15 Julio 2010

This morning, as the sun poured through my window at the oh so moderate hour of 5:30 a.m. (that's 6:30am for you stateside gringos), the sounds of Costa Rica were in full swing. Wafting through the bedroom window of a typical Costa Rican home come the sounds of amused laughter, passionate conversations (en Espanol y Ingles), the persistent honking of car horns, the belabored shifting of diesel fueled busses, and the call and response of all manner of pets and wildlife. Bienvenidos a Costa Rica!

After enjoying a typical Costa Rican breakfast of mango, gallo pinto, fried queso, bread/butter, and cafe con leche, all lovingly prepared by my Tica Mama, Susanna, we stepped out of the house to meet the day. A cool breeze, a light rain, and an overcast sky greet us as we leave the house and head to the bus stop to catch my ride to the Museo de los Ninos.

I plan to see my Tica family, Susanna (mi mama), Carolina y Gloriana (mi hermanas), Andres (mi hermano) y Jimena (mi nieta, solamente cuatro anos), when I get back at an estimated 10:30p.m. It's going to be a long day.

After making the rounds and picking up everyone at their assigned locations, we are off to the Museo to begin preparations for our Friday evening performance. We are greeted by Professor Amarante Lucero and introduced to our Costa Rican crew: Don Fernando, technical director extraordinare (and, according to Amarante, and excellent salsa dancer), and Miguel, lighting technician. We are acquainted with our American colleagues as well: Autumn Casey, head of Lighting at Texas A&M, and Alejandra, graduate Lighting student at U.T. We are also blessed with the acquaintance of Edienne (a Costa Rican native and English teacher). After about five minutes of introductions, we're on our way.

As various technical crew heads begin communication with Museo staff to begin preparation for light focusing, prop building, video set up, sound checks, dressing room prep, and pit set up, Autumn gathers cast and disseminates our lunch/dinner allowances (22 thousand colones each) for the next four days.

After that, it's a blur of activity. You'd never know we'd never worked in this theatre as everyone knew exactly what they needed to do, and were set to do it. Language barriers are absolutely nonexistent as communication with our Costa Rican crew flows smoothly and easily with the help of a bit of translation, but a lot more intuition, common sense, and body language. Humans are as humans are.

After a few hours of nose to the grindstone work, we take a lunch break (we're also about an hour ahead of schedule). Just around the corner of the museo, is one of three major bus stations in the area. At said bustop, we are greeted with approximately 7 different restaurants from which to choose our midday meal (almuerzo). I go for casado, as do many of the students, while others try a more traditional American fair…burgers and fries.

After returning from lunch, we place finishing touches on lights/sound. We are then greeted by our Costa Rican student musicians. Paul Pew and Lynn Koennig then set about teaching these students the music from the show. No small task, but less than an hour into it, it sounds as if they've been with us from the beginning.

We are only half way through day one and if these few short amazing hours are any indication of how the remainder of the trip will run…..we may not come back. Pura Vida!!!!

--Julie Wright