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My lucky impression is that you are working on some theater project all the time. Without stopping, let’s say. That doesn’t happen to most actors.
I’m lucky, yes. My first TV series was “Los del Solar”. There I worked with the great Carlos Cano, who told me that the best recognition our profession could have in Peru was to have continuity in work. And that has been happening to me in theater since 2008. For me that means a lot.
“Almost Don Quixote” (2016) is a work that Gold also co-wrote.
/ ATOQ RAMON
And yet you manage a discreet profile. You are on networks, but you share your work as a priority. You don’t go out of your way to make an everyday Instagram story. You don’t like to appear like that.
Yes, I am one of the people who can go on a trip and not take a single photo. If I have photos from my childhood and adolescence, it is thanks to my sister, who loved to record moments. That carries over, I guess, to social media. But I share something, I’m not a ‘hater’ of the networks either, I’m just not 100% worried about that.
Is shyness a trait of your personality?
It has been. Now that I’m 38, I’m less shy. But it depends a lot on who I’m with. If we are confident, the last thing you are going to say is that I am shy. But if we have never spoken, I delay.
It must have been difficult to be the host of a program like “Polizontes”, then. Or be, like now, a viral on the local Internet.
Yes, the most complicated thing about “Polizontes” for me was approaching the interviewee. After that, everything is fine. Regarding the viral one, that has been very crazy because it has been gradual. The video is from ten years ago [perteneciente al capítulo “El chico de los subtítulos” de la serie web “Los cinéfilos”]. It didn’t happen from one day to the next, so it didn’t shock me. I cannot deny, yes, that there are days when I am surprised when I hear my voice as a sound effect in TV editions or Internet videos. I’m just laughing now.
Gold in “Los cinéfilos”, the web series in which he worked with Guillermo Castañeda.
We go way back in your acting experience. What is the most distant memory you have on stage?
Maybe it was at a parents’ meeting where I had to interpret something. But the most vivid was on a kind of family Sunday in the schoolyard. The play was called “A Man Who Married a Brave Woman,” an old comedy.
Was there any theatrical moment that revealed to you that you were going to dedicate yourself to this?
None. It was revealed to me. At school I liked acting, but I thought that this was going to be a parallel activity to the career I studied and never pursued: bilingual technician in commerce and production businesses. I also followed audiovisual communication, but I didn’t finish. I was going to be very happy if I only did one work a year. Maybe it helped me, and until now, to concentrate on the present. I focused on the project I was on. I didn’t have a plan, strange as it may sound. But my name began to spread and I didn’t stop.
Why is theater special compared to film or TV?
I love things happening live. I enjoy movies too, but they shoot from 7 am to 7 pm and sometimes there is no order in the scenes. In the theater your performance starts at 4 pm or 8 pm and nothing can stop you. There is no take 2, there is no “we resume”, nothing. That uninterrupted period allows me to be present. It is difficult, even as a human being, to live in the moment, but you have to try. I love theater because it allows me to be present.
Hosting “Polizontes” on the cable signal was one of his first experiences on TV.
How did the opportunity to direct “Los caracoles” arise?
When I was studying I directed my shorts, my documentaries. Then I fell in love with acting, but the dream of directing was there. The head of La Ira Producciones knew of this desire of mine and he suggested that I find a comedy with few actors for me to direct. He believed that I was prepared, but that he didn’t send me because of nerves and insecurities. I had read “Los caracoles” when the complete edition of Julio Ramón Ribeyro’s plays came out in 2017, so I returned to it and took up the challenge.
There are five actors who play various characters.
Yes, I love that the skill of the actors can be evident. Also the works in which a lot is done with a few.
It’s a current plot, too.
Yes. I wouldn’t want to ‘spoil’, but it is valid because it addresses what many times these large companies, which represent savage and extreme capitalism, are willing to trample on in order to make profits. Especially the most vulnerable and defenseless. Ribeyro wrote that in 1964, but it could perfectly well happen today. I love the fact that it is a farce with very sharp social criticism; it is a comedy with a purpose. And the characters are endearing. I’m happy. //
Besides…
On the tables
“Los Caracoles” by Julio Ramón Ribeyro, directed by Manuel Gold, which will feature the performances of Miguel Iza, Jely Reátegui, Renato Rueda, Sebastián Monteghirfo and Gisela Ponce de León.
Besides…
Life and work
Manuel Gold was born in Lima in 1985. In addition to pursuing studies outside the art world, he entered the Toulouse Lautrec Institute to study Audiovisual Communication. Likewise, he trained at the Roberto Ángeles Actoral Training Workshop.
He has participated in 45 theatrical productions, including: “The Beauty Queen of Leenane”, “Let’s See an Applause”, “The 39 Steps”, “Astronauts”, “Bull”, “Volpone”, “Low Salary?” , “You don’t have to pay!”, “Peter Pan”, “Dreams of a Seducer”, “Fragments”, “The Dogs”, “Falsarios”, “The Number Six”, “Knock Knock” and “Birthday Candles” ”.
He has acted in nine films, including: “Like in the Cinema”, “The Light on the Hill”, “The Belly”, “NN” and “The Dreamer”. Furthermore, her participation in the web series “Los cinéfilos” and in the television series “Los del Solar”, “Graffiti” and “Somos family” is also well remembered.
He was the host of the TV programs “Polizontes”, “Cortos IPE”, “Por qué somos like this?” and “Bicentennial Generation”.
