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18 LA STAGE
F THIS WERE JEOPARDY! the scene would playsomething like this: “I’ll take ‘Theatre DiversityMatters’ for $500, Alex,” followed by a hush
from the crowd. You, our lowly challenger, anenthusiastic theatre patron from Los Angeles,California, go for it. After all, you read LA Stagemagazine, how hard can it be? You hit the buzzer.
Alex Trebek studies the card apprehensively,“Watts Village Theater Company,” and again thecrowd mumbles, “What!? Hunh!? You meanwhere they have those riots and drive-byshootings all the time?” You smile, oh what goodluck you have! You answer confidently, as aninformed Angelino; “What do Black, Brown, Asian,White, Muslim, Mormon, Jew, Jehovah’s Witness,Buddhist, Baptist, Catholic, Atheist, Gay, Straight,Blind, Young and Old have in common?” Thecrowd goes wild as Alex Trebek concurs, “WattsVillage Theater Company!”
Guillermo Aviles-Rodriguez, a giant-spiritedman at five feet, five inches, helms the WattsVillage Theater Company, replacing the irreplace-able Quentin Drew, the late founder whosepassing nearly overwhelmed the company. “I wasvery sensitive to it because, you know, Quentinand his 10 foot tall frame, I’m never going toapproach the sort of magnetism he had. I don’thave size 14 shoes, so what can I do? Well I canwalk in that direction with my nine and a halfs.”
What Aviles doesn’t seem torecognize is his vibrant, contagiousvision for theatre in Watts is asstunning as the Watts Towersthemselves. “When you’re far awayfrom them, they look like greyskeletal figures,” Aviles observes.“You have to come up close to reallysee the color.” Aviles points to themassive bird colony nesting in thetowers, back-lit by a golden sun,against the bluest of skies. “See howthey sing?” Suddenly the chorus of
hundreds of birds illuminates this great treasure,these incredible spires bedecked with brokenpottery and soda bottles, as this pillar of a man,rising from nothing like those famous towers,answers an artistic calling.
Aviles was changed forever when he encoun-tered “a wild haired woman” speaking at hischurch in Watts, as he reluctantly stood in theback, “holding up the wall.” It turns out, thatwoman was Juliette Carrillo from CornerstoneTheater Company, also Director of South Coastrepertory’s Hispanic Playwrights Project,Williamstown, Louisville, and so much more. “She
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A L W A Y S AWatts VillageTheatER Company:
(above) Playwright Michael Patrick Spillerswith Guillermo Aviles-Rodroguez
(upper right) Rosie Lee Hooks, AdvisoryBoard Member/Director of the Watts TowersArts Center
(lower right) WVTC’s offering of 365Days/365 Plays’ The Birth of Tragedyfeaturing David Catanzarite, Tom Kiko Morini,MC Earl, Karen Greene, Meropi Peponides,Mary Ann Eisenberg, Chris Anthony andDeborah Kellar
(opposite page, upper left) Lynn Manningin Weights
(lower left) Ruben Garfias, Aaron Keith Braxtonand Saskia Garel in Up From the Downs
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N D F O R E V E RGuillermo Aviles-RodriguezAnswers an Artistic Calling
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By Angela Garcia Combs
Photos: Eric Schwabel, schwabelstudio.comMakeup: Siobhan Carmody
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gets up and says, ‘We’re doing a play and we needyoung people to audition.’ I didn’t know whataudition meant at the time. I was 16 or 17.” Fromthere, Carrillo talked Aviles out of entering theMarines and helped him audition (via video tapebecause he could not afford to travel) for theUniversity of Utah, where he was accepted andstudied with Kenneth Washington, now at theGuthrie in Minneapolis.
Aviles later received his Master’s from UCSDunder the tutelage of Professor Jorge Huerta, PhD,Chicano theatre scholar. Aviles has also workedwith or been mentored by Athol Fugard, Bill Rauch,Lynn Manning, Suzan-Lori Parks and other socialtheatre greats. With Damion Teeko Parran atAviles’ side as Managing Director, the Watts VillageTheater Company is alive and well.
Now, under the title of “Chance Meetings andUnlikely Bedfellows for $300” you learn thatGuillermo Aviles-Rodriguez, new Artistic Directorof the Watts Village Theatre Company, a Latin,Catholic Angelino, met his Mormon wife in Utah,wearing a leopard-print skirt, a wig and a bra. “Iwas in a Tennessee Williams play called Hello fromBertha,” laughs Aviles. “The director set it incontemporary time with male prostitutes dying ofAIDS instead of working-girls dying of consump-tion.” Aviles’ wife-to-be was in charge of his hair.
Perhaps, in the category of “Unbelievable Factsfor $400” you stun the crowd on-–“Michael PatrickSpillers.” As you answer, “Who is the white guy, froma Missouri Jehovah’s Witness clan, that moved toeast LA to go to USC School of Theatre, and wrote aplay about a young girl’s quinceañera and journeyinto adulthood, via Tijuana?” And the crowd cheers.
