully try to subvert that system). To compare that structure with the chaos of theater in Bolivia highlights one of the biggest differences in our national cultures. While Americans aren´t as disciplined or timely as the Swiss or Germans for example, Bolivian disorder makes the US seem like a utopia of systematic precision. If you´re into that.
I don´t think it´s possible to make a blanket statement about which is better. Certainly in some circumstances a bit more organization would be nice (I would love for one of these plays to start on time for example) but not in all. As much as I don´t like being the bullied volunteer (I´ve always been a martyr for the arts), the unruliness also makes the theater more accessible in a way. Maybe I´ll lose that relativistic perspective as the week wears on, but my theater outing has been a great test of my ability to adapt, go with the flow, and for at least 5 hours a day, adopt a more "Bolivian" mentality.
02 March 2010
Fighting For The Right To Party
Today and tomorrow bus and taxi drivers in La Paz are hunger striking and blocking roads in protest of a new law they consider grossly unjust. What possible new law could incite such a reaction you ask? A law which would revoke the drivers licenses of people caught driving drunk.
That´s right, in a country in which hundreds of people needlessly die in traffic accidents every year (most of them in the exact "intoxicated bus driver" incidents the new law aims to stop), bus unions are picketing and bringing the national transportation system to a stop for two days in an attempt to maintain their right to drive drunk.
And I thought the tea-partiers in the US were crazy.
That´s right, in a country in which hundreds of people needlessly die in traffic accidents every year (most of them in the exact "intoxicated bus driver" incidents the new law aims to stop), bus unions are picketing and bringing the national transportation system to a stop for two days in an attempt to maintain their right to drive drunk.
And I thought the tea-partiers in the US were crazy.
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