One of the most exciting moments in the career of engineer Carlos Tasayco was also one of the most difficult: that day in March 2013 when Juan Diego Flórez premiered the opera Guillermo Tell at the Grand National Theater (GTN).
Tasayco manages the theatrical mechanics of the GTN. That means that he controls everything that moves on stage mechanically: the curtain, the elevators, the rods, the acoustic doors… everything. He had experience, he was one of the founders of the theater and he had been handling these devices for three years. But it was an opera, one of the most complicated genres due to the level of scenery. And for William Tell they had hung some giant trees that if they did not go down correctly, they could cause any damage.
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What would happen if one of the trees fell on Juan Diego’s distinguished head?
“Fortunately, everything went well,” says the engineer, remembering that moment with a smile. Thank God I have a team that is in various parts around the stage and that helps me see that there are no problems. But yes, it was complicated. There were too many people…
Tasayco knows that it has a great responsibility on its hands. Every night of the show is a different challenge. One night it can be ballet, another theater, another a folkloric show, an acoustic recital… a difficult opera.
But that’s the beauty of his work, he says. That there are no days alike.
-Everyone is changing, nothing is the same. It’s true, it can be absorbing, sometimes you have to work weekends, but since it’s changing it’s not routine. Whenever I can I bring my family. My oldest daughter comes since she was crawling. She has grown up here. She loves the theater.
cultural evolution
Everyone in this place seems to love the theater. From the men and women who greet you at the doors, through the technicians who handle the audio and video consoles, to the people who are in charge of planning the shows.
Within that small army of sixty-odd cultural workers, the function that Milagros Chucos fulfills is fundamental.
She is the programming coordinator.
It is the one in charge of executing the annual programming of the GTN, planned by the director, Miguel Chivilchez. Take care that the objectives of each of the shows that are presented are met, both on the main stage and on the alternative ones -the foyer and the terrace.
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–This year we have 223 scheduled dates, in all spaces. Most of the shows are one or two dates, except those of the national cast, the National Ballet and the National Folkloric Ballet, which have three seasons a year of eight performances each.
In its ten years of existence, programming has changed a lot. Milagros Chucos says that in its early years, efforts were made to position the infrastructure of the GTN, which is why local artists who were interested in appearing on its stage were invited, and alliances were forged with international festivals.
After a while, it was decided to go one step further: start producing their own shows. They started the year 2017 with the play The Soldier’s Story and they continued the following year with Jardín de oro. In 2019 they experienced a small boom with The Musical Adventures of Sisi and Lala, a trilogy of family theater plays directed by Mateo Chiarella and starring Patricia Barreto and Cary Rodríguez. The success was such that in 2020 they added a fourth and applauded work: Sisi and her first circus.
“The pandemic forced us to rethink everything,” he says. Without an in-person audience, what did we do?
The first thing they did was create a platform, GTN En Vivo, where the videos of some of the main shows that had been presented on stage were made available to the public. And as soon as they were able to return to work in person, they began to produce new works and offer them in a program, Teatro en Grande, on TV Peru.
-The GTN is my second home. Not only because of the number of hours he spent here. I like to feel the energy of the public. Hear them leave a show like Chabucaseeing how they liked it, is something that fills your heart.
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Forming audiences
As a room supervisor, Paula Newton knows something about the impact that the shows of the Gran Teatro Nacional have on the spectators.
“This is one of the nicest jobs I’ve ever had in my life,” he says. Because of the energy transmitted by the public. They come in families, in pairs, and you can feel that connection, that chemistry, that they establish with the works.
Newton’s job is to direct the staff that is responsible for receiving and serving the public in the room. Plan care protocols and supervise that these are met during each of the functions. The ushers are the face of the Grand National Theater for the people and she is well aware of that.
Both Newton and Chucos emphasize the importance that the public has when it comes to defining the GTN programming, to the point that there is an audience area, in charge of Melissa Giorgio, who seeks to train future spectators of the Peruvian theater from an early age.
With this goal in mind, starting on July 30, the Gran Teatro Nacional will hold the First Teen Theater Festival, where four works aimed at young audiences will be presented: Rosmery and the Liberator, Chabuca, Chaska and Paradise. In this way, the GTN will continue to celebrate its first ten years in style.
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