On stage or behind the scenes, Paula Silva combines multiple facets with something in common: exploring creativity through theater. With a strong focus on adolescence, the actress supports this discipline as a valuable tool at any stage of life, promoting its expansion through her work as a teacher and director.
Collaboration:
Joaquín González and Tomás Carballo.
4th Year, New Millennium Educational Institute.
Juan Brizuela and Felipe Murga.
4th Year, Villa Argentina Millennium Institute.
For Paula Silva, the theater not only occupies a central place in her life, but it is the tool that has allowed her to “change perspective” on numerous occasions. “It has helped me understand and navigate many issues on a personal level. I feel that the theater is the exact point of freedom ”, affirmed the actress, director, teacher and current member of the Directorate of Culture of Río Ceballos, the city where she has lived for seven years.
Like so many others, Paula came to Sierras Chicas from the Cordovan capital seeking tranquility and new horizons. Here, he found the ideal place to continue his artistic path and expand his notion of theater, which had already begun to form when he was just 11 years old.
It was her grandmother, “actress and theater,” who opened the doors of that world to her and took her to her first stage. “I think he saw something in my way of being and in my intensity that maybe it could work. The thing is, I started and I couldn’t stop anymore, ”Paula recalled with a smile. He went through his training at the Provincial University of Córdoba, where he studied Arts in Theater Teaching, but also took part in workshops, seminars and other “non-formal” spaces.
Currently, she combines all her roles (as an actress, director, teacher and workshop) in each of her activities. “To go through both teaching and the management of a group, it is essential to have the experience of acting instances”, he valued and added: “Acting generates a lot of knowledge and teaching is the possibility of ordering, in stricter structures, that information experiential ”.
Young potential
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Among the various spaces and proposals that Silva is a part of, his work with youth stands out, embodied mainly in the group (Sin) Expectaciones. Its members began as children in 2015 and, as their “perseverance, collective work and the desire to professionalize” strengthened, they became a stable cast.
“I work with young people because it seems to me a stage where theater is particularly necessary. Adolescence is a time when a lot of changes begin to be experienced on a personal and social level and it is important to generate the tools to function and go through some issues that occur at that stage ”, he reflected.
As a teacher, Paula also works at the Secondary Level, although she pointed out that, in this framework, the link with the theater is somewhat different, since the activities are subject to planning and the obligation to approve certain contents.
In any case, the director and teacher highlighted the energy that young people have. “Many times in the theater, the one who thinks loses. Adolescents have the characteristic of always going forward, they do not care about anything. The barrier of stopping to analyze everything is forged in adulthood, so young people are more spontaneous, “he explained.
Regarding the benefits that performing arts can generate in youth, Paula stated that “the effect of theater on the mind is therapeutic.” “It is an enriching tool for all people, of any age, because it helps to be aware of certain emotions that are sometimes hidden and can generate pain or anguish. The theater helps in this exercise of determining what happens to us, which is a great tool for life ”, he added.
There is an audience, there are no spaces
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Despite the large number of artists who reside in “la Perla” of Sierras Chicas, Paula lamented the scarcity of “adequate” spaces for their performance. Currently, the only room available for practices and presentations is La Beba, next to the traditional Caminito Serrano. “It is not enough for the number of people who do theater in this city,” he said.
However, he stressed that there is an eager public for performing arts along the Sierras Chicas corridor, which manifests itself particularly in events such as the International Independent Theater Festival, in which Río Ceballos has participated as the venue for several years. “There is a large sector with a daily vision of the theatrical, which is not scared to see a street intervention, for example, which is a great strength”, Silva celebrated.
In this sense, from his place in the Municipality’s Directorate of Culture, he recognized that one of the objectives is to generate stable artistic spaces and support the development of all cultural branches equally, although the advent of mandatory social isolation, a few months after assuming the current management, delayed the plans and projects that had been working.
“Theater is an enriching tool for all people, because it helps to be aware of emotions that are sometimes hidden. Collaborate in the necessary exercise of determining what happens to us “.
The show must go on
How to continue with artistic work in a context of pandemic and isolation is one of the challenges that was presented not only for Paula and her group, but for the entire world. The teacher admitted that this period was one of the greatest challenges that she had to experience and cited the Argentine theater historian and critic, Jorge Dubatti, to raise her position: “The theater, in essence, needs the presence of the poetic body of the actor and the spectator, the conviviality ».
“It is a moment to ask ourselves how to transform ourselves and I believe that the answer lies in action, in continuing to exercise and sustain spaces, even if it is virtually”, reflected the actress. Thus, with his young cast, he decided to tackle the work “Chronicle of an announced death”, by Gabriel García Márquez, in two modes of presentation: the radio drama and the audiovisual format.
“For now we are reinventing ourselves that way, accessing other ways to show what we do. It is the main achievement of the group, that they soak up the unknown and continue doing theater with commitment and dedication, ”Silva finally concluded.
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