The Magdalena Project

[helen]

Last round of Magdalena Sin Fronteras – Santa Clara, Cuba
January 18th 2008

Wishes:
- to be in another Magdalena
- to take with me home the power of the work
- to work with some of you in the future
- to be able to take part in another Magdalena meeting
- for things to be organised better, for a relief in the life of Cuban women
- in connection to my age: find a place where we can confront form and content, to create a craft at an artistic level, connected with the reality of each of us
- for a meeting like this one opening possibilities to happen outside a Magdalena Festival
- Cristina Castrillo: my necessity is to find a way to talk and discuss artistic and theoretical aspects of our work
- Lorena: keep participating in Magdalena meetings. That my colleagues (from my group in Peru) can find economical conditions to take part as well.
- Leticia: when back in Brazil, be able to recognise the courage and strength that brought me here and maybe make the Portuguese the main language of a Magdalena Festival.
- Eneyda: I wish to be part of The Magdalena Project.
- Gema (actor of Antonia’s group): follow Magdalena all over the world and be able to come back to this ‘space of meeting’
- Italian (Cristina’s group): place to exchange, be able to talk about the work we’ve seen with no fear to offend, with the pioneer spirit that all of you have. That the power of communication and union we see here can grow and we can take it with us
- To catch one of these butterflies!
- Clara Ines: be able to find this space once again. Women of our culture (African, Asian) being able to be here next time to get the chance to see what women are doing.
- Raquel: to have energy to keep on investigating, not from theory to theory, but from practice to theory. Never lose the opportunity of recognising what functions and what doesn’t function
- Italian (Cristina’s group): an intimate wish – to manage my daily life, nothing to do with theatre and get the courage to resist (something I felt a lot here)
- Gabriella: my wish at Transit 5 was to work again with Women with big eyes. That for next Magdalenas, the spectators are able to feel the presence of this circle (but I don’t know how)
- Maja: I wish to fall in love! And from this moment be reborn and in this way re start in theatre
- Helen: to be able to understand and speak Spanish and Portuguese
- Maria: find my own voice and courage
- Find courage to resist and use the strength I found in the magic of encounter with the work that passes through body and words
- Lola (Nelda’s actress): necessity + desire + dream - to see women of all over the world here make me think of the Cuban women, and I wish the situation we are living in can change. (crying). That the performances make us stronger
- Sanja: that Cuba changes and can have the best of what we have, but that Cuba does not accept everything that comes with the change. That the Cuban women can be true to themselves with the beauty, strength, originality, and not selling themselves cheap in name of comfort. Personally: to do something with my technique, be able to say deeply my truth and strength
- Geddy: I kept my promises, to have a project of artists and the Scandinavians as responsible
- Luciana: that Women with big eyes continue, and I can keep working with them (don’t know how yet; but I liked the idea from the very beginning at last Transit)
- Zoe: be able to communicate in another language; opportunity to contextualise the work (meeting); great to be here and understand small things about Cuba and other countries
- Diana: speak Spanish (I’m joining Helen in the Spanish classes); to create beautiful and strong performances and be able to meet (invite you to) in Beograd
- A Holland psychologist once said: ‘if you have a complaint, make it fat’. I have a fat complaint: we don’t have place of reflection and critic of our work through generations, forgetting the differences we can make it better
- Gilly: learn Spanish. Personal wish: take the energy and ideas I got here, bring them home and work
- Eugenia: to have a meeting about maternity, which is what connects me to being a woman right now
- That Roxana can delegate more to her helpers so she can be calmer)
- Because of my age, my wish is to take part in the next Magdalena Festival. It is a privilege and I thank Roxana’s courage for making this festival despite all difficulties
- I’m young; don’t even know what I feel. That the Magdalenas come back to Santa Clara
- Nelda: thanks Roxana and Magdalenas; I wish to be together once again and other times with more time and opportunities
- Elisabeth: take the energy, happiness, madness to Singapore (in February they have a meeting to decide possibilities for a next Magdalena); take the strength, energy and courage to continue creating and encourage others; have a coffee with Roxana
- Blanca: there is a meaning in the fact that the desires are similar. I wish Roxana continues organising this festival and that I can take these almost ‘virtual days’ with me into my personal life; that you are able to meet the ‘normal’ Cuban women for a talk, to play together, to touch a Cuban woman.
- I thank the Cuban women for being strong against a patriarchal system. I thank them for their struggle
- Julia: finish the English translation of my book Stones of Water; and that Leticia and Helen work together
- Selena: to present my work at the next Magdalena
- I don’t want to be a ‘foreign body’ in the Cuban society
- Ginevra: come back and tell my story in a performance, which I’ve been thinking of for many years, but have not yet accomplished
- Alejandra: the strength of women from different countries can influence relationships; to show my work on love letters next time (and find a director for this work)
- Jill: I wish to share one of the seeds of Magdalena Project: to understand what authenticity means and that we stop copying men so as to evade the form’s jail.


Suggestions for next meetings:
- more time for workshops
- more time for meetings and exchange
- more longs workshops
- everybody lodged at the same hotel
- try to follow the programme, instead of changing all the time
- those who are not present at a performance, can also meet and maybe work together
- have an informal place for feedback on work
- Cristina Castrillo: search a way to connect with the younger generation which is not only through workshops. Possibility of choosing each other to work together. Important to be able to talk/work in different ways without offences. We need to learn with this. We need to look like ourselves as much as possible. Create a formal space for exchanges
- Lorena: get more support in Cuba to make the festival
- More time for workshops
- Leticia: formal space for exchange among participants; space on the internet to keep in touch and keep exchanging.
- Gema: longer workshops and place to share not only with women but with men as well
- Work exchanges space
- More time to work together (workshops)
- Clara Ines: more place for dialogues and to share work in different ways. Have 2 drivers!
- Raquel: more time to discuss, not evaluations.
- Exchanges can continue out of Magdalena meetings
- Gabriella: more time together
- Maja: place to meet, dance, drink together
- Helen: that all of you use the sharing space we have on the Magdalena website. You can have all kind of discussions there.
- Maria: more time for Women with big eyes; clear and ‘rigid’ communication before and during the Festival
- Longer workshops
- Lola: More moments together
- Luciana: to find time for informal meetings, as many ideas and collaboration can come out of these kind of meetings
- Sanja: one day at the beach
- Gilly: have a round on the first or second day, to know who is who
- Eugenia: hug all together at the end of this talk
- More workshops
- Nelda: Not miss Maria Porte’s workshop next time!
- Julia: no driver next time!
- Selena: to have the option of choosing the workshop next time
- Ginevra: a round at the beginning, in the middle and at the end; less workshops and more days; organise and follow the programme; and if there is anything happening in a hospital, should be with a lot of care…
- Alejandra: reflecting meeting, not critical