If there is something that fascinates Sandra González Bandera, it is awakening the imagination through theater, and during her experiences in countries in conflict with Clowns Without Borders, she realized that puppets and masks, unlike screens, are an ideal tool to develop children's fantasy.
Actress, director and teacher, with a degree in Optics and another in Dramatic Art, an Erasmus in Wales and ten years of theatrical experience in Ireland, she moved to Lanzarote two years ago, where she creates masks and puppets for her theatrical shows.
In an interview with Ekonomus, the founder of Kadira Theatre, shares her passion for theater and the vicissitudes of undertaking in the cultural world.
- How did you train in acting?
It is something that I always had inside, since I was a child, and when I finished my Optics degree and had been working for a few years, I decided.
I started at the Estudios de Teatro de Barcelona school, which uses the Jacques Lecoq method specialized in gestural theater, and then I entered the Instituto de Teatro, where I took a degree in Dramatic Art.
It was there that I discovered the world of puppets and masks.
- You have also trained abroad...
First I did an Erasmus in Wales, at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, where I went to discover a little more about the world of puppets.
Then I spent ten years in Ireland, which gave me many professional opportunities that I had not thought of. I lived from the theater, I was a stage manager and a funambulism teacher, among other projects.
- Why did you leave Ireland?
I also wanted to train in camera and film, so in 2020 I went to Madrid to do a five-month training, with the idea of returning to Ireland, but with the arrival of covid I could not return.
In addition, the projects in schools and in theater that I had there were suspended due to the epidemic.
"With puppets you can transport the viewer to any place"
- How did you get to Lanzarote?
On the one hand, my professional life had collapsed and on the other, I needed a little less cement around me (laughs). I had sent resumes to work as an optician and they called me from Lanzarote.
Lanzarote seems to me an incredible island, with wonderful spaces to go for a walk and let your imagination run wild. Lanzarote is a great stage.
- Within the world of theater, how did puppets conquer you?
I think they are a tool that goes further when it comes to awakening the imagination of the public. With puppets you can be in a theater and transport the viewer to any place.
Also with them it is easy to do non-verbal work, which I think can reach more people and make the public finish the story a little.
If you explain something with words, you are already limiting it a little. With puppets, without words, you can suggest more. Especially adding audiovisual elements such as music, lighting and dance.
- What is the show you are currently presenting like?
It is a mask show that creates the illusion that the puppets are not being manipulated by a person. We are two actors and a musician.
And it is also a street show, which I think is very interesting to reach an audience that may not be able to afford a theater ticket. The characters are called Blanca and Rúa. We are going to do it this Sunday at the Fuerteventura Book Fair.
"In Rwanda I saw how children really connected with their imagination and started playing with anything, and when I returned to Ireland I saw children hooked on screens."
- How did this show come about?
When I lived in Ireland, I worked with Clowns Without Borders and went to do several projects as an actress/clown in Jordan, Rwanda and Myanmar.
In Rwanda I saw how children really connected with their imagination and started playing with anything, and when I returned to Ireland I saw children hooked on screens.
So, I already had Blanca made for a different play, and there I saw that I could take advantage of what I do to encourage the imagination of the little ones, I created Rúa, and this show.
- What did you do with Clowns Without Borders?
We were three actors and a musician and we had a show and also workshops with the children and parents. The objective was to help heal, not so much the physical wound that exists in conflict situations, but the emotional wound and the trauma.
- What was the most striking thing about this experience?
You go with fear of having a bad time or worried about how hard it is going to be and instead, it is a very human experience, you work with people who are in a very vulnerable situation.
And the really hard thing is when you come back, when you see the routines and the things that worry us in our day to day, which are not very important, and with which we forget about the essence.
"This year, at Harionetas, we have a construction workshop and another puppet manipulation workshop in schools"
- Do you participate in the Haría Festival, Harionetas?
This year, within Harionetas, we have two projects in schools. One of puppet construction, with which each child will make a glove puppet.
And another puppet manipulation project, with which, in addition to creativity, we work on concentration, coordination and listening. We create a space in which children feel safe to express their emotions and play with their imagination.
- How do you build the puppets?
I make the puppets out of wood. I have made them of pine, beech, different woods. And the tools are the typical ones of a carpentry workshop: the saw, the sander, the drill...
The wood arrives in a block, I paint the sketch and then I carve it. Then comes the characterization. The masks are made of papier-mâché which offers more flexibility.
- What is the most beautiful thing the public has told you?
It happened to me in Lanzarote. Last year we did the play in Harionetas and there is a moment when we play tennis and the flute music accompanies the emotion and gestures with an imaginary ball, as if they were cartoons.
A few days later I met one of the parents on the street and he said to me: "Since he saw the play, my son has been playing to do the actions of one of the characters and asked me for a flute because he wanted to play imaginary tennis with mom and dad."
That is what excites me and I like about my work, because I see that what I am trying to do, arrives, and that the child, maybe leaves the phone and with his imagination wants to recreate what he has seen, which can be a starting point for, with the parents, to generate other games.
"When I have had an easier job, in which when I go home I forget about it, in which I have a fixed salary, I am missing something. Someone who has an artistic concern, needs to express it."
- Are Kadira Theatre shows for all audiences?
In Ireland I did a show for babies, from 5 to 18 months. The one I have now is for a family audience, from the little ones of three years old to the grandfather of 99 because the objective is to work the imagination, so any child or any adult who still retains their inner child will enjoy it.
- What would you say to young people from Lanzarote who are considering becoming cultural entrepreneurs?
It is not easy, because you are constantly looking for projects and you will receive many noes, but I would tell them to go for it. If it is something they feel inside and need to get it out, that is where they have to work.
I myself do not know how to explain it, but I feel that I have to do it. When I have had an easier job, in which when I go home I forget about it, in which I have a fixed salary, I am missing something. Someone who has an artistic concern, needs to express it.
- What projects are you considering for the future?
For the moment I want to move the show and the workshops through schools, libraries and festivals. I also want to create a one woman show, alone, to get out of my comfort zone.
