Stage for Latino Talent : Immigrants find a creative outlet in Constelacion. Acting group hopes to increase appreciation of theater in the Spanish-speaking community.

Francisco Tenorio is weeping openly.

“Why, my God?” he cries. “Why now that I’ve turned my life around?”

In the jampacked auditorium of Santa Rosa Catholic Church in San Fernando, approximately 250 people of all ages raptly follow the plight of Tenorio, who has led a life of debauchery in the drama played onstage, and now has infected his wife, played by Araceli Ochoa, with HIV.

At the end of the skit, written by Tenorio and Ochoa, the audience claps enthusiastically, and the pair bows, their pride obvious in their beaming faces. They have never performed before such a big crowd.

In fact, it is difficult to imagine that a scant four months ago these two people were strangers, brought together in a San Fernando church in response to an advertisement for free acting lessons in Spanish--lessons they hoped would help them cope with their painful shyness.

This night, as part of “Latino Talent Night,” Tenorio and Ochoa are two of almost 60 students who are making a reality of Ivan Olivares’ dream of promoting Latino talent and building an audience for theater in Spanish.

Olivares, 37, of Canoga Park, a psychologist and actor in his native Peru, is the mastermind behind Constelacion, a theater group that offers free acting lessons to nearly 100 students in San Fernando and Van Nuys.

Since its inception 2 1/2 years ago, more than 500 people have “graduated” from Constelacion’s rigorous four-month classes, where two instructors meet every week with about 50 to 60 students per class and carefully lead them through the basics of acting, from “uninhibiting” exercises to three year-end performances that are now attended by hundreds in the community.

“We work on two levels,” says Olivares, who immigrated six years ago from Peru, where he also directed a Constelacion theater group. Here in the Valley, he said, with the help of several churches that lend their auditoriums for classes and performances, “we promote theater and its appreciation in the Latino community, and at the same time, we discover and promote new talent.”

Assistant director Juan Zepeda takes the goal of the group a step further: “Many Latinos don’t have the means or the space for positive activities. Many of us, before coming here, went from our home to our job and back. Here we offer an option for people to develop their intellect.”

Roberto Sapien, who travels two hours every Friday from Long Beach to the Valley to make the three-hour lessons, thoroughly agrees.

“I’m a truck driver,” he explains. “We’re rough people. But here I’ve learned about poetry and culture. I’ve come to know a different world.”

All of Constelacion’s students are Latino immigrants--although this is not a requirement--and they vary in age and come from all walks of life.

A recent rehearsal brought together high school students, cooks, engineers and factory workers.

“I came here because my wife saw the ad . . . and she wanted me to bring our children,” says Juan Vasquez, a father of two teen-age sons. “But they left and I stayed,” he says laughing. “I never thought I’d be in something like this, but I feel like I’m born again.”

As a matter of fact, most students credit the lessons with making them more assertive and even better at their jobs, something founder Olivares can appreciate.

“You see, theater is not only for actors,” Olivares says. “It’s a technique that can be used by people who want to better themselves.”

Regardless of their original motivation for attending Constelacion, once they finish the classes, most students want to continue in theater, and many have professional aspirations.

“The first day of class,” says Araceli Ochoa, “they had us work on the ‘uninhibiting technique.’ We had to act like dogs, like children, like everything! I had always liked theater, but I never thought you had to do this kind of stuff. That first day, I almost left. I thought, ‘If my family sees me doing this, they’ll think I’ve lost my mind.’ But I decided to stay, and now I feel this theater thing is like a drug. You want more every day.”

Constelacion’s classes may be free, but there is nothing improvised about them. The uninhibiting exercises that kick off the program are designed to break communication barriers. Students then go on to dramatic and character exercises. They are gradually exposed to an audience and receive a monthly evaluation.

Olivares thinks his program is just as good as any of the better-known English-language counterparts.

“We wanted to give Spanish speakers the same kind of training English speakers get,” he says. “So before we started, we did some ‘spying’ and enrolled in (several private theatrical) academies and colleges to compare our style and make sure we were competitive.”

Olivares and his crew regularly send their students out on theater and television auditions, and some of them are already working regularly on local Spanish-language television shows.

Olivares, who has a day job as a nurse’s assistant at the Motion Picture and Television Fund Hospital in Woodland Hills, has already invested about $2,000 out of his own pocket into the venture. At this point, students buy their own costumes, make their own sets and use the lighting available at the churches. But make no mistake, Olivares has big plans.

Next year, aside from the basic theater program, Constelacion will offer more advanced lessons, for a fee, and a program for theater promoters who plan to establish Constelacion groups in other cities.

“You see, I truly believe this will work,” says Olivares. “We will work with the audience we’ve built and will continue to build, and we will dispel the myth that Latinos don’t go to the theater.”

Where and When

What: “Latino Talent Night.”

Location: St. Elisabeth Catholic Church, 14658 Kittridge St., Van Nuys.

Hours: 7:30 p.m. Dec. 18.

Price: $3.

Call: For tickets or to get information about joining Constelacion, call (818) 787-2005 or (818) 712-6916.