At 55 minutes, Karen Zacarias' play, Frida Libre, runs the perfect length for the young people (age 5 and up) that Gala Hispanic Theatre wants to cultivate as the audiences of the future. Along with music by Deborah Wicks La Puma, the production richly satisfies the particular needs of youthful audiences-in-training: charming music, colorful sets/lights/costumes, energetic performers, and puppets (indeed, puppets galore--more about them later, or maybe sooner). Grown-ups: this is not an accurate documentary about the life of the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo (or, for that matter, Alejandro Gomez Arias, her friend and first love). And though the production is in both English and Spanish, without surtitles, English-only audience members will miss a few bits. But the children will get everything, so take them, through October 26.
Frida and Alex did meet as students (but college, not grade school), and Zacarias' notion that friends help each other evolve by sharing goals and dreams forms the through-line of the story Frida Libre tells. As theatre for young audiences always should, Zacarias conceals the lessons. No matter a friend's age, the key to real friendship is mutual support and appreciation of individuality. Steven Franco's Alex briefly narrates, but then fully partners with Ixchel Hernández' spunky Frida. The pair are assigned to work together on a class project by Maestro, a 12 foot tall puppet on wheels with rod-operated arms, voiced by Samuel Gatica. And, in the course of executing the project, hand puppets and marionettes happen along with skilled singin' and dancin'. Examples of Frida's art work, which she shows Alex when he visits her home, are half-puppet and half-picture (monkeys and parrots and color, oh my!). A splendid beetle is operated like a push broom (or a carpet sweeper? ¡who cares!). The imagination and creativity of Properties Designer Ilyana Rose-Dávila have no boundaries. Likewise, Scenic Designer Maria Laird has built a lovely tree for climbing, and Lighting Designer Arthur Kohn, who never forgets that the whole audience in Gala's space can always see the floor, uses every gel in the book and more gobos than you can shake a stencil at. Kohn employs Vari-Lites very lightly, knowing that using too many too fast can distract and create sensory overload. The lighting just beams.
Ably backing up Franco and Hernández are Gatica and Marimer Espíritu who sing, execute Director/Choreographer Elena Velasco's excellent dance moves, wrangle puppets and scenic elements, and otherwise prove Stanislavski's rubric: there are no small parts.
Frida Kahlo survived polio as a child, and she limped. Zacarias includes that limp, so Hernández could have used a bit more help, perhaps from Velasco, in maintaining said limp while walking and dancing. And, while Velasco ingeniously renders the terrible event which further crippled Frida, the play's theme about friendship and courage didn't require acting it out--poetically or otherwise; doing so diminishes the bus accident itself. And in real life, Alex was with her when it happened and visited her in hospital before visiting her at home, which the show does depict. Zacarias has enough experience to know that children will listen, so she might have trusted taking a less literal direction. The bus accident was too R-rated for a 5 and up audience. Nevertheless, Frida Libre will entertain youngsters. Kahlo's paintings with parrots and monkeys are in Mexico City or Argentina, but the National Museum of Women in the Arts near Metro Center has a wonderful self-portrait. https://nmwa.org/art/collection/self-portrait-dedicated-leon-trotsky/
(Photo by Daniel Martínez)
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