Latino Theater’s Bare Fare Stirs Dispute

The first indications of trouble were the posters depicting actresses wearing fashionable bikini thongs for a burlesque strip show called “Solo Para Hombres”--(For Men Only).

Then came the leaflets for the play “Cuatro Equis” (Four Xs), with its smiling hunks and starlets clad in nothing but towels. And, of course, there was that nude scene.

So some El Monte residents were quick to complain that the live shows hardly matched the “family-oriented” entertainment promised when the Spanish-language theater got its permit. City officials, citing laws designed to control strip joints, say actors can bare their souls on stage but not their skins.

Which raises two questions: What makes a strip joint a strip joint? And what is theater?

The answer is central to the debate over the El Monte Theater, and the Planning Commission in this often socially conservative city may consider in the near future whether to revoke the theater’s permit.

City Manager Harold Johanson said that since those treading the boards have appeared nude, the city considers the theater an adult business and such businesses are forbidden in that part of central downtown.

“The courts have ruled we have to provide places in town for adult business, and we do elsewhere,” Johanson said. “If they want to have nudity and run an adult business, that isn’t the place.”

Johanson said the theater wouldn’t admit minors to “Cuatro Equis,” bolstering the view that it’s an adult business and not the family-oriented theater promised in the application for its conditional use permit.

“If you want to run an adult business, you should explain it upfront,” he said. “We have a topless bar, Scantily Clad, on Valley [Boulevard] near Durfee [Avenue]. . . . It has been there for years. It is so old it’s almost a landmark.”

Free-speech advocates say a few nude scenes do not make a theater an adult business.

Roger Jon Diamond, an attorney who has litigated numerous cases related to adult businesses, said the courts have found that the adult activity must be ongoing and continuous, and that occasional nudity does not meet that standard.

“This is a ridiculous attempt to apply the adult zoning laws,” he said. “It is as though Los Angeles would classify the Mark Taper Forum as an adult business for plays such as ‘Equus’ and ‘Six Degrees of Separation,’ both of which have nudity.”

Diamond said San Bernardino County attempted, unsuccessfully, to classify a cinema as an adult business because it screened films that included nudity. An appeals court struck down that law. In Diamond’s experience, the El Monte case is a first.

“I have never heard of a case involving a theater group,” he said. “This sounds like the Taliban vice squad.”

And to Pedro Orozco, the El Monte Theater’s artistic director, the city’s action smacks of censorship. “People use worse language on TV, they get naked, there is violence and children can see it in their houses,” he said.

El Monte, despite being among the poorest cities in the region, in recent years has fostered an image as a safe haven. With a population of 116,000, it’s ranked among the nation’s 10 safest cities for its size. But for decades, it had been cast as a somewhat seedy place, as in James Ellroy’s memoir of his mother’s killing in 1950s El Monte, “My Dark Places.”

So when the El Monte Theater opened its doors in March, it won praise from city leaders. Mayor Rachel Montes called the promise of musicals, dramas and comedies “an exciting concept for the families of our communities.”

The city did not impose restrictions on the content of plays to be shown. “The only restriction that they had was that they did not want it [the building] to become a church,” Orozco said.

Producciones Latinas Corp. invested nearly $500,000 to turn a former two-screen cinema into a 500-plus-seat Spanish-language playhouse in a city where nearly three out of four residents are Latino.

In its conditional use permit application, the theater company promised that performances would be “family-oriented,” but also said it might present “shows with language content” for mature audiences.

Producciones Latinas breathed new life into the theater, built 63 years ago at the core of Valley Mall. Like much of El Monte’s downtown, the cinema could no longer compete with the megaplexes, and even a run as a Spanish-language cinema failed.

The playhouse is in an outdoor mall where television stores sit between traditional taquerias--Mexican food stalls--and strolling mariachis compete with the latest salsa or norteno music hit blaring from passing cars.

Juana Salinas, a 20-year resident, said she had grown tired of having bored teenagers playing loud music and burning rubber in front of the mall and figured a live theater was a good way to entertain the youths. But then she saw the racy advertisements. “There is a need for entertainment in El Monte but not that theater,” said Salinas, who did not see the shows.

“I thought they were going to show other kinds of plays for the chavalos [young people], for the schools--pretty plays, not those fresh ones. Some Mexicans like that, but not all of them,” she said.

Only two of seven theatrical runs at the venue have raised eyebrows. Comedies such as “Loco, Loco, Pero Loco, Loco” (“Crazy, Crazy, but Crazy, Crazy”) passed without notice. So did an appearance by a hypnotist.

But then came “Solo Para Hombres,” in which a comic told racy jokes between appearances by strippers. The women, who wore native costumes of various Latin American countries, did not completely disrobe, but some did remove their tops.

The show was reminiscent of burlesque, which was once popular in Mexico as well as the United States. The genre, best known for its combination of striptease and comedy skits, fell from favor in the 1950s, but had a brief rebirth in Mexico 25 years ago.

But the revival of Mexican burlesco was never very successful because well-known actors eventually refused to participate in it, according to Mauricio Pena, a theater critic for the Mexican newspaper El Heraldo de Mexico for more than 25 years.

Burlesco is not wildly popular but still survives on both sides of the border, and a Spanish-language theater in South Gate, Los Pinos, has featured performances in which men strip down. Los Pinos, another former cinema turned into a live theater, has shown plays comparable to those in El Monte, such as the Spanish-language version of “P.S. Your Cat Is Dead,” which include nudity.

In El Monte, during the run of “Solo Para Hombres,” nearby merchants complained to the city and a code inspector gave Orozco a choice: Cancel the performances or the city would revoke his permit. Orozco closed the theater for two days. He says he lost $20,000.

Then in September came “Cuatro Equis.” It’s the story of two young couples who move in together mostly out of infatuation rather than the desire for long-term commitment. As time passes, they discover that life can get complicated and disagreements develop.

Though it has serious moments, the play is described as a comedy. Pena called it “an interesting play that talks about the lack of communication and the lack of understanding of certain couples.”

These days, with a cloud hanging over the theater’s future, Orozco said he has canceled all performances until December. He said he is afraid of paying actors and arranging visas for them to come from Mexico only to have performances canceled. To Orozco, the city’s actions sound a lot like censorship. “I want them to show me the law,” he said.

The city, he said, has no right to control the content of his plays. Even the theater’s most controversial moment--a brief nude scene in “Cuatro Equis” in which a couple disrobed before going to bed--was strictly related to the plot, he said.

Orozco said that as long as he has the support of the community, he does not need to justify the content of his plays.

“A theater can show all kinds of plays as long as it identifies the audience that it’s trying to target,” he said. “Latinos are not only entertained by clowns.”

As for “Cuatro Equis,” it is still being performed in some parts of Mexico and was an immediate success when it debuted five years ago in Mexico City. Theater critic Pena described it as an audacious play that was accepted in the capital without much scandal.

But although the play’s sexual content was not scrutinized there, it stirred ardent opposition in smaller cities, such as Tijuana and Veracruz. “The authorities would show up to theaters to cancel the performances, saying that the play is immoral,” Pena said.