LATINOS TAKE SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL STAGE; BARD SHOWN IN NEW LIGHT.Byline: Sonia Giordani Daily News Staff Writer Camille Echeverria knew she wanted to be an actress when she was just 3. Maybe it was the children's theater her mother took her to see. Or perhaps it was all the television she watched and movie stars who influenced her as a young child. ``As a Latina, however, there were certainly few role models in the industry to look up to,'' said Echeverria, a 33-year-old actress and Thousand Oaks Thousand Oaks, residential city (1990 pop. 104,352), Ventura co., S Calif., in a farm area; inc. 1964. Avocados, citrus, vegetables, strawberries, and nursery products are grown. resident. ``Still, Latina actresses are often cast as the maids and the prostitutes. I can't tell you how many times I've played a maid or a prostitute.'' This summer, Echeverria portrays the fairy, Titania, in William Shakespeare's ``A Midsummer Night's Dream'' at the 15th annual Ojai Shakespeare Festival, which started Friday and runs through Aug. 17. Drawing talent from Ventura and Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. counties, this year's festival includes a crew of Latino actors and actresses, set designers and stage technicians. And Echeverria is heading an outreach campaign to attract more Latinos to attend the festival this summer. ``Growing up, many Latinos are not exposed to that kind of theater,'' Echeverria said. ``This is a great way to let the Latino community know that there are Latinos doing Shakespeare and that this is a family show, a show for children and adults.'' For years, the Years, The the seven decades of Eleanor Pargiter’s life. [Br. Lit.: Benét, 1109] See : Time festival's artistic directors, Paul Backer and Jaye Hersh, have reached out to the counties' large Latino community to attract both crew and audience members. This year, it finally happened, said Backer, who also teaches theater at the University of Southern California The U.S. News & World Report ranked USC 27th among all universities in the United States in its 2008 ranking of "America's Best Colleges", also designating it as one of the "most selective universities" for admitting 8,634 of the almost 34,000 who applied for freshman admission . ``The goal each year is to try to create an ensemble, an interesting mix of people, to bring new interest to Shakespeare,'' Backer said. ``There is so much magic and romance in this particular production.'' This year's production of ``A Midsummer Night's Dream'' includes Lorraine Cubero-MacDonald of Port Hueneme Port Hueneme (wī'nē`mē), city (1990 pop. 20,319), Ventura co., S Calif., on the Pacific coast; founded 1870, inc. 1948. It has an artificial deep-sea harbor and is the site of a huge naval construction-battalion (Seabee) center. as Hermia, Mario Perez The Cuban artist Mario Perez, born June 17, 1943, emigrated to the United States as a teenager and has focused his artistic career primarily on documenting the pre-war Havana of his youth, noted for his urban landscapes often recreated from memory. of Oxnard as the comical Francis Flute Francis Flute is a character in the play A Midsummer Night's Dream. He is forced to play the female role of Thisbe in "Pyramus and Thisbe", a play within the play which is performed for Theseus' marriage celebration. and Ashley Roeca of Los Angeles as Oberon. Angela Mia Torres of Ojai designed the set, and Regina Chavez of Ojai is the show's stage manager. Diane Magana and Jose Leon, high school students from Santa Paula Santa Paula (săn`tə pôl`ə), city (1990 pop. 25,062), Ventura co., S Calif., on the Santa Clara River in a fertile valley that yields citrus fruits, avocados, vegetables, flowers, nursery products, and walnuts; laid out 1875, inc. , are working on the crew as interns, along with Ojai Middle School student Erika Hartman. ``Latinos don't get a lot of opportunities to do Shakespeare, I think, because many directors are not into nontraditional casting,'' Echeverria said. ``As long as we keep playing the maids and the prostitutes, however, the industry will keep giving us those roles. We've got to break the stereotypes and do Shakespeare and show everyone we can do the classics.'' Born in San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden to a Mexican-American mother and an Ecuadoran father, Echeverria came to Southern California to study acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts The American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA) is a fully accredited two-year conservatory with campuses located at 120 Madison Avenue in New York City (in a landmark building designed by famed architect Stanford White as the original Colony Club) and 1336 North La Brea Avenue in in Pasadena and to study dance at the Moro-Landis Dance Academy in Los Angeles. Echeverria has played leading roles in stage and studio productions in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of . And the actress, whose bookshelves at home are packed with volumes of musical theater scores as well as Shakespeare and classical plays, said she tries to do a festival each summer. But Echeverria said her passion remains in bilingual theater and children's outreach programs that help bridge the gap many Latino youths feel while growing up in the United States. ``In my own parents' attempt for me to be Coca-Cola'd and white-washed, I lost part of my culture,'' said Echeverria, who added that although she understands Spanish she speaks only minimal ``kitchen'' Spanish because her parents hesitated to teach her the language. ``I feel I have to do something for the Latino community,'' Echeverria said. She recently submitted a proposal for a children's theater outreach program at the Plaza de La Raza Cultural Arts Center in Los Angeles to expose children to such Latino historical role models as Frida Kahlo and Cesar Chavez. ``Theater for me is about educating. I want the audience to leave the theater thinking about what they saw,'' Echeverria said. ``The words of Shakespeare are still relevant to society today. He wrote about social classes and divisions between them, and there is still a class thing going on today.'' THE FACTS The Ojai Shakespeare Festival will perform ``A Midsummer Night's Dream'' at 7:30 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, through Aug. 17, at Libbey Park in downtown Ojai. A family musical performance titled ``No Holds Bard'' will be at 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, and a more risque ris·qué adj. Suggestive of or bordering on indelicacy or impropriety. [French, from past participle of risquer, to risk, from risque, risk; see risk.] Adj. version will be at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays. For ticket information, call (805) 646-9455. CAPTION(S): 2 Photos Photo: (1--ran in SIMI SIMI Sea Ice Mechanics Initiative SIMI Search for Intelligent Monkeys on the Internet SIMI Students Islamic Movement in India SIMI Society of Irish Motor Industry SIMI Smallholder Irrigation Markets Initiative and CONEJO edition only) Camille Echeverria, right, rehearses a scene from ``A Midsummer Night's Dream'' with Michael Cornacchia in the role of Bottom. (2--ran in SIMI and CONEJO only) Latino actors Ashley Roeca, left, and Lorraine MacDonald rehearse their roles for ``No Holds Bard.'' Evan Yee/Daily News |
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