El Teatro Campesino’s holiday pageant “La Pastorela” opens Nov. 28

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In its 50th year of production in San Juan Bautista, El Teatro Campesino’s “La Pastorela” begins its four-week run on Nov. 28 at the playhouse in San Juan Bautista. The traditional play of pilgrims in search of the birth of Christ, recast by founder Luis Valdez, is as much a reunion of the theater company as a family, as it is a series of performances. 

For Sandra Arretche, it’s a chance to work again with her “Teatro grandson,” 18-year-old Adam Luna, and polish the skills she perfected in clown college and children’s theater. For Luna, it’s an opportunity to move from having one of the most visible roles in any of the Teatro pageants at the age of 11 to working hard not to be seen at all.

They are both part of the multi-generational tradition-building that is an aspect of El Teatro Campesino’s artistic philosophy and the guarantee that this play, dating back to the shepherd’s plays of Medieval Europe and brought to Alta California by the missionaries, will continue in the repertoire of this living theater. 

“Luis built a strong foundation with this theater company,” Arretche said. “All of us who have come along afterwards have been honored to add layers to it. And the relationship we all have just makes that legacy stronger.”

That legacy-building can be seen at the Teatro rehearsals, where veterans work with first-timers, coaching and encouraging children still in single digits to take on roles the veterans may have played 30 or 40 years earlier. Or, when the musicians find a moment to let a child strum a guitar for the first time. 

Arretche, a teaching artist with the San Benito County Arts Council, first saw El Teatro perform as a student at San Jose State. Impressed with the company’s founder, Luis Valdez, she said she never imagined that she would one day be part of the company.

Before joining, Arretche had attended several of the Teatro’s Christmas pageants, starting with “La Pastorela” in 2005. She was dazzled by all aspects of the play’s production—not to mention being starstruck by the sight of Luis’ brother, Daniel Valdez, whose work in “Zoot Suit” had thrilled her.   

“Everything there made a big impression on me,” she said. “Things were going on all around you, and they brought in these big wooden horses. After that, I would come every year dressed up as a pastore, hoping they would ask me to join.”

Arretche finally got her chance in 2015, but rather than play a lesser role, she was asked to take on one of the leading comic characters: Bartola, a lazy shepherd. Having gone to clown college and worked in children’s theater, she still found the role intimidating. 

“Getting a lead in the first year scared the crap out of me,” she said. “I was almost ready to run out of the church every night because I was so nervous, because this part is so iconic.”

Luna’s first performance with the company was in the 2017 production of La Pastorela. He was 10 years old and had wanted to take part ever since seeing his mother, Stella Ramos, in a previous production. 

“I was excited about being a devil,” he said, “so I always had that energy. I dyed my hair so it looked like fire. I ran around with my legs bent, really down to the ground, and tried to be scary.”

His character got to terrorize Arretche in the play that year, but in 2018, he had a quieter role, playing her grandson as well as the sacred “Moon Boy,” who appears carrying a crescent moon and sits at the feet of the Virgin of Guadalupe in “La Virgen del Tepeyac.” 

According to Arretche, Ramos provides another tie-in to tradition: in her youth, she performed the role of the “Moon Girl.” But for Luna, being Moon Boy presented a new set of challenges.

“There was such a different feel to it,” Luna said. “I had to walk super-silent, and I felt a lot of pressure, especially during the apparitions when everyone’s just watching me and the Virgin Mary. It was intense.” 

Arretche said that she was impressed by Luna’s focus in the face of the pressure of having to be the center of attention as he walked down the Mission aisle, alone in the spotlight, carrying a crescent moon that was almost larger than he was. 

“Adam was very serious about what he was doing,” Arretche said. “He was always on point and always paid attention to what the director was saying. He didn’t need much from me other than telling him he was doing a good job.”

While Arretche and Luna are part of this year’s production of Pastorela, they will be occupying very different places in the playhouse. Arretche is taking on the role of “Parranda,” opposite Sylvia Gonzalez as Bartola. She describes Parranda as “a free-spirited woman who’s never been married and just looking for a man.” 

“I get to be all noisy,” she said. “And so it’s funny because I’m not like that outside of the theater. Sometimes I have to watch myself and have to bring it down so I can go home and be back to being myself again.”

For “La Pastorela,” Luna is working behind the scenes, handling tech, preparing and shifting props, and making sure everything is ready for the performers to do their jobs. It is the second production he has worked on in this capacity, having taken part in the staging of “Adios, Mama Carlota” earlier this year. 

“I stay in the background,” he said, “I have to try my best not to be seen. I do a lot of things that the audience doesn’t notice, and it’s kind of fun doing them. And I’m contributing even though I’m not doing the scenes.”

Joking that he prefers tech to acting because this time around he is getting paid, heLuna also said the work is much more physically demanding. 

“It’s very hard,” he said. “Timing is a lot of it. There’s a lot of legwork because you’re running around everywhere. I’m always running, and there is a lot of pressure remembering how the play goes.”

Despite being in the shadows, Luna says he still feels a deep sense of connection to the play and the company. 

“It is very, um, spiritual and very close to me,” he said. “Even being crew, you still feel the emotion of the play. You still feel part of it and everyone who is involved in it.”

Arretche said she feels that closeness, not just with the current cast and crew, but with those who have taken part in the productions over the last 50 years. 

“It’s not just going into the theater and acting,” she said, “You carry yourself and everybody that has done these parts before you. We all get so close in these next few weeks and then we disperse, but we’re never really away from each other.”

Performances of El Teatro Campesino’s “La Pastorela” will take place from Nov. 28 through Dec. 21, Thursdays through Sundays, at the playhouse, located at 705 4th Street in San Juan Bautista. Tickets, as well as radio and video versions of the play, are available through the Teatro website. 

Related stories: 

Luis Valdez and the ‘Pastorela’ journey

Mauricio Samano’s journey from Mexico to ‘La Pastorela’

Kinan Valdez brings Teatro tradition to a new setting

Daniel Valdez: A Teatro Campesino Life

El Teatro Campesino returns to live theater with new “Pastorela” production

El Teatro Campesino’s ‘La Pastorela’ enters its second week of shows

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