Two Views of Lives on the Verge Open Taper, Too Season

There’s a “Girl Manifesto” at the end of the invigorating poetry jam “Black Butterfly,” the opening piece in the Taper, Too season.

“I am 100% Girl Power--not the Spice Girl kind,” says one Latina, who later adds: “I am never going to carry a beeper.” Then, from another: “I am no longer afraid of a blank page.”

“Black Butterfly” has been touring area high schools for a while now. Its full title is “Black Butterfly, Jaguar Girl, Pin~ata Woman and Other Superhero Girls Like Me.” It’s good to see creator-director Luis Alfaro’s project receive a more public airing.

The hourlong piece asks a simple, enormous question--what is life like for teenage Latinas living in East L.A.?--and answers it in ways suggesting no one answer, but a stirring cacophony of voices and lives. The show is both artful and straight-up, a long way from the usual clunk-goes-the-message stuff often put in front of high school kids in the name of arts education.

Alfaro has transformed poetry written by Alma Cervantes, Sandra C. Mun~oz and Marisela Norte--established, published writers all--into a five-woman performance piece. Without being patronizing, Alfaro and company lend an adult perspective on the Latina teenage experience.

“Today, my teacher told us that we have to write about our life,” says the play’s audience-identification figure, young Raquel (Justina Machado). It’s a daunting prospect. Through Raquel and four other characters, “Black Butterfly” peppers us with impressions, adolescent terrors (gym class, boys, cheerleaders), fragments of lives on the verge of adulthood.

What’s on their minds at age 12? Among the pressing questions: “Do I have to marry the first guy I kiss?” “How far is the beach?” And: “How come my parents don’t speak English?” At 13, we hear the same girls provide some wonderfully self-absorbed variations, including: “Am I the only one who thinks my family should be famous?”

Through journal- or poetry-writing, the show implies, young women can fight back, fend off the junk and the fear in their lives, pin down memories worth savoring. Scared and lonely is no way to be; as one character observes, “scared, lonely and writing” offers an alternative.

Alfaro’s antic, highly stylized production gets everything it needs performance-wise from Justina Machado’s Raquel, supported well and truly by Cristina Frias, Carla Jimenez, Christina Malpero and, adding a touch of subtlety, Zilah Mendoza, who makes klutziness a comic pleasure.

After intermission, a letdown. Roy Conboy’s “Drive My Coche” is a predictable memory play, expanded from its original solo form to a two-character piece involving Bill (Jesse Borrego) and his elusive love of 30 years ago, Kathy (Ara Celi). Driving one night in the present day, Bill drifts back to 1970. The war in Vietnam grinds on; Bill’s expired student-deferment status puts him in real danger.

The writing leans heavily on overripe metaphoric description: Kathy talks about two men in her young life dying in Vietnam. “I can still feel their spirits pounding on the walls and beating on the ceiling and blasting down the streets,” she says, reiteratively. Borrego is excellent throughout, and Celi’s affecting. For poetry with some theatrical force, however, try “Black Butterfly.”

* “Black Butterfly” and “Drive My Coche,” Taper, Too presented at the Actors’ Gang, 6209 Santa Monica Blvd. Tuesdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 2 and 8 p.m. Ends June 25. $20. (213) 628-2772. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes.

Cristina Frias: Dolores

Carla Jimenez: Sylvia

Justina Machado: Raquel

Christina Malpero: Monica

Zilah Mendoza: Jasmine

In “Drive My Coche”:

Jesse Borrego: Bill

Ara Celi: Kathy

“Black Butterfly” created and directed by Luis Alfaro, from writings of Alma Cervantes, Sandra C. Mun~oz and Marisela Norte. Scenic design by Christopher Acebo. Costumes by Candice Cain. Lighting by Jose Lopez. Sound by Mark Friedman. Production stage manager Bobby DeLuca. “Drive My Coche” written by Roy Conboy. Directed by Diane Rodriguez. Scenic design by Christopher Acebo. Costumes by Ingrid Ferrin. Lighting by Jose Lopez. Sound by Michael Hooker. Projections by Christopher Komuro. Production stage manager David S. Franklin.