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LOS IMPUNTUALES -
Independent Theatre Group
San Miguel de Salinas
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The Company of Players at their performance of Bodas de Sangre on 22 April 2007
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A brief HISTORY - In 1996 the Councillor
for Youth for San Miguel of Salinas had the
idea to organise workshops for theatre to
occupy local youth. The Councillor began to
seek people with this interest to act as
directors and also young people interested
in the performing arts. After several trials
and when a sufficient number of youths
expressed interest and proved that the
talent was there, the workshops became The
Theatre Group LOS IMPUNTUALES, literally
THE UNPUNCTUALS, under the direction of David
Martínez. |
To mark The
10th Anniversary of Los Impuntuales - they present
Bodas de Sangre
by Federico Garcia Lorca
1800 & 2000hrs Sunday 22nd April 2007
at Casa Cultura SMdS
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The group’s first
challenge was to stage a performance with an
adaptation of the work of Cyrano de Bergerac, one of the most
famous classics of French theatre in which Edmond
Rostand glorifies the importance and beauty of the
inner self, the human interior, the essence, the
soul.
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By the summer of 1997
LOS IMPUNTUALES were ready to
present their work, and they continued to perform
Cyrano, that infamous man with the nose, to many
audiences with much style and self expression, and
their directorship passing to Antonio. |
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In the summer of 1998 it was proposed that the group
should participate in a week’s homage to ‘The
Sahara. This time, the girls of the group were the
ones that performed the homage to the woman of The
Sahara, with a selection of poetry, accompanied by
the projection of emotive images on the stage
backdrop.
The following feat of LOS IMPUNTUALES took place in the year 1999, with “Aquellos años tan felices” (Those Happy Years) by Fernando Lalana. The story followed a theatre company forced to dissolve through lack of funds. Separated, each member of the company is forced to seek to resolve their own lives along different roads. Tremendously amusing and ingenuous comedy. It’s a critique by the present company was in 3 parts: firstly, “to be Subsidized or to die”, with “The disenchantment” based on a short piece of Max Aub and “Guess who comes tonight”, based on a short piece by Woody Allen: a second with “Love of Samurai”, inspired in a piece ‘cortísima’ of Enrique Jardiel Poncela: and a third one entitled “Question of Faith” and the “Farewell”. After this production direction of The Theatre Group passed to Fran Bermejo.
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In the summer of 1998 it was proposed that the group
should participate in a week’s homage to ‘The
Sahara. This time, the girls of the group were the
ones that performed the homage to the woman of The
Sahara, with a selection of poetry, accompanied by
the projection of emotive images on the stage
backdrop.
The following feat of LOS IMPUNTUALES took place in the year 1999, with “Aquellos años tan felices” (Those Happy Years) by Fernando Lalana. The story followed a theatre company forced to dissolve through lack of funds. Separated, each member of the company is forced to seek to resolve their own lives along different roads. Tremendously amusing and ingenuous comedy. It’s a critique by the present company was in 3 parts: firstly, “to be Subsidized or to die”, with “The disenchantment” based on a short piece of Max Aub and “Guess who comes tonight”, based on a short piece by Woody Allen: a second with “Love of Samurai”, inspired in a piece ‘cortísima’ of Enrique Jardiel Poncela: and a third one entitled “Question of Faith” and the “Farewell”. After this production direction of The Theatre Group passed to Fran Bermejo.
Los Impuntuales performed their
new production of Kabarett 28/29 October 2006 |
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At the beginning of the year 2000, especially for the Festivity of the Kings, a small Christmas musical was staged entitled “El Rey del Pueblo” (The King of the Town). After this production, the Group began to study the work of Alejandro Cassona “La Dama
del Alba” (The Lady of the Dawn).
Preparation for this ambitious piece
occupied the theatre company for a year,
being the first serious play to be performed
by the group. |
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In the play Casona plants the idea of death being merely a further step. In many occasions, it is not more than a phase of life, something that we all have to suffer: it cannot be evil. Here we plant the seed of poetic justice with its mythical cruelty. The play premiered at the beginning of 2001.
Later in this year another change in the direction was called for and Mª Eugenia Egea became the new director. This brought new challenges for
LOS IMPUNTUALES as they began to master the work of Mihura “Tres Sombreros de Copa”
(Three Hats of Cup), which was premiered in
April of 2002. |
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Respected as one of the masterpieces of comedy theatre, the work supposes, by its originality, a complete break with the former comedy in the improbable association of situations, logical little dialogues creating a linguistic play approached in the modernist style – the theatre of Beckett or Ionesco. “Tres Sombreros de Copa” (Three Hats of Cup) develops the theme of liberty achieved and lost.
In April of 2003 it was more comedy with the production of “Vestida de Blanco” (Dressed in White) by Lucía Sánchez. A year later, April 17, 2004, the comedy in the form of a prologue was premiered including two acts of Enrique Jardiel Poncela’s “Eloísa está debajo de un almendro” (Eloísa is under an almond tree) under the formation of the Councillor for Culture.
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| Following the comedy of Jardiel Poncela The Theatre Group set themselves a real challenge: an interpretation of “Las Brujas
de Salem” (The Witches of Salem) by the
celebrated American playwright Arthur
Miller. They also decided to embark on a
project to provide support to the foundation
“Encounter and Life”, an Association
providing aid for Drug Dependency and
perform at their benefit festival. |
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For this they prepared a collection of contemporary “Cadenas” inspired by texts in the “Principito de Antoine de Saint-Exupéry” (Princeling of Antoine of Saint-Exupéry), and the works of Tristan Tzara, the philosopher Fernando Savater, amongst others. The texts accompanied by music and expression show us the road of drugs, from first consumption, then addiction, then chaos, to the end of the road where one must decide the future course of one’s life. This new experience for the company was very well was received by a wide audience. |
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On 8 May 2005 “Las Brujas de Salem” was premiered at the Casa de Cultura in San Miguel de Salinas, coinciding with the anniversary of the death of the American playwright Arthur Miller. The Witches of Salem written in 1953 is a work that describes the judgments for sorcery carried out in Salem, New England, and is, in reality, an accusation against the investigation of the U.S. Congress on the activities of alleged subversives carried out by the senator Joseph McCarthy. Miller himself appeared before the Congress Committee for Anti-American Activities in 1956. He was condemned and sentenced for contempt, but, following appeal, Miller was finally acquitted. In September for The San Miguel de Salinas Fiesta 2005 the play was performed in the open air of La Plaza de la Libertad. In November 2005 the group presented the work in the neighbouring town of Cox and in January of 2006 they closed their run of “Las Brujas de Salem” in Jumilla (Murcia).
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For the second year components of the group performed in the Benefit Festival of the Association “Encounter and Life”, on this occasion with two masterpieces of Spanish poetry: “Elegía a Ramón Sijé” of the ‘oriolano’ Miguel Hernández and “Llanto por Ignacio Sánchez Mejías” (Crying for Ignacio Sánchez Mejías) by Federico Garcia Lorca.
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| The eagerly
awaited production by
LOS IMPUNTUALES -
Grupo de Teatro de San Miguel de
Salinas
with their own interpretation of “Cabaret” the musical
premiers 23.30pm Sat. 28 October & 18:00 & 20:30pm Sunday 29 October at the Casa Cultura SMdS |
| Our thanks to Eveline Valero for
providing this article |
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