The Actor | Alejandro Vara
It is Thursday morning in early December. Alejandro Vara, gets up early at 10 a.m. and gets ready to go to his theater academy Enjoy Creating to rehearse his play Prince of the Stars, in the city of Valladolid.
Alejandro begins his rehearsal by warming up his body and voice and between him and his companions they give each other massages to free their bodies. Afterwards, they do individual activities to prepare their characters, they perform scenes in pairs so that they get into the scenes of the play and it also helps them to connect with each other. Finally, they finish by doing group activities and rehearse the play.
“Once I leave my theater class I feel a personal fulfillment and I get to know myself more and more, because to be an actor you have to work with yourself and your experiences, and I really feel that every time I rehearse I get to know myself more,” Alejandro admits.
He decided to start in theater when he heard on the radio that the academy was opening when he was 12 years old. He started doing a musical and felt free, he was passionate about what he felt when he acted. “I felt like myself when I was acting, being able to play with the character inside you and being able to improvise made me enjoy it a lot,” Alejandro confesses.
The power that theater has for Alejandro is being able to escape from reality. “It’s a feeling of escape and connection with the scene,” he says.
Theater has given him the ability to know himself. “Before I was a very shy person and didn’t open up to people. But thanks to the theater I was able to get rid of a lot of insecurities and embarrassment. I learned how I should treat others and what I deserve,” he says.
It has given him the ability to enjoy the things he has in his life. It has given him confidence, self-knowledge and the ability to adapt to all situations in everyday life.
Alejandro started in theater at the age of 12 and continues his training at the age of 19.
Thanks to the theater he has had many life experiences and opportunities such as acting in theaters like the Calderón, the Carrión and the Miguel Delibes cultural center in Valladolid.
The play I have seen is called Prince of the Stars. This play is about a company of actors who are preparing a play called Myths (Greek mythology). The life of the characters is connected to the play itself. The characters have characteristics of Greek life. Alexander is the main actor in the play representing Narcissus, a narcissistic, individualistic and selfish god.
“Acting in this play was a personal challenge for me, because I am the opposite of Narcissus. It was very cool to challenge myself and play a role the complete opposite of myself to exploit to the fullest that character inside me and act the best I could,” he says.
After the Covid-19 virus, Alejandro longs for those times when he could act all over Spain. He misses that personal fulfillment he felt when he acted more often.
“I see theater within my future plans, as it is my main hobby. I would love to be a professional actor, but I don’t have enough time to put so much dedication into it. Even so, I want to continue doing theater always because it helps me to free myself and it’s the best escape I have,” Alejandro concludes.
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Maria Santiago is a journalism student at the American University in Bulgaria. She is passionate about writing articles and doing interviews. She decided to tell this story because she is always looking for what is worth being read and heard by readers. She has learned a lot from this story, and she was delighted to see how an activity like theater can develop someone’s personal growth so much.
