Grateful for a career that has lead her to the path of success , Mexican actress Kate del Castillo (“Queen of the South”) considers that she has now the necessary “ maturity ” for the “ greatest challenge ” she could face: “give a voice” to the femicide victims from Ciudad Juárez , Mexico , in English and in New York .
The performer is fully engaged in the rehearsals of “ The Way She Spoke ”, a play premiering in Minetta Lane Theater on July 18th and where she acts by herself, putting herself in the place of the different parts involved in the drama that afflicts this Mexican city, and based on the interviews of the playwright Isaac Gómez .
In the presentation of her new work, thanks to which she will live in The Big Apple , Del Castillo affirms that she feels like “the luckiest woman in the world” because life has “compensated” her with many things, like receiving precisely in this “stage” a project that she summarizes like this: The biggest challenge of her career.
“I have the maturity, as a woman and as an actress , to use my body to give voice to those women we do not remember , those we have forgotten . It’s something that hurts all Mexicans deeply. Not only Mexicans; femicide happens everywhere ,” the actress accepts.
The director, Jo Bonnet , chose the “extraordinaire” performer not only because of her professional appearance but also for her activism for women’s rights and her understanding of the “circumstances” surrounding this scourge in her native country, which makes her “really know” the characters, she explained.
“She’s being the actress, who is also a character, she embodies every woman, and portrays men too. She’s very demanding, and she has to transform vocally ,” adds Bonnet about the play that is produced by the platform of audiobooks Audible , and that will be recorded later for its distribution in audio format .
It is crucial for Del Castillo “to open the heart” and understand in what stage of life is each character, what they say and what they feel, and so “ pass the message as it should be passed :” “This is for the women of Juárez , not for Broadway, neither for me, nor for money, and I hope I can accomplish what I must,” she expresses.
Although working in English is a challenge “20 times bigger” than usual, and in addition to being in New York, away from her home, the actress says she feels delighted and excited for the premiere of the play, for which she will be “ thankful for a lifetime ” to Gómez.
The playwright, who comes from El Paso, Texas , in the frontier with Ciudad Juárez, wanted Del Castillo from the start to give voice to “The Way She Spoke,” a stage play that “accompanies” another play with his signature, “ The Route ,” with the same theme and based on interviews , but in this case “the testimonies exist by themselves.”
Gómez pointed out that a lot of people, especially men, know nothing about “ the missing women ” and that is why he wanted to disclose the stories of a tragedy that “ happens not only in Juárez but all over the world ” by interviewing women whose daughters or sisters had disappeared, as well as factories, ex-convicts, journalists and scholars.
“At the beginning the answer is to shudder , and then there’s a desire to do something ,” asserts the author, who hopes “to awaken any change ,” while the director accepts to be touching a “painful” topic to which “you’re emotionally hooked ” because of what these women have to face, but “the most important is not to remain unresponsive .”
This perspective is shared by the actress, who sees Americans more open to listening to different accents and “knowing what happens in their neighbor country:” “They listen to words in Spanish , they’re more interested… it’s the perfect time to talk about topics that are happening right now.”
Upon being asked if she will use more frequently the theater as her platform for telling stories, Del Castillo says “Híjole” (an expression of surprise), and asserts to have her heart divided, because the stage “creates a need that the camera can’t fulfill” and, although she loves the movies , she feels that “the boards call you, and once you step on them, you can’t leave them”