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“La Pastorela,” El Teatro Campesino’s play about shepherds journeying to Bethlehem to witness the birth of Christ, has returned to the theater company’s San Juan Bautista playhouse for three weeks, opening on Nov. 30 and running Thursdays through Sunday until Dec 17.
“I am very excited that we are hosting audiences back inside our theater,” said Teatro Executive Director Christy Sandoval. “We haven’t produced theater to the scale in a couple of years now, but we feel the energy, and we want people to feel welcome back into our space.”
It is the first time audiences will be able to attend the theater in person since the pandemic forced its shuttering to the public following the 2019 run of the play. While El Teatro never stopped creating new work during that time, performances were largely limited to online events such as the stream-on-demand productions of “La Virgen de Tepeyac” in 2020 and “La Pastorela” in 2021.
“La Pastorela” director Kinan Valdez said the radio presentations were an effort to keep the Christmas traditions going for the community during the four-year break from live productions.
“We all missed what has been, for us, the cornerstone of the holiday season,” Valdez said. “Once we got the final okay to come back into the space, there was a great sense of relief and excitement that we could return to this production.”
One of the key considerations for reopening the theater to the public, according to Teatro-associated artist David ‘Oso” Alvarez, was the completion of renovations to the building itself, which had originally been a packing shed built in 1945 by spinach grower Sam Regas. Alvarez, who oversaw and participated in the extensive work the building required to bring it back up to shape, said there was an internal decision not to open up until they could really resolve the issues.
“As we were reopening, we realized there were a lot of infrastructure needs,” he said. “There was a fracture in one of the roof joists in the rafters and windows we wanted to open up to provide better ventilation in the space.”
According to Alvarez, the building was not necessarily unsafe, but the Teatro board of directors did not want to bring people back into a building that potentially could have seismic failures.
“It just kind of put this long exasperated pause on which direction we were going,” he said. “The building is 77 years old so there’s just a lot to consider and there’s a lot of remodeling concepts going on.”
Some of the renovations, such as a new bank of windows on the right side of the theater, will be readily apparent to long-time audience members. Others, like the steel beam reinforcements in the rafters, are harder to spot.
“We noticed some of the roof joists had been taken out for stage lighting,” Alvarez said. “So we reinforced the whole group all the way across.”
Other improvements include the installation of two new tankless water heaters and some patching of the roof in anticipation of further work.
“We will be engaging in a major fundraiser,” Alvarez said. “But in the meantime, the work that has been done has given us a refreshed energy. And getting people back in the theater is just going to keep that energy growing.”
Teatro founder and author of “La Pastorela” Luis Valdez said that plans for more improvements may include lifting the roof and the addition of more modern theatrical electronics.
“We are all turning the corner on perspective technology,” he said. “And I think that is making it possible for out-of-the-mainstream places like San Juan to nevertheless have the benefit of great lighting and great sound. I am full of confidence that we will soon hit our stride again.”
Though the building has been substantially improved since the last production, the health considerations that originally closed the theater are still in the back of Sandoval’s mind.
“We may not hang out as much in the lobby,” she said, “and post-show handshakes and all that will move to the outdoors. But I am hoping we can all find a moment to have a few words together, and I am looking forward to welcoming everyone back.”
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