February 27, 2015 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com • 3A
Retelling of Rivera’s childhood coming to Coaster
Teatro Milagro,
Tolovana Arts
Colony present
bilingual play
events that involve the
town’s Hispanic community
and integrate Hispanic art
and culture. Money left over
from the Meyer Memorial
Trust grant will help fund
multicultural cooking class-
es in April, May and June,
she said.
“We thought Teatro Mi-
lagro was the perfect way to
do it because it’s a bilingual
theater, and that might bring
out more of the Hispanic
population,” she said, adding
that, if El Niño Diego proves
popular in Cannon Beach,
the arts colony may arrange
for a more adult-themed pro-
duction in the future.
By Erick Bengel
Cannon Beach Gazette
The childhood story of
Mexican muralist Diego
Rivera gets the fairy-tale
treatment in El Niño Di-
ego, a 40-minute bilingual
play that Portland’s Teatro
Milagro (Miracle Theater)
will perform at the Coaster
Theatre Playhouse at 7 p.m.
March 7.
“Diego Rivera is one of
the most revered Mexican
painters in the last couple of
centuries,” said Lisa Kerr,
program coordinator of the
Tolovana Arts Colony. Peo-
ple who aren’t familiar with
Rivera may be familiar with
his paintings, she said, “be-
cause they’ve been made
into posters 100 times over.”
El Niño Diego (“The
Boy Diego”) imagines what
would have happened if Di-
ego (played by Brian Burg-
er) — who, in real life, was a
child prodigy sent to live with
a curandera (medicine wom-
an) because of his poor health
— had met the Aztec goddess
Coatlicue in his youth. The
goddess gives the boy a mag-
ical paintbrush, which Diego
thinks will make him a leg-
endary artist.
When a dastardly art
school director (played
by Ajai Terrazas Tripathi)
and his dimwitted minion
(played by Ana Silva) try to
exploit Diego’s “magical”
talents, Diego’s nurse, An-
Value of art
El Niño Diego is writ-
ten in a way that’s called
“code-switching,” where
the dialogue alternates be-
tween English and Span-
ish. “The idea is that, if
you were monolingual in
either language, you would
be able to follow the plot,”
Wilson-Gunn said.
“We’ve done several pub-
lic performances, and the
adults seem to enjoy the play
as much as the kids do,” said
Malán, who co-founded the
Milagro Theatre Group with
her husband, Jose Eduardo
Gonzalez, in 1985.
After the show, the four
actors will have a Q-and-A
“talk-back” with the audi-
ence. Earlier that day, the
arts colony is hosting a free
acting and mural drawing
workshop for kids featuring
SILVIA MALAN-GONZALEZ PHOTO
In El Niño Diego , Diego Rivera, kneeling, receives a magical paintbrush from the Aztec
serpent goddess Coatli cue, conniving director Jose Manguino, left, tries to exploit Diego’s
talents and Diego’s nurse, right, tries to convince Diego that he doesn’t need magic to be
a great artist.
tonia, helps Diego realize
that he doesn’t need magic
to make great art.
“In our story, he discovers
he doesn’t need outside mag-
ic,” said Alida Wilson-Gunn,
the associate artistic direc-
tor of the Milagro’s touring
program and director of the
Coaster production. “He has
the strength inside to create,
and that it’s not the magical
paintbrush at all. It’s his own
ability that will propel him
forward in his career.”
Political themes
Beneath the slapstick
and family-friendly fanta-
sy lies a serious political
subtext, playwright Dañel
Malán said.
The evil school director,
Jose Manguino (who, in
reality, wasn’t evil), is try-
ing to squeeze money from
the school’s arts program
for his private enrichment.
The character represents the
forces in favor of defunding
the arts in public schools,
Malán said.
“It’s a kids’ show, so it
doesn’t get too heavy with
political commentary,” Trip-
athi said.
He added, however, that
— in addition to incorpo-
rating Rivera’s interest in
pre-Columbian indigenous
culture, mythology and
folklore — the play ex-
presses Rivera’s philoso-
phy of social equality, that
“art should be for all peo-
ple, as opposed to the bad
guy who thinks that art is
something to commodify.”
“It’s a very sweet story. It
has villains and heroes and
goddesses and magic,” Wil-
son-Gunn said. “It’s a play
written for youth to encour-
age them to participate in
the arts, to make (the arts)
more accessible, especially
for those who may not have
much exposure to the arts.”
Reaching out
Teatro Milagro is coming
to Cannon Beach courtesy
of the Tolovana Arts Colony,
which late last year received
two grants — $3,300 from
the Meyer Memorial Trust
and $1,500 from the Clatsop
County Cultural Coalition
— to pay for the perfor-
mance.
Kerr, who secured the
grants, wants to hold more
the Milagro cast from 2:30
to 4:30 p.m. at Tolovana
Hall, 3779 S. Hemlock St.
“Kids so seldom have
a voice in the arts,” Wil-
son-Gunn said. This is why
it’s important, she said, to
ask children after an artistic
experience, “what they felt
about it. What did they see?
What did they remember?
What did it mean to them?”
Malán said she hopes her
play conveys the value of
art to the children in atten-
dance. “People don’t really
understand how important
the arts are.”
If you go
WHAT: El Niño Di-
ego (The boy Diego),
performed by the
Teatro Milagro (Miracle
Theater)
WHEN: 7 p.m. March 7
WHERE: Coaster
Theatre
COST: $20 per family
(which could be any
number of individuals),
$5 per individual, or
whatever a person can
afford. Attendees pay
at the door; tickets will
not be available ahead
of time.
STORY: The child-
hood story of Mexican
muralist Diego Rivera,
done in fairytale style;
suitable for children
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