The Bilingual Foundation of the Arts

LOS ANGELES (By Teresa Gordon, Hispanic) March 19, 2006 — Thirty-three years ago, three entrepreneurial Latinas set off to bring theater to spanish-speaking audiences in the U.S. Today, their brainchild, the Bilingual Foundation of the Arts, has become one of the most important cultural institutions promoting hispanic arts.

More than three decades ago a small group of entrepreneurial Latinas set out to bring theater to Spanish speaking audiences in the U.S.

With an appreciation for the richness of Hispanic culture, but also with a concern about the paucity of venues to appreciate that culture, actress Carmen Zapata was looking for a way to reach audiences. So not long after arriving in Los Angeles, Zapata joined forces with actress and director Margarita Galbán and playwright Estela Scarlata to found the Bilingual Foundation of the Arts.

Now 33 years later, the BFA is the only full-time professional bilingual theater on the West Coast, with audiences for the foundation’s productions topping 60,000 each year. The foundation has staged more than 160 productions in Spanish and English, and has reached over 2 million children and teens with its theater-in-education programs. “To me, theater is a way of educating people,” Zapata says. “We use the BFA stage to expose audiences to the beauty of our literature and culture.”

Recently, the foundation staged Don Quixote: The Last Adventure, La Ultima Aventura to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the publication of the great Spanish novel by Cervantes, and this production’s original storyline, fittingly, is all about holding on to ideals and dreams coming true.

The foundation, widely recognized for its bilingual productions of classic Hispanic literature, has staged works by Federico García Lorca, Lope de Vega, Fernando de Rojas and Pedro Calderón de la Barca among others. Lorca’s Blood Wedding is a favorite of both Zapata and Galbán, and Zapata has played one of the mother characters in the play. Galbán, who also serves as BFA artistic director, has especially enjoyed producing works featuring songs by Mexican composer Agustín Lara, who wrote the classic Granada.

The mission of the BFA is to create awareness of the diversity of Hispanic culture and it does this through an array of initiatives. The first, Theatre/Teatro, presents found productions each season, alternating by week in Spanish and English. Teatro Leído stages readings of new work by Hispanic and Latin playwrights. There is also a Theatre-in-Education tour in schools for both children and young adults that helps foster pride in Hispanic culture. Finally, the BFA translates new works into English or Spanish, as well as new adaptations of Spanish works published by Farrar Strauss & Giroux.

Translating comedic productions at the BFA sometimes proves challenging, Zapata notes. “Hispanic humor is different from Anglo humor,” she explains. But despite these difficulties, Zapata has produced more than 80 plays and toured California, New York, Texas, Illinois, South America and Spain. Since 1976, in addition to translating works spanning from Spain’s Golden Age—the 16 th and 17 th centuries, a period which saw a flowering of art, literature, and theater—to contemporary classics, Zapata has cotranslated the plays and poems of Lorca with Michael Dewell, five of which received full productions at the BFA. These translations have also been published by Bantam Books, and received recognition from the Lorca estate as its authorized versions.

Zapata has enjoyed a diverse career in TV, in films and on the stage. Her television credits include 1970s classics Marcus Welby , Medical Center , Mod Squad and Chico and the Man , and more recent shows such as Married ...with Children and the soap Santa Barbara . She also appeared in the film Sister Act , and plays such as Driving Miss Daisy and the adaptation of Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits.

Her first stage role, at age 18, was in a Broadway production of Oklahoma in 1945. She took a bus downtown for the audition, her first trip to the big city from her parents’ home in Harlem. “Mother was dead set against it,” says Zapata. “She considered all actresses prostitutes, which was a common attitude in