Community Reading in Pacas

We got together with Pacoima community members on Tuesday from 6:30- 8:30pm to read Sigrid’s play together and get some feedback.

We met at Maclay Community Center on Gain Street.  We used Room B in the front bungalow.  There was good Cornerstone support presence:  Sigrid, Juliette, Xanthia, Laurie, Jay Briggs, Alejandra & Victor.  We had about 40 people present to read including Sophia, Bill & Bob (the 3 seniors from First United Methodist), Roxana from the garden & her daughter Bianca, Letty Rodriguez from Project Grad, David Guerra from Unusual Suspects, Charles Nettles from Rushing Waters cast & our 3/3 story circle.  Cornerstone friend Sam Comen joined us and brought a friend.  The majority of our turn-out was Arlene Simmons and her English class who came as a sort of field trip from the Pacoima Skills Center—there were at least 20 people with that group.

Juliette and Sigrid gave parts to all who were willing to read.  A lot of the English students chose to not read, but quite a few of them did read roles.  

Afterward Juliette led the feedback conversation we planned.  
We asked for initial one-word responses.
Juliette asked if folks could sum up the action of the play,
If there were places where they were confused about what was happening, and what people thought the response might be if we did “color-blind” casting such as African-Americans playing Latinos even within the same family.
We finished by asking for any thoughts or opinions.

Some responses:  Funny, Pacoima, stereotype, real, fun.
Ever forthright, Bill Davis shared that the play seemed to be about young Latinos’ Pacoima.  Bill is 84 & Black, but it didn’t seem to be a complaint particulary.   He shared that it would be interesting to do mix races in casting and he felt it would not be a bad idea.  Esther added that many families in Pacoima are mixed so it wouldn’t be an unnatural representation.  Sophia, Bob and Charles didn’t contribute much to the feedback though Charles did tell Xanthia that he planned to audition.  Roxana and Letty were thrilled with the reading.  They were really happy and excited about the play and expressed it’s accuracy in representing the community.  They both told us they were going to invite lots of friends and family to audition.

Generally the conversation afterward felt positive but a bit limited, due partly to a language barrier with the students probably, as well as most of them not feeling very outgoing in this environment.

As an English class, Arlene had suggested we not do translation on the students’ behalf.  In retrospect I wish we’d done a bit more of that anyway.

Also the room was over-hot—I didn’t know where the A/C control was-and there really wasn’t enough time for much conversation.  I wish I’d allowed an additional 30 minutes—though I’m not sure if people would have stayed til 9pm.  

Overall it was a good time and informative.  I introduced Esther and Alejandra since Ale will be the main point person there with rehearsals and I think Esther showed her around a bit.  Roxane announced the upcoming Volunteer Day at Project Youth Green.

Both Arlene and Roxana wrote us messages of appreciation and excitement about the play the next day.