BY MELISSA BEARNS
The Language of Theater
Lord Leebrick teams up with Latino arts
group in bilingual theater project.
W
ith a new $10,000 grant from the
National Endowment for the
Arts and a dedicated group of
organizers, Lord Leebrick Theatre is teaming
up with La Casa de la Cultura and members
of Eugene’s Latino community to launch an
innovative new program: bilingual theater.
Lord Leebrick Director Craig Willis re-
cently got the news that the theater will re-
ceive the grant and said they’ll be using the
money over the next year and a half to start
bilingual theater classes and to bring in a pro-
fessional Latino theater company to perform
at Lord Leebrick.
‘In reality what I want them to
learn through theater is the
art of life.’
‘ En realidad, lo que quiero que
aprendan a traves del teatro
es el arte de la vida.’
– Manuel Carrillo
For Alberto Urquilla, president of La
Casa de la Cultura, the partnership creates
opportunities for the organization to bridge
gaps within the Latino community and to
help U.S.-born second-generation kids and
their parents communicate better through
theater. “What we see right now is our chil-
dren growing up without any direction,” he
said. “What we’re trying to do at the Casa
with projects like painting and other arts pro-
grams like this one is to help them develop
themselves and develop a better way of see-
ing the world. I see the same cycle over and
over again, and mostly, they don’t have a fu-
ture. This will help open up many different
roads for them.”
Manuel Carrillo, who will be teaching the
theater classes in the Lord Leebrick’s
Whiteaker rehearsal space, has other reasons
for getting involved in the program. He
hopes that the classes, which are geared to-
ward kids but are open to anyone from 8
years old and on, will help teach Latino kids
and teens to have more confidence in them-
selves. He also wants to help parents who
don’t speak English better relate to their
bilingual kids.
“In reality what I want them to learn
through theater is the art of life,” he said in
Spanish. “This is a way to involve the whole
family. When we started this program, we
were thinking about the need to unify fami-
lies and through theater, we hope to help the
kids connect more to their parents. We also
want to show them they can have success.
We want to motivate them not to drop out of
school, to help them learn that education is
important.”
Carrillo added that it’s not just a project
for the Latino community but all of Eugene.
“We need the support of the entire commu-
nity and the invitation isn’t just for Latinos.
It’s for anyone who’s interested in the com-
munity and the culture.”
The project is exciting for Erin Bucklew,
who works with La Casa de la Cultura, but
she also expects some challenges. “We’ll
definitely have to ratchet things up a bit be-
cause they’re a very professional theater
group,” she said.
So far, Bucklew said, Willis has been in-
credibly supportive and doesn’t expect
they’ll have any problems. She said making
sure the organization maintains its sense of
purpose and continues to promote Latino
culture and art is simply something she and
the other organizers need to continually think
about.
The classes officially started Friday, Jan.
7 but they’re still accepting theater students
as long as they have room. To register call
520-2313.
ew
BY SHARLEEN NELSON
The Classic and a Dramedy
More great plays opening.
I
n a month packed with fabulous theater offerings, two more
great shows are slated to open next week. On tap Jan. 21 at the
Cottage Theatre is One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Written
by Ken Kesey in 1962 and adapted into a successful play by Dale
Wasserman in 1974, Kesey’s stint as an orderly at a veteran’s hospi-
tal in Palo Alto, Calif., inspired the play.
The play’s main character, Randle Patrick McMurphy, agrees to
have his mental health assessed at an asylum rather than spend
more time in jail. Rebellious and mischievous, McMurphy rallies
his fellow patients against the institution’s authority figures, partic-
ularly Nurse Ratched, as well as the severe rules enforced through
the use of drugs, electrocution and lobotomy.
men are prisoners inside this mental institution,” she said. “There’ll
be no warm fuzzy with the audience.”
Also opening Jan 21 is the ACE Annex production of Lanford
Wilson’s Fifth of July, a poignant “dramedy.” The play focuses on
a group of former student activists from the Vietnam era who re-
unite at an old farm in Lebanon, Mo., in 1977 to dispose of the cre-
mated ashes of a member of the family. Over the course of 24
hours, each individual confronts old wounds, lost hopes, shattered
dreams and buried resentments that bubble to the surface. With
humor and hope, the reconciliation allows each to bury the past and
move forward.
“It’s a slice-of-life kind of play with remembrances and secrets re-
‘It’s a slice-of-life kind of play with remembrances
and secrets revealed and a surprise at the end.’
— Director Chris Pinto (Fifth of July)
Director Reva Kauffman, who previously directed Cuckoo’s
Nest in New York in 1980, said she won’t add contemporary dia-
logue to update (and dilute) the original story. “My goal is to re-
main true to the author’s work; make it as honest and believable as
possible,” she said.
Kauffman plans to create a unique setting to reflect the sterility
and rigidity of a mental institution. “We want to build some sort of
barrier separating the audience from the stage to illustrate that these
vealed and a surprise at the end,” said director Chris Pinto, who draws
parallels between the issues of Vietnam and today’s war in Iraq. “The
play deals with people coming back from war and the post-war conse-
quences,” he said. “To me, we’re in a very similar era.”
Pinto admires Wilson’s skillful use of humor to convey often-
devastating issues. “Lanford Wilson is brilliant at making light of
everyone’s demons through laughter, but if you can make people
laugh, they still listen,” Pinto said.
ew
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