Duende Discussions
A fun and invigorating artist interview podcast where I talk to my brilliant friends about their personal and creative relationship with duende - the visceral vibration of the soul making impact with its most authentic, ancient self - made famous by Spanish playwright and poet Federico Garcia Lorca. My guests and I will explore how to define what the mysterious duende actually is, how to access it, what to do with our art once we've confronted it, wrestle with it - possibly in real time! - as well as decipher who/what has it today, and what role it plays in today's ever evolving and challenging artistic landscapes and vocabularies. Why duende today? Because like Lorca says, “The true struggle is with the duende.”
Duende Discussions
4 - Sabina Zúñiga Varela - The Marrow of Moment-to-Moment, The Wondrous Irrational Body and "A Christmas Carol"'s Grittier Phantoms
Holiday greetings, my spirited duende duders! Hope your December so far has been full of magic and merrymaking. It’s hard to cut through all the seasonal chaos, but I think this wondrously stimulating and partially holiday-themed episode with my beloved storytelling goddess and epically fun, soulful partner in loving and conjuring the moony and mythic - award-winning actress, theatre educator and director Sabina Zúñiga Varela! - can melt away a bit of the stress-frost that may be on our hearts right now. She is a master manifester of the visceral and revelatory in the way we tell stories and activate creativity for the greater communal good, so I knew this convo would be rich with provocative, meaningful reflection. We discuss her uniquely metaphysical definition of duende, the harrowing nature of experiencing fully in-the-moment duende as an all-in performer - specifically in her journey performing playwriting icon Luis Alfaro’s Ancient Greek adaptations, and her deep love for the enthralling scope of duendes within Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, a tale she feels is an underrecognized social justice reckoning. And Sabina’s stories are always so fascinatingly insightful - we learn why elk blood can be turquoise, how humans can be turned into diamonds, and the best way for a Pisces to “de-role”, among many other fun facts and histories.
She gifts us a few sublime recitations - such a treat! - and we share our examples of duende holiday scents - hers harboring a nefarious origin :) We play a holiday-themed version of Duende This-or-That, and tackle one of the most divisive pronunciations in the western theatre canon. Please weigh in if you feel compelled to do so! :) Merry merry, my duende-discussing friends! Have the most magical holiday season <3
Sabina's blog detailing her experience in Dallas Theater Center's 2014 production of "A Christmas Carol" -
https://sabinazunigavarela.wordpress.com/2014/12/
Have a great duend-ay! :)
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