Rebecca Calderon releases book of previously unpublished work

Local author Rebecca Calderon has published ‘Llévame Donde Nací – The Metamorphosis’ of a Play’ based on previously unpublished work.

In 2004 under her then-name Rebecca Faller, she published a full-length play The Civil Garrison in order to commemorate the Gibraltar Tercentenary.

The play was never produced due to many factors but primarily because of the sudden death of Dr. Leslie Zammitt who was directing the piece.

The work was put away until 2014 when Government Archivist Anthony Pitaluga proposed that it be staged to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the WWII evacuation.

She teamed up with local theatre director Jackie Villa who suggested the play should be edited and developed using the same characters but focusing solely on the war years.

Rebecca renamed the piece Llévame Donde Nací after the famous song (which already appears in The Civil Garrison), and began work on multiple interviews and re-writes. The baton was then passed onto Jackie who along with producer Andrew Dark carried out further detailed work to the script until it was ready to be staged.

Ms Calderon saw nothing of the production until the last dress rehearsal. The play ran for a week in November 2015 to sell-out audiences.

“It was a very emotional moment and very rewarding to see my creation, The Ansaldo Family, brought to life so brilliantly,” she said in her introduction to this new work.

“The people who read my original script and those who do not understand Llanito and Spanish have since urged me to publish.”

Llévame Donde Nací – The Metamorphosis of a Play is the middle section of an interesting literary story spanning twelve years. It shows an arc where various people supported, developed and enhanced the germ of an idea created in The Civil Garrison culminating in the hugely successful 2015 production of Llévame Donde Nací at Ince’s Hall. In 2016 the final stage script by Dark-Faller-Villa was published and the theatre piece won the Gibraltar Heritage Trust Group Award.

“I urge you to read all three works and immerse yourself in the social and political history of Gibraltar; an interesting place which is much more than the average garrison,” said Ms Calderon.

‘Llévame Donde Nací – The Metamorphosis of a Play’ is available on Amazon Kindle.