tlf news Vol. x #1 July, 1989


All the World's a Stage






My name is Guillermo A. Fernández.

I was born in Trinidad, Santa Bárbara, Honduras, in 1956.

I am an actor... I don't know why. I don't know when I began being one. When I was a kid I acted when my parents scolded me; I acted so they would think they'd punished me enough. And sometimes I got what I wanted: they didn't hit me. I didn't realize I was an actor until I was in plays. Now it wasn't for my mother or my father or my brothers and sisters, but in theatre. I don't really know how or when I got into it, but the truth is that now I am an actor and I like it.

I joined teatro la fragua in January of 1981, in its second year. From the moment I started I liked it. For me acting... acting fills me, it gives me a great satisfaction.

When we are rehearsong a show, I try to remember persons I've seen who have something in common with my character. And I imitate their traits: maybe their way of walking or their pot; their stomach, their faces, their gestures. I get a lot of inspiration from cartoons. I like to steal tricks from them that I can use in serious characters. For example, the Baron in the show Misión a la Isla Vacabeza walks on tip-toe; I stole that walk from Tom and Jerry.

In a country as poor as is our Honduras, theatre plays an important role. Theatre paints and reflects the problems we are living. One of our most serious problems is illiteracy: it's illiteracy that keeps us in the mess we're in. Most of our people have no education; most cannot read or write. They're not aware of what's going on in our country because everything is hushed up. Most people don't know what's happening. Or better said, a few know, but the great majority don't.

In the theatre they learn. They leave commenting, "It's true, what the actors showed us in this play." The people begin noticing the problems that some of the people are trying to keep hidden.

That is one of the functions of the theatre in Honduras: the theatre helps people see the problems we are living. And we of teatro la fragua have a mission: we want our people to understand the reality of Honduras.

The reality we are living -- you see it stronger, more clearly, in the poorer towns. That's where you really get to know our people and how they live and what they want... their problems, their needs. The poverty is all too obvious there. And so... that's where the theatre most has to be. That's where we have to start.

Our project ĦEl Evangelio en Vivo! has given us the opportunity to travel to many parts of our country, mainly the poorest areas. I believe that it is the poor who best understand the Gospels. But the great majority of the poor cannot read. ĦEl Evangelio en Vivo! provides the bridge: people who cannot read or write understand the Gospel message in a dramatization. That gives them strength and confidence. The success of the dramatizations is obvious: people leave the church discussing and arguing about what they have seen.

The Gospel touches on many of the problems of the poor. For example, the question of work: the contrast between a worker and a person who just doesn't work because he is already provided for or, more accurately, who lives off those who do work.

The Gospel has a lot to tell us about this kind of problem. And about the problems of the actors themselves. In acting them out, they come to realize that they've lived the same experience and that others are in the same fix. The actors get a great satisfaction from helping others to see the problems.

Actors who can't read are hard to work with at first. But as you go along, you see the spark of wanting to read ignite in them: they want to read the Gospel. And the people are very grateful. They know that we're helping and directing them, and we're giving them a strength that comes from the Gospels themselves.

ĦEl Evangelio en VivoĦ is especially important for the children: we know it because you can see it reflected in their faces. If children just listen to a reading, they don't understand anything. But they understand a dramatization. When children see dramatizations from a very early age, they grow up with a solid understanding of the Gospel.

And as actors! When children do a dramatization they really search it out; they memorize the whole thing quickly. The kids feel proud, they feel important. They realize that they can contribute something to their communities by doing the dramatizations. And they like that.

I am an actor and I want to keep acting. But I also want to keep working with beginners. That way I'm helping to form younger actors and that's essential to foment the growth of the theatre in our country. But I don't ever want to stop acting.

The work that most, let's say, inspires us to keep going is one that we've been doing for a long time: The Two Faces of the Boss. It was the second show I did in the teatro, and from that time to this I'm the peón, the worker, in the show.

This play (the original is by Luis Valdez and El Teatro Campesino; we have adapted it to our Honudran situation) says it all clearly: it captures the relationship of those who are up above to those down below.

The boss oppresses the worker, he has him at his command. He tries to convince him that he already has everything he wants, that there's nothing more he needs. That he should be content with his lot and keep working and work hard. This conflict between the boss and the worker is evident anywhere you go: on the banana plantations, on the ranches, in the factories. The worker is just supposed to work, and if he doesn't work he's fired. "You're out, we'll stick in another one, let the other one work." Like interchangeable parts.

But when the worker becomes the boss (that's where "The Two Faces" come in), what happens? The worker, once he tastes power, is even worse than the boss was. And that's what happens. That's our Honduran curse: that when we do manage to get a little money, we think we're better than those who are still down below.

Honduras is the perfect place for this play. It is an underdeveloped country, and the earth is the principal medium of work, of earning your livelihood: to cultivate the earth. After a performance of Las Dos Caras del Patroncito, the audience leaves. They have laughed all through the show, but they leave thinking. The play makes them think about their own relationships with others.

As an actor offstage I don't like to discuss problems, especially the big ones, the strong ones. I don't want to discuss them with people. Just let them look at what we show in the play. That's the way they'll understand, watching the show.

But we are living very serious problems these days in Honduras, mainly due to our dependency: we are dependent, and we can't take the rope from around our neck because we don't have the strength to do it. We're living under the threat of imminent war. The neighboring countries are in endless war. And the moment will come -- pray God it doesn't happen -- when the same fate will strike us here in Honduras.

We've got to communicate this message, this reality, to a lot more people; most of all to the poorest, which is the audience we most like to play to. And we are moving forward: a lot of people know the theatre and speak well of it. I don't mean all the people; there are those who don't like the idea of the theatre because of what we say in our plays.

Theatre in Honduras -- I can't claim that it's really up there, as they say. But we have a good start. We're doing a good work for the people of Honduras, and we hope we're going to continue doing it. This month we are celebrating 10 years of continuous work; we are ambitious and we're going to keep on working, we're going to keep moving forward. teatro la fragua is alive and well and living in Honduras. And may it live forever.

Peace,

Guillermo A. Fernández






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