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Dramatic Descarga
About sexual co-dependency before the twelve-step
program
BY MIA LEONIN
| Actor, writer, and director Larry
Villanueva calls his play Allá Afuera Hay
Fresco "una descarga." The term descarga,
usually reserved for music, refers to a jam session,
but Villanueva asserts that in this case there's
no better word to describe what happens on the
stage during this explosive one-act: "The
play is very jazzlike. There's a lot of room for
improvisation textually and emotionally."
And like a jazz riff, in repeating itself, it
has developed its own idiosyncratic melody and
structure over the past seven years. |
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"The play began in 1997,"
explains Villanueva, "when I decided to gather
material from a lot of things happening around me
-- several friends going through intense conflicts
in their relationships. I started to have fun with
it and I created a monster, meaning all of these different
situations became one story about one couple."
Allá Afuera is definitively
an actor's play -- a piece of theater designed to
push performers to expand their craft. The first actress
to perform the female role was Luz Marabel, who performed
Rosie Inguanzo's adaptation of the monologue Malecon
in Little Havana's Tower Theater last summer: "Luz's
passion and strength on the stage inspired the creation
of the character Vicky," says Villanueva. "I
felt that her talent hadn't been fully realized yet
and I think this role gave her the opportunity."
Now, seven years later, the same thing is happening
with Venezuelan-born actress Alexa Kuve. Kuve has
performed in numerous Spanish telenovelas and on Miami's
stages as well, but Villanueva sees the character
of Vicky as a challenge the actress has yet to take
on: "On TV you don't have the opportunity to
explore a wide range of emotions because soap operas
are one-dimensional. It's either good or bad. In theater
you have the opportunity to work with subtleties."
Kuve is definitely up for the challenge.
In 2001 she demonstrated her ability to play a strong
female role with her ballsy portrayal of Felicia in
La Ultima Parada, the Spanish adaptation of Tennessee
Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Rolando
Moreno. Still Villanueva asserts that this will be
a transition in the developing actress's career. "This
play asks the actors to go into uncomfortable places
emotionally and psychologically. It demands an emotional
range and aptitude that pushes the actors to develop
their resources. Although these characters are neurotic
and over the top, they also are multidimensional."
Over the top may be an understatement.
The dramatic situation: a barren stage, a bed, a man,
a woman, and an age-old theme. "It's about a
couple, Vicky and Rey [played by Villanueva], who
want to separate," explains Villanueva, "but
they can't because they still haven't fulfilled each
other, especially sexually." Allá Afuera
Hay Fresco is sexual co-dependency before the twelve-step
program. It proposes to immerse actor and audience
alike in the central moment of crisis -- a dramatic
situation without an extensive plot, detailed setting,
or host of characters to promise resolution. It's
an explosion of desire, destructive impulses, regret,
anxiety, and passion. The bare-bones structure of
a dialogue-driven one-act creates a vehicle for intense
interpersonal exchange, emotional extremes, and ultimately
catharsis. As Villanueva describes, Allá Afuera
is a kind of therapy for the actor: "It's a chance
to use the character as a mask through which the actors
can truly vent, rant, and explore their limits. Ultimately
it should be an emotionally liberating experience
for actor and audience alike."
Why pay $200 an hour for the couch
when you've got the stage?
Besides numerous roles in theater,
Villanueva is particularly known for his interpretation
of Bobby in the 1996 movie Azúcar Amarga. Now
studying film at the University of Miami and having
recently completed production on two shorts, Villanueva
is using his ability to move from stage to screen
to enhance his creative skills in both genres. In
fact he plans to eventually take Allá Afuera
that same route: "Theater for me is like rehearsing
a film so eventually, once I've seen it in 3-D [the
stage], I will put in 1-D [the screen]. The theater
is the actor's most important medium. Movement, projection,
contact with the audience -- these are all tools that
the stage forces you to hone, whereas in film, the
camera can often do a lot of the work for you."
Either way, it will prove worthwhile to watch this
artist as he explores the possibilities of both media.
Fuente:
New Times
Mayo 2003
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