El Barrio Street Theater returns this weekend with a new play amidst the pandemic
By hola | Published | No Comments
After a 10 year hiatus, El Barrio Street Theater returns with a darkly humorous new play that puts humanity on trial in these covid times. The Trial of a New Century / El Juicio del Nuevo Siglo comes to Lamont Park for four free performances this weekend only.
Quique Aviles and Matthew Vaky, the play’s writer-directors, use dark humor to expose the divide between the rich and poor, spotlighting how the pandemic has exacerbated economic inequalities, racial and ethnic divides, and a plethora of social injustices facing our communities.
In this interactive play containing both English and Spanish, it’s “Los Bonitos versus Los Feitos–rich people versus poor people,” according to Vaky. Each side must make their case before the impartial Honorable Judge Honey UnBias. Upon entering the courtroom, the judge tells the audience: “Be Seated… But 6 Feet apart! And wear your damn masks!”
Los Bonitos—Vanka, JarJar and Penny Fufurufa—don’t feel they should apologize for their privilege. Los Feitos, meanwhile, are simply asking to be treated with dignity and respect and to be granted the equal rights. All the while, Corona V., representing the coronavirus, hovers over the judge and the audience enforcing social distancing rules and making unintelligible noises.
The play, performed to live music this Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 17 and 18, is itself a product of the pandemic and has gone through extensive planning to ensure strict COVID precautions are enforced. Laura Quiroga, also a play co-director and long-time dancer, choreographer and former instructor at GALA Hispanic Theater, discussed the precautions being taken to ensure the public’s safety.
“Like those of us who try to continue making art, the actors and cast are respecting all the necessary guidelines. That will apply to the public as well, Quiroga says. “We will have masks to distribute, hand sanitizer, and social distancing will be enforced” with the assistance of volunteers.
Vaky and Aviles started brainstorming late this past summer at Corado’s restaurant in Mt. Pleasant, where they met face-to-face for the first time since the pandemic began. They had lots of ideas, but settled on a trial where an impartial judge questions the morality of these two divided groups, Los Feitos and Los Bonitos.
This weekend’s production is also a homage to an earlier era of D.C. street theater. Street theater is a form of popular theater rooted in the community. Containing social and political messages, it’s usually performed on sidewalks, street corners and in other public spaces. The first street theater troupe to come out of El Barrio–D.C.’s historically Latino neighborhoods of Adams Morgan, Mt. Pleasant, and Columbia Heights–was Teatro Nuestro.
According to Aviles, Teatro Nuestro was started in the late 1970s-early 1980s by a “crazy bunch,” a group that included himself, his brother Pedro Aviles, artist Jorge Somarriba, Stefani Altomare and others. It was a very political kind of theater that served as a medium to speak up about U.S. intervention in El Salvador and Nicaragua and the consequent Salvadoran Civil War.
“We did several desfiles bufo [bufo parade or a satirical parade] that are very common in Latin America,” Aviles recalls. “People dress up to go to marches to mock the leadership so we did a couple of those at the Latino Festival during the parade.”
(Photo of Quique Aviles by Melissa Cadena)
Teatro Nuestro wasn’t the only street theater to come out of El Barrio at that time. In an interview with Hola Cultura, Aviles reminisced about how his involvement in street theater first began in the summer employment program started by former D.C. Mayor Marion Barry. His first summer job was with the Afro-Latino Youth Theater that had a mission to bring together Black and Latino kids in response to the growing racial tensions between the two communities. It sought to address those tensions and talk about the issues affecting both communities such as economic disparities, compared to the District’s white population.
While Teatro Nuestro folded in the late 1980s, El Barrio Street Theater came together in 2000 to continue the tradition. Under the umbrella of the now defunct arts and activist organization Sol y Soul and with funding from the D.C. Commission on the Arts & Humanities and others, they took to the streets every summer for about five years with performances that included a multicultural cast, live band and giant puppets. The performances dealt with issues of tenants rights, gentrification, worker rights, and immigration.
“We were one of the most multicultural ensembles in the city with people from all over – Central America, South America, Germany, Pakistan, and the U.S – who wanted to participate to dress up, have fun, and make art,” Aviles recalls.
El Barrio Street Theater inspired other groups to use this medium as a tool for their own organizing. At one point, a union that was organizing day laborers reached out to them because they were aware of their activism in the community and the political nature of their art. They collaborated with the union to create Teatro de los Trabajadores in order to advocate and “bring out the plight of esquineros.”
By the mid-2000s, El Barrio Street Theater began to fizzle as “people got older and had children. It was not as easy to attend rehearsals and be part of a process like that,” according to Aviles. He says people started to get burned out, given the time, energy and financial commitment organizing entailed. But ultimately it was the rising housing costs and changes to El Barrio that took its toll on the group.
“The other thing was gentrification, because back in the day when we were doing this, we all lived in Adams Morgan, Columbia Heights or Mt. Pleasant,” says Aviles, which made it easy to meet for rehearsals at the former Wilson Center (today Next Step Public Charter School) in Columbia Heights.
“The community pretty much got pushed out,” Aviles recalls. “So most artists don’t live in that area (anymore) and haven’t lived in that area for a long time.”
Why bring street theater back?
A small group of the artists involved in past street theater projects had been talking for the past few years about bringing street theater back, in part because they missed the sense of community and in part out of a growing sense of urgency to say something about the times we are living. They were making plans for last summer when the pandemic first hit. By June, “we decided we have to do this, we just have to do it differently,” Aviles says.
In previous years, rehearsals would turn into cookouts in the back patios of cast members. It was “not just putting together a piece, but to do what every human being does—to gather and to tell stories, to laugh,” he says.
As challenging as these times have been for everyone, the street theater cast—composed of old and new members—are excited to present this human story that takes place in the context of the pandemic. They’ve had difficulties in rehearsals and learning to project their voices so they carry through their face masks. But they have kept up their energy, rehearsing at least once a week at Lamont Park and over Zoom, because they are committed to bringing street theater back to El Barrio.
“We’re taking risks here,” Quique says. “We are the only theater ensemble in the whole DMV that is doing this.”
Quiroga tells us that even with the need for covid precautions, she is thrilled to help revive street theater because “street theater has always existed as a means of expressing and telling realities of the moment.”
“Now it rises again, as a need not only for us as artists to express ourselves, but more importantly to reach the community in general and especially the Latino [community],” she says, “to share a moment of entertainment and reality, and to help us to cope during these times that we have to live through in hopes of a better future.”
4 Performances Only
Sat., Oct. 17th at 3 pm & 5 pm
Sun., Oct. 18th at 3 pm & 5 pm
WHERE: Lamont Park in Mt. Pleasant, at the intersection of Lamont and Mt. Pleasant Streets NW.
COVID SAFETY PRECAUTIONS
Performances will follow strict safety protocols that include physically distanced seats/places to stand in the park, free face masks, and free hand sanitizer.
RSVP Link: https://fb.me/e/1egbvyCga
El Barrio Street Theater is supported by: DCAC, Theatre Lab, Hola Cultura, and GALA Hispanic Theatre
Donations
To make a contribution, you can donate through El Barrio’s fiscal sponsor, the District of Columbia Art Center’s website. Donations will go toward purchase of supplies and an honorarium for all of the artists and organizers involved.
- If donating through the website, make sure to write: “El Barrio Street Theater” in the message section
- Or donate through the DCAC Cash App: $DCArtsCenter and put “El Barrio Street Theater” in the subject line
- Cash donations on the day of the event are also welcomed
–Delia Beristain Noriega*
*Hola Cultura Fellow & one of the organizers and stage manager on El Barrio Street Theater’s crew
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