The Willow Glen Resident

WG High students explore Latino experience onstage

Luis Valdez play melds Spanish and English and has universal appeal, teacher says

By Rebecca Wallace

"You have to sell the fight," says Willow Glen High School drama teacher Scott Patterson to a group of students rehearsing a play under walls scattered with Shakespeare posters and theatrical masks. "Don't worry so much about the lines. Make the audience believe in the fight."

With serious faces, the students begin to rehearse an intense scene from Luis Valdez's play Bernabe. The words are a graceful mixture of English and Spanish, the action sharp--a boy pretends to slap a girl across the face, then the fight breaks out in a tumble of bodies. "That's the best you guys have done that scene," says Patterson, delighted, as the actors clamber to their feet. One of the boys claps another on the back and says, "Good job."

Patterson, who is in his first year as drama and English teacher at Willow Glen, decided to try something new for the school's spring play. He found it in this work about Bernabe, a farm worker who "lives according to a different reality," he said.

"Bernabe believes in the old gods and has a spiritual relationship with them in the field. And he's in love with the goddess," he says, adding that people think Bernabe is crazy and try to "fix" him.

Assistant director Elizabeth Perez, a senior, says the play is the first one the school has done about the Latino experience--but says it will appeal to all.

"This is about a universal commonality, how we relate to each other and the Earth," Patterson says. "This is not just for Mexican kids; I wanted to find something that would reach out to everyone."

And the students rehearsing seem excited about the April 30 opening night. Students will also read Valdez's poem "Pensamiento Serpentino," and the school's Folklorico Dance troupe will perform.

Like the play, Valdez's poem is a mixture of Spanish and English. "To be CHICANO is to love yourself/your culture, your/skin, your language/And once you become CHICANO/that way/you begin to love other people/otras razas del mundo," it reads in part.

Those who don't speak Spanish should have no problem understanding what's going on in the play; the blend of the two languages is commonly heard in this area, and, for some, "this is how normal people talk," says actor Joel Del Toro, a junior.

"The play shows the struggles our people have gone through--different episodes of our past," he adds.

Both Joel and Vanessa Sifuentes, a senior, say this play marks the first time they've been involved in drama at Willow Glen. Joel says that's because it's the school's "first Hispanic play." Vanessa nods.

Veronica Locurto, a sophomore who has experience both onstage and as stage manager, says she was concerned at first that she wouldn't get a part because she doesn't speak Spanish.

"But I've picked up a lot. It's good because you get a lot of people who wouldn't ordinarily be acting," says Veronica, who plays Bernabe's mother. "This opens up a lot of talent. It also gives me a chance to learn more about their backgrounds."

Patterson says the students will make an appearance on the radio station KSOL on April 26 to talk about their play.

"Bernabe" runs April 30 and May 1, 2, 7, 8 and 9 at the school's Little Theater at 2001 Cottle Ave. Tickets are $6 per person, and children under 5 are admitted free. For more information, call the school at 535-6330.

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