Heritage With Humor

Why would comedian Paul Rodriguez, actors Liz Torres and Ephraim Figueroa and a cast of distinguished Latino talents lend their voices to a one-night radio stand--for almost no money?

If it’s “Haunted Hacienda,” this Saturday’s offering in the Wells Fargo Radio Theater at the Autry Museum of Western Heritage, there are a lot of reasons.

“It’s radio, it’s live, it’s at the Autry, it’s about the Day of the Dead and it’s Hispanic . . . you know you’re going to have a good time!” says Torres, who co-stars in the TV series “Over the Top.”

Rodriguez, just off the road from a 24-date tour of his stand-up act, says he got involved because of Torres, whom he directed in his film, “One Million Juans.”

“I’m such a big fan of hers,” Rodriguez said. “And it’s seldom we get an opportunity to get people from the Latin community to come together on any project. I’m a big proponent of whatever makes that happen.”

It didn’t hurt, he says, that the legendary 81-year-old singer-composer Lalo Guerrero, recipient of the 1996 National Medal of the Arts and often revered as “the father of Chicano music,” will be guest artist for the warmup portion of the show, presented live in the tradition of old-time radio.

“Haunted Hacienda,” an original play written by Luisa Leschen, is a comedy-fantasy-adventure about the first Day of the Dead celebration, says co-producer Rosemary Alexander, “with a colorful cast of living and dead.” In the Autry tradition, it explores the real, mythical and multicultural West. Beyond that, says Alexander, it uses the voices of the community it depicts.

“We don’t have people doing dialects. If it’s a Chinese play, we hire Chinese actors; if it’s about Indians, we use American Indian voices. That’s partly to be honest with history and also to give the actors the chance to reflect their own communities,” says Alexander, an award-winning actress and producer who, with husband Newell, founded the theater in 1989 and has developed three original plays yearly since.

This is the first play created by and for Latinos. It came about when Alexander called actress-playwright Luisa Leschen, co-founder of the long-running comedy troop “Latins Anonymous,” looking for a Latin-themed Halloween show.

Leschen, a 1995-96 recipient of a Disney writing fellowship, suggested adapting a story she’d written (with Chris Franco and Armando Molina) for Turner Animation, which became “Haunted Hacienda.”

Set in a turn-of-the-century Southwestern town where the dead have long been forgotten, “Haunted Hacienda” concerns a hero’s colorfully bizarre journey to the underworld. At the end, it features an authentic Day of the Dead celebration. (This year the holiday will be celebrated Nov. 2.)

The drama will be underscored by the Western Heritage Band, led by George S. Clinton with Rick Cunha on Spanish guitar and Suzie Katayama on Mexican accordion.

An audiotape of the show will be broadcast at 5:30 p.m. Nov. 9 on KPCC-FM (89.3). Later, it will be available for listening at the Museum of Television and Radio, 465 N. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills.

“It’s a very funny, warm and palatable way of learning about the Day of the Dead,” says Alexander. “And it gives us a chance to put outstanding Latino actors out there as role models.”

BE THERE

“Haunted Hacienda,” at the Wells Fargo Radio Theater, Autry Museum of Western Heritage, 4700 Western Heritage Way, Los Angeles. Sat., 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. Admission $15 ($10 for museum members). Includes refreshments after the show. 2 p.m. preview show, $5. (213) 667-2000, Ext. 317.