Teatro de la Luna: Celebrating its 25th season
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Sitting at his desk at the back of the Teatro de la Luna office on Georgia Avenue in Northwest Washington D.C., Mario Marcel is far from a grandiose, spotlight-craving theatre stereotype. Dressed casually with a cup of tea in hand, the Teatro’s co-founder radiates an approachable warmth. Once he speaks, however, Marcel transforms into a dynamic storyteller, captivating his audience as he has on stage for many years.
Marcel invited me to sit down and use his desk while we talked about the journey of Teatro de la Luna, which this year is celebrating its 25th season. El Teatro has long operated out of a storefront in D.C.’s Petworth neighborhood and also shows its work in the Rosslyn Spectrum Theatre and the Gunston Arts Center in Arlington. It has become a community space for both Spanish and English speakers—one that goes beyond the presentation of Spanish-language theater. In addition to monthly play readings, acting workshops and a yearly Poetry Marathon, the organization produces at least two full-length plays annually.
I asked how he became interested in theatre. Marcel spoke vividly, almost poetically, about his years in the arts. He was born in Argentina and his father was an opera director. Surrounded by artistic people since birth, Marcel began acting at the age of seven in Naples, Italy. His acting teachers in Europe emphasized that “theater is made by men, for men,” a philosophy that he has carried throughout his life.
Marcel met his wife and longtime creative partner, Nucky Walder in Paraguay. They fell in love and married in 1981. She is an integral part of El Teatro’s operation. When I visited the theatre office on a cold and rainy Monday afternoon, Walder greeted me like an old friend, giving me a hug and offering me a cup of tea.
Marcel and Walder moved to Washington D.C. in 1984 where Marcel worked in the GALA theater, another Latino theater in the area. Marcel felt that at the time, the public was demanding more spaces to get together and represent themselves through theater. In 1991, Marcel and Walder founded Teatro de la Luna, motivated by their love of the arts.
“A play sometimes takes two months to produce, 150 to 160 hours of rehearsals and the actors need to eat. All the actors have other jobs, but the theatre is their passion,” Marcel says.
This struggle only seems to be getting more difficult as the public’s attention span continues to decrease, Marcel says.
Marcel explains: “Fifty years ago, plays lasted 3 hours with 3 acts, 30 years ago, they were 2 hours with 2 acts,” he says. “Ten years ago they lasted 1 hour with 1 act. Now, when people buy their tickets, they always ask ‘how long is the play?’ And when we say 1 hour and 10 minutes they ask, ‘exactly?’”
Today’s reality contrasts sharply with the Marcel’s experience before moving to Washington. During his younger years working in theatre, European immigrants who came to live in Latin America, together with the locals, fostered a strong theatre community.
When the immigrants came from Spain and Italy (to Chile, Uruguay, and Argentina), the European immigrants all gave a little bit of money to buy a property. The children went there to do their homework since it was difficult to do in another language. They were given a glass of milk for nutrition because many of them had very little money. The second thing they opened was a barbershop and the third thing was a small room where they had plays. Every Saturday for the adults, every Sundays for the kids.”
This kind of widespread, cross-cultural interest in performing arts that unites diverse communities is declining among Latinos. One reason Marcel believes is lack of knowledge.
“I lived in Guatemala for 12 years and one time I asked a local if he knew what the theatre was. He said ‘yes, it’s the really big house where they show movies.’ He had never seen the theatre so when he went to see a play where the actor mistreated his mother, he wanted to go to the stage to hit the actor. They had to explain to this man that it wasn’t real.”
Other reasons contributing to the decline, he says, include the fact that parents these days do not expose their children to theater from a young age, and the Latino community is dispersed around the greater Washington region, making accessibility an issue. On top of this, Marcel says, the “theater is competing with famous performers with enormous publicity budgets to bombard the public with advertisements. Thus, people end up choosing to go see the famous singers for often times triple the price of a theater performance.”
However, Teatro de la Luna has not let these obstacles deter them.
“At the beginning, this change hurts. Then, you get worried. Then, you pray that it finishes. And then, you adapt,” he says.
Adapt they have, as the 25th anniversary attests.
The theater represents the moment in time in which it was created,” Marcel says. In order to make the theater thrive, we are looking to produce things that represent what people want and need at that time so people can see themselves in the work.”
Marcel describes the feeling of creating productions that reflect society. “If you are able to do it for a year, you are happy. If you can do it for 5 years, that is really nice. If you can do it for 10 years, you think, wow, I am doing very well. But then when you do it for 25 years, you realize that you are a vital part of a society.”
As I left the la Luna that day, I kept thinking about Marcel’s description of the theater experience and decided that I had to go back and see one of their plays for myself.
“When you arrive in the theatre, the theatre is dark. Then suddenly, there is light. The curtains open and the mystery starts. At the end you can say I didn’t like it,” says Marcel, “but what is important is that the ending has touched you.”
For more information and tickets for February productions, De Hombre a Hombre and Nuestra Señora de las Nubes, visit: Teatro de la Luna
Alyssa Anderson
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