Sinque Tavares
  • Theater
  • Class of 2017
  • West Haven, CT

Eastern Student Sinque Tavares Opens New Theatre with "Pedro, The Great Pretender"

2016 Nov 28

Sinque Tavares '17, an Eastern Connecticut State University student from West Haven, helped christen the brand new Proscenium Theatre with an inaugural performance of "Cervante's Pedro, The Great Pretender." The historic occasion -- the first major production of the Theatre Program to occur in that venue -- took place within Eastern's new Fine Arts Instructional Center from Nov. 8 to 13.

The classic play by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, a playwright of the Spanish Golden Age, follows the tricks of Pedro, a master pretender whose escapades involve him with a slew of characters and careers as he struggles to find his true vocation in life.

Tavares majors in Theatre with concentrations in Acting and Directing. In "Pedro," Tavares played Pedro. "This was my first time as a lead in a play," said Tavares, "so the most challenging part of my role was having to figure out how to tell Pedro's story; how to show his growth throughout the play from being a farm boy to becoming an actor. I had to change the way he walked and talked from beginning to end.

"Eastern's rendition of 'Pedro' was beautifully done," said Tavares, "from the set down to the costumes, lights, acting and everything in between." He added, "Performing in the first Proscenium Theatre play means the world to me because we are starting a new legacy as well as setting the bar for every other show that will be in that theatre. We can only go up from here.

"My hope is to leave my mark in the theatre department," said Tavares. "I aspire to take what I've learned and apply it to whatever I decide to do once I graduate, in hopes that I will come back to Eastern and talk with future students about my journey to the top."

"Our first production in our new Proscenium Theatre hopes to honor Cervantes' timeless subversive satire by connecting the centuries of his day and ours," said Ellen Faith Brodie, director and theatre professor at Eastern. "The costumes evoke the Spanish Golden Age paintings of Velasquez and his contemporaries. The scenic design was inspired by the 20th-century Spanish artist Jean Miro.

"Cervantes lives on in Pedro and we live on through the hopes and dreams of both the author and his creations," continued Brodie. "We are all Pedro: pretenders in many costumes wearing many masks and dreaming of a better life and a better world."

At Eastern, Tavares