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Marta Bascuñana
a Power of Creativity |
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The Costa Blanca coast in
southeast Spain is famous for many reasons and soon it may become
well-known for being the place where actress, singer, dancer and
screenwriter Marta Bascuñana grew up. Fluent in Spanish and English,
tall, with a supermodel’s face and build and blessed with enormous
talent as an actress, she is a casting director’s dream. She can have a
commanding presence in a scene, while still possessing the sensibility
to be more demure when filling a lesser role. Whereas in bygone days
taller actresses often were overlooked for roles they easily had the
talent to warrant their being cast for them, actresses such as Geena
Davis, Brooke Shields, Uma Thurman, Nicole Kidman, Rebecca Romijn and
Gal Gadot, long ago vanquished those oversights. Talent always triumphs
and for Marta Bascuñana her time is now.
She sat down with Riveting Riffs Magazine recently on the eve of
recording a commercial for an NGO and discussed her theater and film
career.
“There were not any actors and actresses in my family. I am the first.
Since the time I was a little girl I loved watching classical films on
TV, theater that were shown on television and films like Gone with
the Wind that I would watch whenever I had the chance.
I loved reading a lot when I was a child. That love for reading grew
naturally, as it was also one of her mother’s great interests and her
brother would often bring home books for her from the library. She loved
the stories she was told by both of her parents and her grandmother. She
also hints at being perhaps inspired by an uncle who was both a
journalist and a television producer.
I liked volunteering for singing and acting roles during Spanish and
literature classes. I also loved to dance and play guitar.
I was twelve years of age when I had my first acting role and that was
at the Theater of Torrevieja,” she says, while once again explaining
that she had a voracious appetite for books.
After moving to Madrid, as an adult, Marta Bascuñana studied acting with
Alicia Hermida and Jaime Losada at the La Barraca school. She later
studied film at La Central de Cine. Marta Bascuñana is what in North
America is often referred to as a triple threat, as she acts, sings and
dances. She was trained in dance and as a singer at SCAENA Carmen Roche
Dance School under the tutelage of Victor Ullate Roche, Nicolás Ibáñez,
Ana Ponce, Silvia Vidal, Lorena García and Laura Rodríguez. We mentioned
that she is also a screenwriter and she has taken courses in script
writing and filmmaking.
“My first professional role in theater was for an adaptation that a
colleague of mine, from La Barraca, David Z. Vaquero and I made from
Dorothy Parker’s stories. I had a twenty-minute comical monologue at the
beginning of the play.
When the curtain opened and I was there alone, with the audience and
there was only silence the atmosphere in the theater was beautiful. I
loved the connection with the audience, and they enjoyed the monologue.
Each time they laughed it was a gift to us.
The first film I was in, was directed by Jordal Le
Fou and it was called Oncidium
Bifolium, mi Orquídea favorita
I have really enjoyed all of the films and plays that I have been in.
(For instance), I as Cleo in Las Hermanas de Búfalo Bill with my
colleague Leticia Álvarez de Perea. The play was written by Martínez
Mediero and we had a lot of fun. Alicia Hermida provided good direction
for our roles. This was an adaptation we made from the play written by
Manuel Martínez Mediero. We had a lot of fun playing these roles of two
sisters that were in a moment of almost freedom,” she says.
Marta Bascuñana says, “The most challenging thing for me as an actress
are the plays when I had to dance, sing and act, at the same time, but I
love to do that, because I love musical theater. Actors and actresses
have to always be ready for many disciplines.
In MIGUEL for example it was a challenge to play the role of
Josefina Manresa as she was an actual person and not a fictional
character. It was a very interesting and lovely role to play.
I always start preparing each role as it is, a new beginning, with an
open mind, a lot of passion and collecting as much information as
possible.
For example, for the role of Josefina Manresa in MIGUEL the live
show includes music, the poems of Miguel Hernández, and his work in
cinema, theater and plastic art. I read many poems by Miguel Hernández,
I visited places where Miguel and his wife Josefina Manresa lived, and
we also shot a short film called Volverás a mi huerto y a mi higuera.
Pasión por un poeta in Orihuela (Alicante). For the film we
visited the home of Miguel Hernández in Orihuela. I also studied photos
of them and watched videos of Miguel and Josefina, so I would know more
deeply their personalities and the love they felt for one another. I did
an in-depth analysis of the monologues included in the show and I
rehearsed with the director, the musicians and the soprano.
I believe that the key is work, work and work and being prepared always
for any role.”
She pauses, before continuing to talk about the musical The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which was staged in Spain in 2015 – 16, in
which she played three different characters, Becky Thatcher, Aunt Polly
and Muff Potter, necessitating frequent and quick costume changes.
