tehruary 16 . 2001 » jM ft M t |33
T ü
or many readers, the title Kiss of the Spider
Woman brings to mind the 1986 film starring
William Hurt and Raul Julia or the 1992
Broadway musical. Both productions were
adapted from the 1979 novel by Manuel Puig, an
Argentinean native who went into self-imposed
exile the year Juan Perón came into power.
This m onth,^tirade Theatre/Teatro Milagro
is presenting the nonmusical version of Spider
Woman as part of its 16th season. Unlike the mu
sical and film, this drama will be a two-man pro
duction: Rafael Untalan as Marxist student revo
lutionary Valentin and Andres Alcalá as flamboy
ant, movie-loving homosexual prisoner Molina.
“There are just two people in the play,” Alcalá
says. “There is no guard bringing us in or throw
ing us on. Once we are in the cell, we never leave
the cell. Everything has to take place with our
interaction, with everyday life in this prison cell.”
After some time as an actor at the Oregon
Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Alcalá
moved in 1997 to Portland, where his work in
Love! Valour! Compassion! got him noticed by
audiences and critics.
He won a Drammie Award in 1999 for his
role in Deporting the Divas, a play about “cross-
gender, cross-border people trying to stay in the
United States.” The actor portrayed a transves
tite beauty queen and another role in which he
got to seduce a male border patrolman.
Divas was written by Guillermo Reyes, who
also wrote the one-man show Men on the Verge
of an Expanding Breakdown. Alcalá has toured
the country performing that show, which is
about “eight Latino gay men dealing with their
sexuality, with their Hispanic background or
their suppression or ambiguity in sexuality."
Having played a number of gay roles on
stage, Alcalá is also openly gay in his personal
F
«________
;-: y !
P ATP ü
Scarves and spiders
pride and his background. He once said that
there was nothing uglier that I could possibly
be in the eyes of the Hispanic community.”
In the play, Molina has been thrown in jail
for the crime of gross indecency. “W hat really
gets to him is when he is convicted, his mother
is shamed because he’s inside and everybody
knows about it.”
Alcalá says he sees Molina almost as a trans
sexual, although not in a medical sense. “I’m
playing Molina as this very effeminate character
who believes that she is a woman. She gets lost
in these film noir movies, so she has this ideal
perception of what type of woman she is, and it’s
a very glamorous movie star kind of image. She
has to be able to feel that and live that in this
grungy cell with no clothes— nothing glamorous
except a couple of scarves that she’s been able to
smuggle in.”
Alcalá says the odd essence of Kiss of the Spi
der Woman is “two people with everything
stripped from them, trying to find the dignity
and the love inside of each other that can never
be stripped by anybody else. It’s the struggle of
the human soul between two people, and they’re
at the very end of*their ropes. It’s very different
from the film and from the musical. It’s going to
be a good show.” j n
Openly gay Hispanic actor takes on a familiar role
by
A n d y M a n g els
life. “If someone asked me if I was gay, of course
I would say yes,” he says. ‘Tm not very flamboy
a n t...I’m kind of a low-key person, actually. I
kind of let it all out on stage. I don’t have
a problem with playing gay or playing
straight.”
He smiles and adds: “I don’t just
play gay characters, although my
mom seems to think I do! I’m very
versatile. I do a lot of classical work,
a lot of Shakespeare.”
Alcalá doesn’t think his homosexual
ity has affected his stage career in a negative
way. “W hat I have felt to be more
important were the relations with
the people I’m working
with. If I was a gay
man and had a very
big attitude, like a
diva or a prima donna,
I probably wouldn’t
get as much work as
I’m getting. Having
a very solid atti
tude, a very posi
tive outlook and
coming into
rehearsal with a
smile on my face...I
think really helps me
to continue to get
work with the
same theater companies.”
One obstacle he has faced— something he
shares with his character in Spider Woman—
is the shame his family has tried to
make him feel as a homosexual.
“My sexuality and my ethnic
background— those two
collide. My father
doesn’t speak to me
because of my
sexuality.
That is
because
of his
Kiss o f
Rafael Untalan (left)
and Andres Alcala
share a cell—and
their souls— in
Spider Woman
the
S p id e r W o m a n runs through
March 17 at Miracle Theatre/Teatro Milagro,
525 S.E. Stark St. For tickets call the box office
at 503-236-7253.
/
As a comic book writer, A n d y M a n g e l s
thinks o f a sultry superheroine every time he
hears the title Kiss of the Spider W om an.
You can write him at AM angelsSW
@aol.com.
: ;:v
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