Interview with Judith Rivera, former ensemble member

By Arnaldo Lopez

Arnaldo Lopez: How and why do you make art? Who is it for? Who participates?

Judith Rivera: I make art because I like it. It is the closest thing to magic in the real world. Bringing a fantasy to life is a life-long challenge. Playing characters that are composites of the real world and blending them all together to create a new person is fun. Reenacting stories and events, playing characters, moving your body, singing or making sounds in the space of a black-box theater in front of people, persuading those people that this make believe is real for one hour-and-a-half, and then to have them applaud you and want to talk to you after it is over – it is all quite satisfying. It is magic.

First, art is for me. If a fantasy, dream, story or character makes me happy in my head and I want to tell it to somebody else because I think that it could make him or her happy, then I share it. The same thing applies to a social injustice that bothers me and I find the need to share. When I want to share whatever thing I have in my head with others, then the art is for other people. How to put this idea in a black-box theater and sustain it for an hour-and-a-half and make people interested to not only show up but to sit for an hour-and-a-half – that’s the exciting challenge. Persuading people to watch my story can happen if my presentation is something that they can identify with culturally or socially, if it is aesthetically pleasing and entertaining, and if it is important and pleasing to me. Once the presentation is shared with an audience and it makes them happy, the "thing" from my head is no longer mine. I have no problem with that, because my goal was to share, and I did spend a lot of time with the idea before opening night. I am Puerto Rican, born and raised in New York and I like my people, the music, the food, the dances, the stories, the holidays, the history. And so, my ideas are rooted in this culture and more than anything I want to hear the applause of my people, as well as anyone else who wants to listen.

Bringing the idea to life needs other participants even if you are a solo artist. Somebody has to light you on stage, play music or press the button to turn the sound system on cue, direct the piece, close the curtain, paint the flats, make the props, make the costume, tell people that there is a show, sell tickets and so on. Even if you can do all this yourself, it is exhausting. Getting other artists to collaborate with an idea can only make it richer because each artist has different talents and ideas that can be added to the original idea. Ensemble work is my favorite because it is a laboratory for creativity with room for plenty of experimentation. My ideal participants for a collective creation are the following: actors, actors who can move, actors who can sing, drive, paint, cut wood and answer the phone, musicians, non-actors who are willing to try, actors who are willing to try and a director who can put all these ingredients together.

The final participants, the recipients of the ideas that one spent many months creating, are the audience. They will give you the feedback and you hope that they will talk about it positively and tell other people to come and see the show.

AL: Tell us about your trajectory in theater. Did you set out to do ensemble work? How did you get there? When did you start working with Pregones?

JR: I got the acting bug in high school. I was in one high school play and I liked it. In church I participated every year in the Christmas pageant with a speaking role (the Angel Gabriel). All my life people told me I had an unusual voice and so I was always attracting attention. I liked wearing a costume and being somebody else. In college I continued doing plays and when I auditioned for the role of Helena in "A Midsummer Night’s Dream," I got the part on the spot. I was on the moon for days.

In the second college I attended, City College, I did ensemble work. I was involved in different projects and saw several works come to life in the black-box theater. I practically lived in it. I got to work with adaptations from stories or novels and original works by students in the group. I liked this way of doing theater because the themes and characters reflected my cultural and social reality. Plus, many of my ideas were used in the creative process.

I was in my last semester in City College when I auditioned for Pregones in 1986. Sandra Rodríguez, a member of Pregones, came to our Latino Theater Club meeting and asked us to audition for their production of "Tiempo muerto" ["Dead Time" by Manuel Méndez Ballester], a Puerto Rican play in Spanish. I auditioned and didn’t get the role because my Spanish wasn’t fluent, but I was invited to join the theater company because they wanted me to be a part of the new pieces that were being created for Latino English-speaking youth audiences.

The first show I did with Pregones was "La caravana" ["The Caravan"]. This piece was inspired by a poem about a charlatan circus ringmaster called Mr. Saltimbanqui, who exploited his performers. Via creative collaboration we created a piece with live music and an ending that the audience was asked to choose each time.

Two weeks before "La caravana" debuted, artistic director Rosalba Rolón, who was performing in the show, had given birth to her daughter Rosal. She figured that if she breast-fed the infant before the show, the baby could sleep through the performance. The host who invited us to perform in the school came backstage to greet us and he almost fell back when he saw the infant Rosal sleeping soundly in a trunk. Sure enough, when the last song was sung, Rosal woke up. My debut in Pregones was the beginning of a roller-coaster ride of excitement that I rode for twelve years.

AL: Whose and what ideas are prominent in Pregones’ works? Are the works issue-driven? What are your favorites? Which are the most satisfying in terms of Pregones’ mission?

