Review: Natividad - A Homemade Pastorela Play by ALTA Teatro
by Michael Meigs
Every year since 1997 Austin's Spanish-speaking community has crafted a Christmas play, taking the model of the traditional Pastorela pageant of long date, in which the birth of Jesus is witnessed by a simple shepherd girl. As in virtually all folk theatre, the story can be told many different ways and styles. The sponsoring coalition ALTA (the Austin Latino Theatre Alliance) recruits a different director every year for the Spanish-language enactment, so that each Austin Pastorela is unlike another -- the versions stretch back in local memory, like Christmas ornaments specially crafted for the tree.
Shifting the metaphor: it was a pleasure again this year to unpack ALTA's annual gift to the public. Director Alejandro Pedemonte and playwright Miguel Angel Santana have put together a thoroughly contemporary Christmas story. Natividad is the gentle story of the upper-middle-class Pastor ("Shepherd") family, gathered for Christmas in a home furnished both with contemporary art -- courtesy of Austin artists -- and cleanly modern contemporary furniture, courtesy of the Motif furniture stores of Austin and San Antonio.
David and Estrella ("Star") Pastor have two attractive unmarried adult children, Sara and Benjamin. Sara's serious boyfriend -- her novio -- attends the meal. Peripheral figures provide drama and comic relief: Aunt Lucy, extravagantly dramatic and suspicious; rustic neighbor "El borrego" Reyes ("Sheep" King(s)) and a couple of flirtatious young ladies, Solia and Dora. In the family chat over dinner Tia Lucy rakes up disputes from many years before and insinuates that Sara's novio is being unfaithful because he is concerned by the plight of a young pregnant unmarried woman he met at his grocery store job.
These simple events are punctuated with cheerful and simply choreographed songs, done with appealing enthusiasm. Lessons are learned, some characters regret and correct unsympathetic behavior, and the family shines with human kindness. Karla Longnion as the unhappy Tia Lucy has great fun with her pretend wickedness. This "Homemade Pastorela" embraces the holiday, values of acceptance, forgiveness, and, above all, continuity of family.
The cast is generally young, but the audience is happy to make believe that Chuy Velasquez and Daniela Ruiz are the elders of the family. Almost all of the dialogue is in Spanish, as are all of the songs, with very Tejano lapses from time to time into English. Only the unmarried soon-to-be mother speaks consistently in English. No great emphasis is placed upon that difference, for it's clear that although these characters embody a Spanish speaking extended family, just about all of them are completely bilingual.
Tickets for Natividad - A Homemade Pastorela are available at the door of the black box theatre in the south wing of the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican-American Cultural Center. The program, available for an additional $10, is ALTA's new venture: a handsomely glossy 2012 calendar featuring images of works by Austin Latino artists, advertising from sponsors, and bios of cast and crew. Here's a sample from the March 2012 pages -- a detail from an abstract painting by Camila Rivadeneyra.
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Click to view program pages for Natividad - A Homemade Pastorela
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Natividad - A Homemade Pastorela Play
by Miguel Angel Santana
ALTA Teatro
