Event Article

This week the Fullerton College Theatre Arts Department opens its second show of the 1997 spring line with "Roosters," the story of a Hispanic named "Gallo" Morales who raises roosters. His wish is to breed the best cock-fighter there can be. He steals the rooster he needs, ends up killing the owner, and going to jail for seven years. The play picks up on the day of his release and return home.

Director Bob Jensen undertook this show understanding the complexities and frustrations that may come. But Jensen s calm, cool and collected. "We're making progress, every day," he commented.

This show is unique because there are two performances a night, one in English and the other in Spanish. Jensen directs the English and his assistant director, Louisa Nouvello, helps him with the Spanish cast. Both casts rehearse together to get both shows the same, but the work must still be perfect since the playwright's looking over the show's shoulder.

Milcha Sanchez-Scott, author of "Roosters," came to visit the cast after Nouvello heard that she was in Los Angeles writing a musical at the Mark Taper Forum. Jensen stated, "We were lucky that she was in Southern California." Sanchez-Scott was pleased to see the original ending in the play after an adapted movie changed the ending.

The show is laced with Latin heritage and dancing. "What I'm trying to do is make it as true as I could to the Latin culture," Jensen said as he explained the importance of the choreography. The show is lead by FC student Myra Teti's choreography. Jensen praised her by saying, "She's doing a beautiful job in creating... a magical realism throughout the show. It deals with the imagination part of the characters," and shows the "power of imagination and creating your own personal mythology," said Jensen. The play moves from realism into "magical realism" and back. It constantly comes from the "point of imagination." He goes on to explain that all the cockfighting that takes place on the stage is performed by people in rooster costumes. Jensen wanted to make it a "non-traditional play."

Some cast members are in both the Spanish and English shows, but the "shadow" characters are in both so expect to see familiar faces.

Two shows will be performed each night, English and then Spanish. The creativity of the play brings to Fullerton College a richer selection of plays being performed this semester and to offer theatre in different forms.