© Copyright by ROSA LUISA MflRQUEz 1977 THE PUERTO RICAN TRAVELING THEATRE COMPANY: THE FIRST TEN YEARS By Rosa Luisa Marquez A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfiliment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Theatre 1977 ABSTRACT THE PUERTO RICAN TRAVELING THEATRE COMPANY: THE FIRST TEN YEARS By Rosa Luisa Marquez One of the most important and positive developments of the theatre in the United States in the past twenty years has been its diversification, allowing drama to address the concerns and values of special interest groups and serve the crucial cultural function of reflecting the ethnic and racial composition of an heterogenous society. Political groups and a wide variety of minorities have been able to express fundamental identities on a public forum and have developed nontraditional approaches which have altered the nature, quality and substance of recent theatre and drama in the United States. Off-Broadway, off-off Broadway, regional companies, Black theatre, Women's theatre, guerilla theatre and groups such as the Living Theatre, the Open Theatre and Teatro Campesino have provided a way of breaking the hegemony of the New York commercial theatre by addressing the audience's need to see their problems enacted in understandable terms. The Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre is one of the most recent of these independent, nonprofit theatre groups. It is the purpose of this study to examine the work of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre in New York from l967 to 1976 and the factors that made it possible. Rosa Luisa Marquez Chapter one demonstrates the relationship between certain social, economic and cultural realities in Puerto Rico and the emergence of the PRTT in New York. A survey of the theatre activities in Puerto Rico from the development of a truly nationalistic drama in 1940 to 1967, sets the theatrical background for the group. An over- view of the factors that prompted the mass migration of Puerto Ricans to the U.S. during the 40s is also included in this chapter. Chapter two examines the philosophy of the PRTT based on its status as a nonprofit, professional, bilingual theatre organization with the specific task of addressing the concerns of the Hispanic community. The company's three major programs: the Traveling Theatre, the Laboratory Theatre and the Training Unit are also discussed in this chapter as well as its relationship with similar theatre movements. .The productions and activities of the PRTT from 1967 to 1971 are examined in chapter three. The Oxcart by René Marques, Crossroads by Manuel Méndez Ballester and A Dramatized Anthology of Puerto Rican Short Stories are discussed in depth as representative productions of this period. Chapter four examines the work of the company from 1972 to 1976. Luis Rafael Sanchez' The Passion of Antigona Pérez, Osvaldo Dragun's Stories to Be Told and Piri, Papoleto and Pedro, Directed by Pablo--a dramatized anthology of "Nuyorican" poetry--by Piri Thomas, Jesfis Papoleto Meléndez and Pedro Pietri are analyzed as representative pro- ductions of this period. The study is an examination of work in progress. What emerges is a portrait of a theatre with a social as well as an artistic function. The Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre is the most important Rosa Luisa Marquez Puerto Rican theatre group in the United States. Its history, activities and accomplishments are the subjects of this study. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The researcher wants to thank the following persons for their invaluable help: Frank Rutledge, John Baldwin, George Schuttler, Fernando Gomez, Miriam Coldn, Myrna Casas, Francisco Arrivi, Pablo Cabrera, Victoria Espinosa, Juan Luis Marquez, Helen Sackett, Jorge Enjuto and Anabelle and Ricardo Vela. Grateful acknowledgment is due to my mother, Rosa M. Perez de Englar and to my husband and friend, Lowell A. Fiet, for his tolerance, love and constant encouragement. To them, and to the people of Puerto Rico, in their quest to control their own destiny, is this study dedicated. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ......................... v LIST OF FIGURES ........................ vi INTRODUCTION .......................... 1 CHAPTER ONE: THE ARTISTIC, CULTURAL AND SOCIAL BACKGROUND OF THE PUERTO RICAN TRAVELING THEATRE ........... 4 TWO: THE PHILOSOPHY AND STRUCTURE OF THE PUERTO RICAN TRAVELING THEATRE .................. 44 THREE: THE FIRST FIVE YEARS--1967-l971 ............ 71 The 1967 Season and The Oxcart ........... 78 The 1968 Season ................... 88 The 1969 Season and Crossroads ........... 94 The 1970 Season ................... 100 The 1971 Season and A Dramatized Anthology of Puerto Rican Short Stories ............ 102 FOUR: THE SECOND FIVE YEARS--l972-1976 ........... 114 The 1972 Season and The Passion of Antigona Pérez . . 119 The 1973 Season ................... 135 The 1974 Season ................... 138 The 1975 Season and Piri, Papleto, and Pedro, and If You Promise Not to Learn ............ 143 The—1976 Season ................... 157 CONCLUSION ........................... 163 APPENDICES A: Interview with Miriam Coldn - Director of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, July 15, 1976 ....... 172 B: The Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Oxcart Budget Breakdown, Summer 1967 ............... 181 iii C: The Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Budget Breakdown-- A Dramatized Anthology of Puerto Rican Short Stories, Summer 1971 ..................... 184 D: The Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Operations for the Year Ended September 30, 1975 ............ 186 E: Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre Statement Income and Expense Year Ended December 31, 1967-1977 ...... 187 F: Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre Photographs ...... 188 BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................... 208 iv LIST OF TABLES TABLE 1. Productions Staged by Both the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre and the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture . . . . 38 2. Puerto Rican Plays Produced by the Touring Unit ..... 6O 3. Sample Dual-Language Schedule .............. 62 4. Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre Co., Inc.--Breakdown, Grants & Contributions, 1967-1973 ............ 68 5. Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre Co., Inc.--Breakdown, Grants & Contributions, 1974-1977 ............ 69 6. Proposed Breakdown for the 1974 Production of N00 Yall . . 7O 7. Plays Produced by the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre (1967-1971) ....................... 73 8. Most Frequent Performance Locations, l967-1971 ...... 76 9. Schedule for The Oxcart, 1967 .............. 84 10. Minority Participation in the Casts of Broadway Produc- tions--1967-l968 [Prepared by the PRTT] ......... 93 11. Plays Produced by the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre (1972-1976) ....................... 115 12. Most Frequent Perfbrmance Locations, 1972-1976 ...... 118 13. The Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre Oxcart Budget Breakdown, Summer 1967 .................. 181 14. The Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Budget Breakdown-- A Dramatized Anthology of Puerto Rican Short Stories, Summer 1971 ....................... 184 15. The Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Operations for the Year Ended September 30, 1975 .............. 186 16. Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Statement Income and Expense Year Ended December 31, 1967-1977 ........ 187 V LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE 1. Flat-bed Truck (The Oxcart - Summer 1967), Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre .................... 189 2. Flat-bed Truck, Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre ...... 191 3. La farsa del amor compradito ("The Farce of Purchased Love"), Summer - 1968, Central Park ........... 193 4. A Dramatized Anthology of Puerto Rican Short Stories, Summer 1971, Set Design: Peter Harvey .......... 195 5. Ejpo Subway no sabe reir ("Pipo Subway Can't Laugh") Summer 1972 ........................ 197 6. Payment as Pledged, Summer 1974, Cathedral-St. John the DiVine ......................... 199 7. Payment as Pledged, Summer 1974, Set Design: Peter Harvey .......................... 201 8. Eleuterio, the Coqui, Summer 1976, Metropolitan Museum of Art .......................... 203 9. Model--Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre's New Building, 304 w. 47 Street ..................... 205 10. Architectural Rendering, Design Consultant: David Hays, Architects: Peter Blake and Brian Smith ......... 207 vi INTRODUCTION The purpose of this study is to examine the work of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre in New York from 1967 to 1976 and the factors that made its development possible. These factors are analyzed in a discussion of 1) events which led to the emergence of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre in New York City in 1967; 2) a general history of theatrical activities in Puerto Rico with special emphasis on 1940, when Puerto Rico's first purely nationalistic theatre was founded; 3) the ground rules established in 1940 for subsequent theatre move- ments; and 4) the migratory phenomenon, intensified during the 19405 in which one third of the Puerto Rican population with its distinct cultural needs and manifestations, established itself in the United States. The study documents and evaluates the origin, development and accomplishments of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. An examination of selected productions, representative of the different aspects of the group's background and philosophy establishes the inportance of the contribution of Puerto Rican theatre to theatre movements in the United States. The methodology borrows strongly from recent works in related fields, particularly from cross-cultural studies of the Puerto Rican migration to the U.S., its causes and the impact on its participants. Puerto Rico: A Socio-Historic Interpretation by Manuel Maldonado Denis was the major source for the analysis of the historical and political 1 2 elements which led to the migration of Puerto Ricans to the United States. A survey of Puerto Rican theatre establishes the cultural back- ground which nurtured the work of the PRTT. Origeg y desarrollo de 1a aficidn teatral en Puerto Rico, by Emilio Pasarell, El teatro en Puerto Rico, by Antonia Saez, and Contemporary Puerto Rican Drama, by Jordan Phillips, as well as the unpublished investigative works of Victoria Espinosa and Odette Fumero de Coldn, have provided essential information in the compilation of data for the general survey of the Puerto Rican theatre. Behind these developments there is also a growing body of theory on the nature and function of ethnic-cultural theatre. The ideas of Augusto Boal, Imamu Amiri Baraka, Luis Valdes, Francis Fergusson and John Lahr have been investigated to establish the role diversification can play in serving fundamental social and cultural needs. The play reviews and newspaper and magazine articles provided the most useful source of information on the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. A personal recorded interview with Miriam Colon, the company's director, as well as an examination of the group's records and files were undertaken in order to analyze the philosophy of the PRTT. An examination of a11 the plays produced by the company, and critical material about them, were used to formulate the group's basic philosophy in terms of theme. What emerges is a portrait of a theatre with a social as well as artistic function. The Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre is more than an independent theatre group: it is also a symbol of unification in the New York Hispanic community, providing instrumentation for the alt airing of social and ethnic problems and channeling community spirit and energy into constructive avenues of action. Its overriding objective is to demonstrate that the arts--particularly theatre--can function as a force contributing to the dissolution of the alienating tendencies of modern urban life. All materials quoted in Spanish have been translated by the author. CHAPTER ONE THE ARTISTIC, CULTURAL AND SOCIAL BACKGROUND OF THE PUERTO RICAN TRAVELING THEATRE Although the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre was founded in New York by Miriam Colén in 1967, it has a tradition which extends far beyond the ten-year history of the group itself. The purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate the relationship between certain social, economic and cultural realities in Puerto Rico and the emergence of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre in New York. To accomplish that objective, a brief survey of the history of theatre and drama in Puerto Rico, and an overview of the socioeconomic factors that resulted in the mass migration of Puerto Ricans to the U.S. mainland, especially New York City, during the 19405 are employed. Puerto Rico is a Caribbean island approximately thirty-five miles wide and one hundred miles long. In this small geographical area, three million people live mainly in urban centers. Emigration was evident during the nineteenth century, when the island was still ruled by Spain. But it was during the 19405, four decades after the United States acquired Puerto Rico from the Spaniards, that an exodus began that resulted in the establishment of a Puerto Rican community of about two million people in the United States.1 The decade of the 1Adalberto L6pez, "The Puerto Rican Diaspora" in Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans, eds. Adalberto L6pez and James Petras (New York: John Riley and Sons, 1974), p. 319. 01‘ yea C011 5 Forties also marked a crucial turning point in another aspect of Puerto Rican history. In all facets of the island's life, strong support emerged fbr the concept of puertorriquefiidad (Puerto Ricanism or the search for Puerto Rican national identity). After forty-two years of U.S. political domination, the Puerto Rican people were confronted by a question of national identification: "A la larga, el tema responde a un addmo somos? o a un aqué somos? los puertorri- "2 ("Basically, the theme quefios globalmente considerados. . . . responds to how, who, and/or what are we, the Puerto Ricans, when globally considered?") The question became crucial to a people living in a land where the prevalent culture, acquired from the European colonial empire (Spain), was threatened by the new power in charge (the United States) without full consultation of the island's inhabitants. The question is further complicated when asked by the second generation Puerto Ricans on the U.S. mainland who do not really fit either on the island or in the United States: Where are we? In reality we are nowhere. When we go back to the island after living here, they say, "You're not Puerto Rican! You're an American!" And when we come back to the United States, they say, "Oh, you're nothing but a Pueto Rican!" So, who are we? That just makes me wonder: who am I? Why am I a Puerto Rican? What makes me a Puerto Rican? If I was born here, why doesn't that make me an American? If I am not, why am I not there, on the island?3 2Antonio 5. Pedreira, Insularismo (Madrid: Editorial Edil, 1934), p. 21. 3Stan Steiner, The Islands: The Worlds of the Puerto Ricans (New York: Harper and RowITl974), pp. 440-441. The political events of the 19405 also helped to crystallize concepts of Puerto Rican national identity. The nationalistic spirit established itself firmly behind a leader and a party that promised social reform and independence: ". . . convinced of this [independence], thousands of independentistas followed [Luis Mufioz Marin] and helped make him the victor in the 1940 elections,"4 making him the most powerful political figure in Puerto Rico. However, the island con- tinued to be ruled by a governor appointed by the President of the United States until 1948, when Mufioz was elected governor by popular vote. Other changes took place during the 19405. Economically, the island experienced a rapid deterioration of its agricultural resources, which initiated the exodus of the peasant population to island cities and to North American ghettos. According to sociologist Manuel Maldonado Denis, this migratory process can also be observed in the growth of the slums in the metropolitan zone of San Juan, for the disruptions of their milieus forces great groups of peasants into the cities and into resultant unemployment, extreme poverty and marginality. . . . 0n breaking the ties which served him as a means of orientation in the country, the migrant dwelling in the slums of San Juan or the ghettos of New York finds himself without points of reference for orientation of his behavior. The result is the phenomenon of alienation: a feeling of impotenge and fatalism in the face of the surrounding world. Other factors contributing to a greater sense of identity and cultural crisis also became evident. U.S. citizenship was imposed in 4Manuel Maldonado Denis, Puerto Rico: A Socio-Historic Inter- pretation, trans. Elena Vialo (New York: Random House, 1972), p. 154. 5 Ibid., p. 161. 7 1917 by virtue of the Jones Act. From 1898 to 1948, English was the official language of a territory whose population spoke Spanish. Public schools taught English as a first language and Spanish as a second language (that Spanish was not eradicated was possible due to cultural resistance as well as to the fact that most teachers were Puerto Rican and didn't have adequate English-language training). Even traditional island history and myths were replaced by those of the United States. Today, school children can recite the accomplish- ments of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, but do not recognize native figures such as Eugenio Maria deHostos and Ram6n Emeterio Betances. In reaction to cultural bombardment from a fbreign culture and language, intellectuals and artists undertook the mission of identifying, evaluating and rescuing Puerto Rican culture. The political, economic, and cultural developments of the 19405 also appear as major factors contributing to the emergence of indigenous theatre in Puerto Rico. Since 1898, theatrical activity on the island had been limited almost entirely to touring companies from Europe. No strictly indigenous theatre movement had emerged. However, in 1939, Emilio Belaval wrote a manifesto for a modern Puerto Rican theatre, stressing the need of every nation--every distinct cultural and geographical region--to create its own theatre with themes, forms, actors, and settings which reflected the nature of life as it was experienced in that nation. In his study of the Puerto Rican theatre, Jordan Phillips states. [Belaval] objected that what Puerto Ricans had seen dramatized was not their life, and he did not like the passivity with which it had been accepted. He recog- nized the problem of having no dramatic tradition of their own on which to build, [and] thus called the new effort 8 not a renovation, but a building from the now, cognizant of their history but not in imitation of what had gone befbre. Belaval struck directly at the result of four and one half centuries of domination: the disappearance of their individuality. . . .6 Belaval's "manifesto" was put into practice. In 1940, the theatre group Areyto was formed under his direction. The aim of the group was to provide an impetus for the development and practice of basic theories and techniques which would lead to the emergence of a Puerto Rican national theatre. In the words of Latin American theatre historian Carlos Soldrzano, En Puerto Rico, el creador del movimiento nacionalista fue Emilio Belaval, quien fundd el grupo Areyto en 1940. Este grupo tuvo como principal misidn la de plantear la problematica propia del puertorriquefio, la de enjuiciar sus procedimientos de vida y la de descubrir su tradicidn indohispanica en el momento en que la vida puertorriquefia afrontaba su asimilacidn a la cultura norteamericana.7 (In Puerto Rico, the creator of the nationalist move- ment was Emilio Belaval, who founded the group Areyto in 1940. The group had the principal mission of stating the particular dilemma of Puerto Rico, judging its vital life process, and discovering its Indo-Hispanic tradition at a time when Puerto Rican life was facing assimilation to North American culture.) The name Areyto was appropriately chosen from tribal dances of the original inhabitants of the island prior to the arrival of the Spaniards in 1493. The Arahuac tribes who inhabited the Antillean Arch were the first to be confronted by the Europeans. These tribes--now extinct--performed choral dances called areitos, 6Jordan Phillips, Contemporary Puerto Rican Drama (New York: Plaza Mayor Ediciones, 1972), pp. 14-15. 7Carlos Soldrzano, El teatro latinoamericano en el siglo veinte (México: Editorial Pormaca,71964), p. 113. 1111 fDun Brad 1011 (D. WFA. J (T? (I) D /’U which contained embryonic dramatic elements.8 Belaval and the Argytg_group drew from other historical sources as well, and it is necessary to briefly survey the roots of this group to fully understand the impact Argytg_had in Puerto Rico in the 19405 and its relation to the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre in New York. The recorded history of theatre in Puerto Rico can be traced back to the early Spanish settlement of the island. One of the goals of the Spaniards was to spread and promote Catholic doctrine. The church introduced the formal theatrical practices of the Spanish empire in its colonies to serve that purpose. In Puerto Rico, these performances date as far back as the early 16005 and, during the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, theatre performances were part of various religious festivities, political events and coronations, usually taking place on Corpus Christi, the day of 9 Thus, the Purification and the feasts of Santiago and Santa Rosa. dramatic forms which characterized the Middle Ages on the European continent and continued in Spain until the nineteenth century found counterparts in Spanish colonies such as Puerto Rico. The Spanish tradition continued to grow. "Golden Age" plays found new stages in the colonies and strongly influenced dramatic production in Puerto Rico. Throughout the nineteenth century, the works of Lope de Vega, Calderén de la Barca, and José Zorilla were 8José Juan Arrom, Historia del teatro hispanoamericano, épgca colonial (México: Editorial Planeta, 1967), p. 91 gEmilio Pasarell, Origenes y desarrollo de la aficidn teatral en Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico: Casa Baldrich, 1951), p. 4. C911 C011 10 frequently produced, while Shakespeare and Goldoni were among the non- Spanish playwrights presented by Spanish touring companies.10 Native Puerto Rican drama also emerged during the nineteenth century and began belatedly to capture the romantic tendencies of the continent. El teatro en Puerto Rico, a1 igual que las demas manifestaciones artisticas, tiene sus comienzos en la segunda mitad del siglo diecinueve; y aunque ya en Europa e1 movimiento romantico habia evolucionado, surge aqui el teatro con verdadero caracter romantico; fendmeno que se explica: primero, por lo tarde que llegaban a América las corrientes culturales europeas; segundo, por el eco que las ideas de libertad e individualismo propias de los romanticos encontraban en el espiritu de nuestros poetas, ansiosos de ellas y que, debido a la limitacidn que imponfan las condiciones politicas, encontraban campo propicio en las corrientes artisticas. Esta misma limitacidn politica influye en que se manifiesten tan alejados de nuestro mundo y busquen temas fuera de toda relacién regional, en los cuales late e1 ansia de libertad que a todos mueve y anima. No hay que olvidar que muchos de nuestros primeros escritores son también los corifeos de nuestra politica.n (Theatre in Puerto Rico, like all other artistic manifes- tations, begins with the second half of the nineteenth century; and even though the Romantic movement in Europe had already fully evolved, here we see a theatre with a truly romantic character. The phenomenon is justified, first, because of the delay of European trends in reaching America and, second, because of the reception given by our poets, hungry for them, to the romantic's ideas of free- dom and individuality. Not being able to express them- selves in other ways because of limitations imposed by political conditions, they found a ripe field in the Romantic movement. These political limitations account for the settings--away from our world--and for the search for themes without any regional reality in which they could express their desire for freedom and independence. We cannot forget that many of our first writers were also the chorus leaders in our political life.) , 10Ibid.. pp. 54-61. HAntonia Saez, El teatro en Puerto Rico, 2nd ed. (Espafia: Editorial Universitaria, 1972), p. 15} .07).] a 11 Carmen Hernandez de Araajo was the first known Puerto Rican dramatist. In 1846, she wrote a five-act, verse play called Los deudos rivales ("The Rival Debtors")--a classical Greek theme written in a romantic style. In 1849 Alejandro Tapia y Rivera, the "Father of Puerto Rican theatre," wrote the libretto for the opera Guarionex, based on the life of a Puerto Rican Indian. His Roberto D'Evreux, the first original work by a native writer to be staged in Puerto Rico, is remarkably similar to the works of Alexander Dumas and Victor Hugo. The play depicts the romantic conflicts of Elizabeth I of England and was produced in San Juan by the aficionados of the of the Sociedad Conservadora in 1856, eight years after it was written. Tapia later wrote an anti-slavery drama entitled La cuarterona ("The Quadroon," produced in 1867) which follows the same basic storyline as Dion Boucicault's The Octgroon.12 The third prominent dramatist of this period was Salvador Brau. He chose historical themes to depict the Spanish domination of the island in plays such as Héroe y martir ("Hero and Martyr," 1871) and Los horrores del Triunfo ("The Horrors of Triumph," 1887). A poet as well as dramatist, Brau's contribution to the Puerto Rican theatre is largely due to his lyrical use of language.13 12Alejandro Tapia y Rivera, La cuarterona in Decimo Festival de teatro puertorriqueno: Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqgena, vol. 10 (Barcelona: Ediciones Rumbos, 1969) and Dion Boucicault, The Octoroon in Arthur Hobson Quinn, Representative American Plays,7th edi, rev. and enl. (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1957), pp. 369-431. 13Antonia Saez, El teatro en Puerto Rico, p. 40. 12 In spite of the efforts of writers such as Hernandez de Arafijo, Tapia y Rivera and Salvador Brau, native theatre and drama did not flourish in Puerto Rico during the second half of the nineteenth century. A heterogeneous audience would gather at San Juan's Municipal Theatre, built in 1824 (renamed the Tapia Theatre in 1950), to watch imported production of Spanish plays, ballet and opera. During this period, two problems served as roadblocks to the emergence of native theatre: island politics allowed few Puerto Rican writers to use theatre as a forum for their ideals and little could be done to en- courage the development of native theatre artists due to the control exerted by Spanish companies over all theatrical production in the island. This situation continued nearly unchanged into the twentieth century. In the first four decades of the twentieth century, several events took place which began to deteriorate Puerto Rico's close artistic and theatrical ties to the European continent and, at the same time, stimulated the development of native theatre. The first was Spain's loss of Puerto Rico to the United States as a consequence of the Spanish-American War. The influence of Spain and Hispanic culture in Puerto Rico cannot be underestimated, but Spanish political and economic control inhibited the development of autochthonous theatre forms. However, Spain's loss of Puerto Rico to the United States seemed to promise free expression of thought and an impetus for a strong native theatre. Unfortunately, this was not the case. During the first fifteen years of United States rule, the few plays that were written condemned economic domination, sponsored socialist principles, and sought to 13 attain a more equitable and just society. Titles such as La emanci- pacién del obrero ("The Emancipation of the Worker," 1903) with characters such as Juan--worker's cause, Pedro-~economic slavery, Priest--worries, Foreigner-~emancipation, Angel--ideals, Politician-- oppression, Magistrate--injustice,Master--the capitalist system, the Hut--the rotten building of society, and the Valley--Puerto Rico, created an early alternative theatre which foreshadowed the protest and political theatre of the late Sixties and early Seventies. In 1904, poet José Limdn Arce wrote Redencidn ("Redemption"), a play dealing with problems between capital and labor in Puerto Rico and offering the creation of a union as a solution. Other titles include fgtgrg_("Future," 1911) and El poder del obrero o la mejor venganza ("The Worker's Power or The Best Revenge," 1915).14 Commenting on these and similar plays, Puerto Rican theatre historian Antonia saez sees little "artistic" value but recognizes their importance as chronicles of the thought and feeling of the time.15 However, themes similar to those presented in these early examples of protest theatre later found more appropriate forms in the traveling theatre format of the federally sponsored La Farandula Obrera (Workers' Theatre) of the 19305. Historical dramas such as El grito de Lares ("The Cry of Lares," 1914; produced in 1929) by Luis Llorens Torres and Juan Ponce de Leon (1932) by Carlos N. Carrera reacted against the new colonial status of the island and portrayed the struggle for independence and the 14 15 Ibid.. PP. 42-46. Ibid. 14 search for national identity. Although written by native playwrights, these plays were produced by Spanish companies. The need for native theatre artists to produce native plays remained unrecognized.16 Theatrical movements also came from the United States. In 1931, an English-language theatre group named "The Little Theatre" was formed in Puerto Rico following general guidelines established by the Little Theatre Movement in the United States. The amateur status of the group roughly paralleled that of amateur Spanish- 1anguage groups; however, they were responsible for introducing new U.S. and British plays to island audiences.17 During the 19305, Puerto Rico's economic ties to the United States further emphasized the drive to establish a strong native theatre. As a territory of the United States, Puerto Rico was also hit by the Depression, perhaps more severely than the mainland itself. On the other hand, the island also benefited from the relief projects of the Roosevelt era. Just as the well-known Federal Theatre Project developed in the United States through the Works Project Administra- tion, Puerto Rican theatre also received aid. An agency of the Federal Economic Reconstruction Administra- tion was established in 1935 to help Puerto Rican peasants and workers with their economic problems. Workshops and six-week seminars were held at the University of Puerto Rico under the direction of Morton 16Francisco Arrivi, La generacidn del treinta (Espafia: Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquefia, 1960), p. 4. 17Odette Fumero de Coldn, I'Las obras de los festivales de teatro" (Tesis de maestria, Universidad de Puerto Rico, 1967), p. 10. 15 W. Royse, a Harvard professor, and contributor to the Encyclopedia of Social Science. The participants were trained in several means of communication, and Manuel Méndez Ballester, author of Crossroads (1958; produced by the PRTT in 1969), offered the drama course. As a result, a traveling theatre group called La Farandula Obrera was created to write and perform plays exposing the problems of Puerto Rican workers. Entre las obras presentadas, 5e destacan por su mensaje social las siquientes: El dictador de Arturo Cadilla y las que siguen en que no se mencionen autores y que indis- cutiblemente son creaciones en colaboracién de todo el grupo: Vencjste union, Con ambos pufios, Sombras de Passaic, Cafia, etc.'5 (The most outstanding of the plays produced were The Dictator by Arturo Cadilla and the following in thEh no mention of author is made and which undoubtedly were collective works: The Union Won, With Both Fists, Shadows of Paissac, Sugar Cane, etc.) Among the members of La Farandula Obrera were individuals who later became the most significant Puerto Rican dramatists and theatre producers of the 19505 and 1960s.19 One was Leopoldo Santiago Lavandero, a graduate of the Yale School of Drama who later became artistic director of Areytg, fOunder of the theatre department of the University of Puerto Rico, and organizer and director of a theatre program in the island's public school system. As part of the latter program, Greek and Renaissance classics performed and produced by a 18Victoria Espinosa, "El teatro de René Marqués y la escenifi- cacidn de su obra: Los soles truncos" (Tesis doctoral, Universidad Autdnoma, Méjico, 1969), p. 72. 19Ibid. lat 16 National Company of Teachers toured the island.20 Although the influence of the U.S. theatre on Puerto Rican dramatic arts has been strong throughout the twentieth century, other factors can be seen as equally important in the emergence of native theatre. Both World Wars reduced the frequency of visits to the island by Spanish artists, but it was really the Spanish Civil War (1936- 1939) that halted the flow of professional companies. This helped to develop a national theatre as amateur theatre groups began to flourish. Another Spanish development aided the emergent Puerto Rican theatre: the works of contemporary writers Federico Garcia Lorca and Alejandro Casona. Although Garcia Lorca did not visit the island befbre his death in 1936, his plays and poems served to revitalize the whole Hispanic theatre and provided an inspiration fbr Puerto Rican writers. Alejandro Casona, exiled from Spain, visited the island in 1937 to supervise a production of his Nuestra Natacha ("Our Natacha"). He also presented several lectures on his work at the University of Puerto Rico. "Con la influencia de Alejandro Casona surge en nuestro 2] ("With the influence teatro una fuerte tendencia a1 teatro poético." of Alejandro Casona, a strong tendency towards poetic drama is felt in [Puerto Rican] theatre.") In spite of Casona's impact, during the 19305 and 19405 the Puerto Rican theatre became less dependent on Spanish theatre and began to undertake the task of modernizing itself, 20Nilda Gonzalez, "Teatro puertorriquefio" in Breve Enciclo- pgdia de Cultura Puertorriguefia, Rubén del Rosario, Esther Melon de Diaz and Edgar Martinez Masdeu, eds. (San Juan, Puerto Rico: Editorial Cordillera, 1976), p. 429. 210dette Fumero de Colon, "Las obras de los festivales de teatro," p. 8. l7 finding new models in the North American theatre and in the best theatre of Europe. During the late 19305, the fusion of several diverse trends aided the formation of a new kind of theatre in Puerto Rico. These included the Romantic tradition of Tapia and Brau, new social themes responding to the U.S. political presence in Puerto Rico, historical dramas such as El grito de Lares, new social art sponsored by the economic programs of the Roosevelt administration and the new vitality brought to Spanish-language theatre by writers such as Garcia Lorca and Casona. These factors found their most immediate manifestations in the work of Areyto and the federally sponsored La Farandula Obrera. The indigenous character of these groups can be seen in their use of Puerto Rican actors, directors, and scenic artists, in themes that deal directly with aspects of Puerto Rican reality and, most important- ly, as in the case of La Farandula, the adoption of a traveling or 22 touring format. The years surrounding 1940 are crucial to an understanding of both the Puerto Rican theatre and the island's recent political history. In all aspects of Puerto Rican life, two issues were debated: socioeconomic justice and independence, and the concept of puertorri- guefiidad. The literature of the era began to further consolidate ideas on the need for cultural manifestations of these issues-~ideas which form the theoretical objectives of nearly all Puerto Rican theatre groups both on the island and in the U.S. The question of identity was explored by the two most prominent Puerto Rican men of 22Ibid., p. 9. 18 letters of the time: Antonio S. Pedreira in Insularismo (1934) and Tomas Blanco in Prontuario histdrico de Puerto Rico (1935). All the despair and desperation which Puerto Rico lived through during that crucial decade can be observed in Pedreira's book. In the beginning of the book he asks: What are we and where are we going?--the questions that had to be asked of the period that began with the North Ameri- can occupation, 3 period Pedreira called one of 'indecision and transition'. The quest for defining a "national consciousness" undertaken by emerging dramatists reflected the philosophies of Tomas Blanco: E1 dilema e5, pues: o tomar en nuestras manos, con serenidad y firmeza, nuestro destino, o someternos, como retrasados mentales a una lenta agonia, prolongada por paliativos y aparatos ortopédicos, hasta llegar a1 limite de la miseria fisica y postraci6n moral, hasta 1a total y completa transformacién del pueblo islefio en peonaje de parias, e3 hato de coolies. Entonces 5610 se salvaran los muertos. 4 (We must either take our destiny in our hands, calmly and firmly, or submit ourselves, like the mentally retarded, to a slow, agonizing death, prolonged by palliatives and orthopedic apparatus, till we reach the limit of physical misery and moral prostration, till the total, complete transformation of the islanders into a work gang of pariahs, a gang of coolies. Then only the dead would be saved.) The affirmation of Puerto Rican identity that the work of these two men represents summarizes the sentiments and desires of the thinkers, writers and artists who were part of a generation reaching political maturity under North American domination. "Faced with the dissolving tendencies of assimilationism, Pedreira and Blanco call attention, through their brilliant essays, to the authentic ethos of 23Manuel Maldonado Denis, Puerto Rico: A Socio-Historic Interpretation, p. 142. ~ 24Tomas Blanco, Prontuario histérico de Puerto Rico, 6th ed. (Espana: Instituto de Cultura PuertorriquefiE:—1973):_pT—135. 19 Puerto Rican culture."25 It was during this era of intellectual and political ferment that a renaissance was realized in the theatre, and the actual history of national theatre in Puerto Rico begins. All the theatrical experiments that had bloomed in one way or another during the 19305 26 found a home in the Ateneo Puertorriguefio. Emilio S. Belaval, president of the institution during the 19305 and former director of the theatre club of the Casino de Puerto Rico, used the resources of the culb--university students and aficionados--to raise funds for the Ateneo. He created an awareness for the need to sponsor theatrical activities based on the impact of this experience. E1 Club Artistico del Casino logr6 mantener vivo e1 interés por el teatro espafiol en los momentos en que, por causa de la guerra civil espafiola, habfanse suspendido las relaciones culturales con Espafia, en donde hallabamos estfmulo para nuestro teatro. Surgen ideas, en parte agresivas, en parte defensivas, de afirmacidn puertorriquefia y terminazasf las prevenciones contra el teatro puerto- rriqueno. (The Club Artistico del Casino succeeded in keeping an interest in Spanish theatre alive during times that, due to the Spanish Civil War, the cultural relations with Spain-- the place where we found the stimulus for our theatre--had been severed. Thoughts of national reaffirmation--defensive and aggressive--emerged, ending the prejudices against the Puerto Rican theatre.) 25Manuel Maldonado Denis, p. 145. 26The Ateneo Puertorriquefio was founded on April 30, 1876 by a group of fifty Puerto Ritans who were interested in establishing a society for the stimulation of arts and letters. In its one hundred years of existence, it has produced numerous publications, seminars, conferences and contests. It boasts a liberal tradition, having always opened its doors to discussion of varying ideas, whether they be scientific, literary, religious or political. See Breve Enciclopedia de Cultura Puertorriquefia, pp. 42-44. 27Odette Fumero de Colén, p. 11. 20 In 1937, the Ateneo sponsored a contest for plays and gave awards to El clamor de los surcos ("The Furrows' Clamor") by Manuel Mendez Ballester, E1 desmonte ("The Dismount") by Gonzalo Arrocho, and Esta noche juega e1 joker ("Tonight the Joker is Wild") by 28 Fernando Sierra Berdecia. Esta noche juega el joker is the first Puerto Rican drama to deal with the migrant problem in New York: "Observa a1 hombre puertorriquefio en la centrifuga de Nueva York, con lo que abre perspectivas a la literatura del emigrante puertorri- II29 (II quefio. It studies the Puerto Rican in the centrifuge of New York, opening perspectives on the literature of the Puerto Rican migrant.") In the play, the author examines the social implications of role reversals due to the availability of jobs for women and their scarcity for men. Following the productions of these plays, the Ateneo 3O absorbed the Club Artistico del Casino. In 1939, Belaval wrote "Lo que podria ser un teatro puertorriquefio" (What a Puerto Rican Theatre Could Be"), the cornerstone of much Puerto Rican theatre since that time. He identifies the need for a native theatre by saying, Algfin dia de estos tendremos que unirnos para crear un teatro puertorriqueno, un gran teatro nuestro, donde todo nos pertenezca: el tema, e1 actor, los motivos decorativos, las ideas, la estética. Existe en cada pueblo una inso- bornable teatralidad que tiene que ser recreada por sus propios artistas... . . Nuestra realidad circundante es que Puerto Rico no parece interesado en el drama puertorriqueno: es un espectador que asiste impasible 28Jordan Phillips, Contemporary Puerto Rican Drama, p. 14. 29Francisco Arrivi, La_generaci6n del treinta, p. 11. 