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Jen Corpora, who has a leading role in the student operetta “Felicity is a Cynical Art,R

In their production for Theatrefest 2003, “Felicity is a Cynical Art,” eight UCLA students have confirmed Polonius’ sage advice to Laertes in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet:” “To thine own self be true.”

The “soap operetta,” which opens Thursday night in Kerckhoff Grand Salon, is the first production of Giovanni Ortega and Ben Lamoso’s recently formed company, Mezclao, which translates as “mix” from Spanish.

The operetta chronicles the lives of a wealthy white husband and wife duo and their Hispanic gardener and maid as they search for happiness.

The inspiration for the operetta stemmed from a combination of the telenovela and the people in the Los Angeles community. Lamoso and Ortega, both graduate students in the theater and film departments and the operetta’s writer and director, respectively, live in the Beverly Hills area and noticed the Hispanic gardeners and maids who work for wealthy households.

“This is not about race. It’s a story of the colonial mentality,” said Ortega. “Both the husband, wife, gardener and maid are in love with a culture that’s not theirs. They’re so assimilated they don’t know who they are anymore, and they’re trying to fit in and find where they should be.”

The operetta’s tenor is serious, but the vehicle is less so. Like a telenovela (melodramatic fiction produced and aired in many Latin American countries) or Commedia dell’Arte (an outdoor theatrical genre developed during the Italian Renaissance), stock characters populate the production.

“The characters are sort of over-the-top and unbelievable,” said Lamoso.

Unlike the production’s foundational influences, however, the actors, director and writer have endowed the characters with a touch of realism; they burst through the stereotypical shield with song.

“The characters are most honest when they sing, but (after they sing) they hide their true selves again,” Ortega said.

Most of the actors are not musically trained. So at the characters’ most true moments, they are at their most vulnerable. These personal risks, though, have proved beneficial for the cast.

“I’ve learned about limitations that might have hindered me before and how to grow past them,” said Jennifer Corpora, a third-year American literature and culture student who plays the wife, Felicity Clark. “What makes you vulnerable is also what makes you a better person, and you can grow as an artist through that. I’ve been made uncomfortable in a good way.”

Third-year marine biology student Nathan Waxer, who plays husband Skyler Clark; second-year theater student Josef Martin Malonzo; first-year design student MGL Palazzolo, who plays Avador, the gardener; and first-year Gloria De Leon, who plays Veronique, the maid, have found excitement in their roles because the operetta is an original, allowing them the freedom to set foundations and experiment.

“I’ve wanted to give them the freedom to create their own characters rather than impose an idea on them, because once they let loose, the characters really come alive,” Ortega said.

The production’s music is also original. After reading the script, Janet Cruz composed the combined modern and classical score herself in a style reminiscent of Bjork and Aimee Mann. She will perform the music live during the show.

Corpora, De Leon, Palazzolo and Waxer, who play the four main characters, are not theater students, but took Ortega’s Theater 20 class because they enjoy acting. The company formed from there.

“After Ben (Lamoso) saw them perform improvisational skits in my class, he said, ‘I want to use them,’” Ortega explained.

“Felicity is a Cynical Art” is the result of eight people who passionately follow their hearts and who happened to cross paths.

“We have fun,” Ortega said. “We’re putting on a play, and we’re playing the whole time.”

“Felicity is a Cynical Art” plays June 5-6 at 8:30 p.m. and June 8 at 3:30 and 7:30 p.m. at Kerckhoff Grand Salon. RSVP to gortega@hotmail.com, or call (213) 948-5465.