Singing These Founding Fathers’ Praises

When it comes to transitions, Alejandro Escovedo is something of an expert.

Escovedo started out as a documentary filmmaker, then rapidly shifted to a career as a punk rocker. From his early roots in the seminal San Francisco punk scene, he has gradually mellowed into a respected and critically acclaimed singer-songwriter whose gritty ballads about love and loss in America’s heartland have attracted a dedicated coterie of fans.

Now, Escovedo again stands on the brink of change. “By the Hand of the Father,” an interdisciplinary performance piece opening Friday at Plaza de la Raza’s Margo Albert Theater, marks Escovedo’s first foray into the theater. Along with an assortment of handpicked musicians, Escovedo will perform his original music in this music-driven drama that deals with--what else?--transition.

Inspired by a song that Escovedo wrote for his own father, “By the Hand of the Father” has been expanded into a full-length theatrical collage of the Mexican American immigrant experience. “Father” deals specifically with the Mexican men, born in the early 1900s, who crossed the border into the U.S., assimilated into American culture and raised their children in this country. Their geographical and psychic passage--and the way that passage has reverberated into the second generation--is the play’s foundation.

“My father was born in Saltillo, Mexico, in 1907,” says Escovedo, speaking from his home in Austin, Texas. “He’s still alive and living in Chula Vista. I had this idea to write a story about his travels across the border and raising his children in America. I was talking to a friend of mine, Paula Batson, about my idea. She got really excited about it and got it into her head to try to make a production out of it, to stage it somehow.”

Batson, who subsequently became a co-producer of the show, introduced Escovedo to people at About Productions, a Los Angeles-based theater company known for its challenging experimental productions, such as “Vox,” “Memory Rites” and “Properties of Silence,” a loosely linked theatrical trilogy examining the nature of the creative impulse.

Theresa Chavez, artistic director of the group, immediately took to Escovedo’s idea. While Escovedo was developing the song cycle for the play, Chavez (who is married to daily Calendar Editor Oscar Garza) teamed with co-writers Rose Portillo and Eric Gutierrez to work on the text. Themselves the children of Mexican immigrants, the trio plumbed their personal family stories for inspiration, as well as exploring various other sources--from the reminiscences of other acquaintances to library collections. Then, video artist Janice Tanaka, a veteran About collaborator, contributed a medley of images to the show, including snippets from the collaborators’ home movies and archival pictures of the period.

Part historical retrospective and part homage, a portrait of an era past began to emerge from their labors--although Chavez makes it clear that, in typical About tradition, the play is not structured in any standard linear format.

“It’s really a historical mix,” explains Chavez, who also directs. “We start the action around 1915 or so, but the stories bounce from era to era. The piece consists of nine vignettes, each built around a theme. But the real cohesion is built within the vignettes, within each theme.

“The early themes have to do with the experience of crossing the border. Later themes deal with family secrets, the inner workings of these men’s family lives and their relationships, the more difficult aspects of being a father in these circumstances, or being a son or daughter of one of these men. That’s where the piece gets a little darker. There’s that unspoken edge of trying to become a Mexican American, then bringing that home and having it manifest in other ways within the family.”

Chavez’s longtime collaborator Portillo also performs in “Father,” with fellow actor Kevin Sifuentes, and considers this a challenging departure for About Productions. “We’ve got seven musicians on stage, plus two actors,” Portillo says. “We’re bringing out some of Alejandro’s musicians from Austin, then complementing them with some remarkable local artists.

“The play has been in progress for a couple of years,” Portillo continues. “This is a period piece, a traveling piece. We’re dealing with the last century. My grandfather died at 103, and although we don’t mention him directly, he’s one of our oldest reference points. We wanted to investigate the particular personalities of these Mexican American fathers, to examine their legacy. It’s quite a different venture for About Productions--and it’s definitely been an emotional journey.”

Escovedo didn’t realize exactly how emotional a journey he was undertaking until after a workshop of the play last December, also at the Plaza de la Raza. (The play was previously workshopped a year ago in Austin.) “It’s funny,” he says. “Before the performance, I was just preoccupied with getting everything right. But once it was finished, it all hit me. The following few days were really hard for me.”

One of 12 children, Escovedo was born in San Antonio in 1951. His father, a mariachi-singer-turned-plumber, moved the family to California a few years later.

“I was surrounded by music all my life,” recalls Escovedo, who numbers several professional musicians among his immediate family. “But I wanted to be a filmmaker, and I pursued that in school. Then, while I was in San Francisco making a documentary, I started playing in a band. I didn’t know how to play, really. But I just kept playing and playing. I was drawn to the spirit of creating, of breaking down that wall between the audience and the musicians. I’ve felt that drive my whole career.”

As far as writing for the theater, Escovedo has adjusted to the new discipline with a minimum of stress. “For me, it’s been a very different experience,” he says. “I’ve been playing in rock ‘n’ roll bands for 25 years now, so it was very challenging to do a play. But once I adjusted to the fact that I was still a songwriter, I just concentrated on my job and it got easier. I think having a background in film helped me a lot. And Eric and Theresa and Rosa have been very supportive of me. Working with them has been inspiring.”

And vice versa. “Alejandro’s music is the glue of the piece,” Chavez says. “His songs are stories, with beginnings, middles and ends. We’ve used that to guide us, in a sense. Each vignette is its own sort of world.”

“There are so many stories, and so many different characters,” Escovedo says. “It’s a rich history that we’re trying to tell here, a history that’s important to pass on to our own children.”

Escovedo is the father of six, ranging in age from 30 years to 18 months. So far, his children haven’t followed the family musical tradition. “My kids aren’t really musicians,” he says. “My daughter just graduated from high school and wants to be a schoolteacher. My older daughters have their own careers and families, then I have a 9-year-old daughter who wants to be a writer and actress, and a son who wants to be an artist. As for the baby--who knows?”

In addition to the shows at Plaza de la Raza, a performance has also been scheduled for June 13 at the new Knitting Factory Club Hollywood, a West Coast adjunct to New York’s popular avant-garde venue. Plans are underway to simultaneously Webcast that event.

Ironically--and fittingly--the final performance of “Father” at Plaza de la Raza will be on Father’s Day. Sadly, Escovedo doesn’t think Pedro Escovedo will be able to attend. “My dad doesn’t travel well at this point,” Escovedo says. “But he’s aware of the play. I’ve interviewed him for it, although I don’t think at this point he can really understand what it is we are doing. But my father is always happy with everything that I do musically. He’s just happy that I’m doing songs.”

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“BY THE HAND OF THE FATHER,” Margo Albert Theatre at Plaza de la Raza, 3540 N. Mission Road, East Los Angeles. Dates: Thursdays to Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m. Ends June 18. Prices: $8 to $13. Phone: (323) 655-8587. Also: Knitting Factory Club Hollywood, 7021 Hollywood Blvd. $25. (323) 463-0204.