Musiko
Musika & Chile
Musiko
Musika has a long-term commitment to the development of new projects
in Chile. Artistic Director, Mauricio Venegas-Astorga has been carrying
out community projects and supporting and developing work with Chilean
teachers, musicians, children and adults since 1988 during regular
visits to his native country.
One
aspect of this work has been the formation by Mauricio Venegas
in 1997 of the community theatre group, Grupo Amauta, to provide
a cultural “lighthouse” in an area of severe economic
and social deprivation in the area of Coronel, Chile.
This is how they describe their work “Grupo Amauta bears
witness to the right of the local community to have access to
participation in the arts. The central objective of the group is
to preserve and develop the community elements that embody the
cultural identity of this mining area through theatre and in doing
so to contribute to the elimination of the poverty by means of
the improvement of self-esteem and of the educational and cultural
level of both the individual and the community as a whole. It is
the belief of the group that by maintaining and developing the
cultural aspects of the diverse nature of this mining area through
theatre they will be making a significant contribution to the cultural
and educational wellbeing of the inhabitants of Coronel. Theatre
such as this provides a tool not only for education but also to
empower people to improve their own quality of life.
The
group works in a collective manner, basing its theatrical works
on the everyday lives, sorrows and joys of the group’s members,
their families and friends. It is in this way genuine community
theatre expressing the needs of the community. None of the members
of the group have had any previous experience of writing or the
theatre.
The
first work written and dramatised was a piece relating to the life
of the mining women entitled “Our Bread of Every Day".
Since the first performance the production has been presented some
thirty times in schools, trade unions, and community centres in
Coronel, Lota and the city of Concepción. The play has become
very popular locally because people identify with the expression
of their lives that they see in the work and it is because of this
popularity that it has come to be performed so many times at the
request of the schools etc.
It
is important to highlight that this group has fulfilled since it
came into being, not only its cultural objectives, but it has also
developed and sustained a network of friendship and mutual support
which is of invaluable benefit to its members in their daily lives”. |