3oEmilio Pasarell, Ori enes y desarrollo de la afici6n teatral in Puerto Rico, p. 21 a su propio drama, que arrincona como indtiles banbalinas aquellas ideas hist6ricas, tradicionales y ambientales por cuya conservacidn los pueblos luchan desesperadamente. . Por ser el hombre clave de nuestra tematica teatral, nuestro teatro sera antes que nada, un teatro social dignificado hacia el hombre y en esto tendremos hasta la certeza de coincidir con la corriente ideoldgica mas caracteristica de nuestro tiempo.31 (Someday we have unite in order to create a Puerto Rican theatre, a great theatre of our own, where everything will belong to us: the theme, the actor, the decor, the ideas, the esthetics. In each people there is an uncorrup- tible theatricality that has to be recreated by its own artists. . . . Our surrounding reality is that Puerto Rico does not seem interested in Puerto Rican drama: the Puerto Rican spectator watches his own drama passively, discarding historical, traditional, and environmental ideas, that other peoples fight desperately to preserve, like unserviceable props. . . . Because man is the key to our theatrical themes, our theatre will be, above all, a social theatre directed toward the dignity of man and in that way we will be certain to be consistent with the ideological current that characterizes our time.) Belaval articulates the aspirations of a Puerto Rican theatre as: autochthonous theme and scenic elements, the dignity of the individual as the overall focus, the actor as an interpreter of national feelings, new and dynamic means of production and no simple regionalism of theme or technique. He stated that the theatrical recreation of a Puerto Rican reality must also be consistent with contemporary world currents and themes. These tasks were undertaken by Areytg_during the 19405, when Belaval's principles for a national theatre were put into practice.32 3AEmilio Belaval, "Lo que podria ser un teatro puertorri- quefio" in Are to Ma or, Francisco Arrivi, ed. (Espafia: Instituto de Cultura Puertorr1quena, 1966), p. 257. 32Jordan Phillips, p. 16. 22 In 1941, a chapter of Argytg_was created in the town of Arecibo under the direction of Rene Marques, the most prominent modern Puerto Rican playwright and the author of La carreta ("The Oxcart"), the first play produced by the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre in 1967. In its lifetime, Areyto produced Tiempo muerto (Dead Time," 1940) by Manuel Mendez Ballester, Mi sefibrfa ("My Lordship," 1940) by Luis Rechani Agrait, La escuela del buen amor ("The School of Good Love," 1941) by Fernando Sierra Berdecia, and He vuelto a buscarla ("I Have Returned to Look for Her," 1940) 33 by Martha Lomar, among others. In producing plays of this nature, the purpose of Argytg_ was threefold: (1) to stage plays by Puerto Rican authors, (2) to implement new techniques of production in the fields of acting, directing, scene design, lighting, costume, and make-up and (3) to attract a subscription audience as well as achieve artistic recognition from a general public.34 Thus, the pattern followed by the group resembled the structure of "independent" theatres such as the Freie Bfihne and the Provincetown Players that were prominent in Europe and the United States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Although Argytgfs life ended two years after it began, its productions had a profound effect on the theatre, for it grouped together some of the island's finest theatre talents: Leopoldo Santiago Lavandero (artistic director), Madelline Williamsen and 331bid. 34"Proyecto para el fomento de las artes teatrales," Insti- tuto de Cultura Puertorriquefia, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1956. Files of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture. 23 Edmundo Rivera Alvarez (actors), Rene Marqués (dramatist), Juan Luis Marquez (critic), and Julio Marrero and Rafael Rios Rey (designers).35 In 1941, L. Santiago Lavandero became the founder of the theatre program at the University of Puerto Rico. The Drama Division had at its disposal the facilities of the University Theatre, and the production program was developed to stress the second of Argytgfs purposes: to prepare native theatre artists in all fields. However, the work focused on productions of international plays of merit rather than on Puerto Rican drama. After the 1944 production of the Puerto Rican play La resentida ("The Resentful One") by Enrique Laguerre--a study of a family caught in the problems of the 1898 society—~plays by native playwrights were eliminated from the repertory of the University Theatre. The reasons are described by Francisco Arrivi: El joven teatro universitario monta e1 drama en 1944. Ante 10,000 espectadores, sirve para probar, contra los deseos de su director Leopoldo Santiago Lavandero y a pesar de la enorme afluencia de pfiblico, que un sector del mundo oficial se enfriaba ya ante la promocidn de la cultura puertorriquefia.3 (The young university theatre produced the play--La resentida-- in 1944. Before 10,000 audience members, against the hopes of its director, and in spite of enormous audience influence, it proved that a sector of the official world was turned off when faced by the promotion of Puerto Rican culture.) It was not until 1956 that another play by a Puerto Rican playwright was produced by the University Theatre: Francisco Arrivi's Bolero y plena. Nonetheless, the university developed a broad educational 35Francisco Arrivi, La generaciOn del treinta, pp. 10-26- 36Ipid., p. 28. 24 curriculum in theatre arts and drama. The new interest in theatre at the university in the 19405 reflected significant political events of the era. During the Forties, Puerto Rico was governed by the last of the U.S. colonial governors: Rexford Guy Tugwell. "Tugwell--who figured prominently in Roosevelt's brain trust--was without doubt the most intelligent and well-prepared governor"37 up until that time. Tugwell was also the chancellor of the University and it was under his administration that the institu- tion began to assume a stature of more than regional importance. Although his emphasis was the sciences, new attention was also paid to the humanities--a tendency reflected in the development of the theatre curriculum. In 1946, the University Theatre acquired a traveling unit designed by Rafael Cruz Emeric. Its task was to take theatre to hospitals, town squares, jails-~wherever the cart could be opened for production. The idea was fashioned in the spirit of Garcia Lorca's La Barraca which traveled throughout Spain in 1932, and the univer- sity's unit later became the structural model for the traveling unit of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. The Teatro Rodante Univer- sitario toured the island every weekend during its first year. In subsequent years, it has fbllowed a less intense schedule and now tours approximately thirty times a year to remote towns on the island. The university's traveling theatre consists of two mechanical units: a bus, and a trailer that opens up into a platform stage sixteen feet long, twenty feet wide, and four feet high. When closed, 37Manuel Maldonado Denis, p. 155. 25 it carries the set and props. The bus transports the actors and technicians and the lighting equipment is mounted to its roof during 38 performance. "Cumple e1 propésito de la Universidad de llegar a1 pueblo, educar y divertir a la gente en los pueblos y campos."39 ("It fulfills the purpose of the University by reaching the people, educating and entertaining the inhabitants of both town and country.") Important productions include Sancho Panza en la Insula Barataria ("Sancho Panza on the Island Barataria") and The Marriage Proposal (1946-47), The Imaginary Invalid (1953-54), Titeres de Cachiporra ("Punching Puppets," 1960-61), The Man Who Married a Dumb Wife and Mirandolina (1966-67), and Los Melindres de Belisa ("Belisa's Prudery," 1970-71). Federico Garcia Lorca's farce La zapatera prodigiosa ("The Shoemaker's Prodigious Wife") was the most popular selection, touring in the 1947-48, 1957-58, 1961-62, and 1968-69 seasons.40 Impressed by a documentary film on the University of Puerto Rico's traveling theatre project, the Rockefeller Foundation offered several fellowships to dramatists, designers and directors from the island to help them study abroad. Francisco Arrivi and Rene Marqués received awards in 1949 and went to Columbia University to study 38Rafel Cruz Emeric and Leopoldo Santiago Lavandero, "Proyecto para el Teatro Rodante Universitaria," Universidad de Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, 1945. Files of the Depart- amento de Drama de la Universidad de Puerto Rico. 39Victoria Espinosa, p. 81. 40"Lista de producciones teatrales del Departamento de Drama 194F4976." Files of the Departamento de Drama, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico. 26 4] UNESCO asked for the plans of the unit in order to 42 playwriting. facilitate them in India in the creation of a similar project. In her work on the plays of Rene Marqués, Dr. Victoria Espinosa states that in light of the repertory chosen by the University Theatre--basically classical farces and comedies with happy endings-- the audience had been underestimated and considered incapable of appreciating other theatrical genre. She draws an appropriate comparison with Garcia Lorca's La Barraca: No hay que olvidar que en La Barraca, Garcia Lorca llev6, por canpos y ciudades espafiETas, obras como Fuenteovejuna y El Caballero de Olmedo de Lope de Vega, La vida es suefio y El gran teatro de1_mundo de Calder6n, El Burladoride Sevilla de Tirso, etc.4 Tfido sin mensocabo del aprecio y admiracifin del publico. 3 (We cannot forget that with La Barraca, Garcia Lorca toured, through Spanish villages and cities, plays like ‘Fuenteovejuna and The Knight of Olmedo by Lope de Vega, Life is a Dream and The Great Theatre of the World by Calderdh, The TriEkster of Seville byTTirso, etc. All without diminishing the degree of admiration and ap- preciation expressed by the audience.) Dr. Espinosa established a children's theatre and a high school theatre program (1946-1964) as university sponsored projects. Both followed a touring format as well. Luis Rafael Sanchez, the island's most promising dramatist of the 19605, received training and experience working with these programs. Under the direction of Ludwig Shajovick (1947-1954), Lavandero's successor, a scholarship program allowed Miriam Coldn, along with other promising theatre students, to pursue 41 42 43 Victoria Espinosa, p. 81. Ibid. Ibid., p. 85. 27 a theatre career in the United States.44 The impact of the University Theatres programs, which started in the 19405, cannot be overlooked. Along with aspects of the pro- gram already mentioned, it provided a solid Bachelor of Arts degree in theatre comprised of courses in acting, directing, mime, voice, diction and production as well as academic courses in history, theory 45 Until 1958, when the Institute of Puerto Rican and literature. Culture established yearly festivals of Puerto Rican theatre, the University Theatre provided the only continuous center of theatrical activity on the island. In its main theatre, it also supported professional productions by both native and foreign companies. The University Theatre continues to serve this function and in 1957 it became the home of the famous Pablo Casals Festival, one of the most impressive annual music festivals in the modern world. During the Forties, the University Theatre began producing plays from an international repertory, including works by George Bernard Shaw, Federico Garcia Lorca, Maxwell Anderson, Alejandro Casona, Anton Chekov, Georg Kaiser, Ca1der6n de la Barca, Luigi Pirandello, Moliére, Henrik Ibsen, Zorilla, Jean Anouilh, Euripides and Shakespeare.46 El énfasis e interés primordial del departamento esta en lo educativo-cultural en todos sus aspectos, lo que ha permitido la gran variedad de estilos y producciones 44Ibid., p. 86. 45"Registro oficial de cursos," Oficina del Registrador, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, 1950. 46"Lista de producciones teatrales del Departamento de Drama, 1941-1976." 28 que se revelan a través de las lecturas de la lista de obras que se ha presentaflg desde 1941 hasta hoy [1969] alrededor de doscientas. (The main emphasis and interest of the department lies in the educational-cultural area in all its aspects. This has permitted the great variety of styles and productions that can be seen in the list of around two hundred plays produced between 1941 and 1969.) The academic theatre's emphasis on ancient and modern "classics" is indicative of the University's attempt to follow the model set down by United States and European universities. However, the Drama Department remained indifferent to native Puerto Rican playwrights for nearly two decades, just as Puerto Rican history and literature received little attention in other departments of the University. The first Puerto Rican theatre survey course was not added to the curriculum until 1967.48 During the 19405, the task set down by the Areyto society began to be fulfilled, in part, by the University Theatre. Another group, outside the University, Tinglado Puertorriquefio, furthered the original goals of Belaval and Areyto by producing native plays. Angel F. Rivera, director of the 1973 Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre production of the Brazilian drama Payment as Pledged, received his 49 early training with this group. In the late Forties, the Puerto Rican theatre was again influenced by trends in the Spanish theatre. Connections which had 47Victoria Espinosa, p. 81. 48"Registro oficial de cursos,“ Oficina del Registrador, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, 10 mayo 1967. 49Victoria Espinosa, p. 81. 29 remained broken since the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) were re- established in the immediate post-World War II era and playwrights, actors and touring companies began to travel to the island. One of the individuals who brought about the revived interest in the Spanish theatre was dramatist and visiting professor at the Univer— sity of Puerto Rico, Cipriano Rivas Cheriff. Rivas Cheriff had collaborated with both Garcia Lorca and Alejandro Casona in his native Spain in the early 19305. In Puerto Rico, he created a chapter of Teatro Espafibl de América with a group of Puerto Rican actors. "Con Alejandro Casona . . . y Rodolfo Usigli, dramaturgo mejicano, Rivas Cheriff ha organizado el Teatro Espafiol de América, T.E.A., un proyecto de alcance interamericano."50 ( "With Alejandro Casona . . . and Mexican dramatist Rodolfo Usigli, Rivas Cheriff has organized the Spanish Theatre of America, a project of Interamerican scope.") The group had an international flavor and brought the theatre of Puerto Rico in contact with the mainstreams of Latin American drama. The case of Rivas Cheriff is indicative of a factor governing much theatre activity in Puerto Rico: theatre movements are highly dependent on individuals who bring foreign theories and ideas to the island. These are then adapted to the island's immediate cultural and artistic needs. The isolated geographical and political nature of the island often prevents theatre movements from reaching it with the kind of ease apparent in Europe, Latin America, and the United States. This isolation has sponsored the gestation of a nationalistic 50Luis Hernandez Aquino, "Rivas Cheriff se halla interesado en proyecto patronato de arte" (San Juan) El Mundo, 8 septiembre 1949, p. 12 30 tendency which, in the words of theatre historian Carlos Soldrzano, has not only helped provide a very important force within the life of the country, but has also sponsored the most organic, homogeneous and interesting nationalistic theatre in Latin America.51 Important political events of the 19405 have had a lasting impact on Puerto Rico and have influenced the themes of nearly all significant Puerto Rican drama since that time. It was during the administration of Rexford Guy Tugwell that a policy of industrializa- tion drastically changed the island's agricultural economy. One result was the progressive deterioration of Puerto Rican agriculture and the mass migration of the peasant population to the city of San Juan and to North American ghettos-~a theme that will be addressed in the forthcoming analysis of Rene Marqués' La carreta (The Oxcart). Thus, the decade of the Forties reflects the beinning of a social paradox that characterizes much of the island's recent history. On one hand, the island's cultural identity was expanding, new artistic forms emerging and intellectual attention was being paid to the dilemma of puertorriqgefiidad. 0n the other hand, unempldyment and poverty were drawing those who could most benefit from the new sense of national identity to urban ghettos in the United States. Also in the 19405, a strong socialist oriented party with pro- independence leanings--the Popular Democratic Party--became the most 52 powerful political force in Puerto Rico. Party leader Luis Munoz 5‘lQuoted in Jordan Phillips, Contemporary Puerto Rican Drama, p. 83. 52Bolivar Pagan, Historia de los partidos politicos puertorri- guefios, Vol. 2 (San Juan, P)R.: [ibrerfa Campos, 1959), p. 225. 31 Marin, the first elected governor of Puerto Rico, continued in that post until January, 1965. During his tenure as governor, Mufioz's promise of independence was postponed to make way for social and economic reform, making Puerto Rico increasingly dependent on the United States. This situation is reflected in the dramas of the 19405, where the themes of independence, self-determination and national pride are omnipresent. According to Jordan Phillips, Typical subjects were political abuses, displacement of 'ibaros from the land either because of its unproductive qua1ity or because of economic strangulation by the . centrales [sugar cane refineries], the dissolution of simple people in the slums of San Juan and New York, the importance of working one's own land to preserve self-respect, the problem of racial inequality, awareness of all aspects of Hispanic heritage, and appreciation of Puerto Rican heroes. 53 New and significant Puerto Rican playwrights began to deal with these problems. Francisco Arrivi initiated his career during this period. Maria Soledad (1947) the best of Arrivi's early works, records a new stylistic approach: More than any other, [Arrivi] is the dramatist who not only signals the break with social realism but fbrecasts the concern with metaphorical language, psycho- logical problems, and innovative uses of light and zound which will characterize the plays of a new decade.5 Arrivi's success indicated that native Puerto Rican playwrights could gain the recognition of Puerto Rican audiences. He has continued to write for the theatre throughout the past three decades, and since 1960 has served as the administrator of the theatre division of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture. 53 54 Jordan Phillips, p. 29. Ibid., p. 83. 32 The end of the 19405 brought another promising sign: the emergence of Rene Marques, Puerto Rico's most prominent and renowned playwright. Marques published his first play, El hombre y sus suefios ("Man and His Dreams") in 1948 and "En ella se advertia ya su vin- culacidn con las ideas del existencialismo que anima su posterior "55 ("In it he foreshadowed the association with existen- creacian. tialism that gives life to his subsequent works.") In 1951, Marqués became the founder and director of the Ateneo's "experimental" theatre. The season opened with The Misunderstanding by Albert Camus, which introduced existentialist literature to Puerto Rican audiences. Productions of works by Ram6n del Valle Inclan, August Strindberg, Anton Chekov and Luigi Pirandello fbllowed.56 The last play produced by Marqués while director of the experi- mental theatre was his own La carreta (The Oxcart), which maps the trajectory of Puerto Ricans from the countryside to the city slums and from there, to the ghettos of New York. The play remains one of the most important and influential works by a Puerto Rican writer and sets the tone and thematic parameters for the work of many sub- sequent playwrights. La carreta played in Spanish in New York in 1953 and "Miss Miriam Colén created the part of Juanita in the 1953 "57 Spanish language production in New York City. . . . The play was 55Carlos Soldrzano, El teatro latinoamericano en el siglo veinte, p. 158. 56Ateneo Puertorriquefio, “List of Productions, 1951-1954," Record of Puerto Rican theatrical productions. Files of the Ateneo Puertorriquefio, San Juan, Puerto Rico. 57Charles Pilditch, "Introduction" to The Oxcart by René Marqués (New York: Scribners, 1969), p. vi. 33 revived in New York in 1966, when it provided the impetus for the formation of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre: The Oxcart opened at New York's Greenwich Mews Theatre on December 19, 1966, and became the fifth longest running play of those that opened off-Broadway during that season. A total of eighty-nine performances were given including five special matinees for students from various New York City Junior High Schools. . . . In August, 1967, again through the efforts of Miss Coldn and under the auspices of Mayor John Lindsay's Summer Task Force, The Oxcart was revived by the newly created Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. Free outdoor perform- ances were given in various parks and playgrounds through- out New York City.58 This play and Marqués' contribution to the Puerto Rican theatre will be further discussed in chapter three. The success of writers such as Francisco Arrivi and René Marques led to other significant developments in the 19505. In 1956, the Ateneo instituted an annual literary contest which involved a playwriting competition and provided for full production of the plays receiving awards. Pedro Juan Soto's El huésped ("The Guest") received the first prize that year (it was later produced by the PRTT in their 1974 experimental season). The Ateneo contests have con- tinued since that time offering young playwrights a cash bonus and the opportunity to see their plays produced. The Puerto Rican theatre also began to attract scholarly atten- tion. Two histories of the Puerto Rican theatre were published at the beginning of the decade. El teatro en Puerto Rico ("The Theatre in Puerto Rico," 1950) by Antonia Saez and Origenes y desarrollo de la afici6n teatral en Puerto Rico ("Origins and Development of 58Ibid. 34 Theatrical Tastes in Puerto Rico," 1951) by Emilio Pasarell give an historical perspective on the development of theatre in Puerto Rico and have become the standard reference works for any study on the subject. The drama of the 19505, characterized by the works of Arrivi and Marqués, initiated a shift from the objectivity in form and theme that had been sponsored by the Areytg_movement. The themes remained the same, while a greater variety in form provided a more subjective context. The concept of puertorriquefiidad was dealt with through- out the decade through the use of symbols, allegories and metaphorical language. Dream sequences, flashbacks and the dislocation of time mark a definite transition from the social realism of the 19405 to the poetic realism of the 19505. The reasons for the change are several: the influence of U.S. writers such as Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller, the prevalence of "Absurdist" drama on the European continent and, most importantly, a change in Puerto Rico's political status and the artistic reaction to it. During the Fifties, significant events altered the economic and political scene in Puerto Rico. On October 30, 1950, President Truman signed the Puerto Rican Commonwealth Bill-~known as Public Law 600--which enabled the island to draft its own constitution. In reaction to what they saw as a patronizing act further delaying Puerto Rican independence, a_group of Nationalists attacked the governor's palace in San Juan. One policeman and four Nationalists were killed. Meanwhile, uprisings in several island towns left a death toll of twenty-seven. On November 2nd of the same year, two Puerto Ricans attacked the Blair House, the temporary presidential 35 residence in Washington D.C., in an attempt to assassinate President Truman. A fear that colonial status would be legalized as a form of government was the force behind these violent acts, which were later captured by playwright GeraklPaul Marin in his play Al final de la calle ("At the End of the Street," 1959). Developing three different stories happening sumultaneously in the same apartment building at the time of the attack on the Governor's mansion in Puerto Rico, Marin succeeds in creating a vivid microcosm of the social and political climate in Puerto Rico at the time. In 1951, voters favored the Estado Libre Asociado--Common- wealth Status--which literally translated means "Free Associated State." The new status, however, did little to resolve political tensions and, according to Kal Waggenheim, Opponents called the vote unfair, since its only two choices were to adopt the new status or to remain a colonial terr- tory; and many registered voters abstained. A strong con- troversy developed over the meaning of the new status. An exhuberant Governor Munoz said, '. . . we can proclaim to the world that the last juridicial vestiges of colonialism have been abolished.' But Joseph Mahoney of the House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs said, 'The United States Constitution gives Congress complete control and nothing in the Puerto Rican gonstitu- tion could affect or amend or alter that right.‘5 Nationalist violence broke out again in 1954 after the United States succeeded in eliminating Puerto Rico from the United Nations' list of colonial territories. Nationalists attacked a session of the 59Kal Waggenheim, Puerto Rico: A Profile (New York: Preager, 1973), p. 79. 36 U.S. House of Representatives, yelling Niva Puerto Rico Libre!-- ("Long Live Free Puerto Rico") and wounding five congressmen. While violence plagued the decade of the Fifties, the new "commonwealth" status firmly took hold. At the same time, the cultural movement continued to seek greater autonomy, and in 1955 the government created the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture. "E1 Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquefia fue creado para promover e1 estudio, conservacian, enriquecimiento y difusi6n de los valores "50 ("The Institute of Puerto Rican culturales de Puerto Rico. Culture was created to study, preserve, enrich and make known the cultural values of Puerto Rico.") The theatre division of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture was created in 1958 to encourage the writing and production of native dramas. The role played by the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture is evident in Victoria Espinosa's statement that "A partir de 1958 hasta hoy, se inicia una epoca de 6] ("From 1958 efervecencia en el ,quehacer teatral de Puerto Rico." until today, an effervescent era of theatrical creativity has been initiated in Puerto Rico.") In 1956, the theatre advisory council of the Institute sub- mitted a project for theatre arts development. After analyzing the theatrical events of the preceding three decades, it completed its report discussing the basic elements needed to facilitate greater theatre production. It proposed the creation of a national dramatic 60"Introduccidn," Revista del Instituto de Cultura Puertorri- guefia (octubre-diciembre 1958):—I. 61 Victoria Espinosa, p. 98. 37 arts company, general public sponsorship of theatre programs and an annual festival of Puerto Rican plays.62 The allocation by the Puerto Rican Legislature of only one-third of the funds requested--$20,000-- provided only for the yearly festivals. A one-percent tax on the price of film tickets was to fund the project. On may 15, 1958, the annual tradition of the Puerto Rican Theatre Festival began. Years later, an International Festival (1966) and an Avant-Garde Festival (1967) were possible thanks to the active support given to the enterprise by the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture and the Puerto Rican audience. The first festival season opened with Encrucijada ("Crossroads") by Manuel Méndez Ballester. Encrucijada, like the earlier Esta noche juega el jéker, belongs to a group of island dramas in which the action takes place in the United States. In this play, each generation represents a further step in the deterioration and assimilation of the Puerto Rican family. Each family member symbolizes a political alternative to the status problem. Thus, Encrucijada characterizes the artistic reaction to the island's status as well as the dilemmas confronting Puerto Ricans living on the mainland: The strong feeling for the Island, the displacement of a family to New York, the impoverished conditions and the naturalggtic style, coupled with occasional hwmr. .. Encrucijada also demonstrates the relationship between the theatre festivals of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture and the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre which produced Crossroads in its 1969 62"Proyecto para el fomento de las artes teatrales," pp. 5-50. 63Jordan Phillips, p. 120. 38 summer season. There are numerous examples of plays first produced by the Institute's theatre festivals which later toured in English ver- sions through New York City or were staged at the Puerto Rican Travel- ing Theatre's experimental theatre. Table 1. Productions Staged by Both the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre and the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture IPRC PRTT Festivals Productions Encrucijada--M.Méndez Ballester 1958 1969 "Crossroad5" Los soles truncos--R. Marqués 1958 1972 e an 1g ts La carreta--R. Marqués 1961 1967, 1977 The Oxcart Los angeles se han fatigado-- 1961 1974 L. Rafael Sanchez "The Angels are Tired" Las ventanas—-R. Rodriguez Suarez 1967 1976 “The Windows" La pasidn segfin Antigona Pérez-- 1968 1972 L. Rafael Sanchez "The Passion of Antigona Pérez" Flag Inside--J. Carrero 1973 1973 Plays by other authors such as Gerald Paul Marin have been produced by both the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture's festivals and the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, although different Marin plays have been produced by each. Thus, the annual festivals held in Puerto Rico have exerted an impact on the play selection of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre in New York and have been the single largest resource 39 contributing to new dramatic materials for the mainland group. As well as encouraging the writing and production of native drama, the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture has served as a showcase fbr play selection by companies in the United States, Latin America and Europe. All the plays produced by the annual festivals are compiled and published and each volume is circulated to the university libraries of the Americas and Europe. This has prompted the production of Puerto Rican plays in numerous countries, including Mexico, Argentina, Spain, Cuba, Venezuela, Jamaica, France, Czechoslovakia and the United States.64 By the end of the 19505, developments such as the establish- ment of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture and the works of a new generation of dramatists had resulted in a solid concept of a Puerto Rican theatre with a promising future. In fact, theatre scholars on the continent had already recognized the fact: Ya para 1956, varios tratadistas de teatro hispanoe americano como Enrique Anderson Imbert, argentino; Willis Knapp Jones, estadounidense; Luis Osorio, colgmbiano, han reconocido la aparicién en suelo puertorriqueno de un teatro caracteristico, suceso este muy raro en el grande mapa de las Américas y en otros mapas. Algfin tratadista, como Frank Dauster, catedratico de la Universidad de Rutgers, interesado en las proyecciones escénicas a1 sur del Rio Grande, 5e atreve a afirmar que solo Méjico, Argentina, y Puerto Rico pueden gentirse orgullosos de una expresian dramatica propia.6 64Derived from analysis of newspaper and magazine clippings about Puerto Rican theatre abroad. Files of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture--theatre section, 1958-1976, San Juan, Puerto Rico. ~ 65Francisco Arrivi, "Primer Festival de Teatro Puertorri— quenog'Revista del Instituto de Cultura Puertorriguefia (enero-mayo) 1959: 38. 40 (By 1956, several essayists on Hispanic American theatre such as Enrique Anderson Imbert, an Argentinian, Willis Knapp Jones, a North American, and Luis Osorio, a Colombian, had recognized the emergence of a particularly Puerto Rican theatre--a rare event on the huge map of the Americas as well as on others. Another essayist, Frank Dauster, a professor at Rutgers University interested in theatrical developments south of the Rio Grande, has dared to declare that only Mexico, Argentina, and Puerto Rico can feel proud of a dramatic expression which is truly their own. With a concrete basis for a national drama established, the theatrical activity of the island took diverse avenues during the 19605. In 1961, Leopoldo Santiago Lavandero, aware that audiences have to be educated and nourished early in life, initiated a theatre program in the public school system. The Teatro Esgolar coordinated the teaching of theatre in intermediate and high schools and has toured productions of "classics" throughout the island's school districts since 1962. The plays produced included Lope de Vega's Fuenteovejuna, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the Medea of Euripides, and Calder6n de la Barca's Life is a Dream. In 1967, Lavandero organized the Compafiia teatral de Maestros (Theatre Company of Teachers) whose mem- bers receive a teacher's salary for producing and touring plays in schools. A puppet program geared towards elementary schools was also introduced.66 The Sixties also witnessed the creation of many independent theatre companies engaged in the production of a broad range of foreign plays. In one of these groups-- ucayegue, organized in the late 19505--Pablo Cabrera began his career as an actor and stage director. Cabrera is probably the best trained and most accomplished 66Nilda Gonzalez, p. 430. 41 Puerto Rican director of the past twenty years. His work will be discussed in greater detail as it relates to the development of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre in New York since 1971. The most con- sistent company organized in the 19605 has been Teatro del 60, founded by the artistic director of the University Theatre traveling unit, Dean Zayas. The company recruits university students and engages in a repertory greatly influenced by popular Broadway musical comedies. It has its own theatre and has toured Latin America and Europe. In 1974, the group represented Puerto Rico at the Annual international theatre festival in Nancy, France.67 Groups such as Yucayeque and Teatro del 60 also produced works for the International Festival sponsored by the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture. A new modality of theatre production started in San Juan in 1963 when Iris Martinez and Noberto Kerner--both later became actively involved in the work of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre-- created La Tierruca, a cafe-theatre in Old San Juan. Its success prompted the creation of similar establishments both in San Juan and other cities. The most prominent of these has been the Cafe-teatro La Tea, owned and operated by Abelardo Ceide, who provides space for promising new groups and productions. A wide variety of theatre experiments, ranging from surrealistic mime to political theatre, have been produced in these settings.68 67Teatro del 60, Program Notes for the production of Puerto Rico Fua, Nancy, France, 1974. Files of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture--theatre section, San Juan, Puerto Rico. 68Victoria Espinosa, p. 117. 42 The professional theatre in Puerto Rico, even in its more conventional forms, is not commercial theatre as it is understood in the United States. In the majority of cases, theatre is nonprofit enterprise which does not aim to be commercially successful. This characteristic of professional theatre in Puerto Rico has positive and negative aspects. It allows for greater selectivity in materials and less financial pressure. Often a stipend from the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture covers or at least significantly defrays produc— tion expenses. However, token salaries for artists have prevented the creation of a theatre profession and its potential members must depend on income earned in radio and television work or look abroad for additional opportunities. Although the Puerto Rican theatre has experienced many new developments in the past thirty years, its purpose and themes have remained consistent and, according to Jordan Phillips, the drama in Puerto Rico has been and remains essentially a nationalistic drama. By this is meant that the Island, its people, its problems, its history, and its future have been the subject and object of nearly every play written and produced in Puerto Rico since 1938. This is not to say that the Puerto Rican drama is in any sense petty or pro- pagandistic. It does indicate that Puerto Rico is faced with absorption by the United States, ngt simply economically or territorially, but culturally.6 By 1967, Puerto Rico had a strong theatrical tradition that became the main source of plays, artists, and theatrical techniques used in the development of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre in New York City. Events and artistic trends in the Puerto Rican theatre after 1967, the date that marks the production of the English version 69Jordan Phillips, p. 205. 43 of Rene Marqués' La Carreta (The Oxcart) by the newly formed Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, will be discussed as they directly affect and influence the philosophy and productions of this first institution- alized representation of the Puerto Rican theatre in the United States. In Puerto Rico and New York, the impulse stimulating the Puerto Rican artists remains the same: There is . . . taking place a renaissance of Puerto Rican art, theatre, and literature of no mean propor- tions. One thinks of the younger playwrights [on the] Island and mainland, who have rejected an "art for art's sake" position and have married art to political protest. . . 70 The Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre is an extension of theatre principles and practices which emerged in Puerto Rico between approx- imately 1935 and 1967, although its cultural tradition extends far beyond that. The reality of Puerto Ricans in New York shares many common characteristics with that in Puerto Rico and is defined by the relation of the island to the United States. The Puerto Rican Travel- ing Theatre is, in many ways, a kind of communications center. It brings the cultural heritage and advancements of the island to Puerto Rican residents in New York, reminding them of their past in order to help in the better definition of their future, and offering a stage for New York-Puerto Rican artistic creativity. Let us now examine the raison d'etre of the group itself. 70Gordon Lewis, Notes on the Puerto Rican Revolution (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1974), p. 248. CHAPTER TWO THE PHILOSOPHY AND STRUCTURE OF THE PUERTO RICAN TRAVELING THEATRE In his book, The Idea of a Theater (1949), Francis Fergusson discusses the necessity for U.S. society to recapture an "idea" of theatre that is relevant to its citizens: Unless the cultural components of our melting pot are recognized, evaluated, and understood in some sort of relationship--our religious, racial, and regional tradi- tions, and our actual habits of mind derived from applied science and practical politics, seen as mutually relevant-- how can we get a perspective on anything? And how can we hope fbr a public medium of communication more signifi- cant than that of our movie-palaces, induction-centers, and camps fer displaced persons? Fergusson's "idea" is not a new one, for throughout history the social function of theatre has been recognized and accepted. For example, in his study of the origins of tragedy in ancient Greece, Gerald F. Else describes the political situation that gave rise to the emergence of this peculiar dramatic form. "Tragedy represented, in effect, the beginning of a new spiritual unification of Attica."2 Theatre became a cohesive element in the creation of a national spirit for the ten hostile Attic tribes and, above all fulfilled an 1Francis Fergusson, The Idea of a Theater (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1949), p.’227. 2Gerald F. Else, The Origin and Early Form of Greek Tragedy (New York: Norton, 1965), p. 76. 44 45 educational purpose: [Pisistratus'] motive for supporting tragedy must have been at least to some extent pedagogical: he wanted to stand forth as the educator of his people, as Homer did in the Panathenaea. And perhaps we can conjecture that he had an even more specific idea in mind: tragedy, along with Homer, as an instrument for the rapprochement of the classes, an emotional unification30f all Athenians in a common synpathy for fallen greatness. During the Middle Ages and early Renaissance, theatre was utilized to spread the Christian faith by means of didactic representa- tions. Furthermore, theatre was used as a vehicle in the conquest of the "New World" with the aim of instilling patriotic as well as religious pride in the souls of both invaders and invaded.4 The Elizabethan theatre also maintained the cohesiveness of its community. Elizabethan theatre was itself a mirror which had been formed at the center of the culture of its time, and at the center of the life and awareness of the conmunity . . . the dramatic art of Shakespeare and the dramatic art of Sophocles, both of which were developed in theaters which focused, at the center of the life of the community, the complementary insights of the whole culture. A decade and a half after Francis Fergusson published his famous analysis, the United States gave signs of possibly recapturing the immediacy of theatre for its audience through the emergence of two powerful fronts: the anti-Vietnam War Movement and the Civil Rights Movement, which left indelible marks on the theatrical development of the country. 3Ibid., p. 77. 4Oscar G. Brockett, History of the Theatre, 2nd ed. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1974), p. 170. 5Fergusson, The Idea of a Theater, pp. 1-2. 