Hollister
– Wide lapels and felt hats are back in fashion in San Juan
Bautista.
After a five-year hiatus,
”
Zoot Suit
”
– the play that built El Teatro Campesino and defined Luis
Valdez’s career – has returned to the theater of its origin.
”
Zoot Suit
”
will officially debut tonight with an opening night gala. The
show has been tentatively scheduled for a 10-week run.
Hollister – Wide lapels and felt hats are back in fashion in San Juan Bautista.
After a five-year hiatus, “Zoot Suit” – the play that built El Teatro Campesino and defined Luis Valdez’s career – has returned to the theater of its origin. “Zoot Suit” will officially debut tonight with an opening night gala. The show has been tentatively scheduled for a 10-week run.
It has been 65 years since the Sleepy Lagoon murder trial and ensuing “Zoot Suit Riots” the play documents, and nearly 30 years since the play debuted on Broadway. But Director Kinan Valdez – Luis Vadez’s son – said the play’s themes still move modern audiences.
“The show and its historical events still resonate with a lot of people,” Valdez said. “There is a timeless message that’s extremely important in this day and age.”
The story focuses on a group of young Mexican-Americans in Los Angeles during World War II who were prosecuted for a crime they did not commit.
“Part of what runs through the fabric of the show is there’s a tendency to want to scapegoat certain populations,” Valdez said. “Particularly in times of war, there is a tendency to want to homogenize people.”
The play looks at the importance of viewing every culture and subgroup above all as humans, Valdez said.
What differentiates this show from previous productions is the young cast. In other shows, adult actors played the teenage roles.
In many cases now the actors are no older than the characters they portray.
“I think it’s more impactful. You see the fact that these are young kids,” Valdez said.
Still, the young cast also brought challenges. Many of the actors knew very little about the Sleepy Lagoon Murder trial.
Alika Spencer, 21, who plays the character of Alice Bloomfield, said she did a lot of research before she went into rehearsal.
“I was really interested that I’d never heard it before, and it’s such an important piece of history,” Spencer said. “It’s such an important story to do.”
Spencer said she was honored to be in the show that had been so important to the creation of El Teatro Campesino.
Valdez said the same. His father wrote the play, and Valdez recalled watching the show and being moved by its story even as a young boy.
“For me, it’s always a pleasure to work on ‘Zoot Suit’ as a member of the theater but also as my father’s son,” Valdez said. “The fact that it’s my father’s signature work, as a son, it makes me proud.”