In my early years in Pregones the prominent ideas for new pieces came from the members who were in the company for a number of years. Some of those themes/ideas were in the back burner before I joined and were ready to be developed by the time I was there. Once the theme was chosen, the idea would be developed via a series of improvisations and experimental creation processes with all members (actors and musicians) contributing. We would distribute tasks like research and scene writing. In the play "Migrants!" ["cantata a los emigrantes"], a historical court hearing became one of the funniest scenes in the show. I was proud that many of my ideas were in the final product. When I was new in the company the existing members were all Puerto Ricans raised on the Island and came to New York as adults. José García, another Nuyorican, joined Pregones at the same time and as a result, we contributed Nuyorican themes and English-speaking characters to these new pieces. José García, with his singing talent, contributed so much music that a series of shows were created with lots of vocal music.

"Migrants" was the second show I worked in, and this work came about because Rosalba was interested in the theme of Puerto Rican migration to the United States in the 20th century. Sometimes our themes for works were issue-driven and sometimes our works addressed themes of interest that were not necessarily issue-driven. "I wanna do a piece on Puerto Rican migrant workers." "I wanna do a piece that has Nuyorican teenagers, and deals with how consumerism influences them." That was the musical piece called "Remote Control." I played the teenage girl who liked the bad boy of the neighborhood and she believed that buying cool clothes could make her life better. I remember I constructed out of white poster board a caricature of a Ken doll-like TV spokesperson that was manipulated as a puppet in the show.

"Why don’t we bring back ‘High Noon’ - the piece about Puerto Rican hospital workers forming a union." "High Noon" was a play in repertory that Pregones created in their early years. José García and I participated.

"We need to address the AIDS epidemic in our community." In the late eighties, Alvan Colón, a longtime member, wanted to try out a type of audience intervention theater that he read about in an article. This article described a method inspired by Brazilian director Augusto Boal, known for his Theater of the Oppressed. Based on its own research, Pregones developed "The Embrace," a series of plays about AIDS in the [Latino] family/community in which audiences participated playing the part of the oppressed character and trying to come up with a solution. We toured "The Embrace" throughout New York City and to places like hospitals, drug rehabilitation centers, schools, senior centers and prisons.

"It bothers me that a lot of people don’t know that there are Puerto Rican political prisoners." "Voices of Steele," a drama with music (yes, with music) about our Puerto Rican political prisoners who were in high security units in U.S. Federal prisons was created collectively.

One day I said, "I wanna do storytelling for children," and "The Monkey’s Tail and Other Tales" came about. Even though I was the storyteller and I gathered the stories, the piece was collectively created and became part of our repertory. It was a great satisfaction to perform it for thousands of children, and adults liked it too.

Not all of our works came from an ensemble idea. "Medea’s Last Rosary" was a script [by José Manuel Torres Santiago]. It was written in verse in the style of classical Greek drama and it was loosely based on the Greek classic ["Medea"], suited to match [factual] events that occurred in Puerto Rico. The staging of it was worked collectively.

Then came the works that were adapted from stories, poems or narratives like "The Wedding March," "Fables of the Caribbean," "Baile Cangrejero," "El bolero fue mi ruina" and "Translated Woman," which is an anthropological investigation. Rosalba and Jorge B. Merced became masters at bringing the narrative to the stage.

Along with Jorge and Alvan, I became an associate director of Pregones Theater. Which meant that I was part of the artistic and administrative decision-making team in the company. When Pregones had a meeting to revamp the wording of the original mission, I was in that brainstorming session. It wasn’t easy putting all the things we did in one sentence… Performing and creating new works, maintaining a repertory, presenting other artists, touring, teaching workshops, community activism, presenting high quality theater, accessibility to the community, networking on a national and international level, hosting a Latino Theater Festival and so on.

Among the many triumphs (big and small ones) I experienced in Pregones, touring was exciting. There were shows that had at least four years of touring life, and so we toured many states in the U.S. and honored invitations to theater festivals, national and international. In 1989, Marcella White, Jorge and I took the Theater of the Oppressed workshop conducted by none other than Augusto Boal in Rio de Janeiro. What we learned in this workshop would later strengthen "The Embrace" project, and also gave us the opportunity to see theater in Rio and network with other artists. Networking, seeing artistic works, taking and giving workshops, cultivating future exchanges was basic in all our touring.

I feel blessed that during my twelve years with Pregones Theater I met so many people and artists, received the applause of thousands, and grew personally, as well as contributed towards the growth of Pregones Theater.

AL: Is there a particular time period and/or location that in your experience best defined the relationship between the artists and the community? Why?

I remember when Pepón Osorio (sculptor/installation artist) designed the set for "Medea’s Last Rosary." He was at the theater a lot and even participated in the rehearsals. He helped me with the character I was playing and was just so supportive and giving. The night that the Gulf War started – the bombing of Baghdad – we were rehearsing "Medea" and Pepón came from backstage to tell us and we stopped, held hands in a circle to wish for the end of that war.

When the Peruvian group Yuyachkani were our guest artists, I accompanied them to a series of workshops they did in various Bronx high schools. It was a pleasure and an education. I saw their great discipline, skill, and versatility. It was admirable how they worked with the teenagers and got them moving. Ana was about five months pregnant and still able to do physical exercises. I asked her to let the students know that she was pregnant after she did the exercises. She didn’t understand why and I told her that I observed that some of the teens were taking a back seat, being a little lazy about the workshop. The girls were very worried about their looks. If a pregnant woman could do those exercises, then those teenagers could too. I saw a lot of teens drop their jaws and have no excuse to participate.

