Lack of dramatists prevents Panama from having a theater that reflects its reality

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Lack of dramatists prevents Panama from having a theater that reflects its reality

Tue, 12/04/2018 - 09:44

The veteran Panamanian actress Ceila González confessed in an interview with EFE that the theater has allowed her to "understand and love the human being", and lamented that the lack of playwrights now prevents the staging of works that reflect the reality of this country.

With more than 40 years in the field of performing arts, González has personified all kinds of characters, from a countess to a flower seller. Her talent has also been present in the film and television industry.

In an interview with EFE, this lady from the Panamanian scene graduated from the National Theater School in 1974, values her experience and the theater situation in Panama, where she has won prizes such as the Crespillo Ovalle, the Harry Iglesias Cup, and Scene Awards (best leading and supporting actress).

"I have 44 years of theatrical activity and the formula is that whenever there are roles that I can interpret and I am called, there I am." It also requires being disciplined, cooperative, responsible, getting along with colleagues and being on time," said the actress.

And those are the characteristics that González's colleagues and directors highlight when trying to frame her personality and artistic presence.

"Ceila for me is discipline, friendship and love of the theater, she represents the transition of two generations and is still giving the current generations talent. A friend of her friends, the actress we all want in a cast," the director and producer Daniel Gómez Nates told EFE.

Creditor of a recognition from the National Culture Institute (Inac) for her contribution to the development of Panamanian Art and Culture, González confessed that the theater "has given her many satisfactions, the main one being to understand and love the human being", but that also "taken moments from her, maybe to spend more time with the family."

Qualified by the director Edwin Cedeño as "a complete woman" and a "versatile, disciplined and committed actress," González says that after so many years on stage, she still feels "minutes before going on stage a tingling in the stomach, my heart wants to leave and go to the bathroom, some think it gets better with time, not me."

She answers to EFE that the role of the grandmother in the play "La Nona" (2007) was a character that marked her, and that made her worthy of Best Leading Actress at the 2008 Escena Awards.

"The only thing Grandma did was eat everything: flowers, bread, soup, vinegar, celery, all the time; she was insatiable. I decided to eat for real, to make the role come to life, but when they gave three functions a day I could not stand it and I wanted to explode, of course I did not eat all day."

Among many anecdotes, she recalls that in the production "El Gran Drama", which was presented at the National Theater at the end of the 1970s, she was left "without a voice, because of a pill" that she took for a cold and she turned out to be allergic to it.

"When I went on stage, I said a few words and I lost my voice, but I continued to speak even though I was not heard." The audience began to applaud when they saw that I continued to act but I could not get out in the second act," she recalls.

On the current situation of the Panamanian theater, González believes that it is stellar, because "there are more theaters, therefore more plays, more actors and more work for all", but she finds a weakness: "the lack of playwrights, so there is no theatre being done that reflects our reality".

To the new generation of artists, González recommends that they see "all plays, good and bad".

"One learns what should be done from the good ones and what should not be done from the bad ones, It’s funny but it’s true, take courses whenever possible, respect the one who has more years in the theater and, above all, does not believe you are better than anyone, humility before everything," she added.

 

https://www.panamatoday.com/life-style/lack-dramatists-prevents-panama-having-theater-reflects-its-reality-8578