Teatro Sin Fronteras : San Diego Repertory Theater Program Crosses the Linguistic Frontier

The San Diego Repertory Theatre lists its current production, Thin Air: Tales From a Revolution,” as part of a new program, Teatro Sin Fronteras, meaning Theater Without Boundaries.

The Rep also says that, although the name, Teatro Sin Fronteras, is new for it, the concept dates back to 1987 when it presented Luis Valdez’s “I Don’t Have to Show You No Stinkin’ Badges,” and continued last year with the bilingual “Burning Patience” and this year with the recently closed bilingual production of “Orinoco!”

Why invent a name? What’s in a name?

In this case, it is a promise of things to come.

Establishing a program called Teatro Sin Fronteras shows a commitment to Latino offerings as part of the Rep’s annual schedule and strengthens the theater’s track record, which should help fund-raising efforts.

It’s also the most significant episode in the continuing development of Latino theater in San Diego since the Old Globe founded Teatro Meta in 1982.

In 1984, Teatro Meta presented San Diego’s

first bilingual production, “Fanlights.” In 1986, the organization received a major Ford Foundation grant, expanding the scope of the Latino theater program. It established a school program, promoted the mainstreaming of Latino actors and found a play by Hispanic playwright Reuben Gonzalez called “The Boiler Room” that was presented as part of the Globe’s regular season.

This year, it is presenting a Latino Play Discovery Series that continues with “Latins Anonymous” Sept. 1-3 and 8-10, and concludes with “Death and the Blacksmith” by Uruguayan playwrights Mercedes Rein and Jorge Curi at the Progressive Stage Company space Oct. 27-29.

Add to this activity the recent production of “Dangerous Games,” the dance-theater piece by Argentine choreographer Graciela Daniele at the La Jolla Playhouse, and you have what appears to be a healthy Latino theater scene in San Diego.

But the future is still uncertain: Audiences for bilingual shows at the Rep and Globe have been modest; the Globe’s Ford Foundation grant is running out in October; and a three-year effort to establish a local Latino company remains a dream.

There has been some progress. Opportunities for Latino stage actors have exploded since a young man named Raul Moncada used the pseudonym “Jeffrey Grimes” in order to get roles, and a teen-ager named William Virchis considered himself lucky to get cast as the singing, drinking Mexican, Pancho, in an early ‘60s Old Globe production of “Night of the Iguana.”

Virchis, now the head of the drama department at Southwestern University, described it as “ironic” that his first part in a play that dealt in some way with his heritage turned out to be only the most stereotypical of roles. But the part also led to a continuing friendship with the director, Craig Noel, now the executive producer at the Old Globe, who later worked with Virchis and Jorge Huerta on Teatro Meta as a way of expanding the opportunities for up and coming Latino actors.

Noel said he not only wanted Teatro Meta to give Latinos something other to play than “sleepy Mexicans or Mexican maids,” he also aimed to increase cultural understanding.

“I wanted to show the hopes, the dreams, and the values in Hispanic plays were exactly the same, no matter which side of the border we live on,” said Noel.

Moncada, who succeeded the team of Virchis and Huerta as director of Teatro Meta, said the Old Globe was the first major regional theater with “a big Anglo history” to be funded by the Ford Foundation.

“They wanted to see how tough a nut it was to crack,” said Moncada. “And it cracked.”

But cracking theaters that want to be cracked is one thing. Could the theaters get the audience to support Latino theater once the grant money ran out? If they cooked dinner, would anyone come?

The San Diego Rep mulled over that very question when they began to work with Huerta, a professor at UC San Diego, on the bilingual production of “Burning Patience” and “Orinoco!”

Huerta talked to the Rep about the millions of Mexicans just across the border who were hungry for good theater. He guessed--roughly-- at what the Miami-based Strategy Research Corp., the largest company in the country doing research on Latinos, showed statistically this May. Latinos now number 473,800 in San Diego county, or 17.7 of the total population. The burgeoning Latino population--which has grown 72% in the past nine years-- will have $2.8 billion in income to spend this year. In addition, Tijuana visitors will spend about $950 million.

But if theaters have, in any way, a business consideration in doing such programming, it is a very long range decision. Even committed Latino directors like Huerta and Virchis concede that Latino audiences are not in the theatergoing habit and need to be wooed by the theaters.

