El Theatre

Oh yes, and I have to mention the Catalan theatre! I went there a few days ago with my landlady, Mariluz, who is a wonderful woman, and super nice.  I love getting to talk to her; she speaks pretty good English, so we don't have a language barrier at least!  Anyway, I was talking with her last Monday and she told me that she does theater as a hobby.  I thought that was really interesting, and told her so, so she invited me to go to one of her practices.  She’s been sick, so she missed a few practices, but she was really happy to be going back, and I was thrilled to get to experience something that I wouldn’t be able to do as a mere tourist. 

 She met me outside my school around 8—I grabbed this calzone-thing and some fruit for my dinner, which was actually pretty good—and then we walked to the theater from there.  It was in Catalan, which is the “local” language here, as everyone knows both Catalan and Spanish.  I was a little nervous because what did I know about Catalan? It all sounds the same to me! 

We met one of the other actors outside, and he did that kiss-on-the-check greeting thing, and Mariluz was all, “She’s from America, she doesn’t do that!” But hey, I’m here, I want experience things the “Spanish” way, so I assured him that it was fine, and now I do it all the time.  Well, there were about 15 or 16 different actors/actresses and one director (who to me, looked like he had a cork up us rear, but whatever) and they started, and at first, I was the deer in the headlights.  I had no idea what they were saying! 

It’s a musical, and the first act (maybe the whole thing) takes place in a bar that is situated under (or next to) a hotel.  It’s a comedy, so the characters include several nuns, a really awkward boy, a janitor who likes to sing who is being courted by an overweight waitress, and several loose women.  You can’t say it isn’t interesting! 

I understood it a lot better once someone gave me a script.  Because Catalan, I discovered, was actually French and Spanish mushed together with a funny accent—and I studied both languages at school.  So, I can’t speak it, nor understand much of it spoken, but I can understand it written!  (For the most part) It was a wonderful discovery. Really. 

It was great to watch them try to learn the dance, especially when they came down the stage and one of the women grabbed me and tried to get me to do it. And then at one point, the director pointed at me and shouted at me to get on stage before he realized that I wasn’t one of the actors—that was a bit terrifying!

As we walked back, Mariluz explained the premise of the play, and we were both pleasantly supreied to see that I understood most of it!  I guess I’m learning Catalan, eh? That, and I’m pretty sure its true that 80% of communication is body language.