2 VERSIONS OF ‘ROSA’ SET FOR TIJUANA

SAN DIEGO —  A surfeit of theater in Tijuana came close to canceling Teatro Meta’s scheduled Monday performance at the Centro Cultural Tijuana.

Raul Moncado, project director of Teatro Meta, said the troupe had planned to present Mexican playwright Emilio Carballido’s comedy “Rosa de Dos Aromas” as part of a cultural exchange program between San Diego and Tijuana.

But in September, Moncado learned that the Mexico City company of “Rosa” will stage four performances of the play at the Centro just a few weeks before the Teatro performance.

“It just kind of pulled the rug out from under us,” Moncado said.

Excitement had been great over doing “Rosa” as part of the exchange project, he said, adding that the play “has a major message for Latin American women.”

A two-character comedy, “Rosa” is about two women who meet at a jail and learn that the man they have come to visit is the husband of one, the lover of the other.

“It basically strips away a lot of myths” about male-female relationships that are prevalent in Latin America, said Yareli Arizmendi, Moncado’s assistant and the play’s dramaturge.

It would be the first time Teatro Meta, the bilingual theater arm of the Old Globe Theatre, presented a play only in Spanish. Normally, performances are alternated between Spanish and English.

But doing the same play using young actors, one of whom is still in college, within 30 days of a professional performance was unappealing.

Teatro Meta Director William Virchis and his cast, Josephine Chavez and Marisela de la Parra, attended a performance and saw that the Mexico City actors played “Rosa” “more farcically, very broad,” Moncado said. “Once they saw it, they realized that they could offer a different outlook (on the play) for the audience.”

With only three weeks of rehearsal available, Chavez and Parra dove into their roles and will perform at 8:30 p.m. Monday at the Centro in Tijuana’s Rio district.

Spanish-speaking San Diegans will also have a chance to see the play. Performances will be at 7 p.m. Oct. 9 and at 2:30 and 7 p.m. Oct. 10 at the Teatro de las Bellas Artes, 4466 Camino de la Plaza, in San Ysidro.