O.C. STAGE REVIEW : Grief Fails to Hamper Teatro Show

No sooner had the touring company of El Teatro Campesino, Luis Valdez’s theater group formed in the fields during the 1965 Delano farm workers strike, arrived in Santa Ana for its four-day engagement at the Yost Theatre than the news came:

Cesar Chavez, longtime leader of the United Farm Workers, had died in his sleep at 66 in a small Arizona farm town. “He was our Gandhi,” eulogized state Sen. Art Torres. “He was our Martin Luther King.”

One could imagine that Saturday night’s show--El Teatro’s first appearance in Orange County in 15 years--would turn into a wake.

But for those of us who previously had seen the two witty one-acts on the bill--Evelina Fernandez’s “How Else Am I Supposed To Know I’m Still Alive” and Josefina Lopez’s “Simply Maria”--too much sorrow was unlikely.

Campesino members Julia La Riva and Felipe Rodriguez announced to the Yost audience that the performances were dedicated to Chavez’s memory. “In (a change of) the words of the great martyr, Joe Hill, who said, ‘Don’t mourn, organize,’ ” La Riva proclaimed, “we would like to say, ‘Don’t mourn, perform.’ ”

On a first hearing, Fernandez’s piece had struck these ears as a more jocular, racier form of standard sitcom with a little salsa. It had established, with virtually no changes needed, a situation for the kind of Latino comedy series the networks sorely lack:

Nellie (Wilma Bonet) is a widow itching to get a man in bed. Like Nellie, her friend Angie (Rosa Maria Escalante) is single and no spring chicken, but she’s already gotten a man in bed, and now, she’s “in trouble.”

Before, “How Else” looked and sounded like a kitchen-sink romp with two mature Latinas looking for love. Now, with Chavez’s ghost in the hall, it suddenly was about two women trying to overcome personal losses and get on with their lives. And because such a moment as Bonet’s recollection of her beloved Luis’ fatal heart attack was so touching now, these two gals’ comic spins and whirls were all the funnier.

Even Angie’s quandary over whether to have her baby, which once sounded so silly, now came across as a comic way of suggesting how these women, together, perhaps can cheat death and extend life. Escalante’s farcical 10-hanky performance has settled in since she first played the role a year ago, and Bonet smartly balances the naughty and the nice.

Oddly, though Lopez’s “Simply Maria” came across on last year’s tour as the more vital and inventive of the two works, it now was feeling long and drawn-out. The cast--virtually intact from before--hardly can be blamed; rather, the youthful simplicity of “Maria,” then-17-year-old Lopez’s autobiographical portrait of the artist as a young Chicana, lacked the resonance of Fernandez’s comedy of loss.

At the same time, “Simply Maria” is juvenile, in the best sense of the word.

It spills over with a young girl’s fancies, visions and nightmares, all born from culture clash. Maria (Dena Martinez, with a nice, roaming look in her eye) is torn between the quest for knowledge and independence that America represents (as personified by Julia La Riva’s comic-book Superwoman) and “the blood” and spirit of her native Mexico (symbolized by Bonet’s ultra-broad Dolores del Rio). She learns to blend the best of both worlds.

Unfortunately, the terms are spelled out that bluntly on stage, making Lopez’s play most ideal for a high school crowd. The richer level of wit that emerges from Maria’s scribbled imaginings, such as the slow-motion reunion of her parents (Escalante and Michael Torres), smartly plays tricks on the workings of a young girl’s romantic life view. America, Mexico, feminism and Catholicism all get harpooned and lampooned but the biggest joke is on Maria, who takes it all in, and gets mightily confused in the process.

“Maria,” overextended as it is, has a theatricality that offers a bigger chance for designers Lisa Larice (lights), Leticia Arellano (costumes) and David Silva and David Allen Jr. (sound) to strut their stuff. They help produce moments (as when immigrants meet a rather terrifying Statue of Liberty) when El Teatro Campesino resembles nothing less than that other veteran radical theater group from Northern California, the San Francisco Mime Troupe.

As for the newly renovated Yost, the fresh paint was still in the air Saturday, the 700-seat theater was barely two-thirds full and vestiges of its former identity as a downtown Santa Ana cinema remain. But from the acoustics to the generous stage space, this house could be used creatively by companies with a large audience in mind. If enough people come in the future, some of them can sit in the balcony. That’s right: the balcony.

* “How Else Am I Supposed To Know I’m Still Alive” and “Simply Maria,” Yost Theatre, 307 N. Spurgeon St., Santa Ana. Today-Tuesday, 8 p.m. $10. (714) 285-9144. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.

‘How Else Am I Supposed To Know I’m Still Alive’

Wilma Bonet: Nellie

Rosa Maria Escalante: Angie

Michael Torres: Manny

‘Simply Maria’

Dena Martinez: Maria

Rosa Maria Escalante: Carmen, Head Nurse

Michael Torres: Ricardo, Referee

Wilma Bonet: Dolores del Rio, Nurse, Ensemble

Julia La Riva: Superwoman, Lady Liberty, Ensemble

Felipe Rodriguez: Priest, Jose, Ensemble

William Mendieta: Postman, Teacher, Priest, Ensemble

An El Teatro Campesino production. Plays by Evelina Fernandez and Josefina Lopez. Directed by Amy Gonzalez. Lights: Lisa Larice. Set: Joseph Cardinalli. Sound: David Silva and David Allen Jr. Costumes: Leticia Arellano. Production stage manager: Ken Campo.