Always and Forever,written by Spillers, soon to bestaged by the Watts Village Theater Company at theFord Theatre in Hollywood and directed by GuillermoAviles Rodriguez, has a truly authentic voice, drippingin Los Angeles Latin youth culture. In his examinationof the universal journey towards identity, Spillersilluminates the hopes, dreams and disappointmentsof the main character, Alma Martinez, as she rapidlyapproaches the “worst quinceañera in history.”Alma’solder sister Celia expects her to wear a traditional oldhand-me-down dress, as she desperately tries to holdthe crumbling family together. Celia fights Alma everystep of the way, especially in her choice of music asAlma fantasizes that her Latin teenage heartthrob,Adán Sánchez, will actually somehow come to sing ather party.
Cover Story
Board Member Raquel Cinat, Board Member DavidCatanzarite, Managing Director Damian Teeko Parran, Always andForever Actor Jesus-Chima Castanos, Casting Director/Actor JerisLee Poindexter, Associate Producer Meropi Peponides
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Cover Story
Jose (Celia’s boyfriend who fancies himself asChe Guevara), Boxer (whose brother was killed inIraq), Rudy (an understated gay friend from thehood), and the lone black character Olivia (Celia’sbest friend from school who documents thehappenings in photos) all bear witness to thejourney. As this rag-tag team of friends leaves LAand drives to Tijuana in Boxer’s cherry-red ‘56Chevy Nomad, Mexican folk saint Jesus Malverdewatches over the clan in the form of a bobble-head doll. They cross the border and back againonly to discover the far greater complexity oftheir lives when every expectation is dashed andthey are all radically redirected.
The playwright’s own problematic journeyfrom the Midwest into LA Latino culture beganwhen he was accepted at USC. Spillers nearly wasunable to attend, as his Jehovah’s Witness familydid not believe in sending kids to college. He quips,“I could never be a salesman. I have a particularaversion to knocking on doors.” Nevertheless, hemanaged to persuade the college to award him thescholarships he needed. Too poor to own a car andliving in the USC region of LA, he took the bus to hisnight job at a greasy spoon diner. “I found myselfconnecting with the diversity of the city.” Heexplains, “In other cities, public transportation is amatter of convenience and here it is a matter ofclass. It’s a cushion when you get in your car. Youget to avoid so much... the people around you...”
Spillers, fascinated by the work of FatherBoyle of Homeboy Industries/Jobs for a Future,became a volunteer and got entrenched inChicano studies, both in school and life. “Theycalled me Cowabunga because they felt all whiteguys surf.” He smiles. “My naiveté kind ofprotected me back then. I forgot what I looked likeon the outside.” Despite his distaste for door-knocking, Spillers is deeply reverent of tradition,religion and the journey of self discovery, asexplored in his play.
“You cannot divorce identity from spirituality”explains Aviles. “And religion I know is a formalizedspirituality but I think it’s a mistake in the artscommunity to react against it.” Aviles speaks to thebeauty of tradition and culture. “For some reasonwe need to believe in something greater thanourselves. From the beginning of Man, there has
been that bowing down to the elements.That light.”He explains that spirituality changes form and isexpressed in a variety of ways. “Like the CatholicChurch adopting the Day of the Dead.”
Perhaps Aviles embraces Spillers’ playbecause it illuminates the complex contradic-tions they both seem to embrace in their lives. Forinstance, Spillers creates only one adult figure inthe play, a bobble-headed Malverde, patron saintof border crossers and drug dealers. A saint fordrug dealers? Yes, this is a twist of expectation,like many moments in the play. Santo Malverdespeaks only to Alma, since she has unwittinglysummoned him for guidance, as she approacheswomanhood. Should Alma be taking advice froma bobble-headed guardian of drug dealers? Is itany more absurd that Alma should believe insomething as elusive as her abandoning father’sgood intentions? Soon we learn the hopes andaspirations of the phantom father run as deeplyas the striving teenagers, who will stop atvirtually nothing to realize their dream. In theend Alma discovers the sudden death of her Latinteenage singing idol is more real to her than herown father’s disappearance.
Olivia stands just on the outside with enoughobjectivity to capture the exciting adventure viaphotography. “There’s something about taking aphotograph,” says Aviles. “You have that momentin time when you are introduced to that person.So much of our identity is determined by outsidesnapshots. A sliver of time.” Aviles, preoccupiedwith the concept, reveals a sliver of time from hisown childhood, illuminating his visionarysensibilities. “We were crossing an alley and therewas a pregnant woman, smoking crack, squatting.I looked at that image and it looked a lot like shewas praying... like what you would be doing whenyou ask God for help.” He ruminates on the void ofhope and its effect on so many. And the characterof Olivia captures that moment as it rarely is, withunderstanding, reverence and love.
“I’ll take ‘New Plays’ for $500, Alex,” youannounce.Trebek reads amazed,Always and Foreveras you simultaneously hit the buzzer and answer:“Most authentic play representing Los AngelesLatino Youth Culture.” The crowd cheers. You arethe new Jeopardy! World Champion!!
ALWAYS AND FOREVEROpens April 14Plays Fri.-Sat., 8 pm; Sun., 2 pmSat., April 21 at 2 pm withaudio descriptionCloses April 29Tickets $20Previews April 6-8, 12-13Tickets: $10Sun., April 22 at 2 pm;pay what you can[Inside] the Ford2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East,Hollywood323.461.3673 [email protected]
“I found myself connecting with thediversity of the city. My naiveté kind ofprotected me. I forgot what I lookedlike on the outside.” — MICHAEL PATRICK SPILLERS
