The “TV and Film Acting Workshop” closes at the III Dominican Republic Global Film Festival.
By Cynthia Abréu

The “TV and Film Acting Workshop” was more action than theory. Acting students and actors alike attended FUNGLODE this past Sunday, November 22nd to take part in a unique encounter: a course with an experienced teacher full of useful knowledge for those wishing to internationalize their talent.

President of Bello Talent, Manuel Poblete, captivated those who attended the course with his forced Spanish and his strong desire to teach. Nevertheless, the biggest impression was on his face as he appeared extremely delighted with the talent and openness of his enthusiastic Dominican acting students.

A simple video camera, the laughter of the students and the actors’ characterizations raised the spirits of everyone in the room. Parents, prostitutes, evangelicals, sports fanatics, adolescents, jealous women, strict mothers, homosexuals and a priest were roles portrayed in front of the camera. Every performance demonstrated the interest and skill of the actors.

At the end of each skit Poblete stopped filming to tell them how well they did and gave them some tips on the quality of their acting. Once the acting part was over they began to work on theory. A selection of exquisite subjects was put on the table and the teacher talked about the right way to elaborate an acting curriculum, the difference between TV and movie acting, how an actor should prepare for a casting audition and techniques on memorizing scripts, among other things.

The workshop started at 10:00 on the morning and was scheduled to end at 1:00 in the afternoon but the participants still hadn’t quenched their curiosity. They finally finished at 2:00 and only because the teacher had to go and get ready for the closing ceremony of the festival.

Before leaving, Poblete urged workshop participants to practice what they had learned. “Experience leads to talent,” he said. Poblete praised FUNGLODE for the extraordinary work it did in the III Dominican Global Film Festival. “The work being done by this organization will take this country far in the world of film. Hollywood could easily invest in the Dominican seventh art after this experience,” concluded Poblete.