Rehearsing During San Sebastián Festival
by Jing Dong
Today is the third day of San Sebastian Festival. The traffic in the morning going into Old San Juan is not as heavy as in the first two days, but there are more people than before in the cafe I go for breakfast near our hotel. The atmosphere is still quite relaxed. Don’t be surprised if you meet these friends on the way.
Artisans’ Market
Artisans’ market is a big part of the San Sebastian Festival. There are hundreds of booths in the city. Business people there are not just souvenir sellers. There are many serious local artisans displaying their best works. Starting from noon time, in Old San Juan, artisans’ markets and bars are packed with people. I followed Deborah to the best artisans’ market located in the beautiful courtyard of Museo de las Americas. She showed me many interesting local goods. Her favorite one is a pottery booth which is quite popular on social media. All the cups and mags there are handmade using safe materials. The glaze on the pottery was made by the artisan himself. He also explains that he pays decent wage to people who work for him. When we are at his booth at 1pm, his most popular items, cup-shaped earrings, are already sold out. It seems like he is running a quite successful and heathy social enterprise.
I also found local sweets very attractive. They are good looking and have all kinds of flavors. Gofil is a type of traditional corn candy filled in colorful paper cones. Cremitas de Coco is a type of crisp coconut candy. It is light and fragile. There are also soft candy cakes made of coconut with flavors of milk, almond, and guava among others. Resisting them is really really hard.
There is a booth displaying beautiful traditional toys such as Yoyo, Onda, Trompos, Valero, and Gallitos. There are several booths selling traditional instruments like Guiro, Maraca, and local Cuatro. We also find many interesting handmade kitchenware: a wooden ware used for pressing mashed plantain into pieces, a wooden mortar and pestle for grinding food, and coconut shell cups.
There are many artists in the market too. Several booths belong to mask makers. I see many kinds of materials used by them in mask making as shown in the pictures. One artist uses soft sponge to make very light masks that can be immediately put on by people celebrating on the street. Small sculptures of religious figures are also very common in the market. The most popular ones are the Three Kings, and of course the famous San Sebastian with arrows in his body.
Artisans’ market is a great place to learn about local culture. During the festival, local artisans are able to share their crafts and works with visitors face to face. It is a nice experience that I can meet with people who make the things I eat and use.
Deborah and I talked about the kind of old fashioned market where people sell things their make or grow by themselves. This kind of pre-industrial experiences now are rare and expensive. Often in farmers’ market, groceries are much more expensive than in supermarkets. The farmers’ market is now something luxurious. The power of chain grocery stores and highly developed logistics networks make our choices very limited and identical. Fruits and vegetables that are too fragile to be transported across states are gradually disappearing. In Puerto Rico, where 85% of its food comes from outside the island, it is not easy to find a variety of vegetables. The selections of vegetables in local restaurants are often even worse than in NYC.
Street Art
My new discovery in Old San Juan today is this abandoned building with a black-and-white Puerto Rican flag painted on its door. There are also sixteen important local graphic artists’ images painted on the facade of the building. A poster on the wall explains this project to visitors. In fact, the whole building is a political manifesto made by local graphic artists in 2016. As a reaction to the economic, political and social crisis of Puerto Rico, the artists are questioning their national identity, the power of the US, and most urgently PROMESA (the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act).
Today when Deborah pointed out this building to us, I did not realize that it was such an important political move of local artists. After knowing what this was all about, I think about how Deborah and other people we met have talked about this issue many times in the past several days. I’m very impressed by that the radical political proposition is so well expressed through the art, and has influenced many people. This is another great example of how art functions in Puerto Rican society. This kind of art is happening everywhere in Puerto Rico, like what we saw on the streets and in the markets of Rio Piedras, and in Papel Machete’s performance.
There is also another type of painting that we see a lot on the streets. Those are abandoned houses painted in bright and elegant colors. They seem like brand new buildings from the distance, but are actually torn down by the hurricane or by time. Some of them only have trash inside. Some of them don’t have roofs. The colorful paintings have covered up the reality to serve the need of the festival. The abandoned houses are well disguised so that tourists don’t have to feel scared when they walk by these buildings. It makes sense because most tourists don’t expect to see ghost houses when they come to enjoy a festival. When we saw the beautifully painted streets in Yauco, I felt that it benefits the local community by bringing in more consumers, and that it also satisfies visitors eyes. Generally speaking, those houses look good, although the owners don’t necessarily like the aesthetics. The paintings become a part of their life and their reality. But how should I perceive the painted ruins? Do they serve local people or the opposite?
Enjoying the Festival
After the afternoon studio, several people from the mask group go to Plaza Colón for drinks and live music. Savanah and Sara have got their giant sangria kits. Deborah, Si-Yeung, and I stay loyal to Medalla, a light local beer being sold on almost every street. We are lucky to see a fantastic musicians group named Taller Palenque performing bomba music and mountain music. Deborah talks about the distinct life style of the mountain people. People in the audience are dancing with the band. They even have invited a lady from the audience to dance bomba on stage. I’m so excited to see live bomba performance happening in front of me.
There is a group of people going to the La Perla stage for Sebastián Otero’s performance. Sebastián has become the star for our NYU group! There are also many circus performances happening outside El Bastión during the festival.
Mask & Puppetry Workshop
Now let’s take a look at today’s Mask & Puppetry workshop. The major task today is to prepare for tomorrow’s showcase performance. Our group already had a structure and major materials yesterday, so today we are focusing more on blocking, timing, and details. The run-through has already taken shape.
The first emphasis of our rehearsal is practicing with objects. Because we use a lot of objects in our performance, it is important to get familiar with them to avoid being “hijacked.” (Deborah) For example, I need to hang a fish to a hook held by Asha. In the rehearsal process, we discovered that the fish line could get stuck to the hook. The solution we found was to cover the hook with silver tape, so that the surface of the hook becomes smooth. We also learned how to use different sizes of cloth to create illusions for different scenes. This is my first time using cloth in the way Deborah uses it. It is very impressive and full of imagination. I’m not explaining what the cloth is used for because that way it would become a spoiler for tomorrow’s showcase. There are more surprising objects to be discovered tomorrow!
Another aspect we spent a lot of time on is how we move through the space, and how we pass each other. The basic principle is that we need to make sure no one is blocking other people’s way. It was never a problem when we acted before, but now we have masks on and have very limited sight. I am only able to see a small area in front of me. Another principle with masks is that we need to be aware of where our masks are facing. It is not interesting to see the profile of a mask. Besides that, we should also try to bring more air when we move in the space to create a sense of fluidity. Meanwhile, the balance and composition of the stage image is also very important to keep in mind. Thanks to the teaching of Deborah, I now have a sense of how to work with masks.
I cannot believe that our time in Puerto Rico is running out. It feels that the second week had just started. And now we are going to do the final performance and say goodbye to El Cascaron and our dearest teachers. I’m not prepared for it yet. The mask and puppetry learning experience with Deborah has been very inspiring. It has opened up a whole new world for me to further explore. In my two weeks in Puerto Rico, I feel fully motivated to take my journey further into this magic new world of masks and puppets.