When Ruth Behar, the author of "Translated Woman," came to see a rehearsal of our adaptation of that work, we were nervous. We never met her and she never dreamed it possible that her work could be put to the stage. "She looks like a nice lady," I said to Marcella when we saw her talking with Rosalba (director of the piece) before we ran the rehearsal. Well, Ruth loved the show, the music and us. She became our friend and was present for many of the performances we did on tour, and for the New York run we met her parents. Her mother even cooked Cuban/Jewish dishes for us on the last day of the run.

There were some long-term residencies that Pregones did in Muhlenberg College (Allentown, Pennsylvania) and The Exchange with Roadside Theater (Kentucky) and Junebug Productions (New Orleans), where my participation was mostly as a performer and we would always begin residencies with presentations of our current repertory.

AL: What effects has the community had on the theater, and vice versa?

JR: Without the community we would not exist. They are the ones who request the need for a better quality of life and seek our theater for that. It is important that we listen to them and we need and like their feedback. We have done things like present works in progress for audience feed back. We listened to our board of directors who are people of the community. There were times when we could not keep up the demands because we were only so many in the group. Like in the early ’90s, when the demand for arts-and-education programs in public schools was so high. Informing audiences with our promotional materials whether a performance is appropriate for children, the language the piece is in, discounts for senior citizens and students is highly appreciated by them. A lot of our programs were born from community needs or requests. For instance, our refreshment stand and shop. Our audiences wanted our T-shirts, posters, books, and CDs. They like the music that is played before and after showtime. The refreshment stand has become an excuse to stay after the performance to gather and socialize. Teachers have assigned their students to write reports on our plays. Couples have come to our theater for their dates, senior citizens have come for their outings, new relationships have sprung, and so on. I like that social part of our theater.

AL: What stories do you have about leadership? What are the major changes Pregones has been through? When were things the most difficult and when did they run the best?

In general, things were most difficult when funding sources were low. Cuts in government funding for the arts affected us severely. Delays in receiving grants and cash flow problems made for difficult times. There were numerous meetings that involved making difficult decisions and survival plans in the early nineties. We survived that difficult time because we diversified our funding sources, solidified our Touring Residencies and Main Stage programs.

Once people came to the theater, they always came back and would spread the word. The challenge was getting new people to come for the first time. Creating and developing an audience at the same time is a challenge.

When we had to leave the theater space at St. Ann’s [Episcopal] Church in the South Bronx, that was difficult. Much love, time, dreams and money were put into that space. But Pregones Theater is not just a space. We moved to 700 Grand Concourse and continued to do theater.

AL: What do you think you do best? How does your craft fit into the ensemble?

I am too modest to answer that, but with the ensemble I played characters, sang in chorus, narrated and did some movement work and dancing (not my forte).

AL: What do you want to be known for and by whom?

I want to be known as a member of Pregones Theater by the present members of the group even though I moved to Puerto Rico and started a new career in mask theater. I also hope that some audiences remember me.

AL: Have you had disasters or made mistakes in ensemble work and/or in community relationships? Would you be willing to share some of these stories?

If I didn’t make mistakes and caused disasters in performances I would never have learned all that I have learned. My greatest consolation was that I had the chance to do a better performance the next time. I will spare you the boring details of performer insecurities, not finding the rhythm or timing of a character or a piece, the inability to dance, the inability to sing in harmony, to speak Spanish smoothly and so on.

AL: In what ways does your ensemble critically evaluate its work? What changes would you introduce in the evaluation process and why (please be as precise as possible)?

The work is evaluated in numerous ways. First, the ensemble and the director evaluate it during the process of development. We watch each other, we add, subtract, and remind ourselves what the thesis of the piece is. Are the images clear? Are we copying from another show in our own repertory? Second, other artists and the audience will give us their feedback. Third, we watch rehearsal and performance video of the piece. Fourth, we never see our works as final products but as an opportunity to add, adjust and renew every time we come back to it. When a new artist comes into an existing piece, there is always something new. It is important that a new work have time to mature, like wine.

AL: How has your experience with Pregones affected your understanding of the stage arts and/or of community/audience?

My experience with Pregones formed my theatrical life and the opinion I have for theater rooted in a community. I like this kind of theater. It is exciting, genuine, sincere, beautiful and magical. Including the Pregones artists. I have seen so many artists do so much with so few elements to create infinite beauty. My motivation has been pride in the work, the need to share, and the love of my people. This work is not easy. It is a life-long challenge.

AL: What do you think is in the future for Pregones?

Growth. As long as Pregones continues to open its doors to new young artists, daring old artists, new ideas, and to cultivate its audiences, programs, and networks, it can continue to exist long after the original members are living in nursing homes. In the future there will be a new generation of pregoneros.

An ensemble-theater scholar born and raised in Puerto Rico, Arnaldo J. Lopez studied English literature, typography and letterpress arts in Pennsylvania, where he also lived and worked as a graphic designer. A Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at NYU, he likes to write on issues of identity, arts and politics.

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