Saturday, July 23, 2011


 The youth go to their neighborhood market in Satellite City

In the market they buy an offering to bless the imminent tour in the Theater-Truck

The offering to Pachamama, Mother Earth

 "Pijchando", chewing, coca

 In front of the fire, the youth dare to speak of their greatest hopes for the future

Tintín improvises a dialogue with his character, el Yatiri, who speaks to him in Aymara. Tintín only partly understands, and this fact provokes a crisis where he decides he doesn't dare to manifest this dead medicineman. He decides to leave the role to the understudy, and not accompany the group on tour... 


 An animation shows the troupe leaving El Alto in the Theater Truck and going to the bus terminal. Everyone makes loads of noise in the truck... except Tintín.

 At the terminal, the troupe gets on the bus for Cochabamba, and leaves Tintín behind.

The troupe and the German volunteers set up the Theater Truck for the first time

Ready for their first audience

They bring out the neighbors, their audience, with drums

Just before getting on stage, the actors realize that they are missing key props, and it's obvious that they aren't as ready as they had thought. The lack of leadership is obvious.

They put on the play anyways

And they get the attention and laughter of their audience

 Despite this, as they discuss the next day, it's obvious the troupe is not happy with the show.  There were many errors, and Maya in particular doubts that they have affected the audience as much as they had hoped.

The youth continue their tour, but there's little connection with their audience, 
on and off stage

Wednesday, July 13, 2011


 Abel imagines doing a monologue on the bus
 An animation shows his imagination, and the public reacts in his imagined fears, booing
 We see the play in fleeting images, and the audience applauds
 The audience, after the plays, get involved during workshops.  Here, in Cochabamba, people re-enact the Water Wars.
 Maya reflects on how effective (or not) the play is being... doubtful that people are being affected as much as she'd like
 Upon return, the troupe reflects with Ivan, their mentor, and recognizes that they need to come up with new tactics.
 The troupe watches footage of their interactions with their publics, and decide to do more interactive theater 
 They radically change their show, and do an interactive performance in the jungle
This performance is a complete success, and the local youth respond to the performance with an interactive show of their own: drums and dancing

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Maya reflects above El Alto before the final intervention

Tintín reflects on the miner's helmet and a bag of coca before the final intervention.

Maya performs in a market in El Alto 

Abel performs in central La Paz 

Tintín, as Yatiri, flies up to his perfomance place in La Paz

Tintín performs, throwing coca into the wind to show his pain at his people's suffering


The troupe shouts just before their final performance to get their spirits up

 In the final performance, the troupe faces off with other unrelated protesters and the police

 They demand justice for the fallen of October 2003 in a serious, comical performance

Abel's face merges with that of an anonymous protester
Lenia films herself

The most powerful thing is to see yourself.