![\"Alma](\"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/awmensmall.jpg\" "\\"awmensmall\\"")
<\/a>Garcia found his way to the cast of Alma when they performed in Lisbon in 2003, but it was a tortuous path that led him there. Growing up in a small Portuguese village, he was always conscious of a desire to explore and express his inner feelings. When he was just four years old, he accompanied his older sister to her ballet class. The teacher noticed that he was doing everything and said, \u201cHe can dance!\u201d He studied dance until the age of 10, when social pressure compelled him to quit. \u201cI suffered a lot,\u201d he recalled in an interview, curling into himself, saying, \u201cI was like this… dressing not to show my body.\u201d At age 14 he began performing in amateur theatre but \u201cfelt that I wanted more.\u201d Torn between his love for the familiarity and intimacy of his home and a need to develop his craft, he went to acting school in Lisbon but felt that \u201cit was too big for me.\u201d Garcia returned to the village thinking, \u201cI will do my poems in my room for myself and my mother,\u201d but that was not to be his destiny.<\/p>\n
After a stint working in his father\u2019s restaurant Garcia tried his luck in the big city once more, becoming one of 20 accepted to film school out of a pool of 500 applicants. It was there that director Paulus Manker saw his photo and asked Garcia\u2019s teacher to send the student to an audition. Not speaking any language other than Portuguese at the time, Garcia was hesitant. He had not heard of Manker, but Simone D\u2019Olivera, a well known Portuguese actress was playing in Alma and he had seen the posters. Agreeing to go to the audition for his teacher\u2019s sake, Garcia made an unconventional choice of text \u2013 he recited a poem in Portuguese for Manker, Jos\u00e9 R\u00e9gio\u2019s C\u00e2ntico Negro.<\/p>\n
The poem reflects the desire or rather need to venture far from loved ones and familiar scenes, to follow the yearnings of the soul, however far they may take one from home. Garcia, who movingly recited the poem for me, can well identify with this theme. Manker responded by immediately saying, \u201cI don\u2019t have a part for you, but you will be in the production.\u201d Garcia, who has since performed in several productions of Alma, cites this as a turning point in his life. He calls Manker his mentor saying, \u201cHe believes in me, he gives me freedom. I think art is freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n Garcia will be playing Gustav Klimt as well as Paul, young Jewish man Alma encounters when she visits [then] Palestine in 1924 with Franz Werfel. Paul is Alma\u2019s chauffeur who doesn\u2019t believe in love, until he meets Alma. Garcia says, \u201cHe has a very powerful scene with Alma. When he meets Alma, he sees his goal in her and says: I wanted so much to come to this country, to Eretz Israel\u2026but he falls in love with Alma.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAlma is like Jerusalem,\u201d says Garcia, who has been in Israel since August 4th, \u201ceverybody wants Alma. Jerusalem is a magic place; the prison has a good energy for the play. There is a feeling there, if you are sensitive you will feel it, it helps the play\u2019s energy.\u201d Garcia is enjoying Israel, saying that despite the fact that it is a very different culture, \u201cI\u2019m feeling at home here and have found a lot of similarities with Portugal.\u201d He has been enjoying exploring the differences as well, saying, \u201cAs an actor one needs a lot of experiences, it helps me a lot and influences me.\u201d<\/p>\n Performing in Alma is physically and emotionally exhausting, according to Garcia, \u201cIt\u2019s not like regular theatre. There cannot be any over-acting \u2013people are right there next to you and if they want they can go see another scene.\u201d In accordance with Alma\u2019s passionate life, the play originally contained explicit language and nudity, which were not deemed appropriate for the current venue, which is a memorial site. Therefore, the version which will be performed in Israel will be a bit more restrained.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/a>
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