Online puppet show boosts Colombian actress's career in Spain's lockdown
Thirty-nine-year-old Colombian actress and puppeteer Yohana Yara has moved to Madrid to jump-start her acting career, but she did not expect to face a pandemic and a three-month lockdown leading to the cancellation of her "Wizard of Oz" puppet show.
The unexpected lockdown announced on March 14 shuttered theaters, cinemas and cultural centers as the Spanish government struggled to contain the spread of COVID-19, leaving many actors jobless and shattering plans and dreams.
"I didn't imagine that things with the coronavirus were going to develop as they did. It was a disappointment, like no way, I was starting, I was stepping on it hard and suddenly I'm locked up at home and what do I do?" Yara said.
She had been booked at a theater in Valladolid, two hours from Madrid, to perform The Wizard of Oz puppet show for a whole season.
Confined to her home and filled with disappointment and boredom, Yara decided to create a YouTube channel for her show "Leo the Lion and his Friends" (Leo Leon y sus amigos).
She shot and uploaded videos with children's stories, poems and songs and captured an audience of young children.
"It helped me, it was therapeutic and stopped me from feeling down and it gave me a creative outlet," Yara said. "I think that in times of crisis creativity surges and you start working with what you have at home. As I'm a puppeteer, fortunately I have a lot of puppets I can work with."
Yara, left war-torn Colombia at the age of 19 and has since lived in Peru, France, Holland and Barcelona before moving to the Spanish capital.
She is now looking forward to performing live again and describes the feeling of experiencing the reaction of her audience as "priceless."
"The idea is of course to perform again in theaters when it is allowed or to do outdoor shows which is what we can now do."
Spain, which has suffered one of the world's worst COVID-19 outbreaks, imposed strict confinement measures on March 14, but has been gradually reopening its hard-hit economy since May, with different regions progressing at different speeds.
The lockdown will end on June 21, but certain restrictions will remain in place, like social distancing and the use of masks.
(Source: Reuters)
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