For most of us, a night at the theater is a big deal. We might only go a few times a year for a special occasion or a favorite show or performer. Maybe never. Compared to other ways to get the stories and music we love, the theater is not the most convenient or economical option.
Yet, there is nothing that compares to great live theater. The immediacy and intimacy. The remarkable unedited and un-computer-generated performances. The ancient connection between actor and audience that predates the Greeks.
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Theater can be a little intimidating — even in English, as anyone who has ever been to a Shakespeare Festival can attest. The glory of the theater is the spoken word — and, as opposed to movies, there are a lot of spoken words in most plays. Close attention is required.
So why would a visitor to Latin America, without ample language skills, consider attending live theater? If you think Shakespeare is tough, what kind of frustration are you asking for when all the words spoken are in español? ¡Dios mío! ¡Imposible!
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Before dismissing the idea and heading to the multiplex for an English-language movie with Spanish subtitles (common all over Latin America), stretch a bit and consider a night of legitimate theatre in Spanish.
If you are a first-timer, here are a few travel tips for making the evening a positive new experience:
1. Choose the right show. To get you started, consider a story you are familiar with that you personally like. No need to overwhelm yourself with too much newness. You can get more adventurous later.
2. Try performances that have little dialogue. My son and I took in a Cirque du Soleil show in Santiago, Chile when he was 15 and at a time when he understood little Spanish. There are so few words in any language in these shows that the handful they spoke are clear by context. We had a great evening along with packed house of chilenos.
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3. Try musical plays. Seek familiar Broadway musicals that are performed in castellano – another word used interchangeably for Spanish in Latin America. Music is a universal language and conveys emotion like nothing else. My daughter is an aficionada of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera, so I took her to see El Fantasma de la Opera in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She already knew the songs and story, so she could sit back and enjoy the emotional ride. She was delighted by the translation into Spanish, the Latino passion of the actors and the tearful reaction of the porteño audience. A first-rate production at a fraction of the cost of Broadway or London’s West End with a Spanish cultural and language lesson thrown in.
4. Choose kid-friendly content. If you are traveling with the kids, by all means take them to a short presentation of a children’s program such as Pedrito y el Lobo (Peter and the Wolf, by Prokofiev). Classics like these are so familiar that the unfamiliar language has a way of making it all new again – even for adults. The kids will learn that a pato is a duck, a pajarito is a little bird and an abuelo is a grandpa. The emotion of the music carries the story along.
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5. Prepare before you go. If you want to attend a more indigenous, unfamiliar play, learn all you can about it before you go. Even a rough outline of the plot or theme will give you hints to what the dramatic conflict may be. There are some English-language reviews of productions online these days. You may see a classical Spanish comedy by Lope de Vega, for example, and read up on the story on Wikipedia before heading to the theater – a three-minute investment to make the evening more enjoyable.
6. Enjoy the subtext. In the end, acting is all about subtext over text or mere words. A good actor performs the line conveying what he really means no matter what words he uses. The audience reads the meaning through facial expression, gesture and context, and actually skips much of the dialogue, no matter what the language. For example, Charlie Chaplin moves us to laughter and tears without a single word in his classic films. Subtext works in our favor when we speak muy poco español. We observe the context and we understand the story. Subtext tends to shine through even when the words wash over us. So stop trying so hard and enjoy the show!
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7. Admire the venue. The theater itself may be reason enough to attend a show. The building might be the star. For example, the lovely Teatro Solis, a municipal theatre right on the main Plaza de Independencia in Montevideo, Uruguay, is an archetectual beauty as well as a superb performance venue. A play, symphony or singer in this venue can be a real pleasure.
The Teatro Municipal in Santiago, Chile also comes to mind. An ornate wedding cake of a place, the management was kind enough to give us a private tour when they learned that we had come from so far so see it. Never hurts to ask! The box office is directly in front of the theater, where they host many larger productions.
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8. Admire the audience, too. After the Teatro Municipal tour in Santiago, we had to see a performance there. It so happened that there was a production the Broadway classic Man of La Mancha on the boards that evening. We hummed “The Impossible Dream” all the way back to the hotel after an unique evening: The theater arches looked like white lace framing the balcony seats. Ladies fanning themselves and gentlemen in their finest. It was like a modern-day scene out of Amadeus.
Note that some theaters have real, old-time ushers who show you not just the general direction of your seat, they will also take you to your exact seat — and expect a propina (tip) for doing so. Be ready with a few coins. This is part of the cultura teatral.
Finally, loosen up and try something new. You didn’t catch every word? So what! Take it all in as part of a cultural experience slightly apart from your own. Observe the attendees. Enjoy a drink at intermission.Get outside your comfort zone and soak up the entirety – even if you don’t catch every word.