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The Chicano Theatre Movement and Actor Training in the United States

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The Chicano Theatre Movement and Actor Training in the United States FROM LA CARPA TO THE CLASSROOM: THE CHICANO THEATRE MOVEMENT AND ACTOR TRAINING IN THE UNITED STATES Dennis Sloan A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May 2020 Committee: Jonathan Chambers, Advisor Tim Brackenbury Graduate Faculty Representative Angela K. Ahlgren Cynthia Baron © 2020 Dennis Sloan All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Jonathan Chambers, Advisor The historical narrative of actor training has thus far been limited to the history of Eurocentric actor training. Put another way, it has been predominantly white. While the history of actor training has been understudied in general, the history of training for actors of color has been almost non-existent. Yet scholars including Alison Hodge and Mark Evans have made direct links between actor training and both the evolution of theatre and the development of personal, artistic, and socio-political worldviews. Since the recorded history of actor training focuses almost exclusively on white practitioners, however, this history privileges the experiences and perspectives of white practitioners over those of color. Rooted in the argument that a history of actor training based so exclusively on whiteness is incomplete and inaccurate, this dissertation explores the history of actor training for Latinx actors, especially those who participated in and came out of the Chicanx Theatre Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, and who went on to engage in other training programs afterwards. Relying primarily on original archival research, I document multifaceted attempts to train Latinx actors in the United States in the mid- to late twentieth century. In five chapters, I examine the beginnings of Latinx actor training in the United States; the Theatre of the Sphere training system devised by Luis Valdez and the El Teatro Campesino ensemble in the 1960s and 1970s; the various training opportunities offered by TENAZ (Teatro Nacional de Aztlán), a national network of Chicano theatres that operated from the late 1960s into the early 1990s; the efforts of the Old Globe Theatre’s Teatro Meta program in the 1980s; and the short-lived MFA program in Hispanic-American Theatre established by Jorge Huerta at iv the University of California, San Diego in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In examining these efforts, I argue that theatre artists and practitioners of color have historically engaged in their own training practices when white, mainstream training have failed to include them. In the process, I highlight the overall whiteness and Eurocentrism of historical accounts of actor training in the United States. I suggest that the dominance of white artists and training systems has placed extra burdens on artists, teachers, and actors of color to create more culturally specific approaches that address their specific needs. Ultimately, I argue that such approaches offer key information about how individuals and programs might begin to diversify training programs in ways that are more culturally inclusive. In sum, I argue that these largely undocumented efforts deserve a place in the history of both actor training and theatre in the United States, so that they may inform actor training moving forward. v To David, who made it possible. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, thank you to my committee. Thank you to Dr. Jonathan Chambers, who believed that I could accomplish things I had never even considered, and whose guidance has always been both generous and wise. Thank you to Dr. Cynthia Baron, whose class first implanted the idea for this dissertation in my mind, and whose enthusiasm for her students’ work is unmatched. Thanks also to Dr. Angela Ahlgren, who has always been willing to mentor me in any way I ask. And thanks to Dr. Tim Brackenbury, from the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, who has been a willing and active committee member and who has offered fresh and productive insights. I would also like to give thanks to the professors and colleagues who have provided feedback on various parts of this work along the way. At BGSU, these include Dr. Lesa Lockford, Dr. Eileen Cherry Chandler, Mohamadreza Babaee, Dan Cullen, Katelyn Gendelev, Dr. Rebecca Hammonds, Seung-A “Liz” Lee, Alesa MecGregor, Leesi Patrick, Daniel Ricken, Sejohn Serowik, Rebekah Sinewe, and Tessa Vaschel. Outside of the BGSU community, I owe similar thanks to Dr. Jon Rossini and Dr. Patricia Ybarra, along with Shelby Brewster, Lilianne Lugo Herrera, Dr. Elena Machado, and Dr. Marcos Steuernagel. I would also like to express my appreciation to Dr. Slade Billew, who was very generous in sharing resources with me. For my archival research, I am indebted to Amy Lynn Fry at the BGSU library, and also to the staff members of the Special Collections and University Archives department at San Diego State University; the Special Research Collections department at the University of California, Santa Barbara; and the Special Collections and Archives Department at the University of California, San Diego. I am especially grateful to Daisy Muralles at UCSB and to Heather Smedberg at UCSD for their very kind assistance while I worked in the archives and afterwards. vii Aside from my colleagues at BGSU, there are many who deserve special appreciation for their enormous support on a personal level. These include Dr. Bryan Vandevender and Dr. Christiana Molldrem Harkulich for their frequent advice and encouragement; Mandy Rausch, Jason Hays, and Darinne Paciotti, for cheering me onward on a near-daily basis; Sharon Benge, Dr. Patrick Bynane, Dr. Leigh Henderson, Dr. Mary Lou Hoyle, and Dr. Adrienne McLean, for their help and encouragement in my journey to graduate school; and Gina Wilkinson, for planting a seed of a belief many years ago that I could accomplish anything. I would also like to thank my mother, Adriana Dennis, and the late David Dennis, whose very real sacrifices started me on this path. And finally, I must give thanks to David Sloan, without whose unwavering support and unending generosity not a single page would ever have been written. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 1 Mainstream Actor Training in the United States ....................................................... 5 Black American and Asian American Actor Training in the United States .............. 22 Toward a History of Latinx Actor Training ............................................................... 43 CHAPTER I: THE RISE OF THE CHICANX THEATRE MOVEMENT ......................... 53 US Latinx Theatre Before the Chicanx Theatre Movement ...................................... 54 La Causa: The Farm Worker’s Movement ................................................................ 65 El Movimiento: The Chicanx Movement .................................................................. 69 El Teatro Campesino and the Birth of Chicanx Theatre ............................................ 76 CHAPTER II: EL TEATRO CAMPESINO AND THE THEATRE OF THE SPHERE .... 105 Pensamiento Serpentino ............................................................................................. 110 The Theatre of the Sphere: An Introduction .............................................................. 120 The Theatre of the Sphere: A Three (or Four) Part Process ...................................... 131 The Veinte Pasos: The Theatre of the Sphere in Action ............................................ 137 Criticisms, Responses, and New Analysis ................................................................. 148 CHAPTER III: TENAZ: TRAINING THE ACTORS OF AZTLÁN .................................. 164 TENAZ: A Brief History ........................................................................................... 166 Training Through Publication .................................................................................... 179 Training Through Critique ......................................................................................... 187 Training Through Festival Workshops ...................................................................... 195 Training Through Other Workshops .......................................................................... 206 ix Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 214 CHAPTER IV: TEATRO META: A GOAL WITHOUT BORDERS ................................. 216 Teatro Meta: Beginnings ............................................................................................ 221 Early Actor Training Efforts ...................................................................................... 239 The Ford Foundation Years ....................................................................................... 252 Endings and Assessments .......................................................................................... 261 CHAPTER V: SEPARATE BUT UNEQUAL: UCSD’S MFA IN HISPANIC-AMERICAN THEATRE ............................................................................................................................. 268 Program Planning....................................................................................................... 270 The Program .............................................................................................................. 280 Program Challenges ..................................................................................................
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