46 The anti-war movement prompted bitter playlets of political struggles. Henry Lesnick, in his introduction to Guerrilla Street Theatre, states, The great majority of groups [political theatre groups] in this country [USA] have come into existence since 1967 or '68, under the impetus of the anti-war movement. A number of them meet regularly and become fairly well defined in terms of membership, political perspective and style, but most are more ephemeral, members get together to prepare a play which advances a specific struggle or helps build for a demonstration, they perform it for a while, and then disband to attend to other political tasks until the need fgr new material and performances brings them together aga1n. Nevertheless, some groups did attain a degree of permanency and made high quality contributions to the field. In his History of the Theatre, Oscar Brockett states their importance: Of these [radical theatre groups] the most sophisticated artistically has been the Bread and Puppet Theatre, founded in 1961 by Peter Shumman and based in New York. Using puppets of varying sizes, live actors, and stories based on myths and the Bible, and well-known tales, it seeks to promote love, charity and humility and to denounce the evils of materialism and deception.7 Among other important radical theatres, Brockett includes the San Francisco Mime Troupe which uses.broad caricature styles, and the Teatro Campesino, "(founded in 1965 by Luis Valdés to dramatize the plight of grape pickers in California and later used to encourage pride in Mexican-Americans.)"8 A As a political front, the Teatro Campesino's efforts earned the United Farm Workers Union higher wages. It also pursued a didactic 6Henry Lesnick, "Introduction" to Guerilla Street Theater (New York: Avon, 1973), p. 11. 7 Brockett, History of the Theatre, p. 633. 8Ibid. 47 aim. John Lahr describes their efforts as follows: "In showing an audience how it teaches the migrants the vocabulary of social protest, El Teatro also teaches its audience."9 The target audience of [eatrg_ Campesino is the Chicano population and its primary concern is ethno- centric. As Jorge Huerta states in his analysis of the Teatro_ Campesino and Chicano theatre, in general, "the experiences of the Chicano, as related through teatro, must address themselves to the needs of the Chicano.”10 This ethnocentricity has been questioned by theatre groups from Latin America and the United States such as the San Francisco Mime Troupe, with whom Luis Valdes got his early theatrical training and experience. The criticism states the need for broader social and political experiences in theatre that would make connections between all forms of social struggle. Professor Nicolas Kanellos defends the Chicano position in his "Notes on Chicano Theatrez" [These groups] continually criticized the Chicano theatres for taking refuge in cultural nationalism and for being philosophically retarded. The Chicano theatres answered, in part, that only by relating to their own people and culture and by developing these uniquely Chicano ideas and forms could they find their 11 relationship with all men and discover universal truths. Theatre serving an ethnic function also contributed to the Civil Rights Movement. A vibrant Black Theatre emerged from the racial 9John Lahr, Up Against the Fourth Wall (New York: Grove Press, 1970), p. 249. 10Jorge Huerta, "Concerning Teatro Chicano," Latin American Theatre Review (Spring 1973): 15. nNicolas Kanellos, "Notes on Chicano Theatre: The Present State of the Art" (Unpublished article, Indiana University, 1975), p. 5. 48 awareness of this period. "The 19605 reflected a heightened social and cultural consciousness . . . Culture offered an immediacy and richness in defining and articulating the Black ethos."12 Groups such as the Black Arts Repertory, the Negro Ensemble Company, the National Black Theatre and the New Lafayette Theatre were manifesta- tions of a decade that came to recognize the relevant function theatre can play in addressing the ethnic components of its society. Recognizing their immediate social and cultural values, art founda- tions--the National Endowment for the Arts, State Councils for the Arts, and other similar "Establishment" funding institutions--began to sponsor these theatrical manifestations of the movement.13 The awakening of an ethnic consciousness in U.S. society had its impact on more traditional theatres such as the New York Shakespeare Festival as well. By the mid-Sixties it was touring Spanish-language productions in order to reach the Lgtjn9_audiences of New York City, following a pattern previously established in the late thirties by the Federal Theatre Project's programs in black and Spanish-language 14 theatre. The New York Shakespeare Festival's 1964 production of Federico Garcia Lorca's La zapatera prodigiosa (The Shoemaker's Prodigious Wife) featured Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre director Miriam C016n in its leading role.15 12Joan Sadler, "The Black Presence: A Theatre of Creative Alternatives," Black Arts (Fall 1971): 40-41. '3Ibid. 14Jane De Hart Mathews, The Federal Theatre Project, 1935-1939 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1967), pp. 89-140. 15New York Shakespeare Festival, Program Notes for La zapatera prodigiosa, New York, Summer 1964. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling T eatre. 49 Ms. Colan, aware of the impact of such theatre as a tool for instilling pride in the Lating_community, found a fertile ground for the creation of a theatre group who would respond to the specific needs of the Puerto Rican community in the city. So, in 1967, with the aid of an advisory board Miriam Coldn founded the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, the first theatre group of its kind in the United States. For such an undertaking, Ms. Colén's credentials were superb. She studied drama for five years at the University of Puerto Rico, where she was awarded a scholarship to study at the Erwin Piscator Dramatic Workshop and Technical Institute in New York City. She then became the first Puerto Rican to be accepted at the Actor's Studio. Her Broadway credits include roles in In the Summer House, opposite Dame Judith Anderson, The Innkeepers, opposite Geraldine Page, and The Wrong Way Lightbulb, directed by Stephen Foster. Her off-Broadway credits include Matty and the Moron and Madonna, directed by José Quintero, Winterset, The Oxcart and The Passion of Antigona Pérez, among numerous others. She has also starred in numerous radio and television programs and films, co-starring with Marlon Brando in One-eyed Jacks and The Appaloosa. Her latest film credit was The Possession of Joel Delaney opposite Shirley MacLaine. Aside from being the founder and executive director of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Ms. Colén is also a member of the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Cultural Council and consultant to the National Endowment for the Arts. "Her latest commitment has been as one of the founders of the Association of Hispanic Arts (AHA), a group representing all the disciplines in the art world which has as its 50 main purpose the defense and recognition of the Hispanic Arts in New York."16 Special social and cultural circumstances guided the establish- ment of a theatre which would address the ethnic heritage and contem- porary concerns of the Puerto Rican community in New York. One crucial factor in understanding the unique character of the Puerto Rican community is the process of Puerto Rican emigration during the past several decades. According to Clarence Senior, a leading authority on Puerto Rican affairs, "emigration is persistently recommended as a solution to overpopulation problems."17 Overpopula- tion and the increased unemployment in Puerto Rico, 39 percent by 1941, caused by the drop in available shipping facilities during the second World War, allowed for the first airborne migration to the United States. Government agencies recruited Puerto Ricans and flew them to the mainland-~a practice that was followed by private companies specializing in agriculture and war materials. The Puerto Ricans worked in twenty of the forty eight states during the war, but 18 The end the largest concentration (50 percent) was in New York City. of the war did not reverse this trend and, according to the 1960 U.S. census, almost 900,000 Puerto Ricans, about a fourth of the island's total population was living on the mainland. (1976 estimates bring 16Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Program Notes for Eleuterio, E1 Cogui, New York, Summer 1976. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling eatre. 17Clarence W. Senior, Puerto Rican Emigration (Universidad de Puerto Rico: Social Science Research Center, 1946), p. 5. 18 Ibid., pp. 3-7. 51 the Puerto Ricans population in the U.S. close to two million and the island's total to over three million.) Between 1940 and 1950 an average of 18,700 Puerto Ricans migrated to the United States annually. In the decade of the 19505 the average rose to 41,200 per year, and in the 19605 it declined to an average of about 14,500 annually. In 1953 alone, when the migration reached its peak, about 69,000 Puerto Ricans left the island to settle on the United States mainland. In 1960 the number of Puerto Ricans living in the states was alnnst 900,000 and in 1970 the number had increased between 1.5 and 2 million, the figure varying with tbs inclusion or exclusion of third-generation Puerto Ricans. The great majority of the migrants had been born in Puerto Rico and seventy percent of the Puerto Rican population on the U.S. mainland had settled in New York. The growing population resulted in a new generation of Puerto Ricans from New York called "Neoricans," "Nuyoricans," or "Ricans." The lure of New York is well described in Maldonado Denis' assessment of the process of emigration: This mass emigration is a forced emigration in the greatest number of cases. Due to both the high degree of unemployment and to the colonial govern- ment's encouragement of emigration, the country's poorest inhabitants are forced by circumstance to submit to an Even worse ordeal in a society which scorns them.2 The entire literature on the problems of Puerto Rican migrants pro- vides exhaustive and depressing facts about the economic, social and cultural conditions of this migrant body, drawn to the United States 19Adalberto L6pez, "The Puerto Rican Diaspora," p. 319. 20Manuel Maldonado Denis, Puerto Rico: A Socio-Historic Interpretation, p. 161. 52 by the promise of work and prosperity.21 Since 1967, the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre has tried to reach this audience of Puerto Rican immigrants to help minimize the alienation resulting from the uprooting process of migration. This same audience has itself been responsible for a considerable cultural impact: "Probably no other immigration has hit New York with the impact of the Puerto Ricans, whose language difficulties have spurred Spanish language curricula in many public schools, Spanish signs on 22 This influence has also been the streets, and Spanish television." felt in the field of higher education. With the creation of the first Puerto Rican Studies department at Herbert H. Lehmann College--City University of New York--in 1969, many other New York universities and twoeyear colleges have fbllowed suit adding similar departments to their programs. Hostos College in the Bronx goes as far as offering Spanish courses in all its departments and its Puerto Rican Studies department, headed by PRTT artistic director Pablo Cabrera, offers courses in Puerto Rican theatre. In their studies of Puerto Rican assimilation in the United States, sociologists have been struck by a phenomenon different from the one experienced in the majority of migratory movements. Milton 21For additional analysis of the migration phenomenon, see C. Wright Mills, The Puerto Rican Journey (New York: Russell and Russell, 1967); Elena Padilla, U from Puerto Rico (New York: Columbia Univer- sity Press, 1958); Dan Wakeiield, Island in the City (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1959); Oscar Handlin, The Newcomers (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1959); and Stan Steiner, I51ands: The Worlds of the Puerto Ricans. 22Kal Waggenheim, Puerto Rico: A Profile (New York: Praeger, 1973), p. 193. 53 Gordon's study, Assimilation in American Life (1964), finds little or no asSimilation by Puerto Ricans on any level. He admits very little 23 This cultural assimilation and only partial civic assimilation. nfight be explained by the fact that the proximity of the island and the ability to return seem to prompt the Puerto Rican to find in the island the sense of strength, support and identity which former immigrants could not find in their homelands. According to British sociologist Gordon Lewis, For the first time in the long history of American nfigration there is a two-way movement: the working class nay decide to return home instead of remaining perman- ently . . . it is evident that this is a new phenomenon 24 in the historic migration movement to the promised land. Without further analysis of the social factors of migration, the pattern emerges of an urban population that continuously finds and transplants native cultural manifestations in its new environment in New York. The result is evident in the development of new artistic fbrms. One of these is music: There are the new popular musical fbrms that have grown out of the Puerto Rican experience in the Northern cities, notably the salsa phenomenon, the neo-Rican blend of Afro- Jibaro, and American rock styles, not unlike the Jamaican reggae that has become the rage of the black West Indian minorities in Britain. Thematically, the salsa songs celebrate, as do many of the reggaes, the desperate tri- bution of the exile experience. 23Milton M. Gordon, Assimilation in American Life (New York: Oxford University Press, 1964), p. 76. 24Gordon Lewis, Puerto Rico: Freedom and Power in the Caribbean (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1974), pp. 6-7. 25Gordon Lewis, Notes on the Puerto Rican Revolution (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1974), pp. 247-248. 54 Similarly, the work of "Nuyorican" poets such as Miguel Algarin, Piri Thomas, Jesds Papoleto Meléndez and Pedro Pietri, influenced by the new reality, synthesize both cultures into a strong and poignant bilingual literature. Pedro Pietri, for example, writes: Beware of signs that say "Aqui se habla Espanol" ["Spanish Spoken Here"] Do not go near those places of smiling faces that do not smile and bill collectors who are well train to forget how to habla espafiol when you fall back on those weekly payments Beware! Be wise! Do not patronize Garbage is all they are selling you Here today gone tomorrow merchandise You wonder where your bedroom set went after you make the third payment Those bastards should be sued fer false advertisements ~ What they talk no es espanol 26 What they talk is alotta BULLSHIT Pietri and others have created a new bilingual form of artistic commu- nication with meaning for the Puerto Rican experience in New York. The poetry of the "Nuyorican" poets was captured in Piri, Papoleto, and Pedro Directed by Pablo, a dramatized production of their works, pro- duced by the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre in 1975 and directed by Pablo Cabrera. Stan Steiner, in one of the latest books analyzing the problems of Puerto Ricans in New York, develops an explanation for the cultural experience on the mainland: 26Pedro Pietri, "Beware of Signs" in Puerto Rican Obituary (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1973), pp. 18-19. 55 The culture of the Borinquen [Indian name for Puerto Rico] was buried by the decay of the city. But it was not destroyed, nor was it assimilated or mercifully banished, but hidden beneath the debris, like seeds that could not yet be seen, the old "traditional peasant culture" of the jibaro [Puerto Rican peasant] flowered in new forms.27 Thus a community of almost one million Puerto Ricans was starting to enrich the cultural life of the city through artistic manifestations of their ethnic heritage. The “Nuyorican" artist has addressed issues arising from the Puerto Rican experience in New York, developing new fbrms and a new poetic language often referred to as "Spanglish." However other individuals and groups seek to reinforce the traditions of the island, fighting against the impact of New York, preserving the Spanish language in its purest fbrms and denouncing Puerto Rican assimilation and cultural adulteration. The Spanish Repertory Theatre is repre- sentative of group activity to preserve the traditional Hispanic culture, as is Miriam Colan, director of the PRTT. Although the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre has offered a few productions which demonstrate manifestations of cultural adulteration, its work is strongly reflec- tive of dramatic creation in Puerto Rico and Latin America. Thus, the most prominent Puerto Rican theatre on the U.S. mainland is also the one with the closest ties to the native culture of the island and most strongly reflective of the island's theatrical history, particularly that of the post-World War II era. Since 1967, Ms. Colén has been responsible for the most prominent and consistent Puerto Rican theatre group in the United 27Steiner, The Islands: The Worlds of the Puerto Ricans, p. 443. 56 States. She controls each aspect of the enterprise from the headquar- ters of the organization. In the files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre and through taped interviews with Ms. Colan the philosophy of the constantly growing theatre complex is revealed. The PRTT defines itself as a "nonprofit, professional bilingual 28 theatre organization“ with the dual purpose of producing works relevant to the Latin community in New York and at the same time serving as a source of cultural enrichment fbr the New York community, in general, placing emphasis on its deprived areas. In its first proposal to the City of New York in 1967, the PRTT stressed the need for a theatre that would strengthen the sense of community in the areas considered by the city as deprived, or in need of special attention. Its main objectives were to 1. promote identification and self esteem in alienated ethnic minorities 2. increase understanding and tolerance between the different national and ethnic groups 3. bring free high quality entertainment to neighbor- . hoods which cannot afford to pay Broadway or off- Broadway prices 4. provide a constructive outlet for boredom, restless; ness and frustration 5. be a source of wholesome entertainment and cultural enrichment for the community, in general, and its deprived areas Specifically. 6. offer community participation, vocational oggor- tunity and talent development to our youth. 28Derived from analysis of Program Notes for Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre productions, l967-1977. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 29Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, ''The Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre Company: A Proposal," New York, 1 May 1967, p. 1. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. Puerto 57 The language used in the original proposal does not mention Ricans specifically (aside from the name of the theatre group). It deals with minority groups and with audiences from economically deprived areas. It is important to know that although Puerto Ricans comprise the second largest ethnic minority in New York City (blacks are the first) they are the poorest segment of the total city population. Federal data collectors have fOund in a year-long study that more than half of the 85,700 New Yorkers of Puerto Rican birth or parentage who live in poverty areas make up the poorest block of people in the city . . . Of all New Yorkera, they are the least skilled and the least educated.3 The Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre understood that the physical poverty created by economic conditions went hand-in-hand with spiritual poverty: . a principal problem of the alienated member of a minority group comes, not only from dissatisfaction with his material means, but also from a debilitating feeling of aloneness, of separation and confusion as to his sense of self worth. We are able to confirm that projects in the arts play a key role in helping to establish bridges of communication with our undeveloped communities. We further learned that the possibilities of successfully capturing the attention of such commu- nities are greater when we take into consideration their ethnic background, their interests, the subjects that are relevant to their reality and to their taste.3 Ricans 30Will Lissner, "U.S. Study Finds City's Poorest are Puerto in the Slums," New York Times, 17 November 1969, p. 32. 31 Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, "Anatomy of a Summer Project," Presentation by Ms. Miriam Colon at Vice-President Hubert H. Humphrey's Conference, Mayors and City Coordinators: 1968 Summer Youth Opportunities Program, Washington, D.C., 29-31 January 1968, p. 4. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 58 The 1969 Master Proposal for the Funding of a Puerto Rican Theatre, narrowed the broad language of the 1967 document by dealing specifically with the need for a theatre that would address and benefit the Puerto Rican community of New York City. The proposal started with a quotation from a study made by the Agency AS3135, a federally funded agency in charge of the educational needs of the Puerto Ricans, in May 1968 which appeared in "The Special Educational Needs of Urban Puerto Rican Youthiz. In any other society a bilingual child is usually encouraged and admired. In New York City he is called "culturally deprived." Thousands of Puerto Rican children have been herded into classes for the mentally retarded and vocational schools by a system that equates a language difficulty with intelligence deficiency and which eyes with distrust anything suggesting a plurality of culture. The self-defeating cycle in which educational failure is locking Puerto Rican children is to a great degree responsible for the shocking number of Puerto Rican children dropping out of high schools and for the frustra- tion and lack of motivation prevalent today. Lack of self- esteem and a feeling of worthlessness are the accompanying side effects. The Puerto Rican community in New York does not have any meaningful outlets for expression and assertion of their artistic and cultural heritage which can help 32 to alleviate the sterility of present conditions . . . Recognizing the fact that a permanent Puerto Rican theatre would not solve the problems of the Puerto Rican community, the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre saw the communication achieved through theatre as a powerful and essential fbrce. The solution to the problems of the Puerto Ricans in New York is a complex one. A theatre will not be the answer, but a theatre can help, fbr it can dramatize 32ASPIRA, "The Special Educational Needs of the Urban Puerto Rican Youth,“ Conference held in New York, May 1968. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 59 the problems of a people, can instill in them pride in their rich cultural heritage, open new gerspectives, release aggressions and suggest solutions. 3 The training program instituted by the company in 1972 followed specific ethnic objectives: Promote ethnic identification and self-esteem in an otherwise alienated ethnic minority group. Increase understanding and mutual respect between Puerto Ricans and the rest of the community. Serve as an outlet of expression to Puerto Rican creative talents in acting, writing for the theatre, scenic design and execution, costume design and execution, props, etc. Widen the job margin for youngsters for careers in the theatre. Acquaint New York students and the community in general with the rich reservoir of Puerto Rican drama. Expand the activities of its present traveling theatre to reach more deprived areas, more schools. In the breakdown of the grants and contributions given to the company between 1967 and 1973, the theatre's function as a promoter of the Puerto Rican identity was further stressed: "The theatre aims to instill pride in its Puerto Rican audiences--especially the young-- who do not know their own culture and are still in conflict as to their heritage."35 33Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, "Proposal for the Funding of a Puerto Rican Theatre, Including the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre," Submitted to the City of New York, May 1969, p. 2. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 341bid., p. 3. 35The Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, "Background and Objec- tives," New York, 1973, p. 1. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 60 So far, the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre has produced nine Puerto Rican plays in their Spring-Summer touring seasons. Table 2. Puerto Rican Plays Produced by the Touring Unit The Oxcart 1967 La farsa del amor compradito-("The Farce of Purchased 1968 Ebvefll' Crossroads 1969 The Gfilden Streets 1970 A Dramatized Anthology of Puerto Rican Short Stories 1971 The Passion of Anti ona Perez 1972 Pipo Subway no sabe reir-("Pipo Subway Can't Laugh") 1972 N00 Yall 1973 Eleuterio, El Coqui 1976 Numerous Puerto Rican plays have also been staged by the experimental theatre during the regular yearly season. These include Pipo Subway no sabe reir ("Pipo Subway Can't Laugh," 1972), Flag Inside (1972), The Guest, Scribbles, and The Innocent (1974), A1 final de la calle ("At the End of the Street," 1974), Los angeles se han fatigado ("The Angels are Tired," 1974), Piri, Papaleto, and Pedro, Directed by Pablo (1975), and Las Ventanas ("The Windows," 1976). The experimental theatre has served as a home fer productions by other New York and Puerto Rican groups engaged in staging Puerto Rican plays: Los soles truncos ("The Fanlights," 1972), Aspazguanza (1972), Pipo Subway no sabe reir (1972). In this way, the theatre has tried to fulfill one of its main objectives: "to bring to the attention of U.S. audiences distinguished Puerto Rican and other Hispanic authors previously unknown in this country. By so doing, the theatre seeks to educate U.S. audiences, Hispanic and non-Hispanic alike, to the cultural achievements of Hi5panic authors and 61 artists."36 These two main objectives--the ethnic emphasis and the showcase aspect-~bring about the problem of language: the vernacular of the Puerto Ricans is Spanish, whereas the prevalent language of the city is English. How to reconcile these objectives became a major concern. After the 1967 touring production of the English version of The Oxcart and for the next three summers, the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre produced two different plays, one in English and one in Spanish: 1968: Winterset--English and La farsa del amor compradito ("The Farce of Purchased Love")--Spanish; 1969, Crossroads--English and Los tfteres de cachiporra ("Punching Puppets")--Spanish; and 1970, The Golden Streets--Eng1ish and El maleficio de la mariposa (The Butterfly's Evil Spell)--Spanish. By 1972, English-language produc- tions toured multi-ethnic areas, while Spanish-language productions were scheduled for primarily Spanish-speaking (Hispanic or Puerto Rican) neighborhoods. After the opening of the experimental theatre unit, the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre sought to stage each play with a bilingual cast which could switch from Spanish to English depending on the experimental theatre audience or, in the case of the touring productions, the language preference of the community sponsoring the street performances. The experimental theatre advertises bills such as the 1974 production of three adapted short stories. 36Ibid. 62 Table 3. Sample Dual-Language Schedule Scribbles The Inhbcents The Guest (GaraBatos) (Los inocentes) (E1 fiuésped) 8:00 p.m. Weekdays Matinee (Sunday Only) 3:00 p.m. Thursday, May 9 English Friday, May 10 English Saturday, May 11 Spanish Sunday, May 12 Spanish37 Whereas the Actos of the Chicano theatre utilize a combination of Spanish and English words creating a new form frequently called 38 the "Spanglish“ and requiring an understanding of both languages, plays staged by the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre seek, as much as possible, to keep the languages separate and in pure forms. In that sense, the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre is strongly influenced by the language necessities set by the Puerto Ricans from the island and does not have the policy of catering to the popular dialect created in the streets of New York ("Spanglish"). Although the mixture of both languages is very common in the everyday conversation of the Puerto Rican on the mainland, the maintenance of Spanish is a highly pursued goal for the community. In a study on bilingualism in the barrio, language researchers from Indiana University stated: All working class adults with whom they talked agreed that maintenance of Spanish was one important means of retaining contact with Ms [Puerto Rico's] 37Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Program Notes for The Guest, New York, May 1974. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 38Jorge Huerta, "Differences Between Teatro Chicano and Tradi- tional Theatre," Delivered at the Conference for the Sixth "Teatro" Festival, Los Angeles, 1976, p. 72. 63 people and with the emotions it evokes in those who are living there. Adult respondents decried the poor Spanish facility of their children as a barrier to interaction with the family and friends in Puerto Rico, for without Spanish how could contact with the island and its people be maintained? To desire language maintenance is not by itself sufficient to realize the goal. However, Spanish maintenance is a reality among adult New York Puerto Ricans because they do associate the language with this most important value cluster--family, kinship, and ethnic ties. Spanish is the language of the home, and is used almost exclusively with infants in the most Americanized homes. . . . For the youngsters, with whom the responsibility of language maintenance ultimately lies, Spanish is not only necessary for conversation with aged grandparents, but also with younger relatives in Puerto Rico who frequently visit and who are frequently visited.39 When asked about their peculiar approach to the production of plays in both original languages and translations, Ms. C016n answered: We have tried that formula and it's starting to show results. We are conditioning an audience that fbllows us . . . the audience in the laboratory and in the streets, we ask them: do you want it in English or in Spanish and they take their preference. Right now we had a situation where we had to perform in some activity in the Battery Park on the fourth of July and they said English . . . the same week at Lincoln Center . . . we asked what language and they said Spanish. . . . So it's achieving a flexibility now that I was hoping we could have . . . . Question: But you don't sponsor the possibility of a Spanglish Language? Miss Coldn: No, no, Spanglish only if it serves as a vehicle to dramatize the tragedy, like Pipo Subway.40 Although the experimental theatre and the training unit are integral parts of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, its essence is 39Joshua Fishman, Robert L. Cooper, and Roxana Ma,Biljn ualism in the Barrio, 2nd ed. (Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana Univer5ity ress, 19751, p. 23. 40Miriam Colan, private interview with the writer at the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre headquarters, 15 July 1976, New York. 64 the touring unit, bringing free professional theatre to economically deprived neighborhoods in the boroughs of New York City, Long Island, and New Jersey. Since 1967, its first season, when the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre performed The Oxcart in fourteen different locations, the traveling unit has remained the most active single component of the theatre. Furthermore, in 1970 the traveling unit became a year- long project and during the colder months it toured to indoor spaces: Plays relevant to the realities of their [people in New York's most deprived areas] lives will be brought during the winter months to schools, commu- nity centers, churches . . . During this period special emphasis will be given to plays which 4] should conceivably supplement school curricula. In the Winter, the number of trips is determined by the number of schools, community centers and other organizations requesting presentations, but a minimum of twenty-five is pursued by the company.42 In the presentation and defense of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre during Vice President Hubert Humphrey's Conference: Mayors and City Coordinators, 1968 Summer Youth Opportunities Program, Ms. Colon explained why the traveling format was essential to its target audience: Whenever federal and state funds go to the arts in this country, they invariably benefit the large white middle class. These government sponsored programs, funded with taxpayers money, charge in most cases, admission prices that are out of reach of the ghetto dweller. Secondly, having little or no knowledge about the cultural scene around town, the slum dweller seldom will go on a cultural expedition out of his own community. Therefore, conven- tional federal, state and privately sponsored cultural programs by-pass the hard core underprivileged. To 4]"Proposal for the Funding of a Puerto Rican Theatre." P- 8. 42Ibid., p. 10. 65 correct this inequity, several things can be done: First, new guidelines must be attached to government fundings for the arts. Specifically, there should be some provision for free admission on a regularly allotted basis for ghetto dwellers. In the case of philanthropic institutions, the clause demanding matching funds should be abolished in the case of organiza- tions legitimately engaged in the development of perform— ing arts programs in the ghettos. Whenever possible, cultural performances should be taken out of their marble mausoleums and brought to the ggetto's streets, assembly halls and community centers. When asked about the traveling unit during our interview, Ms. Coldn reiterated the position of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre as a vehicle of cultural movement: The group that goes to the street is important and it gives us our essence and I don't think it will ever be eliminated because it distinguishes us from the myriad of . . . other such groups that do the same-- [they] present theatre in little holes-in-the-walls in New York City. Bringing the theatre to the people, brings us in contact with an element of the community that ordinarily will not come in contact with it . So we feel that we are servicing youth and segments of the society that, if it were not for these opportunities, I don't think they would even be exposed to theatre. There are a lot of artistic endeavors going to the streets, which is a marvelous thing in New York City. But, we were kind of pioneers, we feel that we have an obligation to that seg- ment of the population--to the youth, to ordinary citizens-- and sharing with them in that experience is, I think, an important part of our being and distinguishes us from the subscription type theatre where the well-to-do and the al- ready sophisticated people will go. I ffigl they are being served by other very meritorious groups. The "free-of-charge" productions are performed by professionals The company works under Equity's League of Resident Theatres (LORT) 43 44 "Anatomy of a Summer Project," pp. 8-9. Miriam Colan, private interview. 66 45 "D" contract, a classification based upon potential weekly gross receipts below $8,000.00.46 47 The minimum salary for actors is $137.50 a week. The number of nonprofessional actors allowed by the union is determined by the number of standard contracts in the company at no less than the minimum salary: Standard "D" Category Contracts Nonprofessionals 7 1 9 2 ll 3 12 un1imited48 Due to the nature of the contract with Actor's Equity, the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre has helped to increase the number of professional Puerto Rican actors in the New York theatre community, exposing them to other media as well.49 As a tax-exempt, nonprofit organization whose purpose is largely educational, the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre must depend on grants from foundations, business firms, individuals, and government agencies. The enterprise which began in 1967 with a $23,000 grant from the New York City Parks Department developed by 45Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Application for funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, 1975-76, p. 6. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 46Actor's Equity Association, "Agreement and Rules Governing Employment in Resident Theatre," effective 2 July 1972, p. 9. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 47 48 49Examples include 1974 ABC-TV production of The Guest, 1976 NET production of "Puerto Rican Obituary," and the casting o? actors from Eleuterio, El Coqui for several 1976-1977 episodes of "Kojak." Ibid., p. 45. Ibid., p. 31. 67 50 Table 4 1977 into a year—round operation with a $163,000 budget. shows the breakdown of foundation contributions between 1967 and 1973.51 Since 1974, the theatre has been supported mainly by two government agencies: the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts. The amounts and significance of contributions from these and other funding sources can be seen in the 1974-1977 breakdown of grants received by the company (Table 5).52 The expenditures for the touring unit of the PRTT can be seen in the proposed breakdown for a 1974 production which toured indoors for nine weeks during the spring and for eight weeks, outdoors, during the summer (Table 6). The financial support given to the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre during its first ten years of existence has helped it to branch out and create its experimental theatre with an Equity Show- case contract and the training unit directed by paid professionals. These two additions to the original production format of the theatre help to strengthen the original philosophy that inspired the creation of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre: to reinfbrce the cultural traditions of the Puerto Ricans in New York, to serve as a showcase fer the work of Puerto Rican dramatists, directors, designers, actors, and technicians, and to strive to enrich the theatre 50PRTT, "Statement of Financial Condition for the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre for the Fiscal Year ended June 30, 1977,‘' by account- ant William Samovitz, Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 5“Background and Objectives," p. 12. 52PRTT, "Breakdown: Grants and Contributions, 1967-1977," New York, July 1977. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 68 .eeeedee to eeepepepweeeee\emeeee=e k. coo.mww mpm.¢¢w www.mvm omm.¢¢w mwm.mmpw wme.pppw mcp.mmpe _epoe meo., mmm.~ _e=ee>eeeH mseeee__eemez cop eee>eo pep cede .pm 48 Feeeeepeu ooo.mp coppee==Od eeepdeexeem com.“ eeepeeesed _deoz egos eeezem ooo.w ooo.o_ eeepeee30d xeo> zez ooo.m~ coo.m_ eeepeeeeed Loewe peeeee> com com meeepe_ee mUwLEILwH—hm LP... Lmucmu oom.~ .<.z .xeem eeppeeeez-emeeu OOOJ. :owHMficaom ULMEZOM OOO.N cowHMUr—som co>< ooo.o— ooo.m «ooo.om omm.mm moo.mm ooo.op coo.mmw com ¢m¢.¢ ooo.om wpm.m_ mmm.m omm.m opm.mp cmw.m ooo.op ooo.o~ ooo.m~ mom.¢ m oom.m m omm.¢_ m ooo.om a ooo.om m ooo.om m was; mgmcpocm LmFFmemxuom mocom xmmp cowpo< swag: m.>mmvcm4 come: cowpmuzum mo venom zuwo xgo> 3mz pewsugmamo mxcma ammo xeo> zmz mmwppu Pmuoz mpe< ecu Low “amazoucm _mcowuez mpc< we» :0 quczou mumum xeo> 3oz Romp wmmp mmmp onmp Pump Nnmp mum— mumFinomp .mcowpanwcucoo a mpceeo .czonxmmemii.o:H ..oo meammze mcwpm>ecp :Mme opemze .e mpnmp 69 Table 5. Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre Co., Inc.--Breakdown, Grants & Contributions, 1974-1977 1977 1976 1975 1974* Governmental New York State Council on the Arts $ 76,825 $ 94,000 $ 72,160 $50,000 National Endowment for the Arts 60,000 32,500 45,000 25,000 New York City Parks Department 3,610 Foundations Avon Foundation 2,000 Shubert Foundation 2,500 1,000 T. Malcolm Mossman 2,000 Charitable Fund Corporate Chase-Manhattan Bank, N.A. 1,000 2,000 2,000 Con Edison 1,000 Chenfical Bank 1,000 Exxon Corporation 1,500 HRH Construction Corporation 100 Miscellaneous-Individual 1,078 Total $143,003 $130,500 $123,770 $79,000 *6 month period-~January l, 1974 to June 30, 1974 experience of the audience of the entire New York community. The work of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre in fulfilling this philoso- phy is the subject of the fbllowing chapters. 70 Table 6. Proposed Breakdown for the 1974 Production of N00 Yall Salaries and Fees $ 99,100 Artistic personnel as well as technical and administrative staff. (Noo Yall by Jaime Carrero had fifteen people on the technical staff, ten on the administrative staff and sixteen actors). Royalties Author and Composer 4,000 Payroll Taxes 9,800 Pension and Welfare Benefits 3,200 (LORT "D" contract requirement) Set Construction Design, Construction, Painting 3,000 Outdoor Stage Maintenance and Painting 1,000 Sound and Lighting Rental equipment including microphones, mixers, amplifiers, and entire lighting set-up including towers, cables, and generator 7,000 Costume Construction 1,500 Wardrobe Maintenance 600 Prop Construction and Purchasing 500 Vehicle Expense Auto Rental (coordinator), Bus Rental (actors), Truck Rental (platfbrm stage), Van Rental (lighting and sound), Garage and Maintenance 10,000 Local and Long Distance Travel 1,100 Promotional Expense Printing, Photographs, Community Relations, Radio, and Television 6,000 Rental Expenses Rent, Utilities, Maintenance, Storage, Insurance, Machinery, Office Supplies, etc. 9,400 Total Operating Expenses in 1974 for Professional 53 Touring Unit $156,000 53 Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, "Financial Projection--1974," annual budget projection. