A full-time actress: Elena Torres, from las Marujitas, says that the theater has a perfect creative process

When he stands on the stage of the Patio de Comedias in Quito, Elena Torres is Cleta, one of the Marujitascharacters created by Luis Miguel Campos (also author of the theater, television and film comedy The Zuquillos).

Cleta was thought to represent Quito. By the way, none of the Marujitas are called Maruja. The other two are Abrilia (Cuenca, played by Juana Guarderas) and Encarna (Manabí, the actress Martha Ormazadied in 2018).

Marujita was in reality their friend who existed only offstage, the one who died of leukemia, thus giving the title to the famous original play (written in 1986). And her character’s original name in that script, Torres points out, was Sara.

Entering her fifth decade in acting, Elena’s projects are now very choice. “Age, my physical condition, blah-blah-blah,” he says, laughing to the newspaper from his home in Quito. “I have other things I’m working on besides theater. We are done with Juana (Guarderas). The Christmas Witches, and we were putting together a script for a presentation later this month. But now… it’s unknown”, he says, referring to the social uncertainty of recent months.

He is 67 years old, which he considers “a good number, a lot!” He started studying Theater in 1977. Curious about someone who had not thought about a career in theater, but had started studying Economics (“I really like this story about numbers, but the ‘macro’ thing wasn’t for me” ); then he applied for Architecture; and while he waited, he took a semester of sociology. Ultimately, Architecture was not possible and he started working in graphic design.

“One day I opened a newspaper and saw the registrations for the Theater School (of the Faculty of Visual Arts of the University of the Arts). Central University of Ecuador). Something pushed me and off I went. In ’78 I had my first presentation and from then on it has been an ongoing process,” Torres recalls was convened by the director and teacher María Escudero, founder of the Argentinian group Libre Teatro Libre.

“(Escudero) called on some young people to participate in a project called At the right hand of God the Father (1979), and then he suggested we form a group called Grasshoppers.” And they really jumped, he remembers, because they became specialists in traveling theater. “We haven’t stopped; “We went from one place to another with children’s works, through the cities, the small villages, the schools.”.

And before we talk about his connection with the Marujas, we must mention his television projects, which started in 1983 with the series The dollsby Channel 13 from Chile (37 episodes filmed between that country and Ecuador). He also took part in the short film Death comes tomorrow (1985), the movie Bernarda Alba’s house (1987), Fever of love, let’s stop talking, El Chulla Romero en Flores, The miracle of the caves, I know they are coming to kill me, Las Marujas And Secretsall with Ecuavisa.

His alliance with the Marujas: 33 years of witchcraft

In 1986 she was invited by the Patio de Comedias to direct a play and give workshops. But then his son was born and he decided to take a break. “I was a bit secluded; I broke away.” Next were the Marujas.

“Juana called me and at that moment I said no. “I was with my very young son and I wanted to spend some more time with him.” But he did go to the premiere of the adaptation by director Guido Navarro, premiered at the Patio in 1990, La Marujita died of leukemia.

“I loved. I went into the dressing room and Guido Navarro said to me: ‘Elena, you can’t say no anymore. Your turn'”. It was difficult, she says, because the other actresses had already undergone a process in the techniques of the jester and the clown. “I had to catch him as he passed by.” Fortunately, they had Navarro’s guidance for a long time. “It was Monday to Monday.”

It’s been 33 years and the way Elena Torres summarizes this journey is very Quito. “It’s crazy,” he says, smiling. “They are living beings. Many people have told us, ‘But how do they still do it? Aren’t they tired?’. And no, because it is a school of action and knowledge; “In addition to acting, it gets into the psyche of the character.”

What is the relationship between Cleta and Elena like? “My son (he is a chef) knows how to say: ‘Mom, when the season is here, the distance between you and Cleta is very small,’” she says, very amused. “You discover other things about yourself, because that is theater. And the audience feeds you or shows you what else is missing. “What do you have for the character, for us, for the work?” It is continuous growth and transformation.”

Torres acknowledges that Marujitas spectators have very high expectations, whether they are loyal followers or newbies. “There’s always that entry into the scene that’s dizzying. You can be super done with the character, know everything, be warmed up, and the moment you walk in, that encounter with the audience can change everything for you, and be a beautiful thing, or it can also be a “What’s happening here?” are. .

Las Marujas is an open show, without a fourth wall. “You either bring in the audience or you distance them. It’s a very nice game. It’s beautiful how the audience receives what you give them; not all of them, but they record it beautifully. Recently a lady with a serious oncological process came in and hugged us: ‘I haven’t laughed so much in a long time.’”. And besides, he believes, not every actor or actress makes that promise.

The development of creativity, the theater proposal

An important part of Torres’ work are theater workshops. He especially remembers a project carried out in the province of Bolívar, with children from the fourth, fifth and sixth grades, called “The development of creativity”, including body expression, dance and visual arts. “These boys and girls were finding themselves, that is the beauty of art, and that opens up a much larger spectrum. You find your feelings, your sensations, your capabilities.”

One of his beliefs is that Encountering art, and not just as a spectator, is so important that it should be part of the educational curriculum. “Theater is one of the arts that has everything, because it starts with literature, dramaturgy, and then you have color and form, light and music; and all the time you have to study, because every work is an intense encounter with psychology, with history, with science.”

“It’s much more the case now, as teenagers are lost (because adolescence enters that world where you are no longer what you were); when we experience all this violence, all this madness.” What would have happened, he wonders, if they had been given other options to generate resources, for community meetings? “How I face myself and how I face the world is different when art and creativity awaken.”