everyday heroes
Staging success
Apr 23, 2009 4:23 PM
Barcelona native’s theater program plays to rave reviews
At first, all they shared was a language. Christian was a quiet boy from a town in the mountainous country of Colombia who had just moved to America.
Anabel Frutos was a lively theater aficionado from the magical sophisticated city of Barcelona.
All Christian wanted to do was quit school and go back to Colombia.
All Frutos ever wanted to do was leave the glorious Spanish sun behind and move to the City That Never Sleeps, become a teacher and direct young people on stage.
They met in the halls of Newtown HS in Elmhurst, Queens, home of 61 languages spoken by students from 100 countries. Frutos, a Spanish teacher, asked the withdrawn boy if he would like to participate in her after-school Spanish theater class. He said OK.
By the time Christian was partway through his stage career, he no longer felt out of it, had friends, wasn’t staying home alone after school anymore, did well in his classes, really liked Newtown and, gee — America didn’t seem so bad after all.
Spanish teacher and theater director Anabel Frutos directing rehearsals at Newtown HS in Queens.
It’s all part of the magic of Frutos’ theater program. Not only do students grow into their roles — including both proper and eccentric British characters in the recent production of Agatha’s Christie’s “Mousetrap,” a.k.a. “La Ratonera” — they grow into more confident, successful versions of themselves.
“Theater is very important in Barcelona, and maybe that’s why I love theater,” said Frutos, who’s been teaching in New York for 10 years, eight of them at Newtown.
“La Ratonera,” which played at the Sage Theater on Manhattan’s Seventh Avenue on March 7, was not just a theatrical success but an academic and personal one for all the young actors.
“A lot of them come to the U.S. barely literate in their own language, don’t speak Spanish very well, and really had to polish their skills, memorizing their lines for a play that’s almost three hours long,” Frutos said.
And all of the kids had to learn how to pronounce British place-names and people’s names and how those people were likely to behave in the 1940s drawing room. So Frutos was able to get in a lot of English grammar during rehearsals.
Difficult and demanding as it can be, acting on stage is a lot more fun than going home to an empty house. Some students approach Frutos about joining her drama class — which now consists of 34 kids and counting — because they are lonely and have nothing to do after school.
Frutos and Chapter Leader Jessica Greci explain that most of Newtown’s students are the children of immigrants, living in households where often both parents work long hours.
“If they are not home by themselves, then they are on the streets, that’s the truth,” Frutos said, adding that being in the theater program can steer them away from joining gangs.
Fellow Spanish teacher Alexandra Martinez said that the students really enjoy staying after school and coming in on Saturdays to act on stage.
“The education systems in America and their countries are totally different,” Martinez said. “It’s very, very hard for them to adapt. Spanish class is where they feel most comfortable, and it gives them pride and confidence to see their own cultures and language represented in the plays Anabel chooses.”
A scene from the play performed at Manhattan's Sage Theater.
Although the adminstration funds the regular school play produced in English, there’s no funding for the twice-a-year Spanish plays.
So Frutos raises money with the kids, selling chocolates, and now gets support from a local Spanish children’s theater community group, “La Hora del Cuento en Queens,” meaning “The Story Hour in Queens.”
She raised money for a theater workshop director to teach her how to direct. She brought people in to work with the kids. Then there’s the cost of make-up, costumes and scenery, and renting a van to cart it all to a rented, bona fide, off-off-off Broadway theater in Manhattan to perform — a must on Frutos’s list.
Enormously driven and inspirational, the soft-spoken Frutos is, however, never one to take center stage. But she has a lot of fans in the wings waiting to speak their lines in praise of her work.
“The play was important for me because it made me become more responsible,” said Jennifer Mendez. “Responsibility helps you achieve your goals you have in life. As a group we worked together so everything would be right.”
A poster for "La Ratonera," the Spanish language production of Agatha Christies's "The Mousetrap."
“I want them to get out of the school, their neighborhood, and see that what they’re doing is important,” she said. “Some students have never been to Manhattan, or just a few times, and don’t know Times Square or Broadway.”
Despite the tremendous help from La Hora del Cuento and all the fun and excitement, Frutos admits that it can get crazy and exhausting for her and her family.
“It is not easy memorizing all those lines,” said William Perez. “I have learned not to be shy when I perform in public. Acting is my passion.”
Graduate Jisselly Sanchez, who’s taking pre-med courses now, plans to act in plays even when she’s a doctor.
“I thought coming to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic was going to be the end of my fantastic dream of being on stage,” Sanchez said. “But now I know I will never be leaving my love for Spanish drama, and will keep taking classes.”
Another fan, Chapter Leader Greci, considers the gifted, energetic Barcelonan to be “a shining example of what New York City teachers truly are — giving her all with a pure heart and creating a place of caring for students.”