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. CHAPTER THREE THE FIRST FIVE YEARS (1967-1971) On August 7, 1967, under the auspices of Mayor John V. Lindsay's Summer Task Force, the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre performed La carreta (The Oxcart), its first production. At the press opening on August 8th, Mayor Lindsay joined an audience of 1,200 at the Carver Amphitheatre on 102nd Street, between Park and Madison Avenues in New York City. The production then toured fourteen locations in Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens in a self-contained bus and a flat-bed truck with drop-down side wings that extended into a stage.1 The Oxcart had been produced in both Puerto Rico and New York in Spanish in 1953, two years after it had been written by René Marqués. On December 19, 1966, it re-opened in English (translated by Charles Pilditch) at New York's Greenwich Mews Theatre. The success of this production, directed by Lloyd Richards and with Miriam Coldn playing the young lead, paved the way for the creation of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre.2 The cast, set, and technicians of the 1967 traveling enterprise remained the same as those of the off-Broadway 1Louis Calta, "The Oxcart Begins Summer Travels," New York Times, 9 August 1967, p. 44. 2"The Cultural Expression of Puerto Ricans in New York" in Culture and the Puerto Ricans: Critiqge and Debate (New York: Research Foundatifin of the City UniVersity of New York, 1976), p. 128. 71 72 show except for the role of Luis, the older son, which had been played by Rafi] Julia during the 1966 run but in 1967, was interpreted by Jaime Sanchez.3 The production combined Puerto Rican and U.S. talent. Lloyd Richards, who had previously directed the New York production of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, was responsible for the artistic direction of The Oxcart, while Lucy Boscana, one of the most prominent actresses from Puerto Rico, "made a special trip to New York City far these performances"4 to play dofia Gabriela, the elderly lead of the play. The City of New York provided the funding: Mayor Lindsay's 1967 Summer Task Force, in cooperation with New York City's Parks Department, sponsored the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre's fourteen location tour of the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens. . 5 Financial support from the Task Force amounted to 0$23, 000. The production's success allowed for the establishment of the group as a nonprofit professional organization. During the next five years, 1967-1971, the PRTT followed a traveling format and during the summers, produced eight plays, totaling 190 performances. All plays produced during this period are listed below in Table 7. The original organization included Miriam Colon, president, and José Ocasio, secretary. At the time, Ocasio was an executive of the Puerto Rican Community Development Project. With Ms. Coldn, Ocasio had helped to establish the First Spanish Arena Theatre of New York 3Charles Pilditch, "Introduction" to The Oxcart, pp. vi-vii. 4Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Program Notes for The Oxcart, New York, Summer 1967. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 5"Proposal fbr the Funding of a Puerto Rican Theatre," p. 5. 73 Table 7. Plays Produced by the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre (1967-1971) 1967 The Oxcart by Rena Marquas 1968 1969 1970 1971 directed by Lloyd Richards August 7 - August 26 Winterset by Maxwell Anderson directed by Ramon Gordon July 22 - August 23 La farsa del amor compradito ("The Farce of PurdhasediLove") by Luis Rafael Sanchez directed by Pedro Santaliz July 28 - August 25 Crossroads by Manuel Méndez Ballester directediby Roberto Rodriguez Suarez August 3 - August 31 Los titeres de cachiporra ("Punching Puppets") by Federico Garcia [firca directed by Jorge Gonzalez August 9 - August 31 The Golden Streets by Piri Thomas directedTby Miriam C016n August 10 - August 30 El maleficio de la mariposa (The Butterfly's EVil Spéll) by"Federico Garcia Lorca directed by Norberto Kerner August 14 - August 30 The Golden Streets Apri176 - May 29 (indoor locations) A Dramatized Anthology of Puerto Rican Short Stories directediby Pablo Cabrera August 7 - September 12 15 performances 25 performances 7 performances 25 performances 8 performances 17 performances 9 performances 45 performances 35 performances (Five Puerto Rican plays, two Spanish farces by Garcia Lorca and one social play by U.S. playwright Maxwell Anderson.)6 ing Theatre productions, 1967-1971. 6 ing Theatre. Derived from analysis of Program Notes for Puerto Rican Travel- Files of the Puerto Rican Travel- 74 City in 1954. The theatre's business advisor, George Edgar, had been responsible for producing several off-Broadway shows including Jean Genet's The Blacks. The treasurer, Francis Druckner, was a New York City public school teacher and was associated with producer Stella Holt and the Greenwich Mews Theatre in the Village. Anibal Otero, a prominent scene designer from Puerto Rico and the director of the Puerto Rican Cultural Programs in the Bronx, was the technical director.7 The company's production director during the early seasons was Robert Buzell. In 1970 Allen Davis III succeeded Buzell and has served to the present. Davis had previously been the general manager of the Santa Fe Theatre Company in New Mexico and of Playhouse-in-the- Park in Cincinatti. His other credits include playwriting, lighting design and off-Broadway directing.8 Many of the original actors and technicians continue working with the company today. Among the actors from 1967-71 were Miriam Colén; Iraida Polanco; Pedro Santaliz, who now directs his own theatre group based on the goals and principles of the PRTT; Jaime sanchez; 9 winner of the Clarence Derwent Award and the 1965 Theatre World Award and whose film credits include David and Lisa and The Pawnbroker; Maria Soledad Romero; Norberto Kerner; Walter Rodriguez; Fiji Islander actor Manu Topou; and United States acress Betty Miller. Designers included Anibal Otero, Julio Biaggi, Douglas Schmidt, and Peter 7"Proposal for the Funding of a Puerto Rican Theatre," pp. 20-21. 8Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Program Notes for The Golden Streets, New York, Summer 1970. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling lfieatre. 9Program Notes for The Oxcart. 75 Harvey. Directors such as Norberto Kerner, Ms. Colan and Pablo Cabrera, who, since 1971, has directed most of the summer productions, have contributed to the creation of the particular stylistic unity of the PRTT.]0 During its first five years, the enterprise retained a "nomadic" character, playing different locations in New York. Some locations became standard performance "homes" for the annual summer venture. These are listed below in Table 8}] Most locations are in poverty areas of the city where most blacks and Puerto Ricans reside. Members of these communities often request the services of the PRTT. According to Ms. Colon, Our audiences are very mixed because we choose ninety percent of the locations to be in areas where there is more unemployment, more poverty, more deteriora- tion of the neighborhood. In these communities we aggriomRi::::.?; proportions of three to one, blacks to Miriam Colén also states that the remaining ten percent of the performances are scheduled in order to expose middle-class audiences to this theatre experience: l'We'll also perfbrm in a museum like the Metropolitan Museum . . . because there is another segment of the community that does not need to see theatre fOr free, but that we want to acquaint with [our work]."13 According to Ms. Colan, who 10Derived from analysis of Program Notes for Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre productions, l967-1971 HIbid. 12Miriam Colén, private interview. 13Ibid. 76 «.mommeeeee_e e Homezov x x x x xcoa goo: com A.mum Loewsoo w omogpoozv x x x x xemo sooner c Pxoosm A.d>< page a .om epeop - eeezoov x x x xeoo go :94 memo: Ampm eppepeeeo 8 .MV x x x x x xsoa ocouoso A.mom comxooo e epme_ .mV x x x x x x x xgoo m.»goz .pm xcosm A.mom eon a eommv x x x xsoo compose A.mpm oped w :opmzozv xsmav x x x cowl coppwao: A.pm o_ .m .< .o>wni coauogcoz Nmopogpc< .mpm coopou owoweopoz moooemmoeu mosouw» emcee pomcopcmz useoxo pump omm— mmmp womp Romp Pumpinomp .mcowpoooo oocoEsomsoa pcooooeo pmoz .m opooh 77 selects the plays, street audiences influence play selection as well as production styles. When asked what she looks for when choosing a play, she answered: I think a lot about content and possible impact . . . thinking that it is a type of audience that has to be arrested. Therefbre, the vehicles necessarily have to have something that sometimes has to sacrifice in certain subtleties, in the delivery, in the timing we can afford under laboratory [indoor] conditions; they have to be done away with for a larger stroke, for a more robust kind of delivery. The selection of plays with a social message that is relevant to the street audience, reflective of the Spanish-speaking experience, and furthermore encompassing high artistic values, is an arduous task. . unfbrtunately part of our bigger problem is that we cannot find properties that . . . besides [being] good pieces of theatre, have these qualities . . . serving as a mirror, to have them [the audience] see the conditions, exposing them to situations . . . in the hope that by being confrontgd they may be persuaded to think, to compare, to react. Through an examination of the eight plays performed during 1967-1971 a history of this first period of the PRTT can be reconstruc- ted. Furthermore, an in-depth study of three representative productions --The Oxcart, 1967, Crossroads, 1969, and A Dramatized Anthology of Puerto Rican Short Stories, l97l--should reveal more exacting informa- tion about the artistic purpose and process of the PRTT during this early stage of development. The selection has been based on availabil- ity of supporting materials on the texts and performances, their success in meeting the philosophy of the PRTT, and the recommendations 14Ibid. 15Ibid. 78 of Ms. Coldn in terms of the plays' impact on the group itself. Related events and activities undertaken by the company during 1967-1971 will also be discussed in order to better understand this five year period in the history of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. The 1967 Season and The Oxcart16 The Oxcart traces the migration of a Puerto Rican family from the country to a San Juan slum and to a New York ghetto. Each act represents one stop on the journey: Act I, e1 campo (the country); Act II, e1 arrabal (the slum); and Act 111, la metrdpoli (the metropolis). Luis, the adopted son of dofia Gariela, has not been able to maintain the family farm in Puerto Rico. He is convinced that technology is the only solution to poverty and makes the family move to a San Juan slum so he can get a factory job. His grandfather, Don Chago, is left behind because he would rather die in the country than in the city. In the slum, the youngest son, Chaguito, is sent to prison for petty theft and Juanita, the daughter, is raped and has an abortion. Economic and moral ruin fbrces them to move to New York where they believe workers can earn higher wages. In New York, Luis is able to make a "decent" living and provide his family with some comforts. Juanita has moved out and doha Gabriela lives with constant cultural shock. Luis is killed by the same machines he wanted to understand, and dofia Gabriela and Juanita vow to return to Puerto Rico to bury Luis and to establish themselves in the pure environment of the countryside. 16René Marques, The Oxcart; and Marqués,La Carreta in Cuarto Festival de Teatro, Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquefia,iVol. 4 (Barcelona: EdiCibnes Rumbas, 1962), pp. 320-563. 79 The play is written in a dialect which emphasizes the strict phonetic pronunciation of the peasant, an element lost in the transla- tion. But the poetic images and symbols remain. There is no lack of well-planned images in the play, a characteristic of Marqués' style, as indicated in a long list provided by Maria Teresa Babin in "Apuntes sobre La carreta." Los elementos musicales y plasticos de La carreta tienen variedad y riqueza . . . El gallo, e1 trompo de“Eito, e1 si116n de dona Gabriela, e1 San Antonio de palo, 1a carreta, e1 canto del boyero, la musica de la vellonera y de la radio, 1a Cueva del Indio, e1 batir de las olas del mar, la imagenes de la Virgen del Carmen y del Corazén de Jesfis, las estampas religiosas que adornan la desnudez de la casita jibara, e1 rosario y hasta la botella de alcoholado, serenata de viandas y bacalao, e1 pano ensangrentado y las latas de cerveza, transmiten en los instantes precisos en que se nombran 0 se hacen visibles y palpables, un poder de sugerencia muy sutil y ayudan a crear la dimensidn de realidad transida de emociones poéticas o tragicas, de acuerdo con el estado de los personajes.1 (The lyrical, musical and plastic elements of The Oxcart are varied and rich. The rooster, Lito's top, dofia Gabriela's rocking chair, the statue of San Antonio, the oxcart, the voice of the cart's driver, the juke-box and radio music, the Cave of the Indian, the sound of the waves, the religious images that decorate the country house, the rosary and even the bottle of rubbing alcohol, the typical meal of salted cod-fish and tubers, the bloodied cloth, and the cans of. beer, transmit at the precise instances in which they are mentioned or made visible, a very subtle power of suggestion which help to create the dimension of truth filled with poetic and tragic feeling that reflects the mood of the characters.) The strongest image is that of the oxcart itself. In his analysis of the play, Jordan Phillips states: 17Maria Teresa Babin, "Apuntes sobre La carreta," Asomante l9 (October-December 1953): 69. 80 The most important symbol is that of the carreta, whose off stage rumbling leads the characters to a point of severe anguish and brings on-stage action to a stand still. The lowly mode of travel points up the level to which their unsuccessful efforts to live on the land have reduced them. The groaning sounds of the carreta are magni- fied in the heartaches caused by leaving the iamily home. The good things of that home are perpetuated in the minia- ture cart which Juanita's friend, Miguel, makes and presents to her in San Juan. And as the original carreta had brought the family from the village to the city, Juanita's decision to accompany her motheg back to Puerto Rico is set in the image of the carreta. At the closing of the play, dofia Gabriela asks her daughter Juanita: " You" You too? But you always said that from now on you were gonna drive the oxcart of your life wherever you wanted?" Juanita replies, I'For that very reason, Mama, fbr that very reason! 'Cause I do drive it wherever I want."19 Juanita then decides to return to Puerto Rico with her mother to start life over again. The oxcart becomes life itself: the life that transported a poor peasant family away from the country, because the mountains were too stifling, into the slum where the sea also became a stifling force and further into New York where buildings that resemble oceans and mountains kept them isolated-- the isolation of the migrant in a fbreign land.20 The most notable themes of the play are the salvation of the national soul by adherence to the land, pleading for a return to the "21 "land which gives life as opposed to the false values of a mechanized 18Jordan Phillips, Contemporary Puerto Rican Drama, p. 95. 19Marqués, The Oxcart, p. 154. 20Agustin del Saz, Teatro social hispanoamericano (Barcelona: Editorial Labor, 1967), p. 111. 21 The Oxcart, p. 154. 81 society, the difficulty of forsaking traditional values, and the condemnation of Puerto Ricans to suffering.22 This latter theme has be- come the main target of attack against Marquas' philosophy. His con- tention of the docility of the Puerto Rican and the simplicity of returning to the land as the solution to all problems has been questioned by Puerto Rican and mainland critics. John Lahr calls Ihg_ Oxcart "a play which argued astoundingly fbr submission, rather than 23 resilience and dignity." An analysis of the play by the Center of Puerto Rican Studies, a research branch of the City University of New York, summarizes this critical position: La carreta is one of the best and most realistic plays of conventional Puerto Rican theatre. It is indis- putably the most significant dramatic statement thus far on the experience and impact of the post-war migration. Marqués portrays the voyage "from the Island country- side through the urban slum to the New York ghetto" primarily as the historical reason for the disintegration of the Puerto Rican family and the lamentable cultural disorder and degeneration that accompanies the breakdown of the national ideal. Its denouement, however, a nostalgic return to the farm, is symbolic of its backward perception. The realism of the play is in fact deceptive, since it lacks all histor- ical dimension and offers no real indication of the under- lying forces which engendered the massive dislocation and cultural trauma. Ultimately it reflects and accepts the submission of the Puerto Rican nation. The suffering and loss sustained by the Puerto Rican people lacks, in this dramatic portrait, all sense of popular resistance.2 22 23John-Luhr, Up Against the Fourth Wall, p. 41; also, see Juan Angel Silén, Hacia una vision positiva dél puertorriqueno (Rio Piedras, P.R.: Edil, 1970). Phillips, Contemporarnguerto Rican Drama, p. 95. 24"The Cultural Expression of Puerto Ricans in New York." p. 128. 82 Nevertheless, the play continues to attract large audiences who enjoy its melodramatic style. Desde su estreno y luego en sus reiterativas repre- sentaciones hasta el presente, no ha dejado de atraer a un gran numero de piiblico.25 (Since its opening, and later through its repeated productions up to now, it has always attracted large crowds.) The play was translated into Czechoslovakian as "Kara" in 1966 and was produced on the same year in the Most Theatre in Prague. A swedish translation was approved for a future performance by the 26 Arlecchino Teateforlag in Stockholm. The translation used by the PRTT was made in 1964 by Charles Pilditch at the author's request and was published by Scribners in 1969.27 In 1958, La carreta became the first work by a Latin American dramatist to be staged at the Teatro Nacional Maria Guerrero in Madrid,28 but it was mutilated by censors. René Marqués' reaction to the production was less than enthusiastic: El teatro Nacional Maria Guerrero de Madrid estren6 en 1958 mi obra La carreta . . . Asisti a1 estreno en Madrid y 5610 entonces comprendi que la "aprobacian" de La carreta por la censura oficial significaba la mutilacién despiadada del drama (algo que, de saberlo e1 autor por anticipado, habria resultado en su rotunda negativa a que se estrenase la obra en Espafia). No 5610 , 25Victoria Espinosa, "El teatro de René Marqués y la escenifi- cacion su obra Los soles truncos," p. 210. 26 27 Ibid., p. 208. Pilditch, "Introduction" to The Oxcart, p. v. 28Espinosa, "E1 teatro de René Marqués," p. 210. 83 se mutild e1 texto por motivos morales y politicos, sino por otros extra-teatrales . . .29 (The National Theatre Maria Guerrero in Madrid opened my play The Oxcart in 1958 . . . I was present at the opening in Madrid and only then did I understand that the "approval" of The Oxcart by official censorship meant the merciless slaughter oi the drama (a fact that, if the author had been aware, would have resulted in the cancella- tion of the perfbrmance rights). Not only was the text mutilated for moral and political reasons, but for other reasons that had nothing to do with theatre. . . .) The cuts included two characters from the second and third acts and an overall shortening of the play to meet Madrid's normal mass trans- portation schedule.30 In 1966, the play was performed in Spanish at Buffalo University in New York. The same year, its English version was produced at the Greenwich Mews Theatre and was well received by U.S. critics: A Puerto Rican classic. One can see the reasons so many Latin American and North American critics have praised it. The Oxcart has truth behind it . . . with a cast worth watEhing.31 Norman Nadel of the World Journal Tribune praised the narrative quality of the drama: If René Marqués had been alive in Old Testament times, he would have written Exodus. There is that feeling for the massive, epochal narrative in his drama, The Oxcart (La carreta) which was completed thirteen years ago, and has since been produced widely not only in his native Puerto Rico but also through Central and South America and Spain. . . . Beyond its strength of narration, Marqués' drama is well fortified with psycholo- gical insights. We come to understand why the members 29René Marqués, "Nacionalismo vs. Universalismo," Cuadernos Americanos 25 (January-June 1966): 222-223. 30 31Walter Sullivan, "The Oxcart," New York Times, 20 December 1966, p. 58. Ibid. 84 of this family behave as they do, ang to accept the inevitability of their tragedy.3 As for the merits of the New York production, critic Emory Lewis of ggg_magazine stated: The drama is immensely helped by the sensitive, subtle direction of Lloyd Richards, and by the sturdy performances of RaGl Julia, Lucy Boscana, José Peréz, Carla Pinza, and, most notably, Miriam Colon. The drama says more about the Puerto Ricans in New York than reams of editorials.33 The same cast and crew toured the City of New York under the newly established Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre during the summer of 1967. The schedule of the group's first production follows in Table 9. Table 9. Schedule for The Oxcart, l967 Manhattan August 7 East Harlem August 8 East Harlem August 9 Central Harlem August 10 West Side August 11 Chelsea 32 Location Amphitheatre in Casita Maria Carver Houses, 102nd Street between Madison & Park Avenues (Press Opening) Maria Carver Houses P.S. 136 Playground St. Nicholas Avenue & West 135th Street lO3rd Street and Riverside Drive Riverside Park Chelsea Park, Playground 28th Street & 9th Avenue Norman Nadel, "Marques' The Oxcart, Poignant Drama Premieres Off-Broadway," World Journal Tribune, 20 December 1966, p. 18. 33 Emory Lewis, "The Oxcart," Cue, 31 December 1966, p. 16. 85 Table 9. Continued Location August 14 Washington Square Washington Square 5th Ave. & 7th Street August 15 Tompkins Square Park Lower East Side Avenue A and E. 10th Street August 16 Hamilton Fish Park Lower East Side Houston and Pitt Streets Bronx August 17 St. Mary's Park Playground Mott Haven East 145th Street and Jackson Avenue August 18 P.S. 149 Playground South Bronx Third Avenue and East 144th Street Brooklyn August 22 Red Hook Park Stadium, Swight & Richards South Brooklyn between Wolcott & Verona Streets August 23 Tompkins Park, Brooklyn, behind Library N. Bedford- Tompkins and Marcy between Lafayette & Stuyvesant Green Streets August 24 McCarren Park Williamsburg Across Pool on Lorimer and Driggs Streets August 25 Betsy Head Park Ballfield Brownsville Dumont & Livonia between Hopkinsons & Strauss Streets Queens August 26 Linden Park 34 Corona Corona--104th Street and 4lst Avenue 34 Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Program Notes fbr The Oxcart, New York, Summer 1967. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 86 The success of the production and the entire project convinced 35 the task fbrce to double their subsidy the fbllowing summer. Another result was the response from an impressive number of individuals and institutions who approached the PRTT for translations and more informa- 36 tion about Puerto Rican dramatic literature. Numerous letters such as the fbllowing can be fbund in the PRTT's files: . Youth-In-Action is the major Anti-Poverty Program serving the Bedford-Stuyvesant community in Brooklyn. The target population is estimated at approximately 300,000 people, most of whom are American Negro and Puerto Rican. I am the Coordinator of the Community Action and Development Program whose major long-term goal is effective organization and mobilization of heretofore un- affiliated and unorganized people. Our goal is to reach the point where the poor of this community as in any other community are functioning effectively in analyzing their situation, setting priorities as to what they perceive as their major problems, and then taking the necessary steps to resolve those problems. However, the organiza- tion and orientation of a community is a long, time consuming and complex process made up of many factors. It is our contention that one of these factors is the expo- sure of a community to the fine arts especially work such as "The Oxcart" which, aside from being good theatre, is also meaningful in terms of story line and the situation being dramatized. . .37 ‘ While The Oxcart was touring New York City, dramatic readings of the play were staged on the West Coast. "En junio de 1967 se produce en lecturas dramatizadas en el Migrant Theatre de Berkeley, 35Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, "Background and Objectives," Breakdown of grants and contributions, 1967-68. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 36"Proposal fbr the Funding of a Puerto Rican Theatre," p. 4. 37Yolanda Sanchez, Coordinator of Community Action and Develop-. ment Program for Bedford Stuyvesant Youth-in-Action, Inc., letter to Miriam Coldn, New York, 27 March 1967. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 87 38 Califbrnia, bajo la direccién de Joanne Syrek, en inglés." (In June 1967, it was produced in dramatic readings at the Migrant Theatre of Berkeley, California, under the direction of Joanne Syrek, in English.) Numerous productions have been staged and have toured in Puerto Rico since 1967, and two United States film producers were interested in turning it into a feature-length English-language film.39 Exces- sive demands from Marqués have, until now, prevented an agreement for the filming of the play. An excerpt from a letter written by Marqués to producer Jules Schwering on August 7, 1967 explains why: Your concern about Miriam's [Colén] age regarding her role as Juanita in a movie is a little confusing to me . . . Your suggestion of Rita Moreno as the leading role of The Oxcart is still more confusing. Actually the leading role goes to the acress who interpreted dona Gabriela because that is the leading role in my play.~ Are you suggesting Rita Moreno to play Juanita or dona Gabriela? . . . Originally you suggested Baldwin as a possibility for the screenwriter. I agreed . . . I still insist on holding my right to approve the movie script as the author of the 40 original work, no matter who the scriptwriter might be . . . In the Spring of 1977 and in order to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the PRTT, La carreta was revived, this time in Spanish and under the direction of Miriam Colén, at the Manhattan Center in New York. 38 39 Expinosa, "El teatro de Rene Marques," p. 209. Ibid. 40René Marques to Jules Schwerin, 4 August 1967. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 88 The 1968 Season In an article published on July 13, 1968, Show Business praised the contribution of "street theatre" programs which "perhaps more than any single influence," were revitalizing theatre in New York. These programs “(many sponsored by city agencies) are not only providing satisfaction to people in depressed areas but are illustrating the value of theatre to new audiences."41 The Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre offered two productions during the 1968 summer season: Winterset42 by Maxwell Anderson and 43 ( La farsa del amor compradito "The Farce of Purchased Love") by Luis Rafael Sanchez. The sum of $40,000 was awarded by Mayor Lindsay's Urban Action Task Force through New York City's Parks Department, Cultural Affairs Division for the production of Winterset.44 The social content of the play and its location in a dilapidated tenement in New York was easily adaptable to the Puerto Rican experi- ence. Following the theories of Brazilian playwright and theorist AUQUSPO 3031, the PRTT proceeded to "nationalize the classics."45 41"Theatre Units Playing Streets Creating New Audiences Here," Show Business, 13 July 1968, p. 8. 42 1946). 43Luis Rafael Sanchez, La farsa del amor compradito (Rio Piedras, P.R.: Cultural, 1976). 44 45Augusto Boal, Teatro del Oprimido (Buenos Aires: La Flor, 1974), p. 200, defines their tactics in "nationalizing the classics": "Un clasico es universal en la medida que sea brasilefio. E1 clasico univer- sal que 5010 el Old Vic o la Comedie pueden hacer,no existe. Nosotros también somos e1 universo." ("Classics are universal as they become Brazilian. A universal classic that can only be staged by the Old Vic or the Comedie does not exist. We are also the universe.") Maxwell Anderson, Winterset (New York: Dramatists Play Service, "Proposal fer the Funding of a Puerto Rican Theatre," p. 5. 89 The review of El Diario-La Prensa, the largest-circulation Spanish- language newspaper in the New York Hispanic community reported: Mas de 500 personas presenciaron e1 desarrollo de la situacion que plantea e1 autor, la cual ha sido adaptada con hechos de vigencia-—a la época actual en cuanto a las caracteristicas de diversos personajes, como en el caso del radical de aquella etapa, que en la era de las melenas abrazadas a gas barbas se transforma en un nacionalista de voz y voto.4 (Over 500 people watched the development of the events exposed by the dramatist, events that were adapted-- with relevant facts--in order to update the traits of the characters, as in the case of the radical of that era, who in this age of long hair and beards, becomes a member of the Nationalist Party.) In an interview fbr the New York Times, Miriam Colan justified the selection of the piece on the basis of its theme, saying she had selected Winterset fbr presentation because of its stand for justice and integrity: Its situations are pertinent today. He was a boy whose father was unjustly accused; it has organized crime and it's about people whose values are distorted7 The poeple in it are looking for truth and an answer. However, the play's ending has the same romantic failings as the ending of The Oxcart. Man is destroyed by reality and that makes his tragedy noble. John Gassner questioned the validity of the play's conclusion: As a discharge fbr the problems of social justice raised by Judge Gaunt's own words, the third-act conclusion of Winterset is patently inadequate; in fact, it is no discharge at all. Nor does the 46 Alberto Alonso, "Teatro Rodante Puertorriquefio Actualiza la Obra Winterset" (New York) E1 Diario-La Prensa, 24 July 1968, p. 14. 47Luis Calta, "Puerto Rican Group Gives Winterset," New York Times, 23 July 1968, p. 28. 9O pseudo-rabbinical peroration make any sense as a commentary on that problem since it is pure rubbish for Esdras to say that Mio and Miriamne died un- submitting when they actually went to their slaughter like lambs.48 The English-speaking tour of Winterset included twenty-five locations. A less ambitious tour of the Puerto Rican play La farsa del amor compradito, ("The Farce of Purchased Love") performed in Spanish, covered seven locations. Five thousand dollars for La farsa were provided by the New York State Council on the Arts.49 The produc- tion was geared towards children, as part of the first of the Children's Theatre Projects of the PRTT. Matinee performances were scheduled to make use of the facilities and talent pool from Winterset: . . the nain physical and artistic facilities (cast bilingual) of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre will be used fbr this purpose, thus making 58nnecessary the rental of additional equipment. This pattern of fewer performances in Spanish, which was followed through three summer seasons, and the use of the same talent involved in the longer-running show indicate that funding may have been more readily available for plays that would appeal to the larger English-speaking segment ofthe New York population rather than just to the Hispanic community. La farsa follows the pattern of Federico Garcia Lorca's "puppet- like" farces. It concerns the nature of theatre and through 48 p. 682. 49Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, "The Children's Theatre Pro- ject," Report and Budget, New York, July 1968, p. 2. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 50 John Gassner, Masters of the Drama (New York: Dover, 1954), Ibid., p. l 91 commedia dell'arte techniques and paints a colorful picture containing 51 social and literary criticism. The basic plot involves a love triangle and exposes Arlequin as a villain and General Cataplfim as the deceived lover. Colombina, the girl, lives in a brothel with her Aunt Quintina and Madame. Her wedding with the General is prevented by war. In order to marry Colombina, Arlequin re- writes a letter from the General and announces his death in battle. Arlequin and Colombina marry. The truth is discovered and Colombina stops the action of the play to give it a happy ending, while Piruli Pulchinelo, the dramatist, is angered by the fact that the show has gotten out of hand and begs the audience to return the next day in order to hear his ending.52 Contrary to the tradition of Lorca, the young girl wants to marry the old man instead of the young suitor. The production had extras for children: Children in our most deprived areas, accompanied by their parents, will attend the previously selected sites in the four Boroughs, and will enjoy an afternoon of Commedia dell-Arte style theatre, music, and a gay profusigg of hats, balloons, surprises, flowers and lollipops. The children's theatre project staged Los titeres de Cachiporra ("Punch- ing Puppets") in 1969 and El maleficio de la mariposa (The Butterfly's Evil Spell) in 1970 (both written by Federico Garcia Lorca) fbllowing the pattern established by La farsa del amor compradito. 5lAngelina Morfi, “El teatro de Luis Rafael Sanchez,“ Revista del Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquena 52 (July-September, 197ll: 41 52Luis Rafael Sanchez, La farsa del amor compradito, p. 83. 53"The Children's Theatre Project," p. l 92 1968 was a very rewarding and busy year for the company. In January,Mayor John Lindsay invited Miriam Colan to become a member of 54 Also, during January, Ms. Coldn 55 the New York City Cultural Countil. went to Washington, D.C. to propose federal funding of the PRTT. Vice-President Hubert Humphrey answered: I have read with deep interest the presentation you made for traveling theatre, representing the varied cultural interests of our fellow citizens. I do believe strongly in this type of program, not only on a summer but, hopefully, on a year- round basis. The financial situation remains, unfortunately, very difficult; but I am in contact with a wide number of private organizations and will be cooperating closely with Mayors and Community Action Agencies across the country. In addition to production and fund-raising activities, the PRTT engaged, in the compilation of data about minority employment in the casts and crews of Broadway, repertory theatre, and off- Broadway productions during the 1967-1968 season. Its purpose was to stress the need for hiring minorities. The findings were presented at hearings on employment patterns, policies, and practices in theatre 57 The conducted by the New York State Division of Human Rights. results showed that off-Broadway productions, with casts totaling one hundred and thirteen, hired four blacks, one Oriental and no Spanish- 54John V. Lindsay, Mayor of the City of New York, letter to Miriam C016n, New York, 18 January 1968. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 55"Anatomy of a Summer Project," p. 9. 56Hubert H. Humphrey, Vice President of the United States, letter to Miriam Colon, New York, 13 February 1968. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 57"Proposal fbr the Funding of a Puerto Rican Theatre," Charts A-D, pp. 30-33. 93 speaking actors during that season. Neither the Phoenix Theatre nor Lincoln Center theatres had Spanish-speaking members in their casts during the same period of time. A breakdown of the composition of Broadway casts fbllows in Table 10.58 Table 10. Minority Participation in the Casts of Broadway Productions- 1967-1968 [Prepared by the PRTT] . Total Black Oriental Spa"‘§“‘ [White plus speaking ethnic] Cabaret O O O 37 Cactus Flower O O O 10 Don't Drink the Water 0 O O 13 Fiddler on the Roof O O O 43 Golden Rainbow 1 O O 52 Hello, Dolly! 45 0 O 46 Now, Now, Dow Jones 1 O 3 58 I do! I do! 0 O O 2 I Never Sang fer my Father 1 O O 11 Joe Egg 0 O 0 6 Mame O 1 O 57 Man of La Mancha O O 3 26 Plaza Suite 0 O l 5 Portrait of a Queen 0 O O 19 Rosencrantz ahdi Guildenstern O O O 32 Spofford O O O 17 The Happy Time 2 O O 46 The Price 0 O O 4 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie O O O 11 Theré‘s a Girl in my Soup 0 O O 7 Weekendi 7 O O 16 You Khow I Can't Hear You __9_ __II __II __Ji Added Total 57* l 7 523 Percentage 10.9 .2 1.3 ‘100 *Without Hello, Dolly!, the figures are: Total - 477 (100%) and Black - 12 (225%) 58Ibid., p. 30, chart A. 94 The production staffs of the Phoenix and Lincoln Center included twelve Spanish-speaking persons out of fifty-eight and one out of sixteen, respectively.59 A crusade was undertaken by the PRTT to introduce producers to the Hispanic talent_avai1able in New York. The 1969 Season and Crossroads60 The influence of theatre in the streets on neighborhoods and ethnic locations has so often been demonstrated that there remains no reason further to salute it and its need- ful goals.5l With this statement, Whitney Bolton of the New York Morning Telegraph began his article, "Puerto Rican Theatre Ready to Travel" on the 1969 summer season. The company presented Encrucijada ("Crossroads") by Manual Méndez Ballester and Los titeres de Cachiporra62 ("Punching Puppets") by Federico Garcia Lorca in the streets and parks of New York City. Encrucijada explores the disintegration of the Puerto Rican culture in the City of New York. Written in 1968, the three act, naturalistic play63 has not lost its relevance. It delves into the 59Information gathered through interviews of managers and stage managers of Broadway,~off-Broadway, and Repertory theatres, New York, 1967-68, Ibid., pp. 20-33. 60Manuel Mendez Ballester, Encrucijada in Primer Festival del Teatro Puertorriqueno, Instituto de CUTturalhertorriquena,‘VOl. l lBarcéTbna: Ediciones RUmbos, 1959); and Crossroads, trans. Robert Boss (Unpublished playscript, Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, 1968). Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 6lWhitney Boulton, "Puerto Rican Theatre Ready to Travel" (New York) Morning Telegraph, 23 July 1969, p. 13. 62Federico Garcia Lorca, Los titeres de Cachiporra in Obras Completas, 14th ed. (Madrid: Aguilar, 19681, pp. 723-62 63Frank N. Dauster, Historia del Teatro Hispanoamericano, Siglos XIX X XX (Mexico City: Ediciones de Andrea:—1973), p. 76. 95 lives of a middle-aged Puerto Rican couple living in New York and their three children, Felipe, Mario and Marta. Don Alfonso, who in 1898 had served on the United States' side during the Spanish-American war, has wasted the family's wealth. Felipe, a veteran, helps to support the family by working in a filling station and by selling drugs on the side. Irma's love sets him straight. Mario, the younger son, is a militant Nationalist and is always in serious conflict with his father. Mario is jailed for his activities. While serving seven years in prison, his son has grown up and hardly knows any Spanish, representing the loss of Puerto Rican culture. The ultimate dissolu- tion of the family sends the married children to Chicago, the Bronx and Miami, while the elderly couple contemplates the possibility of returning to Puerto Rico. A few adjustments were made in the Robert 8055 English trans- lation to bring the text up-to-date and to solve difficulties created by the fact that the drama deals with the characters' knowledge of both languages. In a letter by Miriam C016n to the author, she explains the nature of the changes in the translation: El personaje de Luis tendria que ajustarse de alguna manera pues como todos hablan inglés, no se podria decir que no lo entienden. E1 personaje as lan ligero que tal vez podria hablar en espanol malo o eliminarse toda alusi6n a1 hecho de que mezcla dos idiomas . . . Lo que de veras necesita atenci6n son otros detalles mas serios como el cambiar ciertas fechas, especialmente al final del primer acto, donde el extrafio dice axe va para Iwo Jima, donde tiene un hermano, etc. . . . (Luis' character will have to be adapted; since everybody speaks English, there is no reason to say that they do 64Miriam Col6n, letter to Manuel Méndez Ballester, 18 June 1968. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 96 not understand him. The character is so light that maybe he could speak bad Spanish or all allusions about the fact that he speaks combining both languages could be eliminated. What really needs attention are other details which are more serious, like changing dates, especially at the end of Act One when the Stranger says that he is leaving for Iwo Jima, where he has a brother, etc.) Due to the dual language problems, the play was less powerful in translation. Its main theme, the assimilation of the Puerto Rican to the United States culture, is based on the amount of English uttered by the Puerto Rican characters. The English translation omitted the Epilogue where Mario's seven-year-old son, Tony, speaks better English than Spanish, thereby demonstrating the reality of language assimilation. This duality could not be achieved in an English-speaking version. Nevertheless, the disintegration of the national identity comes across in spite of these adjustments, as Jordan Phillips noted. A natural result of such an environment is the loss of those honorable qualities which the unassailed culture of the characters might have retained . close family ties, pride in their nationality, existence within the law and without violence. The family of Alfonso and Patricia is an example of Pgerto Ricans in- evitable loss of identity in New York.6 The struggle between both cultures is the main conflict of the drama. In the prologue of the volume of plays produced during the first season of the Puerto Rican Theater Festival on the island (1958) which opened with Encrucijada, dramatist Francisco Arrivi discussed the play's importance: Encrucijada nos desnuda los conflictos de adaptaci6n de una familia puertorriquefia emigrada a la voragine urbana de Nueva York. La fuerzas disolventes de la ciudad nos subrayan~por contraste los valores morales que apoyan la vida islena. El drama surge de la resistencia de estos valores a las presiones invencibles del monstruo 65Phillips, Contemporary Puerto Rican Theatre, p. 119. 