Monday, July 1, 1996
Production exhibits futuristic view of California's politicsBy Brandon Wilson
Summer Bruin Contributor
The Place: California. The Time: Near the Middle of the Next Century. An oppressive totalitarian regime governs the people with an iron fist. All subversive activity is punishable with extreme prejudice. Off-world colonization is just beginning to extend imperialism through the cosmos. And only four underground freedom fighters are left to fight the power.
This is not the the set-up for some new summer blockbuster coming your way, but it is the story in performance troupe Mal Ojo's new multimedia show "Fear of a Brown Planet." The show will open July 4 at Regeneration in Highland Park. The performance includes the rap/rock group Aztlan Underground and will benefit the EZLN, the Zapatistas currently embroiled in conflict in Chiapas.
Mal Ojo, whose members are Susan Carrasco, Tomas Carrasco, Jennifer Sanchez and Elias Serna, portrays various groups in the course of the show, including The Brown Underground, a lone band of the last Chicano activists left to stand against a frighteningly fascistic future.
"We wanted to amplify the political situation in California," Mal Ojo member Elias Serna explains. "Let's say Proposition 187 and the repealment of affirmative action do succeed, what will that lead to in 50 years? What if Dole, Gingrich and the whole boys club succeeded in turning back the clock in the future."
The show combines the live action of the performers with prerecorded segments on video which is used by the members as a videophone, a futuristic piece of telecommunication which gives the Underground contact with the rest of the world. "We've always used a little video in our shows," Serna says. "But starting with a show in San Diego at Cafe Cinema, we did a totally multimedia show, experimenting with a large screen; and what happened for me was a strong impression that we were doing something that started resembling a movie. What really affected me was that we could do a show where people would leave feeling like they've just seen a movie. Or even something more than a movie."
Serna, 28, is no stranger to moviemaking and the world of cinema. In addition to his performances with Mal Ojo, he's just completed his second-year in the UCLA Film School's graduate director's program. Serna completed his undergraduate studies at UC Berkeley.
"In college, I became actively involved in the Chicano activist network," Serna says. "I was always artistic, drawing, sketching and painting, and I knew a lot of creative people. My sophomore year I edited a Chicano/Latino newsmagazine where I came across an artist named Lalo Alcaraz."
Serna and Alcaraz collaborated on numerous magazines where they developed and honed their brand of politically-oriented humor. The pair decided to try using theater as an arena for their ideas the way they had done with the printed page. Tomas Carrasco joined them and the trio Chicano Secret Service was born.
Fiercely original, but patterning themselves after troupes like El Teatro Campesino, the Chicano Secret Service had their three-skit debut on Aug. 29, 1988.
Touring extensively through the U.S. and Mexico, the group spent six years making a name for itself with their dicey brand of humor that dealt with both the personal relations and political situation of Chicanos. With the addition of video, their performances have expanded.
"I think the whole movement into video is mainly our attempt to go beyond the stage and to make a link with film, which is what we're naturally heading towards." Serna says.
With his acceptance to the film program at UCLA in 1994, Serna began learning how to make films. Working with friends, classmates and fellow Secret Service members, Serna produced and directed "Xipe Totec," an impressive short film debut that blends surrealism with political realism.
In March 1995, Chicano Secret Service disbanded, only to be reformed by replacing Alcaraz with Tomas' sister Susan and with Elias' wife Jennifer.
"It's always a little hard to work with new people," Serna says regarding the personnel shift, "but it's been very exciting to expand the array of characters available to the group. It's also probably refreshing for the audience used to seeing three smart aleck Chicanos doing obnoxious humor develop into something that's more representative of the community at large."
This fall, Serna continues his studies at UCLA. "I'm on the documentary track," he says. "And I just advanced with a movie called "La Movida" (The Movement), and it's basically a 30-year analysis of the Chicano/Latino experience in L.A. with a global outlook."
In the future, Serna hopes to both continue making films with Mal Ojo, as well as use the Masters of Fine Arts degree from the program to teach on the collegiate level. "Once after a [Chicano Secret Service] show, an audience member asked us, 'Are you a member of any political organizations?' We said, 'We are a political organization.' We try to organize, educate, mobilize and tell people what's going on."
With "Fear of A Brown Planet," the group hopes to entertain but more importantly to make the audience think about how the present could give way to a harsh and oppressive future.
"Our works always criticize conservative politics for its lack of vision and its treatment of non-Anglo people in this society. We do all our work conscious of what [our predecessors] accomplished, and this show allows us to project our voices into the future."
THEATER: "Fear of a Brown Planet" on July 4, 5 and 6 at 8 p.m. at Regeneration in Highland Park. For more info: (213) 550-1365. Cost: $5.