This past Friday, December 15, the Students of Drama in Education Association, or AEDE for its acronym in Spanish, celebrated the performance of their long-awaited play titled “Creating in Nothingness” (“Creando en la Nada”). The play was written by Kimberly Vargas, a Colegio alumni who is currently doing her master’s at NYU. As a past member of the association, Vargas has also created five plays, including this one. Directed by Alondra Rodríguez, “Creating in Nothingness” certainly was an experience that enveloped the viewer.
The play narrates the story of Penelope (Rosimar Gavillán), a woman who lost her fiancé and unborn child in a car accident, and the process of her moving on. The truly touching story is narrated by Daniel (Edgar Mangual), a young boy who is reading from her diary. At first, Penelope metaphorically locks herself away from the world to dwell in her suffering and rage against the world who took the two people she loved most. Several people help her, her two friends Nadya (Laiana Lugo Santori) and Pablo (Antonio Pagán), the Blind Man (Jonathan Laracuente), who forces her to say aloud what happened, and face her pain, and a psychologist called Andrés (Alex Vázquez), who gently helps her come out of her self-constructed hell.
After finally learning to dance in the abyss and create from nothingness, Penelope comes back to life. At the very end, she is able to sing again, live again, and love again. Even though she visited the grave of her deceased lover every day, it’s only then that she manages to find the will to speak to him and tell him about Daniel, the boy she adopted.
AEDE rehearsing for “Creating in Nothingness” at night, in the Chardón lobby.
The play had been long in the making. The AEDE had to cancel it twice due to the university strike and the hurricanes Irma and María. On top of that, they had to constantly improvise their rehearsals because the theater where they practiced had asbestos after María. However, the wait was worthwhile. “Creating in Nothingness” was truly a captivating play to watch; it made my hairs stand on end, tears fall down unconsciously, and feel the actress’s pain and frustration. This proves that AEDE is an amazing collective full of talented people, and they have a lot of tricks up their sleeve.
Follow AEDE on Facebook at AEDE and be sure to save the date for their next performance on December 21. It will be “Live Paintings” (“Pinturas Vivas” on Facebook) from 10:30 to 12:30 at MUSA. It will be free of charge and judging from this performance, another memorable event.