Let me start this by wishing you all a very very happy Tony’s weekend! That being said, I want to introduce you to our this month’s hero: a woman whose life has been entirely dedicated to Theatre, and not only that, but someone who uses Theatre to heal , help and make people happier. This person is a good friend of mine and her name is María Peyramaure and a huge part of R.Evolución Latina.
Our story begins in Griffin Georgia when an 18 year old María, finishes high school and with no hesitation at all goes to Berry College as a Theatre major, which includes one year studying abroad in London. Once finished with school, she worked as an actor for good 5 years and as “Working as an actor” implies, she had every kind of jobs: big jobs, small jobs, medium jobs, polka-dotted and multicolored jobs. For example, she did small things like a voice over here, and a commercial there, and huge things like working with important companies such as Alliance Theatre Company, Theatre in the Square and Geogia’s Shakespeare Festival. One of the wonderful jobs is one that would be the constant in her life till now: Being a clown-doctor. Super Interesting, right? More of that, later.
5 years have passed since she started her career as an actress and even though her mom was a great roommate, she finally decides to move out of her hometown to the Big City where she has built up her wonderful life. She works fully as an actor which gives her the delight of doing what she loves for a living, she got married and she kept her job as a clown doctor. This job has meant everything to Maria, since it is the one that she has kept all the time. She has the fantastic opportunity to heal people with her work. She amuses, empowers and nurtures the patients with her performance, inspiring their souls, healing their bodies and along the way she gets inspired by THEM. This is how Maria is the perfect Example of the Circle Effect.
In 2012 María enrolled in the vocal ensemble for the Beyond Workshop Series (where she happened to meet this one who’s writing). She loves singing as a clown but she doesn’t think of herself as a singer, so it was a great opportunity to Dare to go Beyond and try something she really wanted to do but had never tried. After that she fell in love with RL’s Philosophy and she’s being a volunteer ever since. “It is very easy to live in an “artist bubble” in which you only think of how can you be better and work only for yourself, but a true artist, works not only for that but for helping others in any way they can”.
Besides her job in the circus, Maria has worked a lot in Theatre plays (Mostly the classics) and she is a member of AENY (Actores Españoles en Nueva York) where she recently did the show Wonderful Days.
FUN FACTS:
• She loves riding bicycles.
• Her favorite movies include: Captain Phillips, Red Violin, and Crash. She couldn't actually pick a favorite.
• She met her husband as she was working as an assistant in a tour for Big Apple Circus.
Well folks! All for now! Hope you have liked this moving story and wait for upcoming surprises!!
Today, we’re going to go a little bit in another direction and Instead of talking about a super interesting person (as we always do) we’ll be talking about a super interesting program. Ladies and Gentleman: THE BEYOND WORKSHOP SERIES.
Our director, Luis Salgado and BWS coordinator, the beautiful Hanley Smith, open the audition/workshop day by daring us to go beyond, giving a short explanation of today’s agenda and asking us to form a line then, a perfect circle in 10 seconds, we did with no success AT ALL. Luis promised that by the end of the day we would be able to accomplish these tasks.
The rest of the day continues with the fun dance and movement auditions by Matthew Steffens and Rickey Tripp. “MOVE FREELY!” “CREATE!” “DO WHATEVER YOU WANT” were some of the phrases that the auditionees heard during these 2 hours but as time went on they found themselves struggling with the given steps/combinations. “It’s all about balance”, we all conclude later on while talking to Luis Salgado. “You can’t just have impeccable movement without something going on, but you also can’t just have something to tell without doing the right steps. The balance of both is what makes you a good artist”. Good lesson right?
By this time of the day all the students feel so wise that they could write a book. They’re not scared anymore. They are so ready to belt their faces off for the vocal audition, ran by BWS faculty member, William Wade. They are confident with themselves, with the rest of the auditionees and with the people in the panel. Even those who didn’t think of themselves as singers, were ready to show what they had. There were many remarkable moments at this time but I would like to highlight one. The moment when the auditionee and RL volunteer Chris McClellan, sang “This Little Light of Mine”. She just stands up, sings, and suddenly all the people in the room get in the same mood. We all sing along in those brief 16 bars. The sense of community is right there letting everybody SHINE.