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In the 50 years that El Teatro Campesino has been presenting its annual Christmas pageants, including “La Pastorela,” currently in production through Dec. 21, it’s commonplace for the children and grandchildren of veteran cast members to eventually join them in taking on a role.
This year, the entire Zarate family—Arturo and Karina, along with their children Italia, 11, and Leandro, 8—auditioned and won parts in the play. It’s the first time they have acted together, and for Karina and Leandro, the first time they have ever been on stage.
The family first became involved with El Teatro Campesino last year, with Arturo and Italia cast in the year-end production of “La Virgen del Tepeyac.” It was Karina who insisted they audition.
“She saw a post on Facebook,” Arturo said, “So she came out with the idea that Italia and I would be a good fit, and that’s how it started.”
It was not the first time for Italia. She had auditioned for the part of Wendy in “Peter Pan,” but lost out on the role due to her inexperience.
“I didn’t know what the heck I was doing,” she said. “I didn’t know about body language and facial expressions. I just knew that I was supposed to sing. But of course, that is not the case in an audition.”
Having never heard of El Teatro before, Italia said she entered the auditions undaunted and with a “fresh new mind,” hoping to be cast as one of the Pueblo dwellers.
“It was kind of scary at first,” she said, “but they gave me two chances to sing. I was nervous for the first one, but then the second time, I did it again, and it was okay.”
It was much easier for Arturo to navigate the process. A late bloomer compared to his daughter, he auditioned at 15 for a job as a clown in Mexico, along with some friends who were seeking any work they could find.
“We used to look at jobs in the newspaper,” he said. “One asked, ‘Are you enthusiastic? Like to be in front of people? Like talking? Then we have something for you!’ It happened to be as a clown.”
Arturo freelanced as a clown in Mexico City before coming to the U.S. in 1994 at his parents’ suggestion. It took him about a year to settle in, after which he returned to his previous profession.
“I got my stuff,” he said. “They mailed my shoes, my clothes, everything, and that’s how I started. People liked it, they started calling me, and it was surprisingly good.”
Arturo said that being a clown is a lot different than being a cast member. As a clown he would be working on his own and playing off the response of the crowd.
“It’s like a tennis match,” he said. “You deliver a joke, people respond, and you work from the response. As a clown, as a performer, you are responsible for what is happening. But here, we are all connected.”
Karina helped Italia through her auditions and rehearsals last year and, being aware of her enthusiasm for the theater, she reached out this year to Teatro Executive Director Christy Sandoval about casting her and Arturo again. Sandoval replied, asking Karina if she would like to play the role of Maria, Jesus’s mother.
“I’ve never thought about auditioning before,” Karina said. “I have that stage fright, but I try to be a role model. So I couldn’t say no. I teach Italia, ‘if there’s an opportunity, you take it, even if you are afraid.’”
As a mother, she said it was easy to relate to the role, bringing back memories of when she herself was expecting.
“When I go on the stage, I just try to imagine how Maria felt when they needed a place, and everybody was saying no to them,” she said. “So, I try to take that to the stage, where we kind of seem lost, but we’re still going to walk. We’re going to get through.”
It helps that one of the two roles Arturo has taken on is that of her husband, Jose, saying she knows she will be by his side on stage. For Arturo, the most important scene is the one he shares with her at the beginning of the play, when the couple set out for Bethlehem.
“There is one very personal moment,” he said. “I am with Maria, and we are expecting the baby Jesus. I kneel in front of her and touch her belly. It’s very moving for me and really nice to have that.”
As with Karina, this is also Leandro’s first appearance on stage. Playing an angel, a reasonably quiet role, he said his favorite part is the battle with the devils, where he gets to use an illuminated bird to overpower evil.
There was a sense of regret in his voice, however, when he mentioned that the production no longer uses prop swords, which he thinks are a bit more exciting.
“Somebody told me somebody accidentally poked someone’s eye,” he said. “And then his eye was bleeding. So now we have to use birds.”
Italia was cast as a devil, which she said is a much more difficult role than her previous performance as a pueblo dweller.
“You’re out there a little bit more,” she said, “and we have to crawl around all over the place. It takes a lot of energy, and every time I get off a scene, I’m so exhausted. But being a devil is really fun.”
Crystal Gonzalez Avila, who plays a particularly nefarious Satanás in “La Pastorela,” also has both of her young girls in the play. She said that when a family does a theatrical production together, it naturally brings them closer.
“They come together as a unit,” she said. “They discover things about each other, and they witness each other’s growth.”
It’s Avila’s first time performing with her daughters, and she said it has been “such a beautiful blessing” to create alongside them.
“I see Arturo and his family going through the same things,” she said. “I see him smiling at what his daughter is doing or when she is finding something magical about character.”
For Italia, being in the play last year also helped her find the magic of performance. This is the fifth play she has performed in this year, including a lead role in a Morgan Hill production of “The Sound of Music.”
And for Karina? Despite her stage fright, she said she would happily take part in another production.
“I think this is an experience that not all families get to have,” she asked. “It is the reason I said yes. They could have asked anybody else to be in it, but they chose us. I will always be grateful for that.”
Performances of El Teatro Campesino’s “La Pastorela” take place Thursdays through Sundays through Dec. 21 at the playhouse, 705 4th Street in San Juan Bautista. Tickets, along with radio and video versions of the play, are available through the Teatro website.
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