“It was presented different Spanish cities such as, Madrid, Sevilla,
Albacete and Coslada. The director Borja provides us with very useful
directions for this play, as well as, The Prince and the Pauper,
which I was also in and played six characters. It was very funny and
interesting to work with him and with all of the team,” she says.
We wondered how someone from Spain, would prepare for a play, The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer, considering it is based on the works of
American author Mark Twain and was written a century and one-half ago,
set in a time and a culture that even most Americans today would find
foreign to them.
“I was so lucky because I visited the Mississippi River the year before
the play, was presented. I was in Saint Louis. These are two wonderful
universal books, so the most important thing is the human values
included in these stories, friendship, honesty and freedom. We worked
out the story in that (context).
The play was presented in English and I loved that too. There was a
person that was in charge of the English pronunciation (dialect coach),
Carles Cuevas. The director and Carles indicated what they were looking
for from each scene and role. Borja Rodríguez gave us specific
instructions regarding the way we should speak and so we could get the
attention of the audience, while performing a top-quality play. This was a play and not a musical, even though we sang the songs that were written for the play. It was an adaptation presented by Borja Rodriguez, not the Broadway version,” says Marta Bascuñana
In the film Nadie es perfecto (Nobody is Perfect), Marta
Bascuñana portrays an English teacher and there is a powerful scene
written by Mario Schöendorff from CENTRAL DE CINE, especially for the
two of us, Aser García Rada. It was created from improvisation roles we
made for that purpose. We were directed by Carles Vila (we are sworn to
secrecy concerning the scene).
My character was fun to play and she has a clear objective and nobody
and no thing will stop her.
It was filmed in a pub in Madrid in 2014,” she says.
Like most arts and culture productions, in the world, whether they be
film, television, theater, music or other forms of artistic expression,
the production MIGUEL, ground to a halt with the advent of
COVID-19 in the spring of 2000.
“MIGUEL
was being presented with Asociación Cultural Lux Aeterna, with Rafael
Lozano as the music director, Rafael Bascuñana is the scene director,
Susanna Vardanyan and Camerata Universal Music performed the live music,
plastic art was by Paco Sáez and Rafael Bascuñana. It is a live show
that includes poetry, live music, cinema, theater and plastic art, but
as with many other shows it was cancelled, because of the pandemic
situation. Hopefully, we can resume presenting it in Spain and in New
York in 2 years,” explains Marta Bascuñana.
Although, some aspects of the creative world may have come to a
standstill, Marta Bascuñana has continued to create, turning her
attention to screenwriting, “During the pandemic lockdown I wrote,
directed and interpreted some short films. One of them Lo que la
pandemia ha unido or What the Pandemic has Joined, was the winner for
short film in the e-talent competition, Roockiebox. The award consists
of screening the winner in numerous cinemas and in different cities. It
will be screened when the pandemic allows for it. The synopsis is, a
woman falls in love with a man that she has seen in a live social
network during the lockdown period and she decides to test her time
machine to meet with the man, before the period of confinement.
Some of the other short films, which I have written, directed and
interpreted and which also have been selected for film festivals
include, Cita a ciegas en COVID-19 (Blind Date in COVID-19. My colleague
Cárlos Álvarez was in the role of Javier. It was selected for the FIBAC
festival. The film is about a woman who is alone at home during the
confinement. She has a very special online blind date.”
Marta Bascuñana
has experienced an explosion of creativity this year, as she has written
directed, recorded, edited and acted in numerous short films, including,
El momento es ahora (The Time is Now), with music by Rafael
Lozano Prior, a film dedicated to all of the workers who have provided
help during the pandemic and to the anonymous people confined to their
homes. There is Siempre (Always) dedicated to the culture sector
and Té Verde or Green Tea, a fictional piece. There is an
interesting sounding horror film called Espejo or Mirror that was
written by Geovanny Reyes, about the possible changes experienced by
people during the pandemic. Volver a saludar (Greeting Again) was
selected for the Rueda con Rueda Festival and she appears in the film,
as a journalist.
What is ahead for Marta Bascuñana?
“I love interpretation and creativity in all its forms. I am passionate
about theater and cinema always captivates me. The warmth and excitement
that the audience gives you during the performance are indescribable.
Now, I really would like to play a role in a film or TV series, and I
would like to also continue performing theater plays, of course.
The great challenge for us, as actors, actresses, directors, culture
professionals in general is to be able to earn our living from our
passion and now it is more difficult indeed. Culture is essential for
society. We all as a society should take care of artists and culture to
ensure a better present and future,” she says.
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“We
also used to go to the plays that took place next to our home in
Torrevieja and I decided to be an actress at five years old while I saw
one of those plays. I played at theater, pretending to be that actress
who was performing the play that day. I loved creating new stories and
writing them alone and with friends. I recorded video and audio tapes
with our own news and other magazines with a cousin, during the summer
holidays.