Pig Latin

Local theater companies bridge the cultural divide, one Fiesta at a time.

by A.D. Amorosi

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Published: May 6, 2008

PARTY ANIMALS: Pig Iron's Fiesta explores a Latin tradition often left untapped by liberal theater companies. (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Two things came to mind when Pig Iron Theater announced it would throw a frilly Latina coming-of-age Quinceañera called Come to My Awesome Fiesta, It's Going to be Awesome, Okay?

First: It'll take fierce quick-changing abilities for artistic director Dito van Reigersberg — currently playing the title role in Azuka Theatre's Hedwig and the Angry Inch at the Latvian Society (see review, p. 28) — to get to South Philly and jump into one of Fiesta's pale pink gowns of tulle and lace.

And second: This Latin-themed production is a rare event in Philadelphia theater.

While local liberal-minded companies comfortably gravitate toward topics of gender and sexual identity, race is often left out of the equation. And in a city whose Hispanic population is now over 10 percent, it's surprising that Latino theater isn't more prevalent.

Pig Iron artistic director Gabriel Quinn Bauriedel agrees.

"There are some amazing avant-garde companies in Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Spain and elsewhere in the Spanish-speaking world who we meet on tour," says Bauriedel.

In the past, other local companies — InterAct and Philadelphia Theatre Co. among them — have opened their doors to Latino theater. In February, Theater Exile took on Milcha Sanchez-Scott's Roosters. Co-artistic director Deborah Block, whose father is Cuban, directed the play, which received mixed reviews.

Mention the companies above — Exile included — and Block notes with a sigh that the Latino experience is rarely portrayed onstage. "Usually if there is a Latino character, it is the equivalent of the guy next door or the comic relief. But the Latino community in the United States is not traditionally a theater-going crowd." In Block's experience, Latino audiences are drawn to more family-oriented fare. "Traditional theater can have the outward appearance of being elitist. This is not exclusively true, but we need to reach out into the community ... to expand the audience."

The Latino voice, says Block, is a passionate, vibrant one that any audience would enjoy. And Block suspects that Exile — which is drawn to hard-edged stories of the disenfranchised — will bring more Latino stories to the fore. "There are many stories within the Latino culture that speak the same language that Theatre Exile is attracted to — just with a different accent."

While that accent is apparent in Pig Iron's new associate artistic director, Alex Torra — who left Miami to study at UPenn in 1997 — the 29-year-old Cuban-American didn't come to Philly or Pig Iron to focus specifically on the Latino perspective. "I don't consider myself a theater 'activist' and therefore don't focus on telling Latino stories," says Torra. "It just happens to be who I am."

Torra grew up in a bilingual household, the son of Cuban emigrants, but that doesn't mean his work is all Latino. "It just means I have a particular history and culture to pull from when coming up with projects."

And Fiesta — performed by a mix of Latino and non-Latino actors — is both a direct representation of and a social commentary on the ritual of young female adulthood.

"I think it is a bit gaudy, a bit cheap, and incredibly emotional ... literally the best day of a 15-year-old's life," says Bauriedel. "I like to think of it as 'trying on adulthood' before actually being one. Nothing fits. The clothes don't fit, the makeup doesn't fit, the language doesn't fit."

Torra was familiar with "Quinces," a 15th birthday party that marks a girl's arrival into womanhood, as a teen in Miami. "As I remember these parties, this demonstration manifests itself in a kind of extravagance — whether economically viable or not — and has no specific rules about how the quinces should unfold," says Torra.

Its sense of flashiness at (almost) any cost makes Fiesta perfect not only for Pig Iron — whose mission is to create original works that break boundaries — but for lovers of spectacle, Latino or otherwise.

"There are unheard voices everywhere and many theaters are trying to rectify that," says Torra. "But it's also not just about theater. Theater is not separate from society. And I don't think I have a big answer for the big question of diversification, but I suspect we are making strides by just being aware of the question."

(a_amorosi@citypaper.net)

Fri.-Sat., May 9-10, 8 p.m., $15, Episcopal Church of St. John the Evangelist, 1332 S. Third St., 215-627-1883, pigiron.org.

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