Ser, o no ser... (To be, or not to be)

Éso es la pregunta.

So I’ve talked about some performances that I’ve been to at the Teatro Solís but not much about the theater itself. We took a tour of the building last week and here are some cool facts that I learned about it:

· 151 years old (opened in 1856) so that Uruguay would have a permanent theater

· 1998-2004 closed for most recent refurbishing

· 1250 person capacity with floor and box seating (5^th floor box seating called “Paradise”)

· Ceiling of performance hall: painted on canvas (looks exactly like plaster sculpture!), 11 masks for 11 emotions, 11 names of writers and composers

· 3 chandeliers (big, medium, and small, in 3 different parts of the theater): made from 5k crystal in a factory in England that was bombed in WWII

· Horseshoe shape inspired from Italian Theater

· Stage/Platform directly in front of the stage that can be moved to 3 different positions: flush with the floor seating to add more seats, raised to the stage level to extend the stage, and lowered for a pit orchestra

· Backstage: 7 catwalks, 6 dressing rooms, state of the art sound and light system

Performances I’ve attended so far this semester (in the TS):

· Classical Guitarist

· Brazilian Rocker

· Argentine Ballet

o Performance of “Carmen” and several other numbers

o Big Band music with swing dance influenced dancing

o Final number was a Tango influenced ballet

o Really fun to see the influence of other styles of dance in the ballets