News Scrapbook 1975-1977

Chicano Theaters Move Ahead They Have A New Style And A Will To Live By MILTON AVAGE Wh n the flvsh of a n w born svn II l,rst on Ed n '.s gtc n and gold, Our lather Adam sol vnder th Tr e and crotch d with a stick in the movld f val to teatros that had demon trated a dlsclplin d and skilled commitment to artistic competence. a re.-,11lt, the plays of this festival howed their audlenc s some of the m exciting th ater to be n In the United State . The the audiences; to conduct a week of workshops, cri- tiques, and classes; to feed, house, and care for nearly 150 artists, and to pay for it all - all this no small undertaking.

Witt Draws Last-Minute Competition

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Members of the Teatro de la Gente of San Jose perform a scene from their pro- duction of "The Man Who Turned Into o Dog" at the Eighth Annual Chicano The- ater festival in San Diego. the Centro appeared before the Public Services and Safety Committee of the City of San Diego, chaired by Councilman Jess Haro, seeking support for the fes- tival, they offered the com- munity an opportunity to participate in an Interna- tionally important cultural event. After due deliberation, the committee voted its support of the festival. The City Council subsequently ratified the committee's recommendation and . tayor Wilson lent the weight of his office to the project with a letter of sup- po~ ----nie facilities at the Uni- versity of San Diego were another factor contributing to the success of the festi- val. Sister Sally Furay. vice president and provost of the university, and Thomas J. Cosgrove, associate dean of students, worked with the Centro's festival committee to supply, at reasonable cost, the Camino Theater for rehearsals and perfor- mances, accommodations and meals for all of the artists and working space for the nearly continuous workshops that are the most important internal function of the annual fes- tivals This year, the teatros were able to learn from one another with un- precedented continuity and intensity. The festival generated se- rious discussions about the future artistic directions of the teatros and their future responslbllt1es to their audi- ences. While the self-serving pretenSJons ur political and academic respectability of some nl"mber- of the Chl- ::M theater movement arc probabl. of little Ion • ,

Among the factors con- tributing to the success of the festival this year was the abillty of San Diego's Centro Cultural de la Raza, through its festival commit- tee, chaired by Marcos Con- treras of the local Teatro ~testJZO, to provide more organlza onal, admlnlstra- tive and financial support to the TE AZ teatro than has been available in the past. Working to a proposed budget of just over $20,000, a mall amount of money for an undertaking of this magnitude, the festival committee was able to gen- rate $4,000 from within the local Centro Cultural itseU. Festival registration fees paid by the individual art- ists of the teatros contribut- ed another $4,500. Home Federal Savings and Loan oclation donated $250. The remainder of the fes- tival budget was met by a contribution of $4,000 by COMBO (the Combined Arts and Education Council of San Diego County) and an appropriation of approx- imately $7,000 from the city's transient occupancy tax At least 4,000 San Diegans attended the festi- val. That works out to about $2.50 each per play, if you do not count the cornucopia of folk music the festival offered . When representatives or

ate, hoping that tJme will erase nustakes and an infe- rior record." Ordinarily, the city attor- ney is elected for a four-year term, but voters ln 1975 ap- proved a City Charter ~hange making the upcom- mg term a one-time only term of seven years. By the same ballot measure, voters approved a plan to elect the mayor for flve years in 1979. The ldea ls to have both terms end In 1984, and th r after have the mayor and the city attorney run for four-year terms at the same time as the presidential Icc- tions are held.

And the l,rst rud sketch that the world had seen was 1oy to h,.s mighty h art, Till th D v,I wh,sp r d b hind the I aves, 'Its pr tty, bvt 1s 11 Artr "Th Convndrvm of th Worhhops - Rudyard K1p/in9

. . . Th play.s of thi.s festival how d their audiences .some of the mo1t exciting theater to be .s en in th United States. The work ol these t atro.s points toward the potential velopment ol a theater of Int ,national significance.