97 erizado de rascacielos.66 (Crossroads strips before our eyes the adaptation conflicts experienced by a Puerto Rican family who has emigrated to the urban whirlpool of New York. The dissolving forces of the city underline by contrast the moral values that constitute life on the island. The drama emerges from the resistance of these values when faced by the unsurmountable pressures of the City.) During the summer of 1969, the PRTT received $40,000 to 67 produce the play from New York's Urban Task Force. The tour included twenty-five locations and concluded at Central Park at the 68 Puerto Rican Folklore Festival. A New York Times article entitled "Enthusiasm Fuels PRTT" Stated: The performance by the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre Company, Inc. which opened its third season this week as a bilingual outdoor theatre troupe, possessed enough undampened zeal to justify a parade of !!! marks. The setting is a third floor walk-up apartment in a New York City tenement, which, in Anibal Otero's scenic design, is authentic down to the last faded streak of grease on the walls. If it were even a shade more realistic, the actors would have to pay rent for using it. The performance achieves an equal authenticity . . . The action involves twelve actors, of whom six are Puerto Ricans, and the ogBers Italian, Costa Rican, Negro, Irish, and Russian. Among them were Miriam Goldina, translator of Stanislavski Directs, Dermot McNamara, co-founder of The Irish Players of New York, Pat 66Francisco Arrivi, "Introduccidn" to Primer Festival de Teatro Puertorriquefio, Instituto de Cultura Puertorrjguefia (Barcelona: Ediciones Rumbos, 1959), p. 14. 67hpuerto Rican Troups Given Grant of $40,000," New York Times, 24 July 1969, p. 42. 68Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Program Notes for Crossroads, New York, Summer 1969. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Thearre, 69McCandid Phillips, "Enthusiasm Fuels Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre," New York Times, 7 August 1969, p. 28. 98 McNamara, and Puerto Rican actors Walter Rodriguez and Maria Soledad Romero.70 Segments of the play were broadcast on the NBC “Today" Show. In a letter from "Today" producer, Stuart Schelberg, to the company, he states, "We are happy to present the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre on our program. . . . We in turn want to thank you and your group for their concern and cooperation in making the segment such a success."71 German Television expressed a desire to include a filmed segment of the play in one of their documentaries. We wish to know if we could film a small portion of "Crossroads," the play about the struggles of a Puerto Rican family. This would be included in our color documentary television program called "New York, New York" which will be shown to five million viewers in Germany and Switzerland. Requests from Scholastic Magazines, Inc., and from private individuals to publish Crossroads were also received.73 The run of Crossroads coincided with the run of Garcia Lorca's Los titeres de Cachiporra ("Punching Puppets"). Written in 1930, the play deals with the romantic pursuit by three lovers of their lady Rosita. Designed for a puppet stage, it is written in a poetic 70 71Stuart Schlberg, Producer of NBC's "Today" show, letter to the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, New York, 16 September 1969. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 72Patricia Naggin, Producer for German Television, Channel 1, Hamburg Germany, letter to New York City Parks Administration, 5 August 1969. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 73Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, correspondence files for production of Crossroads, New York, Summer 1969. Program Notes for Crossroads. 99 style and contains many techniques of slapstick humor. The PRTT used live actors for their production. Lorca's play received $8,500 from the New York State Council on the Arts.74 It toured through eight locations and was performed in Spanish. In the September 28 issue of the New York Sunday News, a photographic display of the 1969 PRTT's summer season was followed by this caption: All the world's a stage, including the platform of a flatbed truck. Using the latter for a stage, the PRTT put on thirty-two performances this past summer througygut the five boroughs. Some 20,000 saw [the] shows. On November 8th, Crossroads closed the PRTT's 1969 season as part of "A Puerto Rican Festival" at Town Ha11--New York University's Midtown Cultural Arts Center.76 During 1969 the PRTT also engaged in cosponsoring a playwright- ing contest. Vignettes or plays geared toward outdoor production with maximum casts of ten were to be submitted to the Department of Cultural Affairs of the Administration of Parks. Judges included James Earl Jones, Jose Ferrer, Piri Thomas, author of Down These Mean Streets, Miriam Col6n and Vinnette Justin Carroll, director of the Ghetto Arts Program, New York State Council on the Arts.77 The competition was 74"Puerto Rican Troupe Given Grant of $40,000," p. 42. 75"All the World's a Stage," New York Sunday News, 28 September 1969, p. 62. 76"1969-1970, Saturday Afternoon Showtime at Town Hall," New York University's Mid-town Cultural Center, Program of Events, New York, 8 November 1969. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 77"Playwright Talent Competition," Press release by the New York City Parks Administration, New York, 25 April 1969. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theare. 100 designed to discover and encourage new playwrights in the city. The winning plays would be considered for future production by the PRTT. The 1970 Season In 1970, the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre began its fourth season with The Golden Streets,78 Piri Thomas' first full-length play. The play deals with a drug addict and the effects of his habit on the members of his family. Rafi], a rehabilitated drug-addict, tries in vain to prevent his brother,LUis,from falling into the habit. Luis dies of an overdose while his father vows to continue struggling for a better life for the rest of the family in New York. Mr. Thomas, born of Puerto Rican parents in the New York barrio, had experienced the addict's life (drugs, crime, prison) and in his well-known novel, Down These Mean Streets, started a crusade fbr drug rehabilitation.79 The impact of the play on its audiences was recorded by jour- nalist Norman Nadel, a Scripps-Howards staff writer: "Matalo, matalo." Kill him! Hill him! The five middle aged women, seated together in a row, were livid. A few hours earlier they'd been amiable housewives, office workers, clerks, far from murderous thoughts. Now like an unrehearsed Greek-chorus, they were urging the petite Puerto Rican girl on the stage to destroy the pusher who was trying to get her ex-junkie boyfriend back on the stuff. And she was doing her best to kill him. She kicked, punched and clawed in the last extremity of anguish--an anguish shared and understood by all but the small children in an audience that knew the narcotics scene first-hand.8 78Piri Thomas, The Golden Streets (Unpublished playscript, Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, 1970). Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 79Norman Nadel, "The New York Scene," San Juan Star, 23 May 1971, p. 12. 8°Ibid. 101 The explanation for the spontaneous outburst of the women was given by Carol Rose of the Chelsea-Clinton News when describing the same incident: Hunts Point is a community with a great drug problem, with precisely the real-life drama depicted in the play. Many of the people in the ghetto audiences have never before seen live theatre. Their reactions are frequently as open and unguarded as they were at Hunts Point.8 When asked about her response to such active and vocal audiences, Ms. Col6n replied: "It's better than the sophisticated audiences from uptown, who just sit so quietly that we don't know if we're reaching them. But, an audience like this, we're sure they're listening."82 The Golden Streets ran simulatneously with the third Spanish- language children's production, El maleficio de la mariposa83 (IDS. Butterfly's Evil Spell), which was the second of Lorca's plays to be produced by the group; another colorful and poetic farce about insects and love. The two plays totaled twenty-six performances. The group received $44,330 in grants from the New York State Council on the Arts, New York City Parks Department and Mayor Lindsay's Urban Task Force. The grant money was less than the budgets of the two previous seasons. A lack of funds from these institutions was responsible for the financial difficulties and the limited run of the 1970 season.84 81Carol Rose, "The Ghettos are not Really Their Home," Chelsea Clinton News, 15 April 1971, p. 3. 82 Norman Nadel, "The New York Scene," p. 12. 83Federico Garcia Lorca, El maleficio de la mariposa in Obras Completas, pp. 669-721. 84Rudy Garcia, "Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre Starting 4th Season," New York Daily News, 9 August 1970, p. 21. 102 A $50,000 grant from the New York State Council on the Arts made possible a revival of The Golden Streets during the spring of 1971. It was the first time the group had toured indoors. The project included forty-five locations.85 The summer project ahead was to be the most ambitious the Company had undertaken during its first five years of touring. The 1971 Season and A Dramatized Anthology of Pherto Rican Short Stories8 The Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre's fifth summer season began with $74,606 in grants from City, State, Federal, and private sources. Among the new donors were: the New York Foundation, $5,000; the Vincent Astor Foundation, $15,000; the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, $10,000; the National Endowment fbr the Arts, $10,000; and the Rockefeller Founda- tion, $15,000.87 The total amount allocated for the summer season, plus the $50,000 from the State Council on the Arts for the spring tour added up to more than five times the 1967 ($23,000) budget fbr The Oxcart. (For a comparison between the 1967 and the 1971 budget see Appendices B and C.) Ten Puerto Rican short stories were chosen for production. Following the saga of The Oxcart--from the country to the slum to the metropolis--the stories offered a panorama of the Puerto Rican experi- ence, both on the island and in New York. Miriam Col6n was responsible gSNadel, "The New York Scene," p. 12. 86Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Unpublished scripts of adapted and translated short stories fbr production of A Dramatized Antholo of Puerto Rican Short Stories, New York, Summer l97l. Files 0? the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 87"Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre Sets 5th Season," New York Times, 9 July 1971, p. 23. 103 for the staged adaptations, while Dr. Carlos Hortas of the Spanish Department of Yale University did the English translations. The potpourri of stories started with Compadre Baltasar's E§a§tg a late nineteenth-century short story written by Matias Gonzalez Garcia about a promised feast, the expectation of the guests and the realization that once at the right location there was nothing to eat. The story is rich in visual and aromatic images and in a picaresque fasion portrays the simple and unsophisticated lives of the jibarg_(Puerto Rican peasant). The Ladies' Man by Maria Cadilla de Martinez furthers the peasant theme in Puerto Rico. An intruder from the lowlands comes to a small town in the mountains to flirt with a peasant's wife. The couple tricks the suitor and he receives a beating from the jealous husband. Having learned his lesson the "Ladies' Man," he runs back to the lowlands vowing never to return. Pacholi ("Patchouli“) by Enrique Laguerre takes place in a little village where two old friends meet after years of separation. The dreams of happiness have disappeared. After a few moments of reminiscing, Pablo (Pacholi), who is dying of tuberculosis after aging rapidly from years of work in the cane fields says to his friend, the Teacher, "At least you are happy." And the Teacher replies, "Don't believe it. I am only a shadow. In this life of useless appearances we don't really live, others shape life for us, a cruel, counterfeit “88 life. The story ends with the entrance of Margarita, with whom 88Enrique Laguerre,"Pacholi, adapted and trans. by Miriam Col6n and Carlos Hortas (Unpublished playscript, Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, 1971), pp. 5-6. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 104 both friends were in love; they stare at her and she stares back without recognizing them. The Teacher concludes: "In the past we three were the happiest creatures in the world. Today we no longer know each other. Today, praise the Lord, each one of us opened himself before the others like a sewer of unknown depths."89 The poetry and the sadness conveyed by this short story reflects the tragic sense of some of the characters of Puerto Rican literature. Don Chago, the old man in The Oxcart, expresses the same feelings when faced by the passage of time: Those were good times, my boy. There were less people, it's true, but they were better. Life was long and nobody was in a hurry. . . . Nowadays there's not enough room for everybody, and there's n8 room for pride, and there's no place fbr dignity. 0 Pacholi hits the audience with the crushing tragedy of reality, where dreams do not come true. The next story is Black Sun by novelist Emilio Diaz Valcarcel. Its setting is a shack in the Puerto Rican black community of Loiza Aldea. A village drummer's obsession for an instrument to play makes him attack a small sleeping child in order to create new sounds and rhythms. The atmospheric elements help to motivate his frenzy. The townspeople attack the drummer with "rhythmic precision" until he n91 collapses and only “The sound of the rain persists. The story is 89 90 Ibid. René Marqués, The Oxcart, p. 34. 9lEmilio Diaz Valéarcel, Black Sun, adapted and trans. by Miriam Col6n and Carlos Hortas (Unpuhlished playscript, Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, New York, 1971), p. 11. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 105 rich in aural and visual images underscoring the development of the action of the main character, Bernabé. The setting for the next story is a slum; no longer do the fbrces of nature protect or motivate the characters. The story is Interlude by José Vivas Maldonado. The environment surrounding the main character, Luis, is "a garbage dump in a swampy section of a slum."92 An old man rummages through the garbage at a dump where he is caretaker. Sometimes he is indistinguishable from the rubble. A child breaks the monotony. The man tells him stories. After several joyous encounters, the child is killed by a passing car as he returns to his wonderful storyteller. Impotent, the man returns to his garbage and becomes indistinguishable again. Interlude explores a moment of beauty in an otherwise humdrum existence. Unlike Faust, who was able to stop life at the moment of contentment, the care- taker enjoys some fleeting happiness and then is crushed again by reality. Once more, the machine destroys the beauty of the interlude. Vivas Maldonado goes into great detail in order to create the bleak environment where, for an instant, history is recreated for the sake of "a calm little boy . . . with big, peaceful eyes."93 The last story about life in the island is El Josco by Abelardo Diaz Alfaro. El Josco, a proud Puerto Rican bull is replaced by a new stud--a white bull from the United States. After a ’ 92Jose Vivas Maldonado, Interlude, adapted and trans.by Miriam Colon and Carlos Hortas (Unpublished playscript, Puerto Rican Travel- ing Theatre, New York, 1971), p. 7. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 93Ibid.. p. 7. 106 tense duel between the two animals, the white bull retreats, but e1 Josco realizes that although he was won the round, he has lost his supremacy over the land. After searching for Josco all over the farm, his trainer finds him dead and says, "My poor Josco, he broke his neck out of rage. Don Leopo, I told you. That bull was a stud by birth, he wasn‘t meant fbr the yoke."94 In allegorical fashion, Diaz Alfaro captures the struggle of the Puerto Rican to remain independent and free, choosing death with dignity instead of a life of submission. His richest images emerge from the vivid description of the encounter between the two beasts. The action of the next story moves to the mainland. Kipling and I by Jesfis Col6n is told by a fifty-seven year old man as he remembers his adoration for the poem "If" by Rudyard Kipling, when he was seventeen. After months of searching for a job, guided only by the words of the poem which he kept beautifully framed in his small room, the youth returns home on a freezing day to find no kindling wood to make a fire: I was hungry. My room was dark and cold. I wanted to warm my numb body. I lit a match and began looking for some scraps of wood and a piece of paper to start the fire. I searched all over the floor. No wood, no paper. A5 I stood up, the glimmering flicker of the dying patch was refflected in the glass surface of the framed poem.9 After reflecting for a minute, he broke the frame and lit the paper to make the fire. "I watched how the lines of the poem withdrew into 94Abelardo Diaz Alfaro, E1 Josco, adapted and trans. by Miriam Coldn and Carlos Hortas (Unpublished playscript, Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, New York, 1971), p. 7. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 95Jesfis Coldn, Kiplingrand 1, adapted by Miriam Col6n (Unpub- lished playscript, Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, New York, 1971), p. 6. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 107 96 ashes inside the small stove" is the ending line of Kipling and I, the only short story of the ten originally written in English. Another story of pathos follows. The Innocent by Pedro Juan Soto becomes less poetic and more realistic and crude in its portrayal of a retarded man and his family. Hortensia, the daughter, has decided to "institutionalize" her brother because in New York he has become a nuisance. She says to her mother: In Puerto Rico it was different. People knew him. He could go outside because people knew him. But in New York people don't bother; they don't care about meeting their neighbors. Life is tough. I sew year in and year out and I'm still not married. But that's got the real reason. They watch him better over there.9 The mother resists but to no avail; Hortensia takes Pipe away and as she walks out with him into the bright noon sun "she wished for hurricanes and eclipses and snowstorms."98 The story uses the stream of consciousness technique to let the audience know the clear inner thoughts of Pipe, which he cannot articulate, that express his longing for nature and freedom. The Lead Box That Could Not Be Opened, like E1 Josco, deals with the theme of the social and political ties between the island and the United States. It is a story about a family that receives the coffin of their son who has been killed during the Korean war. Written in a quasi-humorous form, it describes the efforts of the 96Ibid. ’ 97Pedro Juan Soto, The Innocent, adapted and trans. by Miriam Colon and Carlos Hortas (Unpuhlishedfilayscript, Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, New York, 1971), p. 6. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 98 Ibid., p. 7. 108 mother to see the corpse of her son. But, the lead box could not be opened. The vigil and burial took place and the story teller explained the reason why he remembered the events: that day he had received his own draft notice. Following the tradition of adapting the materials, the PRTT changed the setting of the original story from San Juan to New York and updated the events to the Vietnam War era. As described by New York Times critic Howard Thomson, "The box is the coffin of a dead Army veteran of Viet Nam, returned to his mother in a tenement."99 The program ends with a vigorous scene with pickets protesting yellow journalism. The story is The Protest by Luis Quero Chiesa. Doctor Max Medina is appalled by the way his fellow Puerto Ricans were shouting and carrying on in the picket line. "He had never protested," but as he mingles with the crowd, "shadowy figures from his past sprouted from his memory."100 A little girl clutching a flag makes him react. He picks up an abandoned picket and "kept walking towards the fatherland."101 The ten stories, each in a different way, depict traits of the Puerto Rican character and experience. The peasant, the poor, the "fiddle class and the outcasts are handled with heroic romanticism. The 99Howard Thompson, "Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre Shows Vigor and Purpose," New York Times, 11 August 1971, p. 43. 100Luis Quero Chiesa. The Protest, adapted and trans. by Miriam Colon and Carlos Hortas (Unpublished playscript, Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, New York, 1971), p. 7. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 101 Ibid., p. 8. 109 moods evolve from the comic to the somber to the pathetic and even to the ridiculous, ending with dignity and hope. The staged adaptations used the figure of the Narrator as the connecting thread for the stories. Action and narration were alternated in a story-telling, presentational style in order to produce a unified experience. The New York Times review stated that "fortunately, in the case of each playlet, a sideline narrator, moving center, clearly conveyed the author's flavor and content."102 Pablo Cabrera was invited to direct the Anthology. Cabrera, who at the time was a television director the the Educational Station of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, had studied theatre and film in Italy. His television and theatre directing credits included opera, the Casals Festival, National Educational Television's "Realidades" and the premiere of The Sound of Music in Madrid, as well as numerous plays by European, United States, Latin American, and Puerto Rican authors. He is presently the Chairperson of the Puerto Rican Studies Department at Hostos College, City University of New York and since 1971 has been associated with the PRTT in the capacities of artistic director, advisor and instructor in the group's actor training program.103 Cabrera assembled a cast of twenty-eight which included 102Howard Thompson, "Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre Shows Vigor and Purpose," p. 43. 103Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Program Notes fer the pro- duction of A Dramatized Anthology of Puerto Rican Short Stories, New York, Summer 1971. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 110 "such excellent actors as Manu Tupou, Bette Miller, Héctor Elias, and James Victor [who] proceeded to mesmerize the audience. . . ."104 Tupou had recently been in the Broadway production of Indians, Bette Miller had completed a national tour in The Price, and black actor Don Blakely had acted in The Great White Hope. The Puerto Rican contingent included Iris Martinez, Gilda Orlandi and Héctor Elias, as well as five small children.105 The New York Times review, entitled "Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre Shows Vigor and Purpose," praised the production, acclaiming "robust playing," "keen direction," and a "strong and gifted company."106 The set, designed by Peter Harvey, was skeletal. A multileveled set of bleacher ramps at the rear of the stage simulated everything from the heights of the mountains to a New York tenement. The staging was done in a "stylized, modified 'story telling' manner"107 with the use of mime for scenes such as the Compadre Baltasar's horse back ride and ballet-like choreography for El Josco. "El Josco, Aberlardo Diaz Alfaro's richly worded story symbolizing a Puerto Rico menaced from without, was exotically highlighted by two young men as bulls warring in dance pantomime."108 A voice-over technique was used fbr the inner monologue of The Innocent and still 104 105Program Notes far A Dramatized Anthology of Puerto Rican Short Stories. 106Howard Thompson, "Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre Shows Vigor and Purpose," p. 43. 107 Marilyn Stasio, Cpe, 11 September 1971, p. 12. Marilyn Stasio, p. 12. 108Thompson, p. 43. 111 life was enployed for the crowd scene in The Protest where the Doctor 109 examined the faces of the group. Audiences were occasionally active. Once during this play [The Protest]--when the police con- front the demonstrators--a woman jumped up from the audience and ran onto the stage. "Don't you tell us to get out," she raged at the actor playing a cop. "We belong here and we're staying." The cast improvised with her and when the show finished, she just wandered off. The experience was so real to her I don't think she ever knew she'd ever been on a stage.116 Not all audience participation was harmless. "Some neighborhoods have so much despair, nobody can sit still. They throw bottles, they heckle."1n A record of disruptive incidents and copies of letters to the authorities are kept in the PRTT's files. The fellow- ing is an excerpt of a letter sent to Mr. Tiley, the representative of the Cultural Affairs Division of the Parks Administration: On the night of Friday, September 3, 1971 an actor from the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Mr. Don Hinde, was hit by a stone during a performance. He bled profusely and had to be taken to an emergency clinic in the vicinity. We were playing in Crotona Park, Boston Road, at Prospect Avenue, Morrisania, in the Bronx. This particular area was imposed on us by the Cul- tural Affairs Division of the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Administration, which in our contact, you represent. I am somewhat disturbed because several times, durint the scheduling of shows in the different areas our community coordinator Mr. Allen Davis, had encountered a reluctance on the side of the Parks Department to listen to our arguments in favor or against a particular location 109Directors notes in script of A Dramatized Anthology of Puerto Rican Short Stories. noPatricia Bosworth, "Look, Let's Have Some Justice Around Here," New York Times, 12 September 1971, p. 05. 111 Ibid. 112 based on our previous contact with such dangerous areas. Several times during our tour in previous years and also this season we have encountered episodes of row- diness and chaos in the communities we have visited. We are familiar with these moods, but nothing, absolutely nothing compares with the destructiveness and sheer van- dalism that we encountered in this Morrisania area. It is our habit to contact the Police precincts during our run and we take all necessary measures to have, not only the Police, but also representatives of the community there. Two members of our company work full- time on that. On the night of Friday the 3rd, not only did the community people (Morrisania Community Corpora- tion Council; 292-9600, Ex. 49) fail to show up, the”2 Police precinct also failed to sendany help. . . . Even with these incidents, the Company staged about thirty- five performances of the Anthology which brought the first fiveeyear period of the PRTT to an end. During this period the performances staged by the company made use of a variety of acting and production styles, ranging from poetic realism in The Oxcart and Winterset to naturalism in Crossroads and The Golden Streets to slapstick farce in the plays of Luis Rafael Sanchez and Federico Garcia Lorca and finally to presentational story-telling techniques of high stylized quality in the Anthology of Puerto Rican Short Stories. Economically, the operation grew from a budget of $23,000 in 1967 to $123,000 in 1971, and the summer venture was becoming a year round traveling project. But the group still required a permanent location from which they could better coordinate their operation. In the 1971 re— port, they stressed the need for a rehearsal space and for an actor training unit: 112Miriam Coldn, letter to Mr. Tiley, Cultural Affairs Division, New York City Parks Administration, 4 September 1971. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 113 The Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, though highly regarded as a community-oriented professional theatre company, has operated as a nomadic group since 1967, for it is a homeless organization. Though it has operated under a mobile roof during the past four summers (thanks to the generosity of the urban Action Task Force, the assistance of the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Administration, the New York State Council on the Arts, and lately, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund), during the rest of the year it depends on the generosity of strangers, meeting in livingrooms and in churches in Harlem, the Lower East Side, and the Bronx. The group does not have a home, a room, or even a basement in which to rehearse, explore new materials, train younger people, or prepare the launching of new programs. . . . The second goal for 1971 is the establishment of a Training Unit fbr youngsters who will attend classes after school hours and on Saturdays. Among our objec- tives are the sharing with them our knowledge of the craft, and to expose them to teachers, performances, technicians, etc., who will train them and guide them in the exploration of the theatre as an avenue 113 for expression and as possible future vocation. . . . Both the acquisition of a "home" and the implementation of a training unit were realized in 1972, the first year of their second fiveeyear period of operation. These aspects and the plays produced from 1972 to 1976 will be discussed in the next chapter. 113Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, "Proposal: Free Presentations, A Tour Through New York's Less Affluent Communities, Including a Training Unit," Proposal far funding presented to the New York City Parks Administration, New York, 1971, pp. 1-2. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. CHAPTER FOUR THE SECOND FIVE YEARS (1972-1976) The 1972-1976 period was one of intensified activity for the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. The long sought "Experimental Laboratory" and "Training Unit" became realities. The group's 1972 report states: During 1972 the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre was able to inaugurate a Training Unit and Experimental Laboratory in the Borough of Manhattan in New York City. This was possible thanks to a grant from the Expansion Arts program of the National Endowment fer the Arts. The creation of an Experimental Laboratory and of the Training Unit came to fill a much needed element in our operation and in our growth. It has been our hope to make the transition from being not only a bilingual performing group but also [to being] an institution where we could train and ex- periment and share what we know with interested youngsters and adults; where students could be exposed to the theatre as an aesthetic and humanizing experience; where youngsters could come in contact with disciplines not ordinarily offered in our present public educational system. The establishment of the Experimental Laboratory and Training Unit, located at 124 West 18th Street in Manhattan, provided for an increase in the number of plays produced by the company during this five-year period. A list of all the plays produced by both the Traveling Unit and the Experimental Laboratory of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre appears below (Table 11).2 1Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, "Report, 1972," New York, 1972, p. 1. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 2Derived from analysis of Program Notes for Puerto Rican Travel- ing Theatre productions, 1972-1976. 114 115 Table 11. Plays Produced by the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre (1972-1976) 1972 Ceremony fbr an Assassinated Black Man 1973 1974 by Fernando Arrabal directed by Jaime sanchez March 10 - April 14 The Passion of Antigona Pérez by Luis Rafael sanchez directed by Pablo Cabrera May 18 - June 4 August 7 - August 26 Pi 0 Subway no sabe reir 1poiSubway CanTt Laugh") by Jaime Carrero directed by Jaime Sanchez August 12 - August 26 Sin bandera by Jaime Carrero ("Flag Inside“) directed by Norberto Kerner January 11 - February 4 E1 me’dico a palos by Moliére (The Doctor Inspite of Himself) directed by Norberto Kerner June 21 - July 15 August 16 - August 26 Noo Yall by Jaime Carrero ("New York") directed by Pablo Cabrera August 25 - September 15 The Angels are Exhausted by Luis Rafael sanchez At the End of the Street by Gerald Paul Marin directed by Manuel Yesckas February 7 - March 3 The Guest, Scribbles, The Innocent by Pedro Juan Soto directed by Reinaldo Arana May 9 - June 21 Laboratory Theatre Traveling Theatre Traveling Theatre Laboratory Theatre Laboratory Theatre Traveling Theatre Traveling Theatre Laboratory Theatre Laboratory Theatre 116 Table 11. Continued 1975 1976 Payment as Pledged by Alfredo Dias dees directed by Angel F. Rivera August 6 - August 25 The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit by Ray Bradbury directed by Alba Oms August 18 - August 30 Ceremony for an Assassinated Black Man byiFernandoiArrabal ’ directed by Miriam Colon The Two Executioners by Fernando Arrabal directed by Norberto Kerner February 9 - March 16 Piri, Papoleto, & Pedro, Directed by Pablo by Piri Thomas, Jesfis Papdleto Melendez and Pedro Pietri directed by Pablo Cabrera April 17 — May 4 If You Promise not to Learn... (Stories to be Told) by Osvaldo Dragfin directed by Pablo Cabrera July 21 - August 9 Windows by Roberto Rodri uez directed by Roberto Rodriguez March 2 - March 28 The Dinner Guest by Manuel Martinez Mediero Everythipgnot Compulsory is Stricily Forbidden by Jorge Diaz directediby Alba Oms June 25 - July 18 Traveling Theatre Traveling Theatre Laboratory Theatre Laboratory Theatre Traveling Theatre Laboratory Theatre Laboratory Theatre 117 Table 11. Continued ‘- r Eleuterio the Coqui adapted from the Tomas. Blanco short story by Miriam Col6n, Rosa Luisa Marquez, and Pablo Cabrera directed by Pablo Cabrera Everythin not Compulsory is StrictTyi orbidden August 16 - September 12 Traveling Theatre Table 12 indicates the locations most frequented by the "street theatre" productions during this period.3 Starting in 1972, the group's small but permanent home provided a new space for indoor, laboratory theatre, some of which would then tour the streets. This was the case with E1 médico a pelos (The Doctor in Spite of Himself) produced in 1973 and Everything not Compulsory is Strictly Forbidden produced in 1976. With an average of two laboratory performances each year in addition to the tradi- tional traveling productions, the number of productions for 1972-1976 period totaled nineteen. Only eight plays had been produced between 1967 and 1971. A year to year history of the PRTT through an account of the plays produced during this period will be the subject of this chapter. Three "representative" productions will be analyzed in greater depth: The Passion of Antigona Pérez, produced in 1972, If You Promise Not to Learn...., produced in 1975, and the laboratory production of 3mid. 118 Table 12. Most Frequent Performance Locations, 1972-1976 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 Noo Antigona pipo Yall Payment If You Everything Promise... ...Coqui Manhattan Central Park x x x Riverside Park W. 103 Street & x x x x Riverside Drive Lincoln Center Plaza x x x x Metropolitan Museum Plaza x x x E. 110th Street Between Lexing- ton and Park x x Avenues Cathedral Saint John the Divine x x 112th Street & Amsterdam Bronx P.S. 77 E. 172nd Street x x 178th Street Be- tween Arthur & x x x x x Hughes Streets Federation of Puerto Rican Volunteers x x 2317 Washington Avenue Brooklyn PROUD P.S. 298 x x 85 Watkins Street New Jersey Goden Street Be- tween 4th & 5th X X Streets, Hoboken 119 Piri, Papoleto and Pedro Directed by Pablo, also staged in 1975. The selection of these works has been made on the basis of available resource materials, their success in meeting different aspects of the philosophy of the PRTT, on the pieces' distinct theatrical approaches to style, theme and language, and their relation to the Puerto Rican experience. Furthermore, all the three productions were directed by Pablo Cabrera, the major new artistic influence in the development of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre during this period.4 The 1972 Season and The Passion of Antigdna Pérez5 The Passion of Antigona Pérez is an "American chronicle"6 in which dramatist Luis Rafael Sanchez, making use of a Sophoclean ' theme, depicts the individual's struggle against tyrannical rule. The setting and relationships have been altered: Antigona, a Latin American woman, has been sentenced to death by her uncle, dictator Cre6n Molina, for the burial of two brothers who had attempted to assassinate Cre6n. Her death sentence is the result of her defiance of Cre6n's edict that their bodies should be left to rot in public display as much as it is fbr the burial itself. An ideological and physical campaign are carried out against Antigona to make her reveal the spot where 4Miriam Col6n, private interview. 5Luis Rafael Sanchez, La pa5i6n segfin Antigona Pérez, 2nd ed. (Repfiblica’Dominicana: Ediciones Lugar,il970) and The Pa§sion of Antigona Perez, trans. Charles Pilditch (Unpublished playscript, Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, 1972). Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 6Luis Rafael Sanchez, La‘Pasi6n'seggn'AntigonaPérez, p. 1. 120 her two friends are buried. Members of her family and representatives of the State and the Church engage in a futile effbrt, for Antigona never budges. Her fate is irreversible and in her first speech she characterizes her situation: Empecemos por donde se empieza siempre. Nombre, Antigona Perez. Edad, veinticinco anos. Continente: America. Color. . . no importa. Traigo una historia para los que tienen fe. Alguno advertira; es demasiado joven para decir algo que merezca oirse. Cierto que soy joven. Pero, esta juventud del cuerpo ha sido acunada por la triste vejez del alma. i Poesia! Claro gue poesia. Si tengo veinticinco anos y voy a morir manana. (Let's start at the beginning. Name: Antigona Pérez. Age: twenty-five. Continent: America. Race: doesn't matter. I have a story for those with faith. Someone will say: she's too young to say anything worth hearing. It's true, I'niyoung. But my body's youth has been craddled by the sad aging of the soul. Poetry! Of course, poetry! I'm twenty-five and will die tomorrow.) The play transcends the existential crisis of the heroine to make a concrete, political statement. According to critic Lowell Fiet: the conflict involves more than Antigona' s defiance of Cre6n, for both characters symbolize contrasting elements of Latin American political life. Antigona expresses the desire fbr self-determination and free- dom from econonfic and political exploitation, while Cre6n represents the dpmination of military dictatorship and foreign influence. In fact, Sanchez has drawn his characters and events from the political reality of Latin America, and Cre6n embodies the Batistas, the 71bid., p. 14. 8Lowell A. Fiet, "Luis Rafael Sanchez's The Passion of Antigona Perez: Puerto Rican Play in North American Performance," LatiniAmerican‘Theatre‘Review (Fall 1976): 97-98. 121 Trujillos, the Per6ns and the Somozas, the right-wing dictators who found models to follow in Hitler, Mussolini and Franco. The unraveling action of the play is also surrounded by references to historical events which help to create the presentational and semfi-documentary style of the piece. Thus, the play uses techniques usually attributed to German playwright Bertolt Brecht, an aspect on which Francisco Arrivi comments: . 1a acci6n, . . . se desarrolla acorde con una dinamica de teatro apico propio de la escena contemporanea, la cual en Bertolt Brecht, por ejemplo9 se da muy influfda por lo periodistico y cinematografico. (. . . the action . . . develops according to the dynamics of the epic theatre characteristic of the contemporary scene, which like in Bertolt Brecht, fbr example, is much influenced by journalistic and filmic effects.) Also in epic style, the heroine, Antigona, steps away from the action to comment on and summarize its outcome. In her article on the plays of Luis Rafael Sanchez, Angelina Morfi states: Dentro de una tendencia épica esta e1 don de ubiquidad de Antigona para que pueda comentar y proteatar los argumentos de sus antagonistas en Palacio. (Within an epic tendency is the ubiquitous quality of Antigona which allows her to make comments and protest against the arguments of her antagonists at the Palace.) In order to achieve a documentary style, Sanchez specifies detailed directions fbr lighting and scenery: 9Francisco Arrivi, "Onceno Festival de Teatro~en Puerto Rico," Revista del Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquena 41 (octubre-diciembre,91968): 44. 10Angelina Morfi, "El teatro de Luis Rafael Sanchez," Revista del Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquena 52 (julio- septiembre,9197l): 48. 122 El te16n lento descubre un mural regio de fondo . . . [que] es la suma de ocho columnas gigantescas y tri- dimensionales. Al principio, e1 mural es 5610 una camara negra. Luego, se convierte en panel que acomoda, simétricamente, laminas de metal con anuncios de gaseosas, cervezas, cigarros, senales de transito y toda bulla de propaganda. En la segunda parte e1 mural revuelve a su otra cara: una pared en la que se despliega informacidn periodistica, noticias de absoluta historicidad se reparten por el panel. Entre las fotos destacan las monumentales del Generalisimo Cre6n Molina en gala militar y de Antigona Pérez luchando con la guardia del palacio. Resaltan también las consignas que aluden a la vida politica hispanoamericana de los ultimos anos: Democracia Cristiana, Lo haran los descamisados, Patria 6 Muerte, 26 de julio, Bosch para presidente, Yankis go Home, El Canal es de Panama, Minas de Bolivia para los bolivianos. El mural sustituye abiertamente e1 ciclorama tradicional. No hay ningfin mueble. Si cualquiera escena11 precisara de asientos podria recurrirse a los escalones. (A slow curtain reveals a regal back mural . . . [which] is composed of eight giant periaktoi. One side is a black wall. Then it becomes a panel on which symmetrical metal plaques advertising soda pop, beer, cigars, traffic signals, and a myriad of propaganda are displayed. The other side reveals journalistic infbrmation, news of absolute historical truth are scattered throughout. Among the photographs is one of Generalisimo Cre6n Molina and another of Antigona Perez struggling with the palace guards. Slogans alluding to political life in Latin America during the last few years are also obvious: Christian Democracy, Fatherland or Death, July 26, Bosch for President, Yankee go Home, The Canal belongs to Panama, Bolivian nfines fbr the Bolivians. The mural substitutes fbr the traditional cyclorama. There is no furniture. If any scene should require a seating area, the steps can be used.) The rest of the setting was to be composed of a series of platforms and stairs, while the lighting effects were to be used to limit the acting areas. As Jordan Phillips describes, nLuis Rafael Sanchez, Antigona Pérez, pp. 11-12. 