SCR’s Gift of the ‘Magica’ : Home of the Perennial ‘Christmas Carol’ Presents a New Take on the Holidays

On South Coast Repertory’s Mainstage, a 15-year tradition is again unfolding with this season’s staging of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.”

But a few steps away, in the more intimate Second Stage, a different Christmas is about to begin.

Shepherds, lighted candles, the strumming of guitars and a magnificent pinata amid a sea of lanterns and papel picado banners herald the arrival of “La Posada Magica.”

Based on Las Posadas, the Latin American custom of going from home to home in search of shelter for Mary and Joseph, SCR’s newest play, which opens tonight, is the company’s attempt to show a different side of Christmas.

But don’t think for a moment that this is your run-of-the-mill “let’s find shelter and rejoice” Posadas celebration.

Instead, commissioned playwright Octavio Solis and composer Marcos Loya have used their childhood memories of Las Posadas to produce a thoroughly contemporary musical play.

“We didn’t really play on the religious aspect,” said director Jose Cruz Gonzalez. “We play on the culture, the art, the music and the story. This piece has a lot of crossover. . . . It has all the elements of ‘A Christmas Carol’ but told in a different voice.”

The voice is that of Graciela, a Latina teen who has suffered an enormous loss right before Christmas and is mad at herself, at life and at God.

When the posada comes to her door, she grudgingly decides to join. But when the procession mysteriously loses its way, the journey becomes one of renewal and self-discovery and the magic takes over.

“My plays deal with very, very dark themes,” said playwright Solis, whose brooding “Man of the Flesh” also was produced by SCR.

“ ‘La Posada’ was hard for me to write because I can’t write a happy Christmas play. There’s so little merriment (in Christmas), which I think is gratuitous, commercial and based on false themes of joy. I felt the need to write something for people who can’t afford to buy presents, who find it difficult to be happy, who have to deal with very big things like poverty, disease and death.”

Nevertheless, “La Posada” is no downer. This is, after all, a Christmas play.

“I love its message,” said Mexican actress Ruth Livier, who plays Gracie. “That if you’re going through rough times, there is always another way. You just have to be receptive to the people around you . . . and this play is different because it has elements of Mexican folklore and Marcos Loya’s music.”

Loya conceived the music to “La Posada” as an integral part of the story, just as music is an essential element of any Posadas event. Thus, the play’s three musicians (including Loya, who also is music director) are constantly onstage.

“It’s a combination of styles,” said guitarist Loya, who is known as a theater and film composer and who recently released his first solo jazz album.

“I’ve written it in the tradition of the Posadas and also added a couple of contemporary songs and folk pieces.”

Everything about “La Posada” is a blend of old and new: an old tradition lived by a young girl (Gracie is 14); English dialogue peppered with Spanish phrases; a completely bilingual cast; a musical score where the Mexican requinto (the small guitar) joins forces with jazz- and pop-infused guitars.

“Our objective was to create a piece the company and the community would be proud of,” Gonzalez said. “My feeling is this piece will be performed across the country.”

Gonzalez has wanted to stage an original Latino Christmas play at SCR for more than 10 years, when he was still a graduate student at UC Irvine and obtained a directing fellowship at SCR.

Gonzalez was one of the founders of SCR’s prestigious Hispanic Playwrights Project, which he directs today and whose objective is to develop plays by Latino writers.

“I’ve devoted my life to Hispanic theater,” Gonzalez said. “We need literature and a body of work. . . . I can look up African American artists (in the library) and there’s volumes of literature. But there are none of our stories there. We live in this country, but where are our stories?”

This is not say there are no other Latino Christmas plays. But the two standards--Luis Valdez’s “La Virgen del Tepeyac” and the traditional “Pastorelas”--are both associated with El Teatro Campesino.

“So we decided to create our own,” Gonzalez said.

Solis, Loya and Gonzalez had previously worked together in SCR’s adaptation of Solis’ “Man of the Flesh.” With a $30,000 grant from the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund, Solis and Loya began working on “La Posada Magica” in 1993.

When production time came around, the fund provided an additional $80,000 which allowed ample rehearsal time needed for fine tuning.

Two days before previews began last week, Solis was still making minute changes to the script.

“Gracie, you’re our angelita, “ said George Galvan, reading one of his lines as Josecruz. Said Solis: “No, that doesn’t sound right. Try it in Spanish: ‘Gracie, eres nuestra angelita. ‘ “

Solis is not worried about non-Spanish speakers being unable to follow the dialogue. “It’s a Latino play in English,” he said.

An eclectic playwright, Solis has not limited his work to the Latino experience, but credits people like Gonzalez with opening his eyes to Latino subjects.

“It has been a wonderful rediscovery to write about characters like me. One of the fallacies people believe about Latino plays is that they’re about gang members or farm workers,” he said. “My characters are all middle-class people.”

This premiere staging of “La Posada Magica” numbers 10 characters, between actors/singers and musicians. It’s the minimum number of people the play can be done with, said Solis, who envisions making “La Posada Magica” an epic production with huge choruses.

In the meantime, it will play on SCR’s Second Stage until Dec. 24. During its run, it also is being performed three times in area high schools, with proceeds going to the schools.

“I can’t tell you how exciting (taking the play to the community) is for me,” Gonzalez said. “We not only have to pass the torch down, but also the love and appreciation for what we do.”

* “La Posada Magica” by Octavio Solis opens tonight on South Coast Repertory’s Second Stage, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. 7:30 p.m. Through Dec. 24. $15 to $22. (714) 957-4033.