ons of medieval England outnumbered their orman lords, so do the Anglo peo- ples of Aztlan outnumber their Spanlsh-speakrng companeros. And questions of who got here first aside, brute numbers count in the formation of new lan- guag . In the workshop discus• sions of the festival, anoth· er obstacle developed. The Chicano theater movement has not yet produced an ou tandtng playwright or critic. tany excellent Chi- cano 'writers are presently composmg poetry and f1c- t1on of high quality But they are not writing plays for the teatro ,. nor are they writing about them. The movement began as guerrilla theater, perform- ing acts and plays that were Intended to educate its audi- ences about the farmwork- ers' struggle and to enroll them into the "huelga," or strike. Useful agit-prop has little need for the rounded characters, invohed plots and realistically complex messages of more artist!• cally ambitious theaters. But 1n recent years th struggl for i;ocial justice ha become more intellec- tually demandmg, morally ambiguous,· and politically realistic As thE'y contmue the fight, many teatros will find that their hard-won po- litical insights will sharpen,

their knowledge of the in- terface between the Chica- no and Anglo worlds will deepen and thew nse of cultural identi will burn more clearly must their art. It has been an economic necessity that the players of hicano teatros work out collectively every ru pect of the r performances. They have had to invent their sets, costumes, acting styles, public relations, fi- nancing and pla. . But the dlsciplin of per• forming differs from the discipline of making. A good actor is seldom a skilled writer. The e is not enough time nor ergy in the press of production to practice both rts with equal power. ow the teatros of Aztl n need lhE' critical and literary skills of disciplined Chicano writer 1f they are to continue to explore and transform our hared labyrinth. H re's my wisda for yovr vse, as I learned 11 when the moose

importance, there was a re- alization among the festival participants that their teatros are beginning to command the skills. di.sci· pline and commitment needed to reach a more general audience. As a vital part of the Chicano cultural move- ment, Lie teatros o Aztlan are in the vanguard of the march for social justice in this country. There seems to be little danger that they 11 desert the Chicano community for the cheap thrills of commercial free- booting or rally under the limp banners of esthetic pu- rity and academic career- ism. But there are obstacles that must be overcome if the teatros mean to create honest, socially effective and artistically valid repre- sentations of Chicano reali- ty for a mixed audience that includes members of a society brought up on "Oklahoma!", ''How he West Was Won" and revi- vals of "Charley's Aunt." One such redoubt is lan- guage "Spanglish," the tongue of Aztlan, like the mixture of Anglo- axon and Latinate orman-French that preceded modern Eng• lish, has considerable l!ter- ary potential. There al- ready exists a worthwhile body of Spanglish poetry and fiction. Until recently, Chicano teatros have used Spanglish to address a mostly Span- ish-speaking audience. The language of their stages has been Spanish salted with English. If tl!e teatros in- tend to speak a larger mixed audience, t y will. need to use a version of Spanglish hat is more like English peppered with , panish As he Anglo-Sax-

RODNEY JONES • .. after Witt's Job

Jones would pre election condurl.(>d u~t• DJ!'"' ~v,\\i!J .IC a:.JA.ms 01 unnsu1 to have the next Ill are m;nn 10 J.~ew MO!! au1w.1aw(l or city attorney iun s1 aq 1nq olfat .1a1PUllS multaneously with the 1980 ·urrnsUJ resident I e Ption in d of the 19~ contest.-···· -·--...> UNION 7-,,,)v .. n San Diego O ·tuaries ading Antitrus Lyle L. Jones . 1es awyer At67 Lyle L. Jones, a nationally recognized author and lecturer In the field of antitrust law and founding partner of a law firm, died Friday in a San Diego hospital. He was 67. Mr. Jones, of 4319 Collwood Lane, was a native or Parkersburg, W. Va. and held a bachelor of laws degree from St. John's University and a master of law degree from Harvard University. n 1938 he served as assistant counsel for the Rural Electrification Administration in Washington, D.C., and a variety of posts with the U.S. Department of Justice from 1939 until 1954. Between 1954 and 1968 he served as chief of the San Francisco office of the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of·Justice. A member of the American and federal bar associa- tions, he was admitted to practice law before the U.S. Supreme Court and the California and New York state courts. He was a nationally recognized author and lecturer in the field of antitrust law and was a founding partner in the law firm of Sullivan, Jones & Archer, which maintains offices in San Diego, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Mr. Jones was listed in "Who's Who in the West" and was active in community affairs, having served on the board of the San Francisco Central YMCA and as a councilman for the City of Belmont. He had resided in San Diego the last nine years. Surviving are his wife Hope and three daughters, Mrs. Barbara Sturges of San Carlos, Mrs. Betsy Beeker of Miami Fla., and Mrs. Katherine Henninger of Manhat- tan B ch Calif. Funeral ices are pending. Humphrey's Chula Vista ottuacy is in charge of arrangements. The family suggests contributions to the Lyle L. Jones · guished Professorship Fund of the University of an Diego School of Law. ~ay, July 5, 1917 in three years qM Allnt tQ!d reporters he