We have secured Teatro Abril as the venue for our live clowning event this June, and we couldn’t be more excited! Teatro Abril is one of the most historic and celebrated theaters in Guatemala City, known for its amazing charm.
Marble floors, spiraling staircases, ornate European-inspired statues and beautiful chandeliers fill the lobby of Teatro Abril to create a breath-taking entrance. These elements give the theater a sophisticated charm that inspires and represents Guatemalan culture. The exceptional attention to detail in the design of Teatro Abril continues into many salons located throughout the theater. It is estimated that over 50,000 people attend events at Teatro Abril each year.
The theater is located off the lobby through a large, golden curtain. It comfortably seats 700 people on the main level and two balcony level seats. The carpet and seats are a beautiful red fabric that gives the space color and continue the character of Teatro Abril.
Take a min to look at some more pictures at: http://teatroabril.com/. We will keep you updated and look forward to sharing the live event with you in months to come.
On Sunday, Feb 12, 2012, the Athentikos Guatemala team and primary characters from Becoming Fools went to a show performed by Pancho Toralla in Teatro de Cámara of National Theater of Guatemala. During the show, Pancho Toralla, professionally known as Panchorizo, showcased a variety of talents including juggling, miming, singing, playing several instruments and dancing among other acrobatic stunts to entertain the crowd. Panchorizo also incorporated lots of jokes and several very Guatemalan elements throughout the show to add to the theatrical performance… everything kept us laughing throughout the whole show!!
Panchorizo doing the splits..AUCH!!
Several members from our team scouted Panchorizo’s show 2 weeks ago to develop a plan for documenting the event and the street kids’ experience. Athentikos captured the event with 3 cameras. One camera focused on Panchorizo and the other cameras picked up different angles of the show and captured the kids’ responses as they watched. We plan to use this footage in the final cut Becoming Fools to show the process the boys from the street have gone through in their training to become clowns.
Cesar setting-up to film the event
Mefi, Byron, Willy and Raul attended the show our team. They had front row seats to enjoy the show. Afterwards, they met Panchorizo personally and talked with him about the show and his experiences with clown performance. The kids enjoyed spending time with Panchorizo and sharing their hopes and dreams for performing.
Panchorizo discusses the show and their future
Raul is a former street youth who is rehabilitated. He currently works during the day remodeling houses and attends CAFNIMA at night in order to get his high school degree. He receives additional assistance from At Risk No More. God has changed Raul’s life. He is proof that with holistic support, these children can get to a place where drugs are no longer a temptation and that they can reintegrate into society.
Mefi is currently working for the local Guatemalan government as a gardener for highway beautification. He finished sixth grade last year and graduated with honors. As result, he received a scholarship from MOJOCA to study high school in a private institute. He really enjoys clowning, singing and walking on stilts.
Byron and Willy are still living on the streets of Guatemala City, but have big dreams of performing. Byron really enjoys making people laugh and smile as well as sharing a message through his performance. Willy loves magic and is affectionately known as Willy El Mago. He shared with Panchorizo that he would love to develop his skills and travel.
We want to thank to our AWESOME Athentikos team that is helping make all this possible! Thank you for ‘Becoming Fools’ with us!
Film production is as much about organization as it is passion and creativity. Documentaries like Becoming Fools are unique in that the story is not scripted in detail at the beginning. We can set a scope for the story, but we must capture details as they happen and develop the story along the way. There is a constant battle between systematic preparation and the chaos that happens when capturing an uncontrolled story.
Ultimately, we desire to immerse an audience in a journey with these street youth learning to clown. Their story is inspiring. We’ve seen it first hand. But inspiring lives do not in themselves jump into motion pictures in a way that captivates an audience. Events that are spread over time in real life must be edited together into a seamless plot that communicates a coherent message and connects to the heart. It sounds simple in theory, but even simplicity takes time. How do we take hundreds of hours of footage, honorably edit it down to less than two, and inspire viewers to want to know even more? Answer – organization and evaluation. It doesn’t sound very glamorous, but this effort will provide the rails on which this story will travel.
We’ve spent a month and a half reviewing the almost Terabyte of footage captured on our first production trip to Guatemala. That is a lot of information. At first glance it is overwhelming. Thankfully, we have the benefit of technology to help us chip away at the task – review, catalog and evaluate. We’re employing a database system that we developed while working on ‘Reparando’, which helps us keep track of visuals, actions and “who said what”. This method enables us to identify themes that resonate within the footage so we can further outline the story, develop ideas for visuals and prepare an itinerary for our follow-up trips. We can port the whole system including storyboards to our iPhones to reference everything in the field and check it off as we go. It might sound geeky, but trust me … it is a huge advantage in story telling with a small crew … but I’m getting ahead of myself …
To quantify things, We’ve distilled the 25 interviews down to roughly three hours of themed information content. Our Guatemalan team is almost finished transcribing the footage so we can begin the official editing process.
We’re planning two more production trips to Guatemala to capture footage for the story. Stay tuned for more details …
Film production is as much about organization as it is passion and creativity. Documentaries like Becoming Fools are unique in that the story is not scripted in detail at the beginning. We can set a scope for the story, but we must capture details as they happen and develop the story along the way. There is a constant battle between systematic preparation and the chaos that happens when capturing an uncontrolled story.
Ultimately, we desire to immerse an audience in a journey with these street youth learning to clown. Their story is inspiring. We’ve seen it first hand. But inspiring lives do not in themselves jump into motion pictures in a way that captivates an audience. Events that are spread over time in real life must be edited together into a seamless plot that communicates a coherent message and connects to the heart. It sounds simple in theory, but even simplicity takes time. How do we take hundreds of hours of footage, honorably edit it down to less than two, and inspire viewers to want to know even more? Answer – organization and evaluation. It doesn’t sound very glamorous, but this effort will provide the rails on which this story will travel.
We’ve spent a month and a half reviewing the almost Terabyte of footage captured on our first production trip to Guatemala. That is a lot of information. At first glance it is overwhelming. Thankfully, we have the benefit of technology to help us chip away at the task – review, catalog and evaluate. We’re employing a database system that we developed while working on ‘Reparando’, which helps us keep track of visuals, actions and “who said what”. This method enables us to identify themes that resonate within the footage so we can further outline the story, develop ideas for visuals and prepare an itinerary for our follow-up trips. We can port the whole system including storyboards to our iPhones to reference everything in the field and check it off as we go. It might sound geeky, but trust me … it is a huge advantage in story telling with a small crew … but I’m getting ahead of myself …
To quantify things, We’ve distilled the 25 interviews down to roughly three hours of themed information content. Our Guatemalan team is almost finished transcribing the footage so we can begin the official editing process.
We’re planning two more production trips to Guatemala to capture footage for the story. Stay tuned for more details …
