Spain Dec 2009 'Spiral'

On the first day of Spiral, Bielva gave to me...

We set off on 13th December on a lovely Ryanair flight, to the Cantabrian mountains to set foot in a small settlement called Bielva. With only 150 inhabitants Bielva is a quaint village full of wonderful and beautiful Spaniards all willing to make us feel extraordinarily welcome. I didn't bring enough clothes as per usual, as I did not predict the snow we were welcomed with on the first morning. Jennie assured me that her 4 dresses, high heeled boots and many pairs of tights were enough, which she kept her word to! We arrived quite late at night on the Sunday but Spiral never failed to feed us even at this time of night, as they do so well! Chris rustled up a Spag Bog for the 13 of us and we said goodnight after a long day travelling, ready to start our first day in Bielva.

Spanish days are a little different to our English ones. The mornings are from the hours of about 10am til 2pm. They then have a large meal, which we would usually have in the evening and a siesta if needed. The afternoon is about 2pm til 7pm and the evening is then onwards in which they have a light meal. So we tried to adapt to the Spanish times and eating habits to make sure that we were on top form every day. We were fed impeccably by the villagers and by mama-Martha a la carta, a nickname she acquired which translates as Mummy Martha of the menu! We picked up fresh bread from our door every morning, we were given the feast that was used in the actual performance on Saturday (they used real food to re-inact the feast of Fausto's return) and enough eggs to make plenty of omelettes each. We were thoroughly made to feel that our presence was welcome in this tiny community.

The mornings consisted of learning about the history of Spain and how Theatre became part of the Spanish culture which was really interesting and we had lots of questions in these lessons. Martha, Chris and Carolina (The 3 musketeers of Spiral!) are all so talented and intelligent in their own specific fields that when they come together, they produce something spectacular as they complement each other so well. Martha is an Archaeologist, Carolina used to be a journalist before Spiral and Chris is a Theatre Writer and Director.

So anyway, we then broke for lunch everyday at 2pm where we cooked as a house. This was quite difficult at times as our guest house was on the lowest band of electricity. So much as using a hairdryer was impossible and fused the whole house. The sly ones using the straighteners as they didn't make noise were soon found out...Hannah! You can imagine what cooking a roast dinner for 14 people was like, which we managed on the Friday night! So we soon napped and then watched and joined in on rehearsals with the company in the evening. There were 19 people in the Company in total, but the younger children in the cast only came to the village on the Friday as they attend school in the city of Santander, and so stay there during the week. So everything seemed to come together on the Friday as we got the whole cast together. Although we could not talk to each other directly due to the language barrier, we quickly formed such an intimate bond with these people that they did not mind us going in on their rehearsals and listening every night. Remembering that none of the villagers had ever done any acting on stage before we had to be sensitive, kind and aware at all times. We might have been laughing with them at times but because we couldn't explain unless translated, it was quite often that they became self conscious.

The play is about a man called Fausto who leaves the village and his family and girlfriend when he is 15, and returns when he is rich 50 years later with what he thinks is a fantastic idea of building a ski station at the top of the mountain in the village. Much to Fausto's dismay his family and friends say to him that he can't just turn up after so long and flaunt his money to win everyone back; he has to earn it back. The way Spiral worked with this project is with improvisational games and exercises and using their own personal stories and experiences and so created something relevant to everyone and the village. The community worked together with guidance from Chris, Carolina and Martha, making their own rehearsal times, making food for each other and generally looked out for each other. The 9 of us from St. Mary's aided the cast with our technical knowledge of lighting, stage managing and sound. As a gift we dressed the old bar that they performed in, with white sheets for the performance and on the night I was Stage Managing the event. As an appreciation of all their kind generosity we wrote a song for the villagers and sang it to them at the after-show party on Saturday which was an emotional goodbye. However the mood was heightened with some bag pipes and a tambourine and we danced til the early hours of the morning.

What was so lovely about this project was that we came together as two different year groups from St. Mary's that did not know each other and created a bond so strong that we will never forget our experience in Spain with Spiral. We lived in each others pockets for a week and now we each have new friends that we will take back to University. I improved my Spanish speaking to the villagers and we have made friends in Bielva that we are hoping to create an exchange with the other young performers that we can stay with in the future. I feel that we all came so far in just one week as individuals, and I am now in a far better position than I was a week ago in myself. I am thinking whether doing a PGCE next year is the best step for me right now. So many thoughts at the moment that I need to go away and think more about the future.

Thank you Spiral...

Thank you Year 2 drama...

Thank you Year 3 drama...

Thank you Mark...

Thank you Ryanair...REALLY???

Thank you Bielva...

Fantastic week in Spain.