The inaugural Hollywood Fringe Festival runs June 17-27 at venues throughout Hollywood. To celebrate, this week is devoted to other people's shows via The Five Questions.
The Stories of Cesar Chavez is an multiple award-winning one person show about Cesar Chavez (another link, to the foundation) who is in my personal pantheon due to his courage, moral certainty and his impact on the American landscape. So when this show appeared on the Fringe homeport as a potential, I was Totally There.
There will be 7 performances at Theater Asylum - Theater Row, Santa Monica Blvd. near Lillian, just below Vine - during the Fringe. Tickets are $10. I got mine back in May and I don't even know Blanco. What I have learned about him since, I'm all woah. Here's a 2 minute, 22 second teaser video link from his performance last year at the Fringe in London, Ontario.
Note: Links within his answers were chosen by Me without consulting Blanco first. The book and the documentary in particular I recommend to people all the time. Links within his answers should not viewed as his endorsement, but mine (There's a couple of other entries on deck I have littered with For More Information links.)
What prompted you to turn Chavez’ life into a performance
piece?
As a Latino actor you always feel under-represented. The positive side of our culture isn’t out there enough. So what could be more positive than telling the story of a man that is so highly respected in the Latino community. There are already a few theatrical pieces on Cesar Chavez, Cesar and Ruben and Papi, Me and Cesar Chavez. But there are no solo theatrical pieces out there that I found.
I wanted to celebrate Cesar's life, and in doing that I hoped to celebrate the life of the people that Cesar championed for so long throughout the labor struggle. Their story is so seldom told.
His was a giant life.
What guided your decisions in selecting what to highlight and what to leave
out? How difficult was that?
His was a giant life, so in the beginning it was difficult to decide what aspects of his life to cover. I wanted this to look at the human side of Cesar first and foremost. I wanted to look at the side seldom seen in photos and history books. So I zoomed in on the time he was alone the most. During his fasting and meditation periods. His most vulnerable times. But I also wanted to make connections to other important aspects of Chicano history and culture through him. Because his was a life that witnessed so many moments in Mexican American history. The Zoot Suit Riots, The birth of the first Chicano theatre company, El Teatro Campesino, and so on. Since it’s a solo show I also had a lot of logisitics to consider. How could I convey the chaos and the violence of that period by myself, the energy of El Teatro Campesino, how long should I even be onstage, and so on? The questions to myself were endless. But I tried not to shy away from the things that seemed difficult for me to stage, because I knew in the end it would make for a better theatrical experience for the audience. And more satisfying for me.
What “version” of Chavez are you trying to convey in your
performance?
The version of Chavez I hope I have onstage is the version that people can relate to the most. The person that has the same weaknesses as us. The man that gets lonely and scared, the man that loses patience and gets angry, the man that was a rebellious teenager. For the average person his name means little more than the streets and schools that he is named after or the guy “with the grapes” as I’ve heard time and again. But I’m hoping by stripping him down to his humanity people will start to see past the black and white photos of the history books and will ultimately empathize enough to take in the message.
Which of course is different for everyone. But once he’s relatable his story starts to have impact.
What do you most hope audiences take away from your show?
What each audience takes away from the show can be different every time. There are so many possible messages in the play. Aside from the obvious message of nonviolence. But at its core I hope people will not only see that, but also just see the beauty of a culture and possibly find a way to identify with it. I hope people can see the universality of the characters brought to life in this show. And that the struggle of those characters is universal. And in seeing that, folks can see that there really isn’t much of a difference between any of us at all.
