Teatro Visión bringing Santa Clara University professor’s memoirs to stage
Francisco Jimenez's "La Mariposa" and "Breaking Through" will be presented as one-act plays at San Jose's Mexican Heritage Plaza.
As part of its 40th anniversary celebration, Teatro Vision is bringing two of Francisco Jiménez’s books to the stage as a bilingual youth production next weekend at the Chicano theater company.
“Producing these two shows is a dream come true for me,” Teatro Visión Artistic Director Rodrigo García said during an online conversation in late March with the Santa Clara University professor emeritus and playwright Leo Cortez, who adapted the stories. “With this year, particularly, when we are celebrating 40 years of making teatro, I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate than bringing these incredible stories to our stage.”
“La Mariposa” was a 1998 children’s book version based on Jiménez’s early school days. “Breaking Through,” published in 2002, was the second volume of his memoirs that began with “The Circuit,” a collection of 12 short stories about the experience of growing up in a family of migrant farmworkers. “Breaking Through” also was the first book ever selected for the Silicon Valley Reads program in 2003 and is on many school reading lists today.
“I hope that people who read my stories will have a deeper empathy and respect and gratitude toward migrant workers,” Jiménez said in the conversation, part of Teatro’s “La Hora del Mitote” series. “My story is not unique. It’s really the story of many families from the past and the present. And it’s important to document those experiences because it’s an important part of the American experience. It’s who we are.”
The stories are being presented at the Mexican Heritage Plaza theater in San Jose as two one-act plays performed together by 17 young actors, ranging in age from 10 to 19. “La Mariposa” will be presented in Spanish, with English supertitles, while “Breaking Through” will be in English, with Spanish supertitles. The production opens April 11 at 7 p.m., with four additional performances through April 14. The 2 p.m. show on April 13 will be followed by a Q&A with the director and cast members. More information and tickets are available at www.teatrovision.org/breakingthrough.
BLASTS FROM THE PAST: City Lights Theatre Company is really getting into the theme of its Black & White Time Warp Ball, taking place April 27 at the Westin Sainte Claire in downtown San Jose. While it’s named in honor of “Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show,” City Lights’ summer musical, the company is using the “time warp” concept to revisit some favorite bits of previous shows with the help of some fan-favorite performers.
Some — including Barton “Bart” Perry, Alycia Adame, Caitlin Papp, Karen DeHart, and Davied Morales — will provide musical performances to put more fun into the fundraiser. Actors Maria Marquis, Tom Gough, Deb Anderson and Tasi Alabastro will share anecdotes from their years on the stage. If you want to be part of it, go to www.cltc.org/gala for all the details.
POETIC MOMENT: Yosimar Reyes, Santa Clara County’s new poet laureate, will be featured at Well-RED, Poetry Center San Jose’s reading series, on April 9 at Works/San Jose’s downtown gallery. Reyes, who began his two-year term in January, was recently featured in a New York Times article about how he uses social media to chronicle his life and adventures as he takes care of his grandmother, Mardonia Galeana. if you read it, you understand why the East San Jose writer was a great choice to make the valley a more poetic place.
Well-RED starts at 7 p.m. at Open San Jose, and you can either attend in person or watch it livestreamed. Get more information at www.pcsj.org/events.
STAR SEARCH: The Fountain Blues Foundation and the music education nonprofit Follow the Music are partnering to find a rising star to put on stage at the 41st annual San Jose Fountain Blues & Brews Festival on June 15. Now, if you’ve been to the festival you know that the lineup is stacked with talent, which this year includes the Terrie Odabi Band, John Nemeth and the Blues Dreamers, and the Delgado Brothers & Chris Cain. That’s not bad company to share the Plaza de Cesar Chavez stage with.
Who are they looking for? Exceptional bands with members in their teens or 20s who play Americana, roots or blues music and are ready to make the leap to a bigger stage. Video links to live performances can be sent to submissions@fountainblues.com by April 30.
MAKING A DIFFERENCE: Tricia Creason-Valencia — who should get a prize for being a talented filmmaker, fierce roller derby player and an inspirational educator — let me know about a new project she’s been working on with College of Creative Arts founder DeAnna Pursai, Core Companies CEO David Neale and others to raise awareness about autism in our community (and, if you didn’t know, April is Autism Awareness Month).
The Autism Storytelling Project will provide $2,500 to $5,000 in unrestricted grant money to Santa Clara County autistic creatives between the ages of 16 to 25 in the fields of performance, music and visual arts. The goal is to have them express their experience living as an autistic person through their art, in hopes of breaking down social stigmas about neurodivergent people. It’s being funded through the San Jose Rotary Club’s Neurodivergent Empowerment Fund, created by Neale and his daughter-in-law Julie Neale and grandson Ryan, a 20-year UCLA student who is autistic and has become a big advocate for neurodiversity.
You can get more information and learn how to apply for the grants at www.autismstorytellingproject.com.