123 Lighting is highly important: Cre6n demands maximum lighting whenever he appears. It is used ably in areas to set apart Antigona when she speaks in aside, and the five newsmen who serve as inter-scene dispensers of the progress of the play and as reflections of the tyrants'; manipulation of the press and the public.1 Lighting is also used as an "alienation" device which reflects Cre6n's character when the transition from the first to the second act is achieved through a lighting cue which he orders.13 The starkness of the production elements is an extension of the play's total style. The language is poetic but also very precise. In this regard, Anglina Morfi writes: . . en esta obra e1 estilo dramatica de Luis Rafael Sanchez se ha depurado, vemos como el lenguage responde estrictamente al modo de ser de los personajes, no hay regodeo en expresiones bellas que no reflejen e1 caracter o la situaci6n. La frase poética surge natural, . .Y 1a poesia que satura su teatro anterior esta ahi pero esta intimamente ligada a1 desarrollo del tema, del acontecer dramatico y del ser heroico, traspasando e1 estilo periodistigo, directo y escueto y el dialogo de l6gica incisiva. (. . . in this play the dramatic style of Luis Rafael Sanchez has been refined, we see how language responds strictly to the pattern of behavior of the characters, no time is wasted in beautiful expressions that do not reflect the characters or the situation. The poetic phrases emerge naturally. . . . The poetry that saturates his previous theatre is here, but it is intimately linked to the development of the theme, to the dramatic event, to the heroic character. piercing through the journalistic style--direct and economical--and through the dialogue of incisive logic.) The Passion of Antigona Pérez was written in 1966 and first produced in Puerto Rico during the Eleventh Puerto Rican Theatre 12Jordan Phillips, Contemporary Puerto Rican Drama, p. 183. 13 14 Luis Rafael Sanchez, Antigona Pérez, pp. 86-87. Angelina Morfi, "El teatro de Luis Rafael Sanchez," p. 48. 124 Festival in 1968. The production was directed by Pablo Cabrera. The collaborative effbrts of playwright and director were well received by the island critics. Juan Luis Marquez states: Juzgando con serena objetividad, e1 Undécimo festival de Teatro presentado por el Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquefia, que estuvo a punto de fracasar por la pobreza de sus primeras obras, se salv6, y de manera exepcional, con la puesta en escena de "La pasi6n segfin Antigona Perez," del autor puertorriqueno Luis Rafael Sanchez. . . . Su direcci6n [Pablo Cabrera] que en muchas ocasiones tuvo caracteristicas del teatro épico, que glor1 f1 cara en 1930 f1 guras como Erwin Piscator en Alemania y Vesleod Mayerhold en Rusia, con la dinamica y controlada actuaci6n de muchos de los personajes y con sus escenas estaticas, con su vigoroso e imaginativo ritmo interno, contribuy6 en medida singular a dprle al espectaculo una poderosa presencia escénica. (Judging objectively, the Eleventh Theatre Festival produced by the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture was almost a total failure due to the poor quality of the plays produced, but it was saved in an exceptional way by the production of Puerto Rican playwright Luis Rafael Sanchez' 5 Passion of Antigona Perez. . . .The diredtion [Pablo Cabrera] Which in many instances had characteristics of the epic theatre glorified in 1930 in Germany by Erwin Piscator and in Russia by V. Meyerhold, filled with dynamic and controlled acting and with tableau scenes of vigorous and imaginative internal rhythm, contributed in a singular manner to create the powerful stage presence of the spectacle.) Theatre critic Annie Fernandez of the San Juan Star also praised the production success of the Sanchez-Cabrera team: Working from Sanchez' spare yet suggestive treatment of the “Antigone" in a contemporary American context, Cabrera weaves an animated tapestry of crowds, repre- sentatives of the military, ecclesiastical and news media establishments together with Antigone's individual drama. From the opening tableau itself his imaginative ' 15Juan Luis Marquez, "Entre Mayas y Cundeamores: La pasi6n §egyn Antigona Pérez," El Mundo, 8 June 1968, p. 28. 125 mise-en-scene augurs well for "La pasi6n" as dramatic spec- tacle.16 ' As for the epic character of the production, Ms. Fernandez states: Perhaps the best theatrical stroke in the Sanchez- Cabrera collaboration is the highly effective use of five newsmen (armed with cameras, notepads and cigarettes) who gyrate among the principals and the crowds and offer the official version of local events in Molina salted with tidbits from the international scene. A more apt --or more Brechtian--handling of the classic chorus fOr a modern Antigone couldn't be desired.‘7 On May l8, 1972, the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre pro- duction of The Passion of Antigona Pérez, again directed by Pablo Cabrera, opened at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine. New York Times critic Howard Thomson wrote: Only genuine, stirring theatre performed in the nave of a huge church could make you forget the premises. Such is the culminative effect of "The Passion of Antigona Pérez," an updated "Antigone" by Luis Rafael Sanchez, which was given two perfbrmances in English by the bilingual Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre at thg theatre minded Cathedral of St. John the Divine." The opening night location also drew remarks from Daily News drama critic Tom McMorrow: 'Anti ona Pérez puts Passion in Cathedral' The Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, an admirable enterprise with fOrmidable leading players, brought a play of the spirit to a place of the spirit when they perfbrmed "The Passion of Antigona Pérez" in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine Wednesday and Thursday nights. 16Annie Fernandez Sein, "Passion According to Antigona Pérez," San Juan Star, l June 1968, p. l6. ”Ibid. 18 Howard Thomson, "Stagez‘Antigona Pérez," New York Times, 20 May 1972, p. 20. 126 It is a shame that the company has departed the ecstasy of the Cathedral because it is a helluva place to see a story that has a lot to do with man's right to enter heaven. From the Cathedral the group toured through thirteen other indoor locations in metropolitan New York, including the Greenwich Maws 20 Theatre. A second, outdoor run of the show started on August 7 and ended August 26.21 The complete run was performed in English. Charles Pilditch, who had previously translated Rene Marqués' The Oxcart, was in charge of the translation. Pilditch was unable to transpose the poetic images of the Spanish-language original into similar images in English. The outcome was a somewhat corny literal translation. In this respect, the Daily News reviewer said, If The Passion of Antigona Pérez comes off less effectively thanlmight'be hoped, part of the fault may be laid at the door of the foundations, well-estab- lished as dubious judges of quality, which assigned a thoroughly competent translator, who lays no claim to being a writer to the job of preparing "Antigona Pérez" for Americans.22 And he furthers his argument with an example: 19Tom McMorrow, "Antigona Pérez Puts Passion in Cathedral," New York Daily News, 20 May 1972, p. 23. 20Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Program Notes fbr the production of The Passion of Antigona Pérez, New York, summer 1972. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 21Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, "Plays presented by the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, l967-1977." Record of plays produced, New York, l977. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 22 p. 23. Tom McMorrow, "Antigona Pérez Puts Passion in Cathedral," 127 She [Antigona] has a scene with her mother in which she obviously is parent and the foolish mother, the child. She says, in an apostrophe to the audience, "My mother looks at her past like a faded postcard." A writer might have helped with something like: "She fbndles her past like a faded post card." That is what this play lacks . . .23 Anthony Mancini of the New York Post also questions the translation: The play itself is not without its shortcomings, although perhaps they stem from the translation. Some of the lines are embarrassingly corny: "With Fernando life must be taken in small sips like a rare liqueur whose flavor lingers" . . . But there are good lines too: Cre6n's wife Pilar to Antigona: "I'm still the same one who is too proud to see you die tonight because you will be the center of attraction." Another difficulty emerges from the interpretation of the concept "America" from its connotation within the context of the Latin American reality to its meaning in the United States as a synonym for the country. Antigona wants to address the issues "de los que crecimos en una América dura, America amarga, América tomada."25 ("of us who have been raised in a hard America, a bitter America, a taken America.") Her "taken America" is Hispanic America; first taken by the European settlers and conquerors and, within the context of the play, now "taken" by local repressive regimes supported by U.S. interests. Repeated news flashes report U.S. support of Creén's dic- 26 tatorship over the Republic of Molina. Near the conclusion of the 23 24Anthony Mancini, "Antigona Takes to the Streets," New York Post, l0 August l972, p. 2l. 25 Ibid. Luis Rafael Sanchez,'Antigona Pérez, p. 14. 251mm. Pp. 16-18. 128 play, Antigona addresses the victims of tyranny by chanting in verse, "America, no Cedas; America, no sufras; America, no pierdas; America, no mueras; América, prosique; América, despierta; America, tranquila; 27 América, alerta.“ Pilditch's translation of this passage reads: “America, don't yield; America, don't wait; America, don't loose, America, don't die; America, be calm; America, watch out."28 Perhaps the cadence and meaning of the original is better captured in the fbllowing: "Don't yield America; don't suffer, America; don't loose, America; don't die, America; ahead, America; awake America; be calm, America; beware, America." Still,the confusion created by the meaning of "America" remains. This is the subject of Fiet's article "Luis Rafael Sanchez's The Passion of Antigona Pérez: Puerto Rican Drama in North American Performance." Was Antigona sending a message to the United States (the audience's America) to intervene in her Latin American homeland? Was she boldly rejecting the assumed right of the United States to characterize it- self as America? Or, was she warning U.S. citizens that what was happening in the fictional country of Molina was possible in their own nation? 9 And he concludes, Although Antigona's "America" does not directly include the United States, the play assumes additional thematic qualities when perfbrmed fbr North American audiences. What we in the United States egotistically consider America is redefined and Antigona Pérez calls to the people of all Western Hemisphere nations--All American 271bid., p. 104. 28Luis Rafael Sanchez, The Passion of Antigona Pérez (Un- published translation by Charles PilditEh)’Act II, scene 2T1 , 29Lowell Fiet, "Luis Rafael Sanchez's The Passion of Antigona Perez," p. 97. 129 countries--to exagine themselves in terms of the "passion" being performed. The "passion" was performed in New York with Miriam Col6n as Antigona. Opposite her was Manu Tupou as Cre6n. According to Anthony Mancini, the scenes of confrontation were very effective and a tribute to fine acting: A good share of the credit belongs to the two main perfbrmers. Miriam Col6n plays the valiant, doomed Ant1gona with understated conviction and a kind of calm, resolute passion. And Manu Tupou, an imposing six-foot-plus Polynesian actor who combines great presence with a beautiful voice and solid talent, was brilliant as the banana republic dictator General1simo Creén Molina. The scene in which he tries to convince Ant1gona to renounce her principles and escape the firing squad (Sophggles had her buried alive) is parti- cularly affecting. Playing other leading roles were June Adams as Creén's wife Pilar, Peter Blaxill as Monsignor Escudero, Mary Bell as Antigona's mother Aurora, and Irene de Bari as Irene, Antigona's close friend.32 As fbr the directing by Cabrera, the New York Times review stated, Last night the play, the players and the very setting of the Church, merged no less than hautingly, under Pablo Carera'g understanding direction. Nothing more was needed. 3 The Daily News review also praised the overall quality of the produc- tion: "They are top-notch actors, and the direction of Pablo Cabrera, 3OIbid., p. 98. 31Anthony Mancini, "Antigona Takes to the Streets," p. 2l. 32Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Program Notes for the produc- tion of The Passion of Ant1gona Pérez. 33 Howard Thomson, "Stage: Antigona Pérez," p. 20. 130 and the settings, lighting and technical effects are all big theatre."34 Aside from their New York City tour, the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre took the production to the city of Boston during the month of August. The actors confronted a hostile audience. A letter by Miriam Colén to Boston Mayor Kevin White reveals rivalries between Cuban exiles and Puerto Ricans in the city, and specifically at the Jamaica Bay neighborhood where the company attempted unsuccessfully to perform. The letter, in part, reads: It seems to me that the incident of violence that took place in Jamaica Bay was planned. We saw elements arriving at the place, forming different fronts, and at a specific moment, they went into action. The argument that they wanted the play in Spanish is not entirely convincing. When we announced that it was going to be in English not a stir was heard in the audience. When a synopsis of it was read in Spanish some people applauded. . . Later, we fbund out some of them were accusing the play of being communistic. . I am sure you remember that Sophocles' Antigone dies defending the principle of freedom of the individual, the principle of democracy, rather than accepting a dictatorship. Mr. Luis Rafael Sanchez . . follows the Sophoclean theme. . . . The only difference is that he sets his action in an unidentified Latin American country. . . . The Puerto Rican and Cuban communities of Boston are struggling at the bottom; fighting among Ehem- selves, looking for a direction, a center, a voice. A more peaceful incident of audience involvement was also recorded by Miriam Colén in a letter to Luis Rafael Sanchez: 34Tom McMorrow, "State Aided Plays: One Tastey, One Turkey," New York Daily_News, 22 May 1972, p. 49. 35Miriam Colén, letter to Boston's Mayor Kevin White, City Hall Plaza, l September l972. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 131 En la funci6n que dimos junto a la fuente del Lincoln Center, un joven puertorriqueno endrogado subi6 al escenario durante mi escena con Irene. Vino directamente a mi con los brazos abiertos, me abraz6, me dijo su nombre, me pidi6 que lo ayudara y tambien anadi6 que acababa de salir de un hospital. Dejé a Irene en la escena y con mucha suavidad tome de la mano al muchacho. Le dije que dentro de poco iba a hablar con el y que se sentara por all1 cerca del escenario pues yo lo atender1a muy pronto. Me obedeci6 tan dulcemente, tan d6cil, que apenas pude continuar la escena con Irene. . . . Una senora prequnt6 si tal vez ese era el personaje de Fernando. (During the performance staged in front of the Lincoln Center fbuntain a young Perto Rican drug-addict stepped on the set while I was engaged in a dialogue with Irene. He walked directly towards me with open arms, he embraced me, told me his name, he asked fer help and added that he had just been released from the hOSpital. I left the scene and softly held his hand. I told him that I would soon be with him, that he should sit very close to the stage, that I would take care of him in a while. He obeyed so sweetly and peacefully, that I almost could not continue my scene with Irene. . . . A lady later asked if he was an actor playing the role of Fernando.) The Passion of Antigona Pérez was later staged during Michigan State University's l975 Summer Circle Free Festival and at the Loeb Center at Harvard University during 1977. Both English-language versions were directed by Vicente Castro.37 The play was revived in Spanish by Colectivo Nacional de Teatro (National Theatre Collective) in l976 during the First National Sample of Theatre produced by the newly fbunded Corporaci6n Puertorriquefia de Grupos de Teatro (Puerto Rican Corporation of Theatre Groups) in Puerto Rico. The production under the direction of José Luis Ramos lacked the sparkle and quality w 36Miriam Col6n, Letter to Luis Rafael Sanchez, 27 August l972. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 37Lowell Fiet, pp. 97-98; and Program Notes for the produc- tion of The Passion of Antigona Pérez at Loeb Center, Harvard Univer- sity, l977. 132 of the l968 and 1972 productions. Vocero critic Ram6n Porrata summarized the outcome: "La pasi6n segfin Antigona Pérez" como cr6nica hist6rica corre el riesgo de ser mal interpretada. El drama de Luis Rafael Sanchez contiene otros méritos que los que quedan representados en esta escenificacion. (The Passion of Antigona Pérez, an historical chronicle runs the risk of being miSinterpreted. Luis Rafael Sanchez' drama contains more merits than the ones being represented in this production.) The production of Tha Passion of Antigona Pérez is particularly important to the history of the PRTT for several reasons: (1) with the exception of René Marqués' The Oxcart, the play, in its original language, has received more critical acclaim than any other recent example of Puerto Rican Theatre; (2) it brought the PRTT in contact with a new and broader range of dramatic materials, with a style and themes departing from the poetic realism which characterized much of the group's early work; (3) the production incorporated new and important artistic collaborators such as Pablo Cabrera into the group; and (4) it emphasizes the PRTT's continued commitment to plays and ideas emerging from the Puerto Rican theatre. The Passion of Antigona Pérez was only one of several projects undertaken by the PRTT in l972. By the time the summer tour started, the company had already inaugurated an Experimental Laboratory located at l24 West l8th Street (sixth floor) in Manhattan. Its first two productions were: Aspagguanza ("An Evening of Puerto Rican Protest Poetry") and Ceremony for an Assassinated Black Man by Fernando Arrabal 38Ram6n Porrata, "Colectivo Nacional presenta Antigona" (San Juan) Vocero, l6 February l976, p. 12. 133 directed by Jaime S6nchez.39 On May, l972, the group also sponsored the Puerto Rican street theatre group Agamg_and their production of Pipo Subway no sabe reir ("Pipo Subway Can't Laught") by Jaine Carrero.40 Pipo Subway no sabe reir portrays the struggles of a Puerto Rican boy in East Harlem in his attempt to acquire a new bicycle. Through a simple plot, Pipo, his mother and friends create a microcosm for the airing of problems such as unemployment, school discrimination witchcraft, consumer mentality, the dissolution of the family and misconceptions about the island. As a result of Agamgfs production, a PRTT touring production of Pipo Subway was scheduled fer the end of the l972 summer. The PRTT sponsored production by 59399, directed by Pablo Cabrera, was highly stylized, using adult actors in the children's roles and having the role of the mother played by a male actor with a half mask in order to create a "larger than life" vision of ghetto problems; whereas the PRTT's own interpretation, directed by Jaime 41 Sinchez, attempted to portray the characters realistically. The Parks Department donated $9,300 towards the traveling production of 39Program Notes for the production of The Passion of Antigona Pérez. 40Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Program Notes for the produc- tion of Pipo Subway_no sabe reir, staged by Anamfi, New York, May l972. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 4llbid., and Manuel Galich, "El teatro puertorriquefio dentro del nuevo teatro latinoamericano," Conjunto 26 (octubre-diciembre, l975 : 64. 134 Pipo Subway. Puerto Rican dramatist Jaime Carrero was to have two more of his plays staged by the PRTT; Flag Inside in l973 at the Laboratory Theatre and N00 Yall as the 1973 summer touring production. The tiny sixty-seat laboratory theatre where Pipo Subway was originally staged, was also the home of the newly established Training Unit. Over lOO youngsters and adults ranging from ages l0 to 50 registered for the courses. The courses included the Principles of Acting, Speech (in the Spanish language), Body Movement, Speech (in the English Language), and Improvisation. The classes were conducted after school hours [and] on Saturdays at our Training Unit located at 124 West l8th Street (6th floor) in Manhattan.42 On September 10, l972, the first group of students to complete the three-month training period presented a program to demonstrate their talents and received a certificate of accomplishment from the company.43 The original teaching staff was composed of William Maloney from the Speech Department of the Herbert Berghof Studio, Allan Miller of the Actors Studio, dancer Aida Alvarez, actress 44 Carla Pinza, and Iris Martinez as Unit director. More recent staff members include Pablo Cabrera, Padjet Fredericks, Sandra Gallardo, Lily Lodge Marcus, Janet Coleman and Joseph Lliso, among other. By June, l975, the company had given certificates to five 45 "graduating classes." Receiving its major funding from the New York 42 43Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Program Notes for the Training Unit's final project, New York, l972. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 44 45Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Program Notes fer the Training Unit's final project, New York, 1975. Files of the Puerto Rican Travel- ing Theatre. Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, "Report, l972," p. 2. Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, "Report, 1972," p. 2. 135 State Council on the Arts and the Expansion Arts Program of the National Endowment fer the Arts, the Training Unit has continued to advance theatre as a career alternative for minority students, to help all the participants express themselves, to increase the students' awareness of the international dramatic and poetic literature, and to emphasize the study of their own cultural heritage. Fifty-six of the sixty-six graduating students from the l975 course had Spanish surnames.46 The Training Unit and the Laboratory Theatre have become permanent fixtures of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, which until l972 had been known solely for its summer touring ventures. A total of $lll,438 in grants was employed by the PRTT far all the projects undertaken during l972 (see pp. 68). The 1973 Season During 1973, the PRTT received $l32,l48 in grants, an amount exceeding that of any previous year. The grant awarded by Model Cities provided for a second Training Unit in the South Bronx.47 In January, the Laboratory Theatre produced JammaCarrero's Sin Bandera ("Flag Inside").48 The play deals with the theme of compulsory military service and how the Viet Nam War affects a 46 47Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Program Notes for the produc- tion of Flag Inside, New York, l973. Files of the Puerto Rican Travel- ing Theatre. 48Jaime Carrero, Fla Inside (Unpublished playscript, Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, . 1 es of the Puerto Rican Travelinq Theatre. Ibid. 136 conservative Puerto Rican family. A soldier, who dies in Viet Nam, has left a letter expressing his wishes about what is to be done if he dies: no flowers, no prayers, no military symbols and no flags. The rejection of the U.S. flag by a veteran is too much for his family to deal with. The fear of loosing her job in an ultra-conservative community forces the dead veteran's sister to ignore his final wishes, and she places the U.S. flag on the coffin. The realistic drama has a symbolic element: Carrero has introduced a deaf-mute child, not unlike Kattrin in Brech's Mother Courage, who engages in a surrealistic ballet with the flag. In a violent frenzy, she succeeds in fulfilling her brother's wishes, tearing and stomping on the U.S. flag. In so doing, she becomes the symbol of the Puerto Rican spirit struggling to maintain its identity in the shadow of "the colossus of the North." In the summer of 1973, Jaime Carrero had another play produced by the PRTT: Noo Yall ("New York").49 The comedy about preparations for the Puerto Rican Day parade in New York City was directed by Pablo Cabrera. Once again the theme is assimilation versus national identity. Its content was summarized in the Daily News review: Without ever losing its sense of humor, it tells of a group of people who live, or hang out, in and around a tenement building and how they hang 8n to, or try to lose, their own national identity.5 49Jaime Carrero, Noo Yall (Unpublished playscript, Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, 1973). Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 50Patricia O'Haire, "Noo Yall—~Lively Play," New York DaiLy News, 29 August l973, p. 60. 137 The play, written in a rhythmic vaudeville style, draws its characters in broad strokes from typical personages expected to be fbund in the Latin ghetto. They range from the idealistic young artist to the cynical college student. Four neighborhood dropouts, each named Ram6n, embody the concept of sameness and repetition bred into the minds of social workers that come to study the flamboyant species. A pompous character parading around in the uniform of a nineteenth century Spanish general adds a touch of the commedia style to the play. His goal is to be named Grand Marshal of the Puerto Rican Day parade. His rival is the omnipresent Puerto Rican mother, who, like her Jewish counterpart, is constantly engaged in the process of protecting her offspring. As Edmund Newton of the New York Times states: It is she, after all, who wins the spiritual struggle at the end, as all but the hapless Grand Marshal go off to plan a counter parade to protest that sanitized 5] version of Puerto Ricans to be served on Fifth Avenue. The production's musical score was composed by Ray Barretto and the set was designed by Peter Harvey. It toured throughout seventeen loca- tions in Brooklyn, Bronx, Manhattan, Long Island and New Jersey.52 While the English language production of N00 Yall was meeting its hectic schedule, the Spanish-language version of Moliere's Ihg_ Doctor in Spite of Himself53 by Spanish playwright Miguel Moratin, 51Edmund Newton, "Noo Yall Opens, Set to Tour Parks," New. York Post, 28 August l973, p. 20. 52Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Program Notes for the produc- tion of N00 Yall, New York, l973. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 53Moliere, El médico agpalos, trans. Miguel Moratin (Madrid: Editorial Aguilar, 1945). 138 which had been staged during June and July at the Laboratory Theatre, was revived fer touring. Ten locations were visited and the play closed the 1973 season in Central Park during the festivities of the Fiesta Folkl6rica Puertorrigggflaf (Puerto Rican Folklore Festival). The style and the exclusive use of Spanish in this short touring produc- tion reflect the Spanish language productions of comedies by Federico Garcia Lorca and Luis Rafael Sénchez during the l967-l972 period. The l974 Season With the acquisition of the Laboratory Theatre, the production activities of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre were intensified. A double bill including Gerald Paul Marin's Al final de la ca11e54 ("At the End of the Street") and Luis Rafael Sénchez' monologue L9§_ 55 ( 6ngeles se han fatigado I'The Angels are Exhausted") initiated the l974 bilingual season. "Las producciones podr6n ser vistas en inglés los jueves y viernes y en espafiol los sSbados a las ocho de 1156 ("The la noche y los domingos a las tres de la tarde solamente. productions can be seen in English on Thursdays and Fridays and in the Spanish language on Saturdays at eight P.M. and Sundays at three.") 54Gerald Paul Marin, Al final de la calle (Unpublished play- script, Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, 1974). Files of the Puerto Rican Travelinq Theatre. 55Luis Rafael Sénchez. Los 6nqeles se han fatigado in Cuarto ~ Festival de Teatro Puertorriqueno, Instituto de ColturafPuertorriguena, V01. 4"(Barcelona: Edici6nes Rumbos, l96l), pp. 623-674. 56Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, "El Teatro Rodante Puertorri- queno presentar6 dos obras contemporéneas," Press release, New York, January l974. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 139 Al final de la calle depicts the lives of the tenants of a Fortaleza Street building in San Juan, close to the governor's mansion, during the l950 Nationalist uprising. The PRTT staged only two of the three acts. In the first act, a militant young Nationalist is torn between his love fer his wife and his equally strong love fer the land which he wants to see free from fbreign domination. He chooses the latter and goes to fulfill his duty by attacking the governor's mansion where he is killed by the guards. The second act staged by the PRTT, actually the third in the original, deals with the confusion created by a policeman trying to avoid a confrontation with the Nationalists and a senile lady who decides that the policeman wants to evict her from her home because she has failed to pay the rent for the last fifteen months. The romantic style of the first act contrasts with the comedy of errors style of the last one. Luis Rafael Sanchez' two act monologue Los 6ngeles se han fatigado completed the bill. A demented prostitute lives in a fantasy world, recreating her past life and making up a dream world about the wealth she has lost. Located on another San Juan street, Sol l3- interior, Sénchez portrays the psychological realm as opposed to Marin's depiction of the social and political events. Sénchez employs flashback techniques to describe the circumstances causing the moral and physical deterioration of the character. Nevertheless, the political element is present. The angels, as the protagonist called the U.S. army officials which came to visit her, transfbrmed themselves into destructive beasts. Luego se iban convirtiendo en bestias. Y aquellos angeles que en el principio eran santos y serenos y buenos se 1ban 140 convirtiendo en buigres enloquecidos mordiendo como culebras venenosas. (Then they turned into beasts. And those angels which at the beginning were serene and saintly and good be- came vultures who madly kissed, biting like poisonous vipers.) Los 6ngeles se han fatigado and Al final de la calle ran simultaneously 58 for fbur consecutive weekends at the PRTT's Laboratory Theatre. During the month of May, the Laboratory Theatre produced three pieces by short story writer Pedro Juan Soto: The Guest, Scribbles, 59 and The Innocent. The latter had already been staged during the l97l summer season as one of the pieces of the Dramatized Anthology of Puerto Rican Short Stories. The three pieces by Soto deal with the process of desensitizing the Puerto Rican in the City of New York. Village Voice critic Arthur Sainer expressed his desire to see these pieces in a style better suited to addressing the social problems they reveal. He states, The plays have a sweetness to them, a poignancy that suggests the works have come out of feelings rather than ideas about feelings. And they engage universal sympathies even as they speak to the particular plight of Puerto Ricans trying to find viable modes of exis- tence in New York today. In a sense, since the plays speak to a community in sympathy with its problems they ought to confront a critical mind that is also deep into those problems. A Puerto Rican critic might not see these 57Luis Rafael Sénchez, Los 6ngeles se han fatigado, p. 639. 58Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Program Notes fer the pro- ductions of Al final de la calle and Los 6ngeles se han fatigado, New York, Summer 1974. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 59Pedro Juan Soto, The Guest, Scribbles, The Innocent (Un- published playscript, Puerto Rican lraveling Theatre,l974). Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 141 plays as throwbacks to the Odets era. But, in another sense it's valuable to have an eye who can see the work in the context of theatre history and in that context one can see fresher approaches to the material, a la the work of El Teatro Compesino or the Mime Troupe or the Bread and Puppet's. I am n6t suggesting that the approach changes the nature of the problem, but that the problem can be more appropriately seen, that worn-out forms tgnd to blur vision and that new forms tend to sharpen focus. 0 The three pieces played at the Laboratory Theatre in both English and Spanish, and The Guest was chosen to be televised by WNBC-TV. The program, directed for television by Paul Freedman, was broadcast on Sunday, July 7, at ten P.M. The New York Times review had this headline: "TV: An Absorbing Puerto Rican Drama on WNBC; Station's 61 Attention to Minorities Shifting." The "old-fashioned" style of the piece that had been criticized by the Village Voice was praised by reviewer John J. O'Connor: "The Guest" proved to be a quietly effective and absorb- ing slice of "folk theatre," a fbrm with city roots going back to Yiddish theatre in the nineteenth century. The structure is simple: three sisters in New York argue over who will take care of their aged father as he lies dying in the next room. The language is direct, fastening onto everyday experiences of immediate impact to the audience. 2 The review concludes with an observation: Moral: If this is the type of programing being stimulated by the pressure groups, more power to the pressure groups. By paying intelligent attention to their communities, the 60Arthur Sainer, "The Ethnic Question, Realism and Ritual," Village Voice, 20 June l974, p. l8. 61John J. O'Connor, "TV: An Absorbing Puerto Rican Drama in WNBC; Station's Attention to Minorities Shifting," New York Times, lO July l974, p. 75. 62 Ibid. 142 stations are managing, tentatively, to improve their product.63 Two English language productions toured the streets of New York 64 during the l974 summer season: Payment as Pledged by Brazilian 65 playwright Alfredo Dias G6mes and The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit by U.S. short story writer Ray Bradbury. A combined total of twenty- seven performances was staged that summer. Payment as Pledged, written in 1960, deals with the struggle of a peasant to fulfill a pledge to Saint Barbara and the obstacles that he encounters. In l962, the play received the National Theatre Award, the $60 Paulo Governor's Award and the Best Brazilian Play Award, and its film version won the Golden Palm Award from the l962 Cannes Film Festival66 The l974 summer production by the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre was praised by the critics: In a vibrant production, the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre Company establishes a careful balance between the broad acting necessary to street theatre and 698 credibility needed to keep the play from preaching. The action of the play develops in front of a town church. Peter Harvey's set was substituted on one occasion for the natural 63 64Alfredo Dias G6mes, El pagador de promesas in Primer Acto 75 (Fall 1966): 22-47. 65Ray Bradbury, The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit (New York: Bantam, l972). Ibid. 66"Introducci6n" to El pagador de promesas in Primer Acto, p. 22. 67Debbi Wasserman, "gayment as Pledged," Show Business, 22 August 1974, p. 7. 143 setting of the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine (see Appendix F for photos). Contrary to the tradition of the PRTT of "nationalizing" the texts, Payment as Pledged retained its Brazilian setting and allusions without attempting to bring them closer to the Puerto Rican experience. Mercedes Batista, a Brazilian dancer and teacher whose fblkloric company has toured Latin America and Europe, was in charge of the choreography of the “capoeira"--a traditional Afro-Brazilian dance--which opened the third act. The play has had a wide appeal for other Latin theatre groups in New York; the l974 summer production by the PRTT had been preceded by three others in both Spanish and the 68 original Portuguese. The summer bill was completed by Bradbury's The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit, a short play about six Latin men who save enough money to buy a beautiful white suit and their adventures while sharing it. Ten performances were scheduled, ending the 1974 summer touring season on August 3l. 69 The l975 Season and Piri, Papaleto, and_fiedro, and If You Promise Not to 1.earn'U l975 began with the staging of two Arrabal plays in the Laboratory Theatre: Cerenony for an Assasinated Black 68Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Program Notes for the produc- tion of Payment as Pledged,New York, Summer 1974. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 69Piri Thomas, Jesfis Papoleto Meléndez, Pedro Pietri, Piri, Pa oleto and Pedro, Directed b Pablo (Unpublished playscript, P uerto Rican Traveling Theatre, 1975). Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 7OOsvaldo Dragfin, Historias_para ser contadas, trans. Pablo Cabrera and Ricardo Matamoros (Unpublished playscript, Puerto Rican Tra- veling Theatre, 1975). Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 144 71 L421 72 and The Two Executioners. The plays, exercises in cruelty "a la Genet," ran fer three weeks in the traditional fashion of alter- nating performances in both Spanish and English. Ceremony fer an Assassinated Black Man was later chosen fer isolated touring engage- ments. Its original production, directed by Miriam Col6n, was highly praised by Clive Barnes: It is all madness--cra2y, decadent madness a perverse, but always humorous, glance at corruption. Black comedy has rarely been blacker, but it is heartless, rootless and therefore, in final count, pointless. Directed by Miss Colon (the imaginative set designs for both plays are by John Branon), the play is extremely well done. The deranged actors are beautifully played by Mr. Kerner and, with special virtuoso gusto, James Victor, but the whole cast is admirable. And, as always with Arrabal, the fetid images of insanity linger in the mind. The two Arrabal plays were fbllowed by an evening of "Nuyorican" poetry written and performed by Piri Thomas, Jesfis Papoleto Meléndez and Pedro Pietri. Under the direction of Pablo Cabrera, the poets were acconpanied by six actors in a dramatized version of their poetry. A combination of wit, humor, hope, despair, frustra- tion and anger heightened by searing poetic images was presented in theatrical fbrm. The production is unique in the work of the PRTT, for only rarely has the group dealt so directly with themes emerging from the contradictions of the "Nuyorican" experience, and even the most 7lFernando Arrabal, Ceremonia pgr un negro asesinado (Un- published playscript, Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, 1975). Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 72Fernando Arrabal, Los dos verdu os (Unpublished playscript, Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, 1975). 1 es of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 73Clive Barnes, "Stage: Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre at Home," New York Times, 25 February l975, p. 43. 145 humorous pieces by Pedro Pietri convey the constant struggle of the Puerto Rican in the vortex of New York City. In an interview for a Rochester newspaper, Miriam Col6n comments on the recurrent moods and themes of the "Nuyorican" literature: But very few of our writers find anything humorous to write about. The mood of the writers, and especially the poets, is angry, pained, anguished. It's hard to extract humor from the living conditions they see Hispanic people living in. Their work is an observation of what's going on, and it's a harsh commentary.74 A deeper analysis of some of the themes exposed in the poetic selections chosen for this theatrical production uncovers another aspect of the Puerto Rican experience, which is no longer the life of the traditional middle-class or healthy peasant family on the island or in New York, but the harsh reality of the ghetto, with its rats and cockroaches, with its deaths and hopes. Following a dramatic format which later characterized productions such as For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf, Cabrera brought to the stage the real experience of the majority of the Puerto Rican population in New York. The three sections or acts are named: Message to Urban Sightseers by Papoleto, A Poetic Essense of Down these Mean Streets by Piri Thomas and Puerto Rican Obituary by Pedro Pietri. Each poet, raised in New York and of Puerto Rican descent, expresses his particular view of his environment. An article printed in El Diario-La Prensa describes the poems: 74Mary Rita Kurycki,"Puerto Rican Theatre for the Common People," (Rochester, New York) Democrat and Chronicle, 8 June l975, p. lH. 146 La obra de estos tres poetas, que forman parte integral de la literatura puertorriquena, resume en imagines cortas y vivas el viaje de inocencia a experiencia ’ que ha sido cruzado por todo puertorriqueno, ya sea el 0 ella de La Perla, el Barrio, 0 el sur del Bronx. Esa es su 6ptica, su visi6n y Nueva York, la experien- cia. Una poesia pensada y ejecutada con la firmeza y exactitud que uno normalmente encuentra en los me- jores artistas gr6ficos. 