“How difficult to answer that when you have to rethink yourself”expresses with a smile to the question of who it is Raquel Martinez. “I am an actress who has gone through several schools and anti-schools, many experiences with various teachers”continue later.
Recognized for her time in the company Hara Theater and space land without evil next to wal mayansand the unforgettable work “Damiana”Raquel is currently one of the great exponents of contemporary theater, the result of several years of work.
She has a long career in the theater field as an actress, teacher and director, but her art, talent and discipline go further, it is almost like her own current that actors, actresses and theater workers in Asunción know very well.
“First the human being, then the artist”, says Raquel. Photo: Nat Vera Scuderi
“I found many things that fascinated me that challenged me and thus I was putting together an expressive corpus”asserts about his journey in the theater which he fully developed in “Tierra Sin Mal”.
“Starting with Tierra Sin Mal, it’s like I started to create an interpretative body discourse as an actress. With Wal I recognize what I want to do, what language I want to take to be able to express. I started with dance, then came the theater”says the artist.
One of Raquel’s most representative works as an actress is ‘Damiana’, a play directed by Mayans in 2015, inspired by Damiana Kryygi, an Aché girl who in 1896 was kidnapped from her community and taken to a province of Buenos Aires, where she was studied by the doctor Robert Lehmann Nitsche. Some time later she was admitted to a psychiatric hospital after being classified as a nymphomaniac.
“I always say that it was like my thesis of that experience”comments on the work that marked the closure of his stage with Tierra Sin Mal. “Today my work has a lot of that language. I think I was building my theatrical identity from this way of doing and telling theatre”.
Raquel Martínez in a scene from “Damiana”, a play with great repercussions on the local scene. Photo: instagram.com/raquelespejo3
RACHEL’S THEATER
Abandoned houses, neighborhoods with narrow streets, alternative cultural spaces, old and historic mansions are the spaces chosen by Raquel to give life in her works to stories that emerge from nothing to a whole, capable of penetrating the most hidden and deep human sensibilities. .
In each story, the main thing is the body of the actor and the actress, and their expression. “I don’t like to call it poetic theater, but it’s close to that, this theater that tries through space to create symbols through an integral composition.. From the empty space I begin to spin a story, spin a painting, I am composing”it states.
Another fundamental factor in Raquel’s performances is always the audience, whom she considers to be of great relevance during the course of her performances. “It is a bit of the theater within this space that later becomes something poetic. I try as much as possible to leave an imprint on this spectator who walks, who is active, who is present, who is close. The viewer completes the show, always”.
Raquel in the middle of the rehearsals of the play “To be or not to be: That’s the question”. Photo: Nat Vera Scuderi
ACT OUT OF NEED, NOT OUT OF FASHION
Currently teaching at renowned theater institutions “Comprehensive Acting Workshop” (TIA)of Juan Carlos Maneglia and Tana Schemboriand “The Irún Theater School”of Margarita and Paola Irun. At the same time, he teaches denide and conducts workshops with the company Sigils Experimental Theaterlately in the old building of the union club.
In her meetings, she invites us to explore the voice and the body as interpretation tools that have gained a lot of strength, achieving a massive presence in each module. “I hope it’s not because of fashion, because fashion passes, hopefully it’s a need to continue browsing what the environment offers you and what I can learn there.”
“I love having young people in my workshops, there are people who are afraid to start working with the body, there are people who don’t even do theater and want to come and challenge themselves, read a little from the inside and from the outside. I hope they get closer to be true to themselves”.
Empty and old spaces, characteristics of the works of Raquel Martínez. Photo: Nat Vera Scuderi
MATERNITY
In the middle of her transition as an artist, Raquel became pregnant. A gift from her life that, far from taking her away from the tables and learning from her, motivated her, achieving a synergy between both roles, mother and actress. Mainu Yinoot, her only daughter, is 26 years old, lives in Finland and is dedicated to art in various forms such as photography and manual art, with plaster and clay.
Despite the distance, mother and daughter keep in touch through social networks, constantly interacting.
Raquel Martínez with her daughter, Mainu. Photo: instagram.com/raquelespejo3
THE CURRENT THEATER
Regarding the current context that the Paraguayan theater is going through today, he considers it varied, an aspect that from his opinion makes it healthy. “I see it better than before, there are no new things but there are other demands and I am talking about different types of theater. I see that there is a lot of fusion, the experimental too, people gamble. The important thing is to keep learning and training”.
“I don’t know if there is a superficial theater and if it exists, I hope it doesn’t take all of us. We have to defend the theater because it is a space that saves us all. Any kind of art has to be taken very sensitively. You have to be human and to be human you have to be loyal, honest in your processes”remark.
“Faust: Apocalips” achieved a lot of impact during its season in 2022. Photo: Nat Vera Scuderi
BACK TO PERFORMANCE
The actress is very active directing and teaching, however she has been away from acting for years. “I suffer when I am directing because I don’t feel like a director, I’m just donating a bit of my work and my look as an actress”.
Regarding the possibility of seeing her perform again soon, she expressed her desire and desire to return to the stage or why not, some audiovisual project, but for this a project must come up that inspires her and allows her to take an extended period of preparation.
“I locked myself positively for a long time. I want to return to acting, I know that when I decide to return it will possibly take me a long time to process. I am a perfectionist and I like to give myself long times, I know that I am going to demand that. I have to go into the room, I have to know what I’m going to find there after so long”.
Raquel Martínez urges you to follow the theater out of conviction, not out of fashion. Photo: instagram.com/raquelespejo3
For the remainder of this 2023, she plans to remain focused on her schools, but for the following year, she ‘flirts’ with a timely return. “I am never outside of discovering new moments”.
Raquel to the new breed of artists who are starting out in the scenic profession to choose a career not out of fame, but out of conviction, to find a path as a human being. “First comes the human being and then comes the artist. Being faithful and having faith in a path that never ends, there you can see real art, one of those that move you”.
