Growing Latino Interest Could Put Actors to Work

Raul Moncada believes Margarita Cansino might have found herself the victim of Latino type casting had she not changed her name--to Rita Hayworth.

Moncada, program director of Teatro Meta, the bicultural wing of the Old Globe Theatre, said the biggest stumbling block for a Latino actor is his or her name.

Compounding the difficulties are the language barrier and San Diego’s historical lack of interest in playwrights and actors on the other side of the border, say the half a dozen or so actors and directors who have moved here from Mexico.

Theaters plunge into shows by Latino playwrights--such as Federico Garcia Lorca’s “Blood Wedding” at the Old Globe and “Burning Patience” at the San Diego Repertory Theatre--fearing that the gamble may result in utter rejection. Local Latinos feared the critical failure of “Blood Wedding” would prove a devastating setback for San Diego’s Latino actors and directors, one insider confided, but the public proved kinder than critics. The show was chosen 2 to 1 over the subscribers’ option of Martha Clarke’s “Garden of Earthly Delights,” and played to sellout crowds on its final weekend.

The runaway success of “Burning Patience” proved that Latino work could be a critical smash as well.

Now, just maybe, San Diego’s growing interest in Latino theater may translate into jobs for the actors who left television and theater careers in Mexico City for the uncertainty of San Diego.

Granted, they didn’t come expecting to find work; they came to escape pollution, traffic, a failing economy and crime. Most figured that, because of language and cultural barriers, they might abandon acting forever. Leon Singer opened two El Tecolote restaurants. Cristina Soria returned to school to study psychology.

But, once they came, they couldn’t help looking for work, and, when they did, they found a small but determined Latino network. Singer caught the eye of Luis Valdez when he was cast in “I Don’t Have to Show You No Stinking Badges” at the San Diego Repertory Theatre. He has since acted in “Fort Figueroa,” a pilot for Valdez, an upcoming television miniseries based on the Larry McMurtry novel “Lonesome Dove,” and he currently stars as Pablo Neruda in “Burning Patience.”

Luis Torner, a Mexican actor and director, moved here because he had a 6-year-old with asthma that smog was aggravating. Once here, his Jewish sister-in-law, who works for the Anti-Defamation League of B’Nai B’Rith introduced him to a fellow worker, Kit Goldman, managing director of the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre. Goldman introduced him to Deborah Salzer, director of the California Young Playwrights Project, who hired him to direct a play by a Latino writer from Los Angeles called “Simply Maria, or the American Dream.”

The play, which went on to win several awards, will be filmed by KPBS in March under Torner’s direction. Now Torner directs projects for Teatro Meta while dreaming of starting his own bilingual theater company in San Diego.

Jorge Huerta, who co-directed “Burning Patience” with the Rep’s artistic director, Doug Jacobs, said he has been asked to come up with another bilingual project for the Rep next year. And the Globe has increased its commitment to Latino theater by sponsoring its first Latino Play Discovery series, to be done in collaboration with the Progressive Stage Company under Moncada’s direction:

“Picture Perfect,” by Mexican playwright Pablo Salinas, will be staged Jan. 27-28. “Made in Lanus,” by Argentine playwright Nelly Fernandez Tiscornia, is scheduled for March 17-19. “The Granny,” by Argentine playwright Roberto Cossa, will play May 26-28. And, from Aug. 11-13, “Death and the Blacksmith,” by Mercedes Rein and Jorge Curi of Uruguay, will have the Globe’s executive producer, Craig Noel, directing the story of a wily peasant who tries to outwit Death after having been granted three wishes by God.

Comedian Don Victor knows it is impossible for him to perform or be interviewed without writers referring to his former partner who made it big--Whoopi Goldberg.

So, instead of ignoring the way he inevitably gets pegged as “the skinny white guy who worked with . . . “ he embraces it as further grist for a hot comedic mill. Performing “Works of Progress” on the same Gaslamp Quarter Theatre stage where he and Goldberg did a benefit for the theater in 1979, he sings “When a Friend Becomes a Star” to the tune of “When You Wish Upon a Star.”

It was funny, but Victor gets funnier in the other isolated character sketches of the first act; the laughter hits a deeper and gentler place in the second as he goes for a “Prairie Home Companion” effect of building homey, interrelated sketches about a cook, a tall-tale teller and a really bad folk singer living off the Chintukawa Highway.

His friend may be the star, but this skinny white comic resource is no one’s second banana. For a good time, catch him Tuesday at 8 p.m. at the Gaslamp. His next scheduled show is not until May at Sushi.

Remember the Arts-Tix ticket center scheduled to be erected a year ago? William Purves, president of the San Diego Theatre League, in charge of building the booth, does remember, and knows what he wants from Santa--building permits for the booth and $40,000 to finish the project.

Two and a half years ago, the San Diego Theatre League thought it would be selling half-price, day-of-performance tickets and full-price advance tickets temporarily from the lobby of the Spreckels Theatre. Then began the process of climbing small mountains, like getting the right location--Horton Plaza--raising $200,000, getting design approval, selecting a contractor and, now, finally, waiting, as they have for four months, for building contracts.

If the permits come through this month, as Purves hopes, the league can break ground in January for a May opening.

“The building department was swamped before election with everyone trying to get buildings approved before some new government regulations came down. Now I think we’re very close,” Purves said, then laughed.

“Of course, I have said that before . . . “