75 (The work of these three poets, which is an integral part of the Puerto Rican literature, depicts in short and live images the journey from innocence to ex- perience that has been felt by the Puerto Ricans, from La Perla to the Barrio to the South Bronx. A well thought poetry executed with the firmness and pre- ciseness one usually find in the best of graphic artists.) With the staging of this experiment in dramatic poetry, it can be said that all aspects of the Puerto Rican experience have been covered through the selections produced by the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, for without the “exile" experience in the depths of the ghetto, the Puerto Rican saga is not complete. The poetry of the "Nuyorican“ poets is filled with juxtaposed images of the New York and the Puerto Rican scenery. They define themselves as products of their parents' strong Hispanic ties and the ghetto world which surrounds them. The description of the Puerto Rican environment is rich in unpolluted elements of nature in which palm trees, coconuts, the ocean and fresh air dominate. Their view of urban New York is of a leaden nature: fire escapes, overdoses, death and despair. For the "Nuyorican" poets, the Caribbean island turns into an enchanted paradise where goodness and happiness prevail. This romantic conception often leads them to half truths and illusory 75"Teatro Rodante Puertorriquefio presenta Piri, Pa oleto Pedro, dirigidos por Pablo" (New York) Diario-La Prensa, g M6y lg75, p. 14. 147 statements of hope. The first poem of the dramatized anthology describes, through a child's eyes, both worlds: Palm trees and Cocos [coconuts] and Aguacates [avocados] and Guayaba [guava] Don't grow in my back yard Green waves and clear waters and fresh air Don't touch me and make me free And when I climb our fire escapes I don't pretend to search for cocos I'm the cowboy and you're Indian I ride off into the sunset and when Mami sits me on her lap and remembers San Juan Agaadilla and Cocos and Aguacates and Guayabas Green waves and Clear Waters Fresh Air She smiles and I dream of Central Park and Squirrels76 The same themes are captured in the last verses of the production's closing poem written by Pedro Pietri. The poem, a saga of the "Nuyorican" experience is a requiem to those who, crushed by an overpowering system, aim their hostilities towards their fellow Puerto Ricans. Its ending praises the advantages of living on the island over the trauma that is living, or as Pietri says, dying in New York: 76Jesfis Papoleto Meléndez, "When Mami Sits Me on Her Lap“ in Piri Papoleto and Pedro, Directed by Pablo (Unpublished playscript, Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, 1975). Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 148 And now they are together in the main lobby of the void Addicted to silence Off limits to the wind Confined to worm supremacy in Long Island cemetery Here lies Miguel Here lies Milagros Here lies Olga Here lies Manuel Who died yesterday, today, and will die again tomorrow Always broke Always owing Never knowing that they are beautiful people Never knowing the geography of their complexion Puerto Rico is a beautiful place Puertorriquefios are a beautiful race If only they had kept their eyes open at the funeral of their fellow employees who came to this country to make a fortune and were buried without underwear Juan, Miguel, Milagros, Olga, Manuel Would right now be doing their own thing where beautiful people sing and dance and work together where the winner's a stranger to miserable weather conditions where you do not need a dictionary to communicate with your hermanos [brothers] Aqui se habla expanol siempre [Here Spanish is always spoken] Aqui you salute your flag first Aqui there are no dial soap commercials Aqui everybody smells good Aqui TV dinners do not have a future Aqui the man admires, desires and never gets tired of his woman Aqui "que pasa power" es what's happening 77 Aqui to be called Negrito means to be called Love An additional element seldom present in the work of the Puerto Rican dramatists is evident in the work of the "Nuyorican" poets: racial consciousness. In the U.S., the Puerto Rican emigrants face a racial awareness not experienced in their homeland. Entering a race 77 Pedro. Pedro Pietri, "Puerto Rican Obituary" in Piri, Papoleto and 149 conscious society and sharing with the U.S. black population the poorest areas of the city, has made the second-generation Puerto Ricans borrow patterns of behavior as well as elements of language from their neighbors. Words like "brother," "beautiful people," "soul," and such concepts as the perfect and pure homeland, which is Puerto Rico for the exiled "Nuyorican," find corresponding values in the Black experience. A racial consciousness is imposed on the already present national consciousness.78 In the dramatized poems written by Piri Thomas, a Puerto Rican Black, the race issue is a reiterated theme. "Didn't get the Job" ends with: "Damn, oh damn. . . I did want that job/ Didn't get it though. . ./ I was the wrong 79 In "Sounds from a Street Kid" he talks about "a world 80 color." of name calling like Niggers and mucho Spicks." Hope is expressed fer the racial problem in his poem "Our World": I do not wish destruction to be our course, But I do not believe that all my brothers and sisters Among all the cities and all the mountains And all the valleys and by the sea, Can stop short of anything but dignity, No matter what their color might be.8 Even though the "Nuyorican" poetry is filled with despair and cynicism, it is also sprinkled by elements of humor and hope. 78Adalberto L6pez and James Petras, Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans, p. l22. 79Piri Thomas, "Didn't Get the Job" in Piri, Papoleto and Pedro. 80Piri Thomas, "Sounds from a Street Kid“ in Piri, Papoleto and Pedro. 81 Piri Thomas, "Our World" in Piri, Papoleto and Pedro. 150 "Consumer," a poem by Jesds Papoleto Meléndez, embodies both: In school There was some learning. What goes up Must come down. That's what the teacher said. So it is my guess There will be a sharp decline in the price of food. It will be free.82 The most hopeful message is stated in his poem "Against the Mighty Structure": The child Threw stones of earth Against the mighty structure that felt no pain And stones fell back onto this earth But this child had endless supplies of earth and stone He smiled tears And though I did not stay to see I knew the wall would fall.33 The "Nuyorican" poets write in English. Spanish words are only infrequently interjected into the poems. Alfredo L6pez, author of The Puerto Rican Papers, explains the reason for the usage of Spanish in the English poems: . even the Puerto Rican street poets, who write mainly in English, will sprinkle their poetry with Spanish phrases. . . because this is their way of telling our people that we stand together.84 82Jesfis Papoleto Meléndez, "Consumer" in Piri, Papoleto and Pedro. 83Jesfis Papoleto Meléndez, "Against the Mighty Structure" in Piri, Papoleto and Pedro. 84Alfredo L6pez, The Puerto Rican Papers (New York: Bobbs- Merrill, l973), p. l97. 151 For these Puerto Ricans, the process of creating in English has become a matter of survival. They fulfill in their creative process the statement of Franz Fanon that "every colonized people--in other words, every people in whose soul an inferiority complex has been created by the death and burial of its local cultural originality-- finds itself face to face with the language of the civilizing nation, that is, with the culture of the mother country."85 Although the possibility of the total assimilation into the U.S. culture of the new breed of Puerto Ricans who the "Nuyorican" poets represent exists, their ties with other elements of the Puerto Rican culture have pre- vented this from happening. They are, unlike the rest of the Puerto Rican writers, poets and dramatists that have been dealt with thus far, the only group emerging from the ranks of the ghetto society which constitutes the greater percentage of the Puerto Rican community 86 Paradoxically, while loosing some of the cultural in New York. traits of their homeland, they frequently grow closer to the roots of the Puerto Rican experience. The conditions they face in New York ghettos often fbrces an awareness of and a groping for identity as well as a recognition of the unique character of being Puerto Rican, even though the island is hundreds of miles away. 85Franz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (New York: Grove Press, l968), p. 236. 86"Census of Population: l970-General Social and Economic Characteristics; Final Report PC(l)-C53 Puerto Rico" (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, l972), Table 52, pp. 53-208. "Poverty Status in l969 of Families and Persons by Urban and Rural Residence" states that 59.6 percent of Puerto Rican families earned income lower than poverty level. 152 Both the social and artistic impact of this piece were recorded by Ram6n Porrata in his review: En Nueva York, practicamente la capital del Imperio que actualmente nos cautiva, el Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre est6 dedic6ndose al beneficio del teatro. La labor did6ctica que la compania ha realizado, cobra con la presente producci6n, un matiz de calidad y precisi6n temporal digno de ejemplificaci6n. Representar a1Nueva York y en 1975 la gesta heroica del puertorriqueno emigrado, es un indicio de compromiso artistico, no s6lo con la historicidad de una naci6n en progreso, Puerto Rico, sino con el desarrollo literario de la misma. Fundamentar un espect6culo teatral no en una pieza de arte dram6tico sino en poesias de estructura y emoci6n primitiva, es un indicio 0 un aviso de que una nueva época. . .que tiene cabida y garantia. 37 (In New York, practically the capital city of the Empire which imprisons us, the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre is dedicating itself to the art of theatre. The didactical task which the company has undertaken achieves with this production a quality and precision worth emulating. It stages in New York and in l975 the historical saga of the Puerto Rican emigrant through new literary developments. To base a theatrical spectacle not on a play but on poems of primitive emotion and structure is an indication of a new era . . . that has a place and a future.) The poems were sometimes enacted and other times interpreted through readings by the nine actors. Sub-plots and interactions between the interpreters were added to the written text by Pablo Cabrera. Long pieces were divided among the actors, creating individual characteri- zations. A script note before the poem "Puerto Rican Obituary" by Pedro Pietri, states, 87Ram6n Porrata, "El teatro est6 renaciendo en Nueva York" (Unpublished article, l975), pp. l-2. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 153 Please notice that this poem was reworked by Mr. Cabrera. No lines were cut in the final version. The poem was converted to dialogue using the author's identical words and using five or six different actors and actresses. Pietri, also wrote the introduction to Stories to be Told by Osvaldo Dragfin. The Argentinian play was adapted to the Puerto Rican experience by Pablo Cabrera and Ricardo Matamoros and toured the city during the l975 summer season under the title of If You Promise Not to Learn, I will Teach You a Few Things. In the already customary fashion of "nationalizing the classics," the PRTT substituted the Buenos Aires settings for New York ones. A peddler of Paddle balls becomes a New York street vendor selling umbrellas, jewelry and kitchen utensils and a lower class Argentinian worker is trans- fbrmed into a U.S. Black hired to fill a firm's minority quota. The play, composed of three different stories and enacted by a group of itinerant actors, is about dehumanization due to economic pressures. The Story of an Abscessed Tooth tells of a street vendor who has a tooth ache, cannot speak and, therefore, is unable to sell his merchandise. Nagged by his wife, and unable to afford the dentist‘s bill, he leaves for the streets to make a "last effort." He collapses and dies in the midst of indifferent bystanders. The Story of How our Friend Willie Gonzélez Felt Responsible for the Black Plague in South Africa is about a worker who is assigned the task of finding in- expensive meat to pack and ship to South Africa. He settles for rat meat, which earns him a medal fer erradicating the animals from the 88Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Script Note preceding "Puerto Rican Obituary" in Piri Papoleto and Pedro. 154 city but also inflicts on him the burden of responsibility for the outbreak of black plague in South Africa. He loses his job but questions his willingness to do it again if the price is right. 115; Story of the Man Who Became a Dog is about a worker, who, unable to find work, finally accepts a job as a watchman's dog. In so doing, he slowly loses his human identity and becomes a dog. The "stories" are written in presentational form with the actors directly addressing the audience. Exaggeration and humor are used to make each situation striking and new in the eyes of the spectator. Dragfin describes his style: Mi obra no tiene elementos melodram6ticos, lo que si tiene son elementos dram6ticos proyectados exagera- damente "ex- -profeso," casi llevados a la farsa. Hay que pensar en el teatro como gui6n para una acci6n, y por lo tanto rescatar todos los elementos que sean v6lidos para que esa acci6n se ponga en contacto con la gente. Por eso personalmente so me interesa la estructura realista convencional. Pero si, un teatro realista en cuanto a la actutud del autor frente a la realidad, no en cuanto a estructuras formales. . . Es m6s v6lido hoy el absurdo que la comedia tradicional porque puede ir acompanado de un contenido que interesa, que destruyggestructuras mentales que uno desea ver destruidas. (My plays do not have melodramatic elements, only dramatic elements projected through planned exaggera- tion, almost farcical. . . One has to think about theatre as a scenario fer an action, and for this reason one has to utilize all the valid elements that would make that action come in closer contact with the audience. That is why I am not interested in a realistic conventional structure. I am interested in a realistic theatre in terms of the attitude of the dramatist as he faces reality, and not in terms of formal structure. In these times, the absurd 89Osvaldo Dragfin, "Pr6logo" to El amasijo (Argentina: Calatayud Editor, 1968), pp. 5-6. 155 has more validity than the traditional drama because it can go hand in hand with a relevant context, which destroys mental structures that one wants to see destroyed.) Stories to be Told, written in l957, has been staged in Spain, France, Russia, Rumania, Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, as well as in the United 90 States. It was chosen in l977 as one of the American College Theatre Festival plays to be presented at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. performed by Texas A and I University.91 Reviews for the PRTT production were favorable: "Mr. Cabrera's direction makes the most of the script, by coloring it with lively characterizations, precise movement, and an energetic sense of "92 humor. New York Times reviewer Richard Eder found particular merit in the third story, the only one of the three that he considered good political theatre: ". . . the last ["The Story of the Man Who Turned Into a Dog"], dealing with the same theme of the exploitation of the poor man by the capitalist system, is suddenly and movingly bril- liant."93 He furthers his argument by praising the actor portraying the "dog": "Ernesto Gonz6lez plays the part stunningly. His 90Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Program Notes for the production of If You Promise Not to Learn, I Will Teach You a Few Thin s, New York, Summer 1975. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 9IACTF Newsletter 15 (April l977): 2-6. Production of Stories to Be ToldlByfilexas A and I University, directed by Joseph RosenBerry, Eisenhower Theatre, Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C., 4 April l977. 92Debbi Wasserman, "If You Promise. . ., Street Theatre fer Everyone," Show Bussiness,3l July l975, p. l4. 93Richard Eder, "Puerto Rican Troupe Brightens Way fer Street Weary," New York Times, 25 July 1975, p. l2. 156 transformation into a dog is a combination of anguish and grotesque determination. He brings the whole evening to life."94 The production was further praised in the French newspaper Le Monde, which described the impact, beginning with the introductory song by Pedro Pietri, on the audience. Dés ce moment, le public est conquis, et, malgré le bruit de la rue et les rumeurs de la grande ville, le spectateurs-—enfant compris--demeureront immobiles pendant plus d'une heure face 6 ces saltimbanques qui leur parlent, de sales métiers, de familles a nourrir et de vies de ch6meurs. . . Histories terribles que celle d'Osvaldo Dragfin: les spectateurs du théatre de rue ne s'y trompent pas. Depuis l967, la qualité de productions, le métier de comédiens, la farce des auteurs jovés--parmi eux Lorca, Arrabal, Jaime Carrero, Maxwell Anderson, et Moliére--ont fait du Théatre Itinérant Portoricain non pas un porte-drapeau, mais un vigie, un amplificateur, et peut-étre m6me un signal d'alarme dans l'instant oh les desfilés de protestation de Noires et de Portori- cains s'organisant de Elus en plus fréquentment dans les rues de New-York.9 (From that moment on, the public is won over, and in spite of the street noises and the sounds of the big city, the spectators--children included--remain motionless for more than an hour in front of the performers who tell them about little murders, dirty jobs, families to feed, and jobless lives. . . With such terrifying stories as those of Osvaldo Dragun, the spectators of the street theatre are not cheated. Since l967, the quality of the productions, the profes- sionalism of the actors, the force of the writers per- fbrmed--among them Lorca, Arrabal, Jaime Carrera, Maxwell Anderson, and Moliere--have made the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre Company not a flag bearer but a harbinger, an amplifier and signal of alarm at the moment When protest marches by blacks and Puerto Ricans are seen more and more frequently in the streets of New York. 94Ibid. 95Liliane Kerjan, "West Side Story l975, Theatre Portoricain Dans le Rues de New York" (Paris) Le Monde, 4 September l975, p. l6. 157 The 1975 productions of Stories to be Told, Piri, Papaleto, and Pedro directed by Pablo, Ceremony for an Assassinated Black Man, and The Two Executioners, plus the work of the Training Unit, were 96 made possible by grants and admission fees totaling $154,167.42 (see Appendix D). The amount of $47,500.00 of excess income over expenditures fer 1974 and 1975 was being saved for a theatre fund.97 In June, 1975, the news of the negotiations for a permanent home fer the PRTT appeared: The group has been negotiating for more than eight months to acquire a firehouse from Mayor Beame, Miss Col6n said. The members hope to convert the fire- house into a permanent theatre.98 The theatre fund, set aside fbr the rent or purchase of a better located and equipped theatre for the company, made it possible fer the PRTT to acquire a fbur-story firehouse at the Broadway theatre district as their new permanent home in 1977. Details about the new theatre and its meaning for the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre will be discussed in the Conclusion. The 1976 Season On March 4, 1976, the Experimental Laboratory of the PRTT opened its season with the dual language production of Roberto 96Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, "Statement of Financial Condition for the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre for the Fiscal Year ended September 30, 1975“ by accountant William Samovitz, New York, 1975. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 97Ibid. 98Mary Rita Kurycki, "Puerto Rican Theatre fer the Common People," p. 1H. 158 99 ( Rodriguez Su6rez' Las ventanas "The Windows"). The play premiered in New York in 1966 and was restaged in 1967 during the Tenth Puerto Rican Theatre Festival in Puerto Rico. It concerns the common theme of the Puerto Rican migrant in New York. Avoiding the tragic resolu- tion of previous dramas dealing with the same subject, Rodriguez solves the dramatic conflict by allowing his main character, Don Juan, an elderly gentleman trapped in his son's apartment, to flee his imprisonment and return to Puerto Rico. For once, the solution is one of action and not merely words. The play is divided into short scenes days and months apart from each other. Francisco Arrivi describes Rodriguez' style: Roberto Rodriguez Su6rez presenta este mundo y su vida de una manera personal, valido de observaciones realistas al tiempo que fraccionamientos y asordina- mientos impresionistas, p58cedimentos a los que se inclina como dramaturgo. (Roberto Rodriguez Su6rez depicts this world and its life from a personal point of view filled with realistic observations and impressionistic fragments that characterize the work of the dramatist.) The PRTT production closed after sixteen performances on March 28. On June 29, the Laboratory reopened with a double bill: Est6 101 ( estrictamente prohibido todo lo que no es obligatorio "Everything 99Roberto Rodriguez Su6rez, Las ventanas in Décimo Festival de Teatro Puertorriqueno, Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquefia (BarceTBna: Ediciones Rumbos, l968). 100Francisco Arrivi, "Décimo Festival ge Teatro Puertorriquefio,“ Revista del Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquena 39 (abril-junio, 1968): 41. 10lJorge Diaz, Ever thin not Co ulsor is Strictl Forbidden (Unpublished playscript, Puerto Rican Traveling Tfieatre, 1676). Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 159 not Compulsory is Strictly Forbidden") by Chilean dramatist Jorge Diaz 102 ( and El convidado "The Dinner Guest“) by Spanish playwright Manuel M. Mediero. The Daily News described the bill as follows: In what has to go down as its most ambitious project to date, the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre has kicked off its tenth season by staging its very first musical comedy 'Eagrything not Compulsory is Strictly For- bidden.‘ Diaz, who has been responsible for such absurdist pieces as Ihe_ Genesis was Tomorrow and The Tooth Brush borrows strongly from the techniques of the epic theatre to develop the theme of oppressed and oppressors in this new quasi-operatic piece. The action takes place in a country club where an upper-class couple sits on and rides two male servants. The servants dare to stand up and attempt a rebellion, the outcome of which is left to the audience to resolve. The New York Post review lauds this ending: The choice is up to you, says the four member-cast in a rousing musical finale. No, it's not one of those cute teasers where the audience is fbrced to supply an ending. Playwright Diaz, you suddently realize, is demanding a political decision. Crude? Of course. But the play's charm and ferce is in its lack of subtlety. 0 The cast was composed of Luis Avalos, who had played the lead in the PRTT 1974 production of Payment as Pledged and is a regular in the TV series "The Electric Company," soprano Eva de la 0, Tony Diaz 102Manuel Mediero, The Dinner Guest (Unpublished playscript, Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, 1976). Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 103David Medina, "Tunes, Tears and No. 10," New York Daily News, 8 July 1976, p. 90. 104Edmund Newton, "A Bout with the Ruling Class," New York Post, 1 July 1976, p. 20. 160 and Ernesto Gonz6lez, who had just finished a run in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of The Leaf People. Gonz6lez also played the lead in the second part of the bill as the deaf-mute in The Dinner Guest.105 Medeiro's The Dinner Guest portrays the same theme of oppression, but in a more cruel way. The play is a short piece of subhuman violence in which two members of the aristocracy beat, whip, poison, insult and ultimately kill a destitute deaf-mute during the course of a dinner. Performed at close proximity to the audience in the small Laboratory Theatre, and forcing them to react both intellectually and viscerally, the piece became almost too brutal to bear. Everything not Compulsory is Strictly Forbidden was chosen to accompany Eleuterio, the Coqui, an adaptation of a story by Tom65 Blanco, fer the 1976 summer tour. The Cogui, a story about a tiny Puerto Rican singing frog who refuses to be assimilated by a fbreign language and culture, was adapted fer the stage by its director Pablo Cabrera, Miriam Col6n and Rosa Luisa M6rquez.106 Tom6s Blanco's "coqui" became Rafael Hern6ndez, one of Puerto Rico's most prolific composers, and the piece developed into a musical theatre review within the boundaries of the original story. Hern6ndez' songs were interpreted by Emmanuel Logrofio, who in 1972 had created the 105Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Program Notes for the produc- tions of Everything not Compulsory is Strictly Forbidden and The Dinner Guest, New YOFk, Spring-Summer 1976. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 106Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. Program Notes fer the PVOdUC' tion of Eleuterio, e1 Coqui, New York, Summer 1976. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 161 leading role in the Anam6 production of Pipo Subway Can't Laugh staged at the PRTT's Laboratory Theatre. Carlos Cestero, who played one of the leads in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of Two Gentlemen from Verona both on Broadway and on tour, was the story's Narrator. Other cast members included PRTT's regulars Iraida Polanco and Norberto Kerner.]07 The double musical bill toured from August 17 to September 12 in twenty-three different locations. During 1976, the group received an invitation to attend the International Theatre Festival in Florence. It stated: We would be very interested to receive any news about some present production of yours (cast, cost, press reviews, technical problems, photos, etc.,), about your possible availability to come to Florence during the summer '76 to play in open air. 08 Although the possibility of taking the production of Arrabal's Ceremony fer an Assassinated Black Man was explored, the idea did not 109 materialize. The second five-year period in the life of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre proved to be more fruitful than the first. The Laboratory Theatre and the Training Unit became integral elements of the enterprise. At least fourteen different plays were staged at the company's Laboratory Theatre on 18th street, and 1966 reports indicate that "some 700 students from low income homes have received 107 108Valerio Valoriani, Rassegna Internazionale di Teatri Stabili, Firenze, Italy, letter to Miriam Col6n, 12 March 1976. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 109Miriam Col6n, letter to Valerio Valoriani, 13 May 1976. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. Ibid. 162 training in this free-of-charge school."no Furthermore, Hostos College, one of the community colleges of City University of New York, started offering academic credit fer the courses taken at the PRTT's Training Program.]]] Most of all, the Traveling Unit, which gives the group its essense, was responsible for the staging of nine different plays during the 1972-1976 period, four of which were staged by Pablo Cabrera whose experience with and preference for presentational theatre gave the company a new style. The future offers exciting perspectives fer the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre: a new locale on Broadway, new plays and play- wrights, the possibility of theatre workshops, etc. The trajectory has been an upward one. By 1977 some of the group's projects have been realized. These plans and an evaluation of the work in progress of the PRTT will be the subject of the study's conclusion. noPuerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Program Notes fer the production of La carreta, New York, Summer 1977. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 1”Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, "1976-l977 Application for the New York State Council on the Arts," New York, 1976. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. CONCLUSION Puerto Rican theatre is characterized by a strong sense of cultural reaffirmation. This fact is evident in all theatrical activity on the island, and the defensive attitude towards cultural aggression has provided for a nationalistic theatre reflective of the theories of Emilio Belaval in his 1939 manifesto: "Lo que podria ser un teatro puertorriquefio," ("What a Puerto Rican Theatre Could Be"). Due to economic pressures nany Puerto Ricans have migrated to the United States and have extended Puerto Rican culture far beyond the island's boundaries. The artistic manifestations of this ethnic group have enriched the cultural experience of the United States as well as provided a link with the country of origin for the migrant Puerto Rican community on the mainland. In the field of theatre, the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre Company has undertaken the task of introducing plays by Puerto Rican and other Hispanic writers to the urban residents of New York City. During the past ten years, the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre has served the dual function of bringing high quality, professional theatre to the Hispanic community in New York and making other sectors of the U.S. population aware of Hispanic culture, art and heritage. The task of studying, preserving, enriching and making known the cultural values of the island fulfilled in Puerto Rico by the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, has been undertaken by the PRTT in the City of New York. The postulates of Emilio Belaval as pursued 163 164 by the Argytg_dramatic society in l940--to stage plays by Puerto Rican authors, to implement new and dynamic production techniques and to attract and develop a broad and diversified audience--have characterized the work of the company in nearly every aspect of its work. The Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre has been an extension or outpost of the Puerto Rican theatre, a means of bringing audiences in New York in touch with an authentic Puerto Rican ethos. In its first decade (1967-1976), the PRTT staged seventeen plays by Puerto Rican authors. These include such works as The Oxcart by René Marqués (produced in 1967 and again in 1977), Crossroads by Manuel Méndez Ballester (produced in 1969) and The Golden Streets by Piri Thomas (produced in 1970 and 1971). In a naturalistic fashion, these three plays deal with the clash between Puerto Rican and U.S. cultures. The deterioration of the family is seen as a result of assimilation, and a return to the island is proposed as the only solution. Social problems such as drug addiction, rape, unemployment and poverty are blamed upon the process of transculturation. The mood is tragic and only at the conclusion of the plays do the characters decide upon what should be done to change the conditions of their existence. These three plays represent trends evident in the social plays written in the island during the 19405. A more distinctive presentational style is evident in other plays staged by the company. The Passion of Antigona Pérez, written by Luis Rafael S6nchez and produced by the PRTT in 1972, reflects new tendencies in the Puerto Rican theatre which were first explored by dramatists such as René Marqués and Francisco Arrivi during the late Fifties and Sixties, relating the Puerto Rican experience to myths of 165 universal scope which deal with the struggle of individuals within hostile environments controlled by powerful political forces. The "epic“ style of The Passion of Antigona Pérez echoes other selections staged by the company. A Dramatized Anthology of Puerto Rican Short Stories (produced in 1971), Piri, Papoleto and Pedro, Directed by Pablo (produced in 1975) and Eleuterio, Cogui (produced in 1976) are examples of dramatic adaptations of short stories and poems based on the Puerto Rican experience. These works were directed by Pablo Cabrera. Cabrera had demonstrated a consistent preference for presentational theatre and was responsible for creating a panorama of the Puerto Rican reality from two different points of reference. The Dramatized Anthology and Eleuterio El Coqui were written from the point of view of the island-raised Puerto Rican, whereas Piri, Papoleto and Egg§o_portrays the world as seen through the eyes of the "Nuyorican." Narrators were added to the adaptations as a device to relate essential information which could not be enacted. These pieces responded the question of Puerto Rican identity both on the island and in New York and .traced the stylistic development of island dramatists. The reliance on Puerto Rican authors, texts and themes has helped the PRTT to strengthen a sense of national identity and pride in the largest Puerto Rican community in the United States. Adapting non-Puerto Rican plays with strong social messages which speak to issues confronting Puerto Ricans, has also been a practice utilized by the conpany. By adopting or "nationalizing" works such as Winterset by Maxwell Anderson (produced in 1968) and Stories to Be Told by Osvaldo Dragfin (produced in 1975), among others, the PRTT has attempted to make the action of the plays more relevant to the audiences's reality. 166 In order to reach a broader segment of the population, the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre introduced dual-1anguage--Spanish and English--performances by the same cast. This approach has also helped give the group a larger flexibility by allowing it to adapt to the language preference of the specific audience it serves. The key to the group's success over the past ten years, has been its summer traveling unit, which plays the streets, parks and playgrounds of the five boroughs of New York City, tours consistently to communities in New Jersey and Long Island and has ventured to other Eastern cities as well. The traveling unit has been responsible fer the production of nineteen different plays, all presented free-of- charge to their audiences. The success of the productions in establishing strong rapport with urban audiences and maintaining artistic excellence is well recorded by newsmen and critics who have consistently praised and encouraged the work of the traveling unit. Perhaps of even greater interest are the instances of participation and intervention on the part of ghetto audiences who find the theatri- cal experience provided by the PRTT to be direct and engaging, dealing with issues and characters common to their own experience. With the acquisition of a small in-door locale on 18th street in New York City in 1972, the PRTT began to address two areas of concern: a laboratory theatre in which new plays could be tested and a training unit to offer theatre courses to minority students. Thir- teen plays were produced by the Laboratory Theatre between 1972 and 1976, several of which were later chosen fer the summer touring season. Both, the Laboratory Theatre and the Traveling Theatre perform.under the jurisdiction of Actors Equity, which has allowed 167 numerous Hispanic actors, directors, designers and technicians to enter the professional artistic community of New York. The three principal components of the PRTT--the touring unit, the Laboratory Theatre and the training program--have become realities through the support given the company by major funding organizations such as the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Administration of New York City, the New York State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. The group's funding from these and other prominent organizations has increased seven-feld during the past ten years. During 1977, a new funding campaign has been a major concern fer the company as it embarks on a new phase of development. Under Nayor Abraham Beame's direction, the City of New York granted the conpany a twenty—five year lease on a four—story firehouse at 304 West 47th street, in the heart of the Broadway theatre district. The PRTT rents the building for $240.00 a month and is in the process of con- verting it into a 199-seat theatre which will also house the administrative offices and the training unit facilities. The total renovation of the building is expected to be complete in 1978 and will cost an estaimted $360,000. David Hays, who has designed settings for numerous Broadway productions and fbr the Dance Theatre of Harlem, the Vivian Beaumont Theatre in Lincoln Center, the Stratfbrd Shakespeare Festival, and the New York Metropolitan Opera was the design consultant for the project with Peter Blake and Brian Smith 1 as architects. (See photos in Appendix F.) 1"Puerto Rican Theatre Finds a Home," New YOrk Times, 3 March 1977, p. 23. ’ 168 The plans fer the new theatre also include an art and photo- graphy gallery, a community center in which lecture sessions on contemporary social, political and cultural topics can be held, and the main stage which serves as the primary in-door performance space fbr the PRTT as well as provides space for concerts, poetry readings and productions by other Latjgo_theatre groups from around the country.2 The National Endowment for the Arts has already granted the company $100,000 for 1978 as part of a challenge grant program which requires matching funds from other sources. The funds will be used to complete the renovation of the new facilities.3 On March 3, 1977, the building was inaugurated in a ceremony taking place in a temporary 75-seat theatre on the building's first floor, Numerous telegrams were received and one of the most telling was from Senator Jacob Javits: The establishment of the first Puerto Rican pro- ‘fessional theatre in the Broadway area is a fitting tribute to the work of the Traveling Theatre. I applaud your efforts to offer public theatre in the squares, playgrounds and streets of this c1ty. The new theatre represents the most ambitious project undertaken by the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre and holds the potential of significantly altering the nature of the company. Although touring 2Dolores Prida, "E1 Teatro Goes to Broadway," Nuestro 1 (June 1977): 10. 3Grace Glueck, “$8 Million to Arts to Aid Eighteen Institutions in New York in 1978," New York Times, 27 July 1977, p. Al. 4Jacob Javits, United States Senator, telegram to Miriam C016n, New York, 3 March 1977. Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 169 will no doubt always remain a significant factor of the group's operation, the acquisition of a new permanent home indicates a less itinerant format in upcoming years. Nevertheless, the PRTT did stage their twenty—ninth production, I took Panama, a collective work by the members of the Teatro Popular de Bogot6, as a touring production during the summer of 1977. The new theatre does, however, bring to a close a significant portion of the history of the PRTT. The "traveling theatre" fbrmat, once seen as the group's "essence," may now become only an I'arm'I of the permanent theatre. On one hand, the new theatre on Broadway may be responsible for introducing more Puerto Rican artists and plays to the commercial theatre audience, opening new doors for Latioo_talent; on the other, the time and effort required by this new venture may risk the commitment to the segments of the New York community which the Traveling Theatre aimed to serve during its first decade of production. The creation of other groups that would fellow the ains and goals of the PRTT during its first ten years of work may help expand the work of the company to include larger sectors of the New York population. The group's new location in the Broadway theatre district will no doubt affect the future work of the group. Busing audiences from Hispanic communities might make the new theatre more accessible to audiences not familiar with the Broadway theatre district, insuring that a breach between the audiences fer the ftraveling productions and the "sedentary" productions does not occur. From 1967 to 1976, the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre responded to the cultural needs of a segment of the U.S. population and contributed to the quality of theatre in this country by being a 170 showcase of Hispanic dramatic arts. Its work, craddled in the Civil Rights Movement of the Sixties, has followed the lines of other ethnic theatres such as Teatro Campesino and the Negro Ensemble Company. Its goals of striving to reinforce the cultural traditions of the Puerto Ricans in New York and providing a showcase fer Hispanic art and talent in order to enhance the quality of theatre experience in the New York community continue to be pursued by the company. The first ten years in the history of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre show the development and maturation of a theatre company capable of demonstrating the valuable contribution of ethnic theatre to the cultural wealth of the United States, responding to Francis Fergusson's plea for a relevant theatre, a theatre based on "racial and regional traditions" and their immediacy to the audience. The PRTT has become a symbol of the struggle of the Hispanic community to preserve its identity in the face of total assinfilation. Since 1967, theatre has been an instrument used to pursue that end: Desde Loiza Aldea, Puerto Rico, hasta Santa F6, Nuevo M6xico, el teatro ha servido de expresi6nen artistica, rito religioso y comentario social, fin, de espejo de la cultura, la historia y lae religi6n del hispano. Nuestros pueblos, desde el comienzo de su mestizaje, ferjan una identidad a través de sus dramas comunales: la fiesta de San- tiago Ap6stol, Moros y cristignos,gLos tejanos, Los comanches, Las osadas, Los pastores. . . La evan- gelizacion de los ind1genas se realiza, hasta cierto punto, infundiendo el areito con el mensaje cristiano y traduciendo autos sacramentales a los idiomas de América. Llega a ser tan importante e1 vehiculo teatral en el proceso de conversi6n que las primeras nnsiones se construyen con un patio especial para espect6culos teatrales. La vitalidad de la afici6n teatral hoy es obvia, desde lo altamente artistico de las obras de Ren6 Marqués en Lincoln Center hasta lo profundamente religioso de Las apariciones de la Virgen en la iglesia del barrio. 