Pregones, 30 Years of Modern New York Latino Theatre
By Robert Waddell, January 2, 2010
 Rosalba Rolon, one of the founders and the current director of Pregones Theatre, gently closes her eyes as she remembered 30 years of producing New York Latino Theatre.
Her face becomes placid, a smile crosses her lips and she lights up recalling the struggles and illuminations of creating and running one of the premiere Puerto Rican stages in the tri-state area.
“It was with friends yearning to create something that was ours,” said Rolon. “I was politically jittery….We started looking for our little something on the side, never thinking it would amount to anything substantial. It was just something to keep us busy in between gigs.”
In 1979, Pregones Theatre began as a group of Latino actors who wanted to create works for themselves between acting jobs. They wanted to travel the world, said Rolon. Pregones’s first play was a collection of the actor’s favorite scenes. Their first presentation was in a friend’s Lower East Side bedroom called “La Collection” that went on to El Museo del Barrio and spaces that would invite the actors to perform like in churches, community centers and on the street.
This was guerilla theatre brought to the public. Rolon said that the actors even commandeered a Broadway house on a Monday night when the house was dark. Since then, Pregones has presented theatre productions in 500 cities in 37 states and in 18 countries.
 In the theatre’s beginnings, on into today, Pregones’s actors consisted of Rolon, Alvan Colon Lespier, the current artistic director, Elba Lugo, Heriberto Mateo, Luis Melendez, Felix Mendez, Jose Angel Rodriguez and Sandra Rodriguez. They were temporarily housed in store fronts, classrooms, offices and the gym of a church until they found a permanent residence in an abandoned building on Walton Avenue between 149th and 150th streets in the South Bronx in 2000.
The word Pregones means, by the way, the improvisational songs made up by street vendors to sell their wares. Like the theatre, these roaming retail troubadours were in the streets singing out to the public, much in keeping with Rolon’s desire to create modern Puerto Rican theatre sung out and acted out theatrically for New York audiences.
A Pregones production is very distinct in its execution. Their plays are modern, no matter the subject, sets are sparse and costumes are minimal.
“Our plays are not conventional,” said Rolon. “It is easier and aesthetically, I believe, more interesting if we create a type of atmosphere that allows for whatever we’re doing without the construct of strict costume or set piece.”
A hallmark of Pregones’s productions is breaking the third wall and having a conversation with the audience, said Rolon. Audiences are allowed to use their imaginations and the actor has the freedom to create on stage without the trappings of sets, too much make-up or the encumbrance of costume. Rolon said that she wanted the text of the theatre design to be as powerful as the text of the play.
“When I think of Pregones, I think "Edutainment," said actor Rafael Indio Melendez who was in the theatre’s latest production “Aloha Boricua.”
“They present works that are both educational and entertaining. I wish that I would have learned about the Puerto Rican plantation workers in Hawaii, in social studies class in high school. Pregones highlights different Puerto Rican people who have effectively changed history in an entertaining light,” said Melendez.
 Significant productions in recent years include “Game Over,” based on the book of Job; “Red Rose,” a musical based on the life of Jesus Colon and “Aloha Boricua,” which recounted the Puerto Rican migration to Hawaii. Other significant Pregones productions include: “Betsy,” “El Apagon,” “The Bolero Was My Downfall,” and “The Phone Call.”
"Pregones has been a powerful force in the theatre community and the community at large," said Charles Rice-Gonzalez, co-founder of the Bronx Academy of Art and Dance. "It has provided many firsts on and off stage including first time playwrights a chance to develop and showcase their work, and first time audiences to experience live theatre.
"In its 30 year history is has shown amazing staying power and become one of the cultural pillars in the Bronx that has enriched the lives of its audience and its artists."
This year, as the theatre goes into its continued 30 year celebration from 2009, Rolon said that she and Pregones are developing a new play about the life of James Reese Europe, an early Jazz pioneer during the First World War who employed many Puerto Rican musicians in his ragtime band.
“Pregones gives back to the community,” said actor Yaritza Pizzarro, “With summer tours and giving the history of our ancestors….They’re (Pregones) is genuine and open.”
Pizarro pointed to Pregones’s after school programs, domestic violence awareness plays, theatre for adolescents, that are “interactive with the audience” she said, as examples of the theatre’s commitment to community as well as to art.
Another distinguishing element to a Pregones production, setting them apart from El Repertorio Espanol or The Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, is that their plays are sexier and sensual, without being vulgar. Also, “The Pregones Musical Ensemble,” the theatre’s house band lead by Jorge Merced, is utilized in many of their plays and not many theatres integrate music into their productions as easily as Pregones.
“Latino theatres in New York have our own distinct personality,” said Rolon. “…We haven’t had a stand alone Latino theatre in decades in the Bronx. One the one hand I’m proud of it but there should be ten of us. We fill that gap and we’re not going to disappear…The Bronx is full of artists, not necessarily institutions…we are able to provide some space and accommodate as many as possible….We have a dynamic relationship with the community.”
This story was developed through the Education Beat Writing Fellowship at the New York Community Alliance. |
