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Show Chicago art troupe to perform at U El Teatro Campesino de A-tlan "It's vital, earthy and vividly alive theater. . . . It's an impressive impres-sive demonstration of what can be done when men do work together in a common cause," said the San Francisco Chronicle. Friday at 8:30 p.m. tliis Cliicano radical art troupe will perform for tlie University community in the Union Ballroom, sponsored by tlie Brown Students' Union. They were formed during tlie grape pickers' strike In Delano, Calif., by Luis Valdez, who was explaining theater to some of the farm workers unfamiliar with Hie idea of acting. Valdez hung sSgns around workers' necks and they acted out picket-line scenes. People Peo-ple gathered around to watch and it became the'ir first show. Their theory: "If you want un-bourgeois un-bourgeois theater, get unbourgeois people to do it. Theater docs not live 'in props and scenery it reveals re-veals itself in tlie excitement and tlie laughter of the audience." With 'this impromptu beginning and straightforward idea they have gone on to cross-country tours, performances at New York's Village Vil-lage Theater, 'the Newport Folk Festival, tlie courtyard of tlie U. S. Senate Bldg., and tlie University Uni-versity of Paris. They also have performed in fields, labor camps, at union meetings and strike benefits bene-fits A farm workers' cultural center, El Centro Campesino Cultural was formed by tfhe group in Del Rey, a rural California town of mostly Chicano people. From this base they travel up and down the San Joaquin Valley, giving shows and working with union organizing efforts. ef-forts. The troupe performs puppet shows, musical acts, films, full-length full-length plays and actos. Actos are short plays dealing with strikes, the union and problems of the farm worker. The'ir purposes are to lift strikers' strik-ers' morale, make social paints and give Chicano people a "sense of personal dignity and pride in his history, his culture and his race." Many of their reviews point out, however, that they also are very theatrical and entertaining. The L. A. Herald-Examiner said, "If they were really interested only in propagandising, they would be walking the aisles with placards, pla-cards, not Inventing these little satires." sa-tires." It called them "brilliantly funny . . . enthusiastic . . . impassioned," impas-sioned," and added, "The spirit of a revival or a football rally infects the proceedings, and it seems healthy." Viva la Causa! |