171 Recientemente el vehiculo teatral ha servido de portavoz de la afirmaci6n abierta de una identidad hispana en los Estados Unidos. Desde E1 Teatro Campesino de Luis Valdez hasta el Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre de Miriam Col6n, el mensaje se oye en las calles urbanas, los campos, las iglesias, las escuelas. . . en todas partes. Ese teatro, por sf, es una parte esencial del mensaje. Es teatro bilingfie, orgulloso y explorador de su patrimonio cultural. Es popular; la solidaridad con su pfiblico refuerza la confianza en la posgbilidad de forjar un destino propio en este pais. (From Loiza Aldea, Puerto Rico, to Santa Fe, New Mexico, theatre has been a forum for artistic expression, religious ritual and social commentary. Our peoples, from the beginning of the Spanish conquest, have forged their identity through community dramas: the festivities of Apostle Saint James, Moors and Christians, The Texans, The Comanches, The Christmas Lodges, The Shepherds. . . The evangelization of the indians was realizea,‘t6'an extent, by instilling a Christian message in the Areito and by translating the Autos Sacramentales into tfie lan- guages of America. Theatre became so important in the process of conversion that the first missions had a special patio dedicated to theatre spectacle. The taste for theatre is more than alive today, from the artistic qua- lity of the plays of Ren6 Marqués in Lincoln Center, to the profoundly religious ritual of The Apparitions of the Virgin at the barrio church. Recently, theatre has served as an advocate for the affirmation of a Hispanic identity in the United States. From Luis Valdez' Teatro Campesino to Miriam Col6n's Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, the message is heard in urban streets, in the countryside, churches, schools. . . everywhere. That kind of theatre is by itself an essential part of the message. It is bilingual theatre, proud and in search of its cultural heritage. It is a popular theatre; the solidarity with its people rein- forces the belief in the possibility of forging our own destiny in this country.) 5Nicol6s Kanellos, "Nuestro teatro,"Revista Chicano-Riquefia 1 (Fall 1973): l. APPENDIX A INTERVIEW WITH MIRIAM COL6N - DIRECTOR OF THE PUERTO RICAN TRAVELING THEATRE JULY 15, 1976 172 APPENDIX A INTERVIEW WITH MIRIAM COLON - DIRECTOR OF THE PUERTO RICAN TRAVELING THEATRE July 15, 1976 1. Do you feel that theatre has a specific social, political, and cultural function? a. How does street theatre better accomplish this? Yes. I wonder what is the theatre all about if it does not have a social function. Hopefully, it should not be just a mirror of human condition, it should also have a point of view, express an idea, enlighten some situation and I feel a more profound purpose when it has that as part of its essence and being. If it did not have social content, I feel it would only have half value. (1a.) Street Theatre - It is really not where you perfbrm, it is the vehicle that you select. The function is perfbrmed whether we are indoors or outdoors. Naturally, we strive fbr the street, but also fbr indoors, to find a vehicle that would express a particular point of view and hopefully that would throw some light or call attention to some facet of it. The street theatre offers an especially attractive opportunity to create this type of theatre (socio-political) because you get the wonderful element of the people reacting, of the people expressing, that is lacking under most other ordinary circum- stances. You do not get this element of participation which is terribly exciting and very enlightening. Street theatre is stated as the most important element of our theatre operation. I think it still continues to be the most important element, although we have branched into the laboratory theatre on a year-round basis and although we have branched to traveling to colleges and into the training unit. 173 The group that goes to the streets is important and it gives us our essence, and I do not think it will ever be eliminated because it distinguishes us from the myriads of . . . other such groups that do the same-- they present theatre in little holes-in-the-wall in New York City. Bringing theatre to the people brings us in contact with an element of the community that, ordinarily will not come contact with it . So we feel that we are servicing youth and other segments of the society that if it were not for these opportunities, I do not think they would ever be exposed to the theatre. There are a lot of artistic endeavors going to the streets, which is a marvelous thing in New York City. But, we were kind of pioneers, we feel that we have an obligation to that segment of the population--to the youth, to ordinary citizens--and sharing with them in that experience is, I think, an important part of our being and distinguishes us from the subscription type theatre where the well-to-do and the already sophisticated people will go. I feel they are being served by other very meritorious groups. 2. What is the philosophy of the PRTT? I think the philosophy is taking the theatre to the people. Again--the themes--serving as a mirror, to have them see the con- ditions of a particular group of people--there is the element of exposing them to these situations--of exposing them to these dramas in the hope that by being confronted they may be persuaded to think, to compare, to react, to get either happy or very, very angry, and this has happened, so that the philosophy is just: to bring a theatre that 174 is relevant, ideally, I am concerned to bring Puerto Rican theatre, to bring Latin American theatre. I think Cliffbrd Odets, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller--so many of the great Americans--already have been exposed, but I feel that part of the mission of our theatre is to make that youth and that audience aware that there are other men and other women writing with great perception and great sophistication, like in the case of the play we are doing now by Jorge Diaz. Well, many people do not know that we have in Latin America men of the per- ception and the sophistication of this man, so we are a cultural vehicle, not only for the Hispanics but for the New York community and the United States community as well. 3. Does the production of the PRTT reflect mainly the life on the island of Puerto Rico or is it mainly a reflection of life in New York? There have been a larger number of plays about the life of the Puerto Ricans in New York. I will say The Oxcart had a combination of life here and life there. But, let us say, The Golden Streets by Piri Thomas was about life here. Crossroads (Encrucijada) by Méndez Ballester, was about life here [New York] . Las Ventanas was about life here. The Innocent--I do not . . . (maybe) it could happen anywhere; The Guest--here [New York]. Scribbles--here [New York]; Flag Inside--Puerto Rican reality in Puerto Rico. Anthology was about life in Puerto Rico. So, . . . come to think of it, there has been a nice balance of things, of situations that depict the Puerto Rican there [in Puerto Rico] and of situations that depict him here [New York]. 175 4. What about the dual-language approach of the PRTT? a. What about the use of Spanglish? We have tried that formula and it is starting to show results. We are conditioned to an audience that fellows us . . . the audience in the laboratory and in the streets. We ask them: do you want it in English or in Spanish, and they take their preference. Right now we had a situation where we had to perform in some activity at Battery Park on the 4th of July and they said English . . . the same week at Lincoln Center we asked what language and they said Spanish . . So, it is achieving a flexibility now that I was hoping we could have. . . . (4a.) No, no. Spanglish, only if it serves as a vehicle to dramatize the tragedy--like Pipo Subway. 5. What do you look for when choosing a play? 00 you search for a particular theme or style of production in terms of its possible impact on the street audience? I think a lot about, first, content; second, possible impact. You see, our audiences are very mixed because we choose 90 percent of the locations to be in the areas where there is more unemployment, more poverty, more deterioration of the neighborhood. We get a mixture of proportion of three to one blacks to Puerto Ricans, and then there is the white element too and a great proportion of children. So, inevitably, where poor sections are we find it is not just the Puerto Ricans. It is also the black and poor people of scarce means-- white also, but they are in the minority. . . . We will also perfbrm in a museum like the Metropolitan Museum. We have the perfbrmance there because there is another segment of the community that does not need to see theatre fer free but that we want to acquaint with it. 176 The perfbrmances at Lincoln Center get a combination of subscription audiences and townspeople . . . Again, [the selection of plays is made in terms of] content and the impact [on the audience] . . . it is the type of audience that has to be arrested, therefbre, the vehicles have necessarily to have something that sometimes has to sacrifice in certain subtleties in the delivery, in the timing that we can afford under laboratory conditions. They have to be done away with for a larger stroke. For a more robust kind of delivery . . . unfortunate- ly part of our bigger problem is that we cannot find properties that besides being good pieces of theatre have these qualities also. 6. Does the PRTT have a workshop fer dramatists? No, we are thinking that is the inevitable next step. It is an important step, we should take it, we have to take it, soon. 7. Is there something to be said about the theatrical creation in Puerto Rico and in New York during the past five years in terms of available materials. I am having trouble finding plays. I think plays are being written, it is just that, first, they have to have something, again, that is worth saying. In terms of what is happening in Puerto Rico now, I am disappointed that I am not getting enough properties from them. It seems like there is a repetition there [in Puerto Rico] of the old work horses . . . I wish I could find a play that talks about some of the dramas that are taking place at the moment in Puerto Rico; some of the dilemmas that the present Puerto Rican is confronting on the island or the drama of the Puerto Rican that arrives from New York with a torn family with values totally changed in the family structure; with people that have become embittered 177 after twenty years in New York . . . or plays in Puerto Rico about the role of the Puerto Rican that was born in New York in trying to adapt [to life on the island], the discrimination against them. . . . There are so nany themes, so much wealth of material. Something about the political dilemma of the island at the moment. In New York some people are writing, like Piri Thomas and Miguel Pifiero, a developing talent, very interesting as playwright with the orientation of New York as his background. The same thing is happening to Pedro Pietri and to Papoleto Meléndez. I just could count on the palm of my hand how many playwrights we have here. 8. What are the main differences in theme and production approach between the dramatists of New York and those of Puerto Rico? In New York's theatre there is a tone of bitterness, . . . and it is also evident in the poetry. I think the most important literary vehicle in New York right now is not the drama among the Puerto Ricans, it is the poetry. I think the truths that are being expressed, the realities that they are depicting, the humor that is contained in this body of poetic literature, to me is infintely more interesting than the theatrical. The theatrical pieces that are being written amount to close to nothing, I would say. In the young crop of writers that are writing about the New York experience, there is a harsh quality to the writing. A tremendous- ly important message is contained in that poetry that is devoid of adornments. It does not have the lyric quality and in that sense it does not have the perfection and the classic quality of the Puerto Rican writers from the island that are, in a way, more polished; yet, the ones from New York are more devastating, more piercing, they are more 178 cutting, they are more bitter. 9. Which have been the most significant productions of the PRTT and why? I think an important step for us was the presentation of the short stories [Dramatized Anthology of Puerto Rican Short Stories] because it was like a little panorama of types from the island, situations from the island, important writers from the island. The most successful vehicle was The Oxcart (La carreta). We were respon- sible fer bringing La carreta to the streets and, through the efforts of two or three people and myself, we were responsible fbr La carreta off-Broadway and calling the attention of the regular audiences to it. La carreta is still the most famous, the most successful vehicle that we have presented. Significant along with La carreta was Antigona £65§5_. . . as an example of Puerto Rican dramatist on another level, on an international level, on the level of the world theatre--not that La carreta is not on that level--but the theme, the style, the structure that he [Luis Rafael S6nchez] followed is international. I think those would be the most important vehicles that we have presented. 10. Which individual artists have made the most significant con- tributions to the overall success of the PRTT/ In the field of design, acting, and directing? A number of them. We did not start as a repertory company but sonehow, in a strange way, we keep getting back to a certain group . . . Pablo Cabrera, in terms of the knowledge that he has brought, the style, the professionalism among our directors, he is an asset in our development as a professional group. Performers: Iraida Polanco and Ricardo Matamoros; in Design, a technician from Broadway, 179 Anibal Otero (also menber of board founders); Iris Martinez, not only as actress but her contribution in the school, and as source fer plays; Luis Rafael Sdnchez and Jaime Carrero, authors, with [plays like] Pipo Subway, Flag Inside and N00 Yall. As time goes by, we could have naybe half a dozen of those people coming constantly to us, thinking of us, creating constantly with the idea: this will be good for a laboratory staged reading. Next year I am going to start doing that, I mean not really production all year long but stage readings, like other groups. The Negro Ensemble Theatre does that, the Black Theatre Alliance does that and I really have to benefit very much by their example. That at the end of the year you really have read thirty to forty plays, although some of them were not perfbrmed professionally, a whole production was not attached to it; but discussions were held; actors rehearsed, playwrights listened to, discussions in the privacy of their own peers, . . . this is a very important step that we can start taking towards the development of a true playwright's laboratory. 11. What are your projections about the future of the PRTT? Do you fbresee it as a permanent institution in the city of New York. Yes, this is the hope. We are evolving now from what has been the laboratory into moving into the physical space that will eventually be converted into our theatre headquarters, training unit, offices, etc., and it is our hope that this monstrous step will . . . give the permanence of having a small theatre in the Broadway area which is really where the theatre is located. The Firehouse is loacted 304W. 47th St. on the same street where the Barrymore Theatre is. 180 I hope that it can seat about 199 . . . . I am sorry that it is not bigger, the physical plant does allow for more but there are serious union complications that would arise if you were going to have more than 199. We would fall into a salary category, according to the Union, that would be devastating. We have already contacted architects and have some pre- liminary plans. The important thing is that we have to raise $300,000. We are going to be calling in every direction so that it does not take twenty years. . . . APPENDIX B THE PUERTO RICAN TRAVELING THEATRE OXCART BUDGET BREAKDOWN SUMMER 1967 181 mm.~m~.—F mm.-¢._ oo.omm mm.mmn oo.oom oo.ooo.m oo.oo¢ oo.oom.m om.mom.m oo.oo¢ oo.oo¢ oo.oom oo.oom oo.oo~ oo.oom om.mom oo.oom oo.ooo.~ me.mom oo.oo~ oo.ow oo.om oo.mn oo.om oo.mn m¢.nmm oo.mmp oo.omm x663 gm; 4qumN opemnpwwv xgmuwcumm . gmammxxoom Acgmm :mov comw>gqum Lamazesou A v accumwmm< Pmuvcgume “pachmom acumxv mqogauwnogucmz Amaoumn wagomov sewowcsooh ucaom Amwppgpomos cem58wmv empdwcedde mcppemwa Amcoa mosmwv seamen: mmmpm Acmmcm mmgowwv Loaumgpo owumwug< APFmNuzm economy Louumgwo powwogm Romp Lm553m .czouxmwcm ammuam pgmuxo espouse mcwpm>mge cmuwm ougwsa mg» .mp mpnme m xHozmam< APPENDIX C THE PUERTO RICAN TRAVELING THEATRE, BUDGET BREAKDOWN A DRAMATIZED ANTHOLOGY OF PUERTO RICAN SHORT STORIES SUMMER 1971 182 om.n~m.~ oo.oo— oo.oop oo.oop oo.oom oo.o- 00.0mm oo.ow~ mm.¢mm oo.o¢v oo.o¢m oo.oo~ oo.o¢ oo.om~.~ oo.oom oo.oo~ oo.om¢ oo.oom oo.o¢ oo.om~ oo.oo¢ oo.m~ oo.m~ oo.om oo.om oo.on oo.om mm.omp oo.oo oo.o¢ oo.oF oo.om oo.omp oo.mmp oo.o— oo.o¢ oo.oop .mmmm Lma VG"? m'd'md'd'd' V Q‘Q’VQ'MV‘U' mxmmz Azuzav co_pmugoamcmge m.gopo< gwmm sogw pom pcoamcmge A V APPo~szV cm>wgo Lympm Pro a mum A—_m~uzm nomv macaw: cowpmum Amw>a< quP=SUde AEmzmga cowgmzv Loumcwugouou cowuuzuoga Agmmcm mmgomov gopumgwo owpmwug< Agouwu_wa mmpgmcuv mmmppmxom m.copmpm=mge Amugaep_m eso_ov mpwp_axom m.Loppmeo zm_a Amwsccmz memmv mmwppmzdm m.gosps< mmoH>mmm Huo msoocH mmmoxm no.4mm.¢mw oo.om po.omm oo.ou~ mm.pmm mm.oom om.moN.F oo.oom.m Nn.¢m¢._ ww.~¢m.m mm.mmo.pp mm.mnh.omm memmzh .>mgh .mocm mmmzuaxm 4u< a mevpccaa cowpwuconmcmce a Pm>mgh mumou :owuuzuoga mmmu can ppoczma mmmaeHazmaxm zce=H mucogu gmgpo mpg< on» coL acmEZoncu pw=o_umz .ucmgw mpg< pep co _Pu==ou ppapm ego» zpz .pcaau "uzoozH mnm— .om gmasmagwm totem cmm> me» LOL meowumgmao .mgpmmzp mcwpm>mge :muwm ougmaa use .m— epoch o xHozmma< APPENDIX E PUERTO RICAN TRAVELING THEATRE STATEMENT INCOME AND EXPENSE YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31 1967-1977 187 ._m\~\_ anm—wm>m ommm - Lgucw “cmEpmamum omo.—m m3~an .mmoaL3o Lm__ewm UL630u “cage NNm_ m Eocm umuooo__< coo.m m .mgpmmge Lo :owumuw__amzmg\mmogugao ucmzou Locos mp vmpuwppmma ooo.ommo mm m Aomo my mao._ m AN__.F mv Ammo.m my Nom._ m qu._ m mom.omm _om.omm oom Loo» .o_oo_wo>< moooo wmm.m umucqum m>gmmma meummce osm.No oom.eo oom.eo oom.eo oom.Nom o>Lomom oeooogc-mocoa oooo_eomom mmoo mm m Aomo mv meo._ m AN__._ my e_o.mom N¢m.oom Nom.mom mom.m~m moo.omm _oooe mm mm ommm mNo._ AN__.FV N_o.mo Nom.oo Nom.mo mom.m~ Loo> LoLLo .zoeoz ooz Ammov ANmP.NV Loomv Amoq.ev oEooo_ Lo>o momoooxm Foooe Lo mmooxm Aomqv mmcqum _mcowumvu< mmmb com omq om_.mo mmm.o ooo.mm mmo._ omoooXm Lo>o osoooH Lo mmooxm wmm.pwwm mmcmaxm _ouoe mmm.m mmgauwucmoxm EoLmOLQ mguwmze .mmo.Nom m_~.mom .pm_.mm_m “Rm.o__m m4m.ooam Nom.mmm om_.om_m Hmm.oo_m mom._m_m omoooxm _oooe moo.~ «mo m_o _Ne mmN.N mam meo mvm mmm mooooo__oomrz coo - mom om_.m - oooeo_oom oooom 1- - mmm.m omm 1- mucmem>oLaEH u_o:mmo64 oom mmm coo NNN._ Noo.N oom.~ Nmm._ oom._ mom oooooomoH 4mm - omo mem.m OKN._ mmo._ m_o._ Neo._ mm... oooomoa Nmm om_ Nmo mmo._ omo._ moo._ Nmm.m ooo.~ mmmcm ooogooeoe mm, owm mom mao.P Nmo.m Nmo.2 oPN.m moo.o Nmm.m mo_< moweoooe m momoooxm oo_Lco - mo mes omm FNP._ omo moo._ oNo.m _mm.m oooooooovoz m mo_o_FLoo oom._ moo._ mfio.o mow.“ oo_.u oom.o mNN.N omN.m omm.m ooom mme._ mmm.m mmm.o NmN.m oom.m oom.o oom.m omo.m Nmm.N .ooo .moooco m mowooLLa-oowoosoeo oNo.m omo.m mmm.o mom.o_ e_m.m oom.m moo.o_ oom.o omFJo _o>occ .omoooxm o_oL;o> -- o__ mmm Rom 0mm meo Nmo.m “mo._ mocoooeo 0mm Pmo omN._ mmm.m “Nm.o mum ___., moo._ MNN._ moEoomoo mmm.N NmN.N oNo.oF mmm.m .oN.m omo.P Nom.o _Nm.o on.m oo_o;owo m oooom omm.m _m~._ mem.o 04m.m om_.o mm_.o meo.o moo.o _qo.m oopooooomoom pom 0mm mom mmp.m _mo.N 00m 00m omm omm mo_o_omoz Rpm.m mmo.m moo.o Nmm.m mmo.mm mom.mm mmo.mo ooo.mm mmo.oe oo_mooa .moxoe .__oasoo mmm.mm mmm.om N_m.xm moo.mm m_m.om omp.mm mNo.oo ohm.mm mom.mo mooa m mo_eo_om mmmzmoxm Nmm.Nom ome.oom okm.mW1m Pom.erwm .eko.om_m Nwo.nm m mmm.mm—m mm . m m emm.mmwm pooooa _oooe - - omo.o - owe omm omm mmo Locoo -- - em mmm mom oem mmo._ omoeoooa -- coo -- ooo.m oom.N_ mmfi.e mmo.o_ mmm.m o_o.a_ oEoooH oooaom Nmm.eom omm.oom mmm.Nm_m mmo._e_m oo..mm_m ooo.on m ofie.mm_m cem.om_m moo.moam omoowoooceoooo m mooogm mzomza om\om\m_ oN\om\~_ _N\om\m_ Ne\om\m_ mN\om\N_ o4o_ me\om\m me\om\m NN\OM\m Pm Langmumo vmccm Lom> .wmcmoxm use meoocH ucmewuoum1-.6:H ..ou mgummgh mc__m>mge cmo_m oggmsa .o— a_noe 188 APPENDIX F PUERTO RICAN TRAVELING THEATRE PHOTOGRAPHS Figure 1. Flat-bed Truck (The Oxcart--Summer 1967), Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. 190 Figure 2. Flat-bed Truck, Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre 192 Figure 3. La farsa del amor compradito ("The Farce of Purchased Love") Summer - l968, CentréliPark 194 Figure 4. A Dramatized Anthology of Puerto Rican Short Stories, Summer 1971, Set Design: Peter Harvey S 3 If u “'Wfi'I‘} 'fl. ll hf . I ..hfitg vij'i‘t‘i fl Q15 ' I” g . I I - 1 196 Figure 5. Pipo Subwoy no sabe reir (”Pipo Subway Can't Laugh") Summer,—l972 198 Figure 6. Payment as Pledged, Summer 1974, Cathedral-St. John the Divine . . .. . .1 \ - v. . . 32...... 1 , 1:3". 76.3.13- , A , . . 1.. . - III 1 M a 4 I. ... 1 1 .- 1 200 Figure 7. Payment as Pledged, Sumner 1974, Set Design: Peter Harvey 202 Figure 8. Eleuterio, the Coqui, Summer 1976, Metropolitan Museum of Art 204 Figure 9. Model--Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre's New Building- 304 W. 47 Street 205 206 Figure 10. Architectural Rendering, Design Consultant: David Hays Architects: Peter Blake and Brian Smith 207 BIBLIOGRAPHY BIBLIOGRAPHY ACTF Newsletter 15 (April 1977): 2-6. Actors' Equity Association, "Agreement and Rules Governing Employment in Resident Theatres." New York, effective 2 July 1972. Alonso, Alberto. "Teatro Rodante Puertorriquefio actualiza 1a obra "All the World's a Stage." New York Sunday News, 28 September 1969. [1 Winterset." El Diario-La Prensa (New York), 24 July 1968. Anderson, Maxwell. Winterset. New York: Dramatists Play service, 1946. Arrabal, Fernando. Ceremony fer an Assassinated Black Man. Unpub- lished playscript, Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, New York, 1975. . The Two Executioners. Unpublished playscript, Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, New York, 1975. Arrivi, Francisco. 906cimo Festival de Teatro Puertorriquefio." Revista del Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqyena 39 (April-June 1958): 39-45} . La eneraci6n del treinta. Espafia: Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquefié, 1960. . "Introducci6n." Primer Festival de Teatro Puertorriquefio, Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquéfia, Vol. 1. Barcelona: Ediciones Rumbias, 1959, pp. 7316: . "Onceno Festival de Teatro Puertorriquefio. Revista del Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquena 41 (October-Decemberl968): 42150. "Primer Festival de Teatro Puertorriquefio." Revista del Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquefia 6 (January-June 1959): 36-43. Arrom, José Juan. Historia del teatro latinoamericano, 6poca colonial. México: Editorial'Planeta, 1967} 208 209 ASPIRA, "The Special Educational Needs of Urban Puerto Rican Youth." Conference held in New York, May 1968. Ateneo Puertorriquefio. “Lists of Productions," 1951-1954. The Ateneo Puertorriquefio, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Babin, Maria Teresa. "Apuntes sobre La Carreta." Asomante 19 (October-December 1953): 67-71. Barnes, Clive. "Stage: Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre at Home." Now_ York Times, 23 February 1975. Belaval, Emilio. "Lo que podria ser un teatro puertorriquefio." Areyto Mayor; Edited by Francisco Arrivi. Espana: InStituto de Cultura Puertorriquefia, 1966, PP. 245-258. Blanco, Tom6s. Prontuario hist6rico de Puerto Rico. 6th ed. Espafia: Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquefia, l973. Boucicault, Dion. The Octoroon. Representative American Plays. Edited by Arthur Hobson Quinn. 7th ed.’Rev. and enTL New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1957, pp. 369-431. Bradbury, Ray. The Wonderful Icecream Suit. New York: Bantam, l972. Brockett, Oscar G. History_of the Theatre. 2nd ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1974. Boal, Augusto. Teatro del Oprimido. Buenos Aires: La Flor, 1974. Bolton, Whitney. "Puerto Rican Theatre Ready to Travel." New York Morning Telegraph, 23 July 1969. Bosworth, Patricia. "Look, Let's Have Some Justice Around Here." New York Times, 12 September 1971. Calta, Louis. "The Oxcart Begins Summer Travels." New York Times, 9 August 1967. . '“Puerto Rican Group Gives Winterset.“ New York Times, 23 July 1968. Carrera, Jaime. Flag Inside. Unpublished playscript, Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, New York, 1973. . Noo Yall. Unpublished playscript, Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, New York, 1973. "Census of Population: 1970--General Social and Economic Characteris- tics; Final Report PC (1) - C 53 Puerto Rico." Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1972. 210 Col6n, Miriam. Letter to Kevin White, Mayor of Boston, City Hall Plaza, Boston, 1 September 1972. Letter to Luis Rafael S6nchez, 27 August 1972. Letter to Manuel Mendez Ballester, 18 June 1968. . Letter to Mr. Tiley, Cultural Affairs Division, New York City Parks Administration, 4 September 1971. . Letter to Valerio Valoriani, Rassegna Internazionale di leatri Stabili, Firenze, Italy, 13 May 1976. . Private interview with Rosa Luisa Marquez. New York, 15 July 1976. Cruz Emeric, Rafael and Santiago Lavandero, Leopoldo. "Proyecto para el Teatro Rodante en Puerto Rico." University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, P.R., 1945. Culture and the Puerto Ricans: Critique and Debate. New York: Research *Foundation of the City University oleew York, 1967. Dauster, Frank N. Historia del Teatro Hispanoamericano, Siglos XIX y X . M6xico: Ediciones de Andrea, 1973. del Saz, Augustin. Teatro social hispanoamericano. Barcelona: Editorial Labor,71967. Dias G6mes, Alfredo. E1 pagador de_promesas. Primer Acto 75 (Fall 1966): 22-47: Diaz, Jorge. Everything not Compulsory is Strictly Forbidden. Un- publishedlfilayscript,7PUerto Rican Traveling Theatre,7New York, 1976. Dragfin, Osvaldo. El amasijo. Argentina: Calatayud Editor, 1968. . If YoggPromfise not to Learn, I Will Teach You a Few Things. Adapted from Historias para ser contadas by PaBTOTCabrera and Ricardo Matamoros. UnpublishedTplayscript, Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, New York, 1975. Eder, Richard. "Puerto Rican Troupe Brightens Way for Street-Weary." New York Times, 25 July 1975. Else, Gerald F. The Origin and Early Form of Greek Tragedy. New York: Norton, 1965. Espinosa, Victoria. "E1 teatro de Ren6 Marqués y la escenificaci6n de su obra: Los soles truncos.“ Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Universidad Aut6noma, M6Xico, l969. 211 Fanon, Franz. The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press, 1968. Fergusson, Francis. The Idea of a Theater. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press,71949. Fern6ndez Sein, Annie. "Passion According to Antigona Pérez." §2g_ Juan Star, 1 June 1968. Fiet, Lowell A. "Luis Rafael S6nchez's The Passion of Antigona Perez: Puerto Rican Drama in North AmericaanérformanceTTT’Latin American Theatre Review (Fall 1976): 97-101. Fishman, Joshua, Cooper, Robert L., and Ma, Roxana. Bilingualism in the Barrio. 2nd ed. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University ress, Fitzpatrick, Joseph. Puerto Rican Americans. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1971. Fumero de Col6n, Odette. "Las obras de los festivales de teatro." Unpublished master's thesis, University of Puerto Rico, 1967. Galich, Manuel. "El teatro puertorriquefio dentro del nuevo teatro latinoamericano." Conjunto 26 (October-December 1975): 59-67. Garcia, Rudy. "Puerto Rican Theatre Starting 4th Season." New York DaiLy News, 9 August 1970. Garcia Lorca, Federico. Obras Completas. 14th ed. Madrid: Aguilar, 1968. Gassner, John. Masters of the Drama. New York: Dover, 1954. Glueck, Grace. "$8 Million for Arts to Aid Institutions in New York in 1978." New York Times, 27 July 1977. Gonz6lez, Nilda. "Teatro Puertorriquefio." Breve Enciclopedia de Cultura Puertorriquefia. Edited by del Rosario, Rubén, M616n de Dias, Esther, and Martinez Masdeu, Edgar. San Juan, P.R.: Editorial Cordillera, 1976. Gordon, Milton M. Assimilation in American Life. New York: Oxfbrd University Press, 1964. Handlin, Oscar. The Newcomers. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1959. Hern6ndez Aquino, Luis. “Rivas Cheriff se halla interesado en proyecto patronato de arte." El Mundo (San Juan), 8 September 1949. Huerta, Jorge. "Concerning Chicano Theatre." Latin American Theatre Review (Spring 1973): 11-16. 212 . "Differences Between Teatro Chicano and Traditional Theatre." Delivered at the Conference for the Sixth "Teatro" Festival, Los Angeles, 1976. Humphrey, Hubert H, Vice President of the United States. Letter to Miriam Col6n, Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, 13 Febrary 1968, Files of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. "Introducci6n. " Revista del Instituto de Cultura Puertorriguena 1 (October-December 1958): Javits, Jacob, U.S. Senator from New York. Telegram to Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, New York, 3 March 1977. Kanellos, Nicol6s. "Notes on Chicano Theatre: The Present State of the Art." Unpublished article, Indiana University, 1975. Kanellos, Nicolas. "Nuestro Teatro." Revista Chicano-Riquena 2 (Fall 1973): l Kerjan, Liliane. "West Side Story 1975, Theatre Portoicain Dans le Rues de New York." Le Monde (Paris), 4 September 1975. Kurycki, Mary Rita. “Puerto Rican Theatre for the Common People." Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, N.Y.), 8 June 1975. Lahr, John. Up Against the Fourth Wall. New York: Grove Press, 1970. Lesnick, Henry. Guerilla Street Theater. New York: Avon, 1973. Lewis, Emory. "The Oxcart." Cue, 31 December 1966, p. 16. Lewis, Gordon. Notes on the Puerto Rican Revolution. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1974. . Puerto Rico: Freedom and Power in the Caribbean. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1974. Lindsay, John V., Mayor of New York City. Letter to Miriam C016n, Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, New York, 18 January 1968. Lissner, Will. "U.S. Study Finds City's Poorest are Puerto Ricans in the Slums." New York Times, 17 November 1969. "Lista de producciones teatrales del Departamento de Drama de la Universidad de Puerto Rico," 1941-1976. Files of the Department of Drama, University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico. Lopez, Adalberto and Petras, James. Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans. New York: John Wiley and Sons. 1974. 213 L6pez, Alfredo. The Puerto Rican Papers. New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1973. McMorrow, Tom. "Antigona P6rez Puts Passion in Cathedral." New York Daily News, 20 May 1972. . "State Aided Plays: One Tastey, One Turkey." New York Daily News, 22 May 1972. Maldonado Denis, Manuel. Puerto Rico: A Socio-Historic Interpretation Trans. Elena Vialo. New Yorkleand m House, 1972. Mancini, Anthony. “Antigona takes to the Streets." New York Post, 10 August 1972. Marin, Gerald Paul. At the End of the Street. Unpublished playscript, Puerto Rican Travelinngheatre, NewlYOrk, 1974. Marqués, René. La carreta. Cuarto Festival de Teatro Puertorriquefio, Instituto 66'Cu1tura Puertorriquefia, Vol. 4} Barcelona: EdiEibnes Rumbos, 1962, pp. 320-563. Letter to Jules Schwerin, 4 August 1967. . "Nacionalismo vs. Universalismo." Cuadernos Americanos 25 (January-June 1966): 222-31. The Oxcart. Intro. and trans. George Pilditch. New York: ScribnerTE, 1969. M6rquez, Juan Luis. "Entre Mayas y Cundeamores: Lalasidn segfin Antigona P6rez." El Mundo (San Juan), 8 June 1968. Mathews, Jane De Hart. The Federal Theatre, 1935-1939. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton UniverSity Press, 1967} Mediero, Manuel. The Guest. ("El convidado"). Unpublished playscript, Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, New York, 1976. Medina, David. “Tunes, Tears and No. 10." New York Daily News, 8 July 1976. M6ndez Ballester, Manuel. Encrucijada. Primer Festival de Teatro Puertorriquefio, Instituto d61061tura Puertorriquéfia, V61. 11 Barcelona: Ediciones Rum56s,71959, pp. 18-172. Mills, C. Wright. The Puerto Rican Journey, New York: Russell and Russell, 1967. Moliere, E1 mEdico a palos. Trans. Miguel Moratin. Madrid: Editorial Aguilar, 1945. 214 Morfi, Angelina. "E1 teatro de Luis Rafael S6nchez." Revista del Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquena 52 (July-September 1971): 41-48. Nadel, Norman. "Marqués' Oxcart: Poignant Drama Premieres Off- Broadway." World Journal Tribune (New York), 29 December 1966. "The New York Scene." San Juan Star, 23 May 1971. Naggin, Patricia, Producer for German television, Channel 1, Hamburg, Germany. Letter to the New York City Parks Administration, 5 August 1969. Newton, Edmund. "A Bout with the Ruling Class." New York Post, 1 July 1976. . "Noo Yall Opens, Set to Tour Parks." New York Post, 28 August 1973. New York Shakespeare Festival. Program Notes for the production of Federico Garcia Lorca's La zapatera prodigiosa, New York, Summer 1964. O'Connor, John J. "TV: An Absorbing Puerto Rican Drama on WNBC; Station's Attention to Minorities Shifting." New York Times, 10 July 1974. O'Haire, Patricia. "Noo Yall--Live1y Play." New York Daily News, 29 August 1973. Padilla, Elena. Up From Puerto Rico. New York: Columbia University Press, 1959. Pag6n, Bolivar. Historia de los Partidos Politicos Puertorriguefios. San Juan: Libreria Campos, 1959. Pasarell, Emilio. Origenes y desarrollo de la afici6n teatral en Puerto Rico. San Juan, P.R.: Gasa Baldrich, 1951. Pedreira, Antonio S. Insularismo. Espafia: Editorial Edil, 1934. Phillips, Jordon. Contemporary Puerto Rican Drama. New York: Plaza Mayor Ediciones, 1972. Phillips, McCandid. "Enthusiasm Fuels Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre." New York Times, 7 August 1969. Pietri, Pedro. Puerto Rican Obituary. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1973. 215 "Playwright Talent Competition." Press release by the New York City Parks Administration, 25 April 1969. Porrata, Ramdn. "Colectivo Nacional presenta Antigona." Vocero (San Juan), 16 February 1976. ' . "E1 teatro estd'renaciendo en Nueva York.“ Unpublished essay, 1975. ‘ Prida, Dolores. "E1 Teatro Goes to Broadway," Nuestro, June 1977. "Proyecto para el fomento de las artes teatrales." Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1956. Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. "Anatomy of a Summer Project." Presentation by Miriam Colon at Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey's Conference of Mayors and City Coordinators-- 1968 Summer Youth Opportunities Program, Washington D.C., 29-31 January 1968. . "Application for Funding from the New York State Council on the Arts, 1976-1977." New York, 1976. "Background and Objectives." New York, 1973. . “Breakdown: Grants and Contributions, 1967-1977." New York, July 1977. . "The Children's Theatre Project, Report and Budget." New York, July 1977. . Dramatized Anthology of Puerto Rican Short Stories. Unpublished'playscript, Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Summer 1971. "Financial Projection--l974." New York, 1974- I . National Endowment for the Arts Application, 1975-1976. New York, 1975. . Plays presented by the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, 1967-1977." New York, 1977. Program Notes fbr the production of La carreta. New York, _Té77. . Program Notes for the production of CrOsSroads. New York, Summer 1969. Program Notes fer the production of a Dramatized'Anthology of Puerto Rican Short Stories. New York, Summerll97l. 216 Program Notes for the production of Eleuterio, El Coqui. New York, Summer 1976. Program Notes for the production of Everything npthompul- sory is Strictly Forbidden and The Guest. New York, Summer 1976. Program Notes fer the production of A1 final de la calle and Los angeles se han fatigado. New York, 1974. Program Notes for the production of Flag Inside. New York, ““‘Tén. Program Notes fer the production of The Golden Streets. New York, Summer 1970. Program Notes for the production of If You Promise not to Learn, I will Teach You a Few Things. NewlYork, Summer 1975. . Program Notes fer the production of The Innocent, Scribbles, and The Guest. New York, May 1974. Program Notes fer the production of N00 Yall. New York —’_Té73. . Program Notes for the production of The Oxcart. New York, Summer 1967. ’ Program Notes fer the production of The Passion of Antigona Perez. New York, Summer 1972. Program Notes for the production of Payment as Pledged. New York, Summer 1974. Program Notes for the production of Pipo Subway no sabe reir. Staged by Anamu. New York, May 1972. . Program Notes for the productions staged by the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, 1967-l977. . Program Notes for the Training Unit's Final Projects, 1972- 1976. New York, 1976. . "Proposal for the Funding of a Puerto Rican Theatre, Includ- ing the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre." Submitted to the City of New York, May 1969. "Proposal: Free Presentations, A Tour Through New York's Less Affluent Communities, Including a Training Unit." Proposal for funding presented to the New York City Parks Administration, 1971. 217 . "The Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre Company: A Proposal." New York, 1 May 1967. "Report, 1972." New York, 1972. . "Statement of Financial Condition of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre fer the Fiscal Year ended September 30, 1975." Prepared by accountant William Samovitz. New York, 1975. "E1 Teatro Rodante Puertorriquefio presentaré dos obras contempor6neas." Press release, New York, 24 January 1974. "Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre Finds a Home." New York Times, 3 March 1977. "Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre Sets 5th Season." New York Times, 9 July 1971. "Puerto Rican Troupe Given Grant of $40,000." New York Times, 24 July 1969. "Registro Official de Cursos.” Office of the Registrar, University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, P.R., l950. "Registro Oficial de gursos." Office of the Registrar, University of Puerto Rico, R10 Piedras, P.R., 10 May 1967. "Rodriguez Su6rez, Roberto. Las Ventanas. 06cim0 Festival de Teatro fiertorriqueno, Institgto de Cultura Puertorriguefi'a, Vol. 10. Barcelona: Ediciones Rumbos, 1969, pp. 151-279. Rose, Carol. "The Ghettos are not Really their Home." Chelsea Clinton News (Brooklyn), 15 April 1951. Sadler, Joan. "The Black Presence: A Theatre of Creative Alternatives," Black Arts (Fall 1971); 39-45. S6ez, Antonia. E1 teatro en Puerto Rico. 2nd ed. Espafia: Editorial Universitaria, 1972. Sainer, Arthur. "The Ethnic Question, Realism and Ritual." Village Voice, 20 June 1974. S6nchez, Luis Rafael. La farsa del amor compradito. Rio Piedras, P.R.: Cultural, 1976. La pasi6n sean Antigona P6rez. 2nd ed. Republica Domini- cana: Ediciones Lugar, 1970. Los 6ngeles se han fatigado. Cuarto Festival de Teatro Puertorriqueno, Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquefia, vol. 4. Barcelona: Ediciones Rumbos, 1962, pp. 621-648. 218 S6nchez, Yolanda, Coordinator of Community and Development Program for Bedford Stuyvesant Youth-in-Action, Inc. Letter to Miriam Col6n, New York, 27 March 1967. "Saturday Afternoon Showtime at Town Hall, l969-1970. Program of Events for New York University's Mid-town Cultural Center, New York, 8 November 1969. Schlberg, Stuart, Producer of NBC's "Today" show. Letter to the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, New York, 16 September 1969. Senior, Clarence W. Puerto Rican Emi ration. University of Puerto Rico: Social Science Researc enter, 1945. Silen, Juan Angel. Hacia una visi6n positiva delpuertorriquefio. Rio Piedras, P.RT: Editorial Edil, 1970. Sol6rzano, Carlos. El teatro latinoamericano en el siglo veinte. México: EditoriallPormaca, T964. Soto, Pedro Juan. The Guest, Scribbles, and The Innocent. Unpub- lished playscript,‘PUerto Rican Traveling—Theatre, New York, 1974. Stasio, Marilyn. "Dramatized Anthology of Puerto Rican Short Stories." Cog, 11 September7197l, p. 122 Steiner, Stan. The Islands: The Worlds of the Puerto Ricans. New York: Harper anleow, l974. Sullivan, William. "The Oxcart." New York Times, 20 December 1966. Tapia y Rivera, Alejandro.~ La cuarterona.v Decimo Festival de ~ Teatro Puertorriqueno, Instituto de Cultura PUertorriguena, Vol. 10. Barcelona: Ediciones Rumbos,’l969, pp. 29113841 Teatro del 60. Program Notes for production of Puerto Rico Fu6, Nancy, France, 1974. "Teatro Rodante Puertorriquefio presenta Piri, Papoleto y Pedro dirigido por Pablo." E1 Diario-Ia Prensa (New York), 2"May 1975. "Theatre Units Playing the Streets Creating New Audiences Here." Show Business, 13 July 1968, p. 8. Thomas, Piri. The Golden Streets. Unpublished playscript, Puerto Rican Travéling Theatre, Summer 1970. Thomas, Piri, Me16ndez, Jesfis Papoleto, and Pietri, Pedro. Piri, Papoleto and Pedro, Directed by Pablo. Unpublished play- script, Pierto Ricaanraveling Theatre, New York, 1975. 219 Thompson, Howard. "Stage: Antigona P6rez." New York Times, 20 May 1972. . "Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre Shows Vigor and Purpose." New York Times, 11 August 1971. Valoriani, Valerio, Rassegna Internazionale di teatri Stabili, Firenze, Italy. Letter to Miriam Colon, 12 March 1976. Waggenheim, Kal. Puerto Rico: A Profile. New York: Preager Pub- lishers, 1973. Wakefield, Dan. Island in the City. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1959. Wasserman, Debbi. "If You Promise . . ., Street Theatre for Everyone." Show Business, 31 July l975. "Paynent as Pledged." Show Business, 22 August 1974, p. 7.