THE ARTS : Dual Dialogue : A bilingual play, ‘The Enchanted Lake,’ needs no interpretation, its producers say.

It sounds impossible. A bilingual play for Spanish-speaking and Anglo children to watch--simultaneously? Without interpreters?

Well, Ken Gardner, a drama professor at Cal Lutheran University, and a handful of students have done it. They’ve written a bilingual play, “The Enchanted Lake,” which will begin playing to Latino and Anglo audiences next week.

The setting for the play is a village in Mexico during Aztec times. The plot centers around a brave young girl who takes on a serpent in order to stop a deadly plague that is threatening the village.

Under Gardner’s direction, the play will be presented at the university Feb. 27 and 28 and March 7. After that, the production will go on the road, with 20 to 25 shows in Ventura County schools, primarily in the Conejo Valley, Oxnard and Ventura areas.

A bilingual play is not a new idea, Gardner said. The Bilingual Foundation of the Arts in Los Angeles does simultaneous bilingual plays for children.

“But I don’t know of anything out here like this,” he said.

The play has been more than a year in the making. Back in November, 1991, Cal Lutheran’s Michael Arndt, chairman of the drama department, got a $2,500 grant from the Achille Levy Foundation to write and present a bilingual play for children.

Arndt pursued the grant because of Cal Lutheran’s expressed interest in promoting multiculturalism in a county that has a growing Spanish-speaking population. It provided an opportunity to show the richness of Latino culture and traditions, he said, which are not adequately reflected in mainstream theater.

With the grant in hand, Gardner and his students began poring over Latino folk tales to get some ideas for the play. By the time they were well into the project they had read 300 to 400 tales.

“We wanted to do something with a little meat,” he said.

The script they finally wrote draws from three or four tales and incorporates mythology, but it’s primarily an Inca tale set in an Aztec town in Mexico during the 16th Century.

The Empress is dying because a serpent has cursed the town with a plague. Water from the Enchanted Lake is needed for a cure. The girl, Xochitl, watches her father leave to get the water, but only his mule returns.

Then, against the advice of the villagers, Xochitl makes the trek to the lake with the mule to get the water. Along the way, she tangles with trickster gods, an erupting volcano, magical birds and finally the serpent.

Gardner used several methods to make the play bilingual. Sometimes the lines are simply spoken again in English or Spanish. Sometimes that isn’t necessary if some visual act can do the job of translating. Or, sometimes the line is fragmented with both languages. For instance, the line, “All that running made me thirsty,” might be in English, followed by, “Could I have some water?” in Spanish.

Using both languages made the play a little longer, but it is still only 50 minutes, he said. He recommends it for children 5 years and older.

Although Gardner speaks little Spanish, he had some help from Cal Lutheran faculty member Uriosti Donaldo. Also, four of the students working on the project are fluent in Spanish.

Gardner has put together two five-member casts for the performances. The students have volunteered their time for the project. Choreographer Barbara Wegher-Thompson also assisted. The play is presented in cooperation with the Thousand Oaks branch of the American Assn. of University Women.

Cal Lutheran has been producing children’s theatrical productions since 1965. The school has branched out from mainstream children’s plays to include serious issues such as death and divorce. Gardner, who heads these children’s projects, has involved students in the writing and production before, but this time the project is bigger in scale.

“It’s two to three times our normal budget,” he said. In fact, Cal Lutheran went back to the Achille Levy Foundation and got a second grant for $2,000 to complete the work. They will take the show to twice as many schools as they have in past years.

The set for “The Enchanted Lake,” designed by two CLU students, includes two eight-foot totem poles and flowing parachute-type material that forms the lake.

In keeping with the mythological feel of the play, the set pieces transform into different characters in a magical way, Gardner said.

“It will be very visual.”

* WHERE AND WHEN

Cal Lutheran University’s production of “The Enchanted Lake” will be presented at 1 p.m. Feb. 27; 1 and 3 p.m. Feb. 28, and 1 and 3 p.m. March 7, in the forum, located in the university library, 60 W. Olsen Road, Thousand Oaks. The city of Moorpark is co-sponsoring a performance at 1 p.m. March 6 at the Moorpark Community Center, 799 Moorpark Ave. Also, a performance is set for 3:15 p.m. March 8 at Maple School, 3501 Kimber Drive, Newbury Park. Tickets are $3. For information, call 492-1474.