The Rep’s usual run for a show is six weeks, but it split the time span for a run between “Orinoco!” and “Thin Air,” and targeted Mexican print and television journalists in Tijuana to sell the shows. The result for “Orinoco!” was 70-80% capacity audiences for six Spanish performances, respectable but not overwhelming for a house that only sits about 200.

Then, too, the theaters whose bread and butter are still the Anglo audience, fear that if they put too much time and energy into wooing Latinos, they may lose the base audience that keeps them afloat. Noel confesses that he still doesn’t do as much Latino theater as he might like because there just isn’t the audience to support it. As significant as Teatro Meta has been for Latino students and professionals, Noel’s dreams for the program have far exceeded what it was able to accomplish.

“I wanted to have a cultural exchange across the border, I wanted a festival, I wanted an educational program, new Latin plays and Mexican plays. Our futures depend on each other,” Noel said, referring to Mexico. “Look at the terror that we live in in a little island off the coast of Florida called Cuba. And what will we do if Mexico becomes a Communist nation? We’ll freak out.

“I wanted to do more than give a young attractive girl the opportunity to play Juliet. I wanted to move faster and have Panzer divisions all over. But the one campaign that the Ford Foundation was willing to fund was to audition and hire Hispanics. Noel said that, when the grant runs out, “I will probably be forced to narrow my sights because of economics.

“I do think the climate has improved somewhat. I think all of a sudden there was a realization that our population was expanding to the extent that someday the Hispanics in California will not be a minority but a majority. But education and changing mores is a very very slow process. If I said, ‘We’re going to do nothing but Hispanic plays for one whole season,’ we’d have to close our doors. You can only push people so far. You have to tease them and use sleight of hand to make them think that you’re not pushing them but they’re pushing you.”

Noel believes that Latino theater increases understanding between cultures where understanding is often sadly lacking. At the Rep, where the emphasis is on contemporary work, producing director Sam Woodhouse, who is directing “Thin Air,” sees the inclusion of Latino theater as a necessary step to portraying the society we live in.

“What we’re trying to suggest by Teatro Sin Fronteras is that a political border that once may have been relevant to us is no longer a relevant lie of demarcation between theaters,” said Woodhouse. “It all comes back to ‘Welcome to California in the late 20th century’ when Anglos will be in the minority here.”

The commitment will be tested when the Old Globe’s Teatro Meta grant runs out. And when the Rep finds out if it will or will not get funding. And when Latino plays fail.

Just before “Orinoco!” opened, director Huerta was filled with anxiety that it might not do well and that people might use a negative response as an excuse not to do more bilingual theater. It’s a fear that Virchis and Moncada understand all too well.

“You’re not given the chance to fail,” said Moncada. “They’re afraid that people will say, ‘Oh well we got burnt once, we’re not going to try it another time.’ I’ve seen that happen in the Midwest. A show was not successful and they pulled out the entire Latino program. You have to increase production so you can afford to have failure. The more we do the more we’ll be given a chance to fail. Otherwise it’s too much pressure.”

In the meanwhile, all three directors are gambling that Latino theater in San Diego is here to stay. Huerta is administering the first bilingual MFA theater arts program in the country at UC San Diego. (“I would not have agreed to initiate this program if I thought I was preparing people for unemployment,” he said). He’s also hoping to continue his association with the Rep’s Teatro Sin Fronteras.

Virchis is still trying to raise money for Teatro San Diego, a Latino theater that he and Huerta tried to get off the ground three years ago.

Moncada just came back from a trip to Venezuela and Argentina, where he brought back over 105 plays, from which he plans to select candidates for the Latino Play Discovery Series. Virchis expressed doubt that the series will continue when the Ford money runs out, but ask Moncada if he believes it will, and his confidence in the program seems utterly unshaken.

“I believe incredibly ,” said Moncada. “I don’t see it as a fad because there is so much material out there. I travelled in several parts of South America and there is such a hunger, such a need to share information. The Latino playwrights in North and Latin America are just maturing as writers. Meanwhile, we’re one of the few theaters involved in fostering Latino writing. You can’t expect to start with a bang. I feel very good about the way the entire process is going in San Diego. We’re breaking ground.”