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There are many ways to tell a story, and an upcoming local performance seems to have found a way to include almost all of them. The South Bay Guitar Society, in collaboration with San Jose Dance Theatre, Poetry Center San Jose and area performers and visual artists, will present the story Platero y Yo in a special concert April 2 at Le Petit Trianon in downtown San Jose, in a project that also encompasses in-school programs based on the performance.
The simple story of a man and his donkey named Platero, wandering through Spain's Andalusian countryside, Platero y Yo (Platero and I in English) is a collection of poems written by Nobel Prizewinning Spanish poet Juan Ramon Jimenez. The poems' rich, colorful imagery and universal themes inspired not one, but two, musical compositions. The music and the poetry, in turn, inspired this unique performance that teams up a lot of local talent.
The wide-ranging collaboration is an especially fitting way to tell a story in which one of the major themes is friendship. "I think in the last couple years there has been some talk about the nonprofits doing more collaborations," says Jerry Snyder, artistic director of the South Bay Guitar Society. "We've been going in that direction in the past, working with other groups, to help build audiences for them and for us, and build relationships, and so this project looked like a wonderful opportunity to combine music and poetry—which is what the piece is all about—but then to add dance into it and then also to work some artwork into it. So for our regular audience, we're hoping we can inspire them to be interested in poetry, dance and the artwork, as well as the virtuoso guitar playing."
Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Spanish composer Eduardo Sainz de la Maza each wrote music inspired by some of Jimenez' Platero y Yo poems. For the performance, two guitarists will play 12 poems set to Tedesco's music and six set to de la Maza's compositions. "One of our guitarists, Marc Teicholz, is a professor up at the San Francisco Conservatory and he's a world-class player," says Snyder. "And the other guitarist, Michael Bautista, is finishing up his master's at the San Francisco Conservatory and he's a San Jose native. He's just a brilliant player."
Javier Salazar, the director of Aztlán Academy De San José, a Mexican and Chicano folk arts organization, will perform the narration. "He's got a wonderful voice and he's going to do some of the poems in Spanish and in English as well," says Snyder. "He has a great voice and he's going to add a lot to it."
San Jose Dance Theatre, best known for its annual holiday performances of The Nutcracker ballet featuring many young dance students, has created choreography for the Platero y Yo performance. "What I'm seeing from the San Jose Dance Theatre, they're really having fun with this project," says Snyder. "They were going to do four, and then it turned out to be six [poems]. Some of the dance students have been involved in the choreography, so they've had a chance to do something completely different."
Rounding out this pan-artistic endeavor are contributions from two visual artists. "Kate Mulligan designed a beautiful poster for us that we have on our program and on our literature that has gone out to the schools," says Snyder. "Then John Kurtyka is painting panels that will go on the stage—three 8x8 panels that have Platero on each panel doing different things, because in the poems, he's kind of like a young child, he's always getting in trouble."
This true meeting of the creative minds really got everyone—in particular, South Bay students—in on the act,. The South Bay Guitar Society and Poetry Center San Jose have been visiting the classrooms of local schoolchildren, grades 36, to present selected examples of Tedesco's and de la Maza's compositions, which are performed by one of three guitarists from the Guitar Society, while some of Jimenez' poems are read by poets from the Poetry Center. The in-class program is offered in preparation for these students to attend a special matinee performance of the full Platero y Yo program that includes the dance performances and artistic scenery.
"I think when you put the poetry together with the music and the dance, the kids will really be impressed," says Snyder, who notes that students have enjoyed the classroom performances of music and poetry. "They seem to really identify with Platero because he's kind of a childlike figure, always getting into something."
"Platero y Yo" will be performed April 2, 8 p.m. at Le Petit Trianon, 72 N. Fifth St., San Jose. Tickets are $15$18. For more information, call 408.292.0704 or see www.sbgs.org.
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