* At Xcaret Park`s Main Plaza

Xinbal-Káa to present La aparición [The Apparition]

** Community Theater Group from Chacchoben, Felipe Carrillo Puerto County

By Alejandra Flores

With the original music of ancient composers from Chacchoben and a story that will make the audience shake in their shoes, the Xinbal-Káa Community Theater group will participate in the 3rd Life and Death Traditions Festival, Xcaret 2008.

The stage production is named La Aparición del Ánima (The Apparition), a collective creation resulting from the theater workshop given by Xcaret Park, in conjunction with Professor Juan Carlos Duran Lopez and the Instituto de Cultura de Yucatán (Cultural Institute of Yucatan), in communities throughout Quintana Roo`s Mayan Zone. Participations enjoyed the opportunity to work on a story that would then become a script and finally a stage production.

La Aparición del Anima, explains Paulina Calté Euan, a member of Xinbal-Káa, "arose from a whole bunch of stories that we all told.  These are tales that we all know.  One, for example, was told to me by my husband and then I remembered others, so we all told stories and then selected one that we composed together."

The play, they tell us, tells the story of a girl whose birthday is on All Souls` Day.  Her friends organize a party for her because her mother, thinking of the dearly departed, has forgotten her birthday.  The little girl finally understands the value of celebrating Hanal Pixan when her aunt`s recently dead mother appears to her.

Xinbal-Káa has over three years` experience and the troupe`s plays have been presented in Peto, Divorciados and other nearby towns. "Ay Calacas! (Oh, Skeletons!) is another one of our plays", explains the younger members of this troupe of all ages.

The innocence of the players` performances is just one of their outstanding features of Xinbal-Káa. There is also their enthusiasm and the joyful revelry its musicians bring on stage.  These are Don Juan Flores May and Don Jesus Dzib Coco, who, guitar and harmonica in hand, recreate the ancient compositions that emerged from Chacchoben and give the stage production its invaluable originality.

La Aparición del Ánima will be presented on November 1st and 2nd at Xcaret Park`s Main Plaza.  Don`t miss it!