Its nerve-wrecking to know that we are only one week away from the performance in Hiram Bingham, moreover, the fact that we still don't have everything ready is more worrying. While we were viewing at the PPP example that got full marks, I realized that the most important thing that one has to have in order to create a good PPP is a clear vision. Once the vision is more or less concise, everything will flow easily. And that, in my case, is what lacked in this performance. I didn't have a vision on how I wanted the play to be like from the beginning, so instead I kind of started building the play little by little and let it take its own shape. I think that is why we may be struggling the way we are in the rehearsals, in terms of not knowing what is happening, or in which direction the play has to progress, because we don't have a clear shared vision. I guess that is why we made the pitch, to have a clearer idea, but even after having done the pitch I'm still unable to justify the metallic scenery for example, or what were ultimately trying to get across. That's why I still don't see the connection between what my character does and the message of the play, thus I feel like the actions are empty. The vision should be the foundations, or starting point of the play, and the fact that I didn't have one makes this whole creation fall apart at times, you need a string foundation so the building doesn't fall over. Today at the rehearsal I noticed the stage was too big for our performance, and the only way for it to work is to open the curtain just enough so it marks the boundaries of "limbo", and as the Hiram Bingham's stage is also quite big that might be a problem. The coordination in the part where Nicolas and I are being pulled to the sides is getting better, but it will be crucial that we time it perfectly so that the illusion is not lost, we need to find its rhythm. We still have a lot of things to finish and polish before were ready to present our play, and we have to move fast. Clearly by having had a better, or at least a hint of a vision at the beginning of the process would've made things happen a lot easier, so I'm unsure about the method of making the play in a group, and then working separately on the script, because everyone ends up putting their own vision in different parts, and when putting everything together it will be like trying to fit in pieces of different puzzles together, they just wont fit. The exercise we did on Friday, of creating our play based on the stimulus of a spider web was very interesting, and I think everyone felt confident about what they had created because their vision was clear, and from there we could've started creating a play with more ease.

Is it possible to create a play without a vision, to just start building out of an idea and let it take its own shape?
Has this ever happened?

During the last few weeks we have focused heavily on the one-act play. Now we have a much clearer and concise idea of what we are presenting and the script is almost ready. The rehearsals have been a bit tedious, because we could get stuck in the same scene for a long time due to some flaws in the acting or sometimes not knowing the script too well, but I feel we are making a lot more progress than we were at the beginning. Something very interesting which I've had to do is to share my ideas of characterisation with Nicolas and vice versa  because its the first time I share a character, and I have to say that it is so much easier to create a character with two people than to create it by yourself, because only the best of both points of view are selected and put into the character, for example the slightly hunched back which came from Nicolas and the position of the hands which I came up with, and apart from being faster and easier it is also so much more entertaining, because there is a stimulus to keep looking for new things and try to compete with each other to see who comes up with the best idea. Sometimes its hard to find motivation when one is alone, and competition I think is a very strong motivation to create, who knows, maybe we all should've tried and create each character in a group so that the character that is created is made up of only the best ideas of the whole group. Its interesting how much collective motivation can affect the creative process, because for example when trying to learn a script, I personally find it really challenging to learn it by myself, because its hard to imagine the other characters there, and im no good at memorizing things just like that, but when we get together and act, it seems as if the lines are instantaneously stuck into my brain once we have the whole scene ready, because the brain can give everything a meaning, its no longer loose words. Afterall words are only the medium to express something, they dont really mean anything by themselves. What I find hardest at the moment is to try and think what to do w hile im on-scene, for there are long gaps in which I  dont say anything, what I usually do is to give sense to my previous and next line through actions when im not talking, but once the gap is too wide I start struggling, maybe the key lies in understanding the motivations and personality of the character outside the actual conference, an exercise we used a long time a go in a performance I dont really remember popped into my head, defining things like age, nationality favourite music and things like that may get me closer to filling those gaps. If the characters are supposed to be human beings then obviously a past is necessary for them to exist.

