Project Platea, the most daring and 'crazy' work of Marcos Marcell

Bustling actors moving back and forth. The small lobby at the entrance is packed. The dressing room has a queue to finish getting ready and to put on the costume for the performance. The director gives the last instructions. The stage manager tries to bring some order. Theater in its purest form.

The scene described did not unfold in any grand theater just before a performance, though it could have. The nerves were the same and the desire for everything to go as planned was also present. It's the final rehearsal of Blood Wedding, the latest play by the actor from Ronda, Marcos Marcell. Everything takes place inside The Yellow Room, the small theater with a capacity for about 40 people where Marcell’s school and his company, part of Proyecto Platea, his personal project to bring the world of theater to the Serranía with a professional perspective, are located.

Settled in Madrid since his youth, he developed most of his acting career in capitals at theaters such as La Zarzuela or the Real, and in television series for major networks. However, there came a time when he decided to radically change his life and return to his hometown to stage his most daring work, his own theater school. “Unfortunately in this country anything to do with theater is considered a crazy project, it’s the most denigrated of the arts despite its importance,” Marcell responds when asked if the idea of betting on this cultural dream in a small Andalusian city was somewhat crazy. Moreover, he asserts that "theater is not in the place it deserves, especially on a personal level, it’s totally crazy."

Regarding his idea, he explains that one of his main goals is to offer the people of the Serranía the opportunity he did not have as a youth to learn acting in a rigorous and serious manner to later perform on stage. Precisely, this fact is another reason that led him to return to his land. "It's a life project, it's a crazy project, but above all it's a dream and it's a project that works," he notes.

Marcell acknowledges the difficulties involved in such a project, among them, that his potential students in the Serranía are far fewer than those he might find in a large capital. However, this aspect was not an obstacle and he decided to move forward with his idea and today he highlights that after seven years of operation the school remains open. "If we are here it's because people want it," he points out. Currently, about twenty people attend his classes each week to become the actor they always carried inside, but for various reasons could not awaken earlier.

Despite the difficulties in advancing his project, he maintains that he is happy with what he does, while emphasizing that "theater has been in crisis since it was born, it has always been in crisis." Therefore, they also have to combine this personal dream with other activities to keep it alive.

Regarding his work, he is known as a tough teacher: "But that's because I consider theater something that I like and appreciate well-done acting from the base," while he explains that "here you will find respect for acting and rigor." Moreover, another goal in his classes is to ensure that his students, besides becoming actors, are capable of being critical spectators. "I don't believe in an actor who can't fairly critique someone else's stage work, I like my students to become great critical spectators, not nitpickers," he states. In this way, he believes that a spectator, when watching a performance, can understand the reasons why they like it or, conversely, what they dislike and the reasons for it. "You may not like a show but understand the effort, the work put in and the acting work of an artist who has to defend a role," he explains.

Furthermore, he believes that this type of school can be the ideal place for those who are curious and want to know if really being an actor is what they seek in their professional life. "People misunderstand that being an actor is about being famous, and it has nothing to do with it, one can be an actor in many ways," he indicates.