Sac Be

*At Xcaret`s Main Plaza

The Yaxché Group from Izamal presents Sac Be

**Reevaluating Hanal Pixan through Community Theater

By Alejandra Flores

The Yaxché Community Theater Group will participate in the 3rd Life and Death Traditions Festival, Xcaret 2008 with twenty-one actors on stage and a story that will awaken our consciousness.

The members of Yaxché, originally from Izamal, Yucatan, will turn Xcaret Park`s Main Plaza into the backdrop for this theater production of Sac Be.  The story, written and directed by Melina Sierra, narrates the unfortunate adventures of the irreverent and unbelieving Sac Be, a teenager who is forced, snarling and snapping the whole time, to make an offering for All Souls Day.  But when she does, she makes several mistakes: first, by creating the tzempazuchitl flower path after midnight, then, by falling asleep right next to the offering.

Sac Be will see a parade of souls pass before her eyes, getting to know some happy and fun pixanitos (little souls) on the way.  Trapped in the world of the dead, the young girl must ask for help and so meets an alux [forest gnome], the goddess Ix`tab—goddess of hanged men—and, of course, the supreme Mayan god of death, Ah Puc.

The way Sac Be gets home to her family is part of the lessons the Yaxché Community Theater Group has prepared for us. The Izamal Cultural Center group is unquestionably one of the most experienced community theater groups in the region.

Sac Be will appear at Xcaret Park`s Main Plaza on November 1st and 2nd.