Time is ticking fast, and we are getting closer and closer to the one act play, what at first seemed an impossible feat is now materializing, and I trust that we are going to be able to pull it off with a little bit more effort and most importantly, motivation.

Why are children told since very little that if they lose at something that they are still winners or that "intention is what counts"? Because as I explored earlier, competition is an integral part of the creative process, and without it we would not be motivated to improve, and in reality intention is worthless without a product.

Having not gone to the Paucartambo festival was quite unfortunate, for I know I would've understood and pícked up on things that I wasn't able to while watching the video, also due to the fact that I only got to see part of the festival already limits my ability to understand the whole ceremony.

The "Virgen del Carmen" festival takes place during a few days where townspeople dress up in costumes to dance and tell a story, some of them have learnt since very little on how to dance and be a part of the festival. Its a tradition that has lasted many generations, meaning that there has to be something in it that transcends till today.

Different comparsas (dance groups) go out and dance, some like the Maqtas interact a lot more with the audience than the others, but the main "plot" that I could recognize was the guerrilla, the fight between the Qhapac Chuncho and the Qhapac Collas. This fight represents the merging of the jungle and andes people of the inca empire, which brings us to question, how is this remotely related to the "Virgen del Carmen"?, the answer is probably that it isnt, its as if the people from the andes have used the Virgen del carmen religious celebration as an excuse and mask to be able to show their real history and traditions
 when the Spaniards were supressing any sort of indigenous religion. This idea of the mixing of both cultures is seen everywhere in the festival, from the costumes to the music, everything shows the adaptability of the Andean culture to others, and how they take all the good thinks they can learn form other cultures and integrate it into theirs, like the crafting of masks for example, which is a European tradition. Having been born in Peru, I have to say that the closest ive come to understanding my country's history is through pages in a textbook, but this kind of celebration is an example of living history, which changes and adapts everyday to our everyday needs and events.

The whole celebration seems very festive and happy, people from all around the city come together and celebrate, its a community thing, so it helps keep the community together too, this is something that I don't see much in modern cities, and maybe that is why people aren't as close and united with their community in modern cities as they are in provinces and the countryside. I do think that the celebration also reminds the people of their identity, brings them back reminding them where they came form, and i think that is important for us as human beings to know, where we came from.

Here in lima, is there an equivalent of the paucartambo celebration in terms of bringing the people together?

We have already started creating and putting together our one-act play. At first it seemed as if this was going to be an impossible task to create a play in 4 weeks, but as we started writing and thinking, and as the play started taking shape it now seems as if our goal is very much possible. As of now the hardest part is by far writing the script, for everyone has different ideas and inputs and we cant put them all in. Since its the first time ive written a script for a play, I still don't know what works or doesn't work on scene, and Im slightly concerned because something that might be funny on paper might not work on the stage. I think that by now, everyone has a clear idea of what they're character is like, and can imagine them on scene, which helps to write the script, and sometimes its fun to try and improvise how they would react to certain situations, and from there start building up, but the problem there is that most of the time we go over the top, or go slightly off topic without having an end to the situation, which is something that could bore the audience. I would say that the one thing that isnt yet clear is how its going to end, we've had different ideas that all could work, but its something we have to carefully choose, we cant risk having a boring or uninteresting ending, it has to work.
Me and Nicole are in charge of scenery and props, and so far we have some idea of how the stage is going to look like, all scenery will be metal, and it would probably be nice for the props to be metal or painted as so, so it works with the scenery. In terms of creating my character, it was nice to have a comical character, because there are so many characters I can get inspiration from easily, and its a role I would enjoy performing after having done a more serious one. The fact that I share my character with Nicolas could pose a few difficulties in terms of how we want the character to be or develop, but I think we have similar perspective of the character. So far, theres not much to be said, were still a long way from having this play ready and im certainly excited to see how it develops.

Script writing in groups is a difficult task, for everyone has their own view and perspectives about the characters and the unfolding of the situation. Does group script-writing actually occur in out of school plays? If so how do they keep the story constant if everyone inputs different perspectives?