Flamenco Guitarist Theatre Companies
In this article I will discuss my work as a flamenco guitarist with theatre companies.
British theatre companies contact me to ask if I can play flamenco guitar for their productions.
These productions are typically Spanish plays in English.
Blood Wedding and The House of Bernarda Alba by Federico García Lorca are very popular.
I especially love working with theatre companies.
I find the directors and cast to be very sincere.
Sincere in the sense that they don’t just want some flamenco guitar to help marketing.
They think about it carefully and have ideas about how exactly my flamenco guitar can work with their production.
How flamenco guitar works with the production
Nothing is done just for the sake of it.
Ideas that do not work in practice are eliminated.
There are various ways in which I can contribute.
I might be playing on stage or off stage or not playing at all but sitting still and waiting.
At moments I play while some form of action is happening but not speech.
Other times my guitar works with the dialogue.
Playing off stage is also very useful because the distant sound can help to create the atmosphere.
Of course, sometimes I play a whole piece as an interlude.
Selecting flamenco repertoire for each theatre production.
This is one of the most difficult challenges for me.
Indeed, sometimes I get fed up with myself when I cannot find the right music in my internal ear.
There certainly are times when it is absolutely right to just play a piece of flamenco music.
Generally, nonetheless, I feel I must create unique music for each theatre company.
They are not all the same and their understanding of the play can differ.
Put another way, even if there is agreement about the author’s intention each director works in their own way.