Experiencing culture

This week, I was invited by my friend Diana to go to the theater and watch a play. This was a local play written by someone who works with the theater. It was also my first play in Spanish. I was excited to go and wondered how much of it I would understand.

We had tickets for the second showing, which started at "9:00pm". At a little after 9, we could see through the cracks in doors that the people from the first showing were just leaving. So, we waited. At about 9:25 or so, in a different part of the lobby, we heard some loud drums and chanting. Of course, this drew everyone's attention. The group playing the music were actually the actors for the play- it began outside of the auditorium! The actors lead the way for the audience outside- out of the teater- and around the building to the back cargo loading door and everyone entered through the back. We then sat on chairs actually on the auditorium stage with the actors staging area in the middle and chairs on each side.

The stage itself was plain- no real decorations or backgrounds. There was one table in the middle of the stage that was used in various forms- as a table, as a house, as a ladder (turned on its side), etc. The actors had some basic costumes that they changed during the play.

As far as the play itself, I really did not understand much. Try as I did, I really couldn't follow what was happening. However, Diana (Venezuelan) did not understand it either. That made me feel better.

With all I have seen over the past 11 months in Venezuela, I am still finding new things to experience- new aspects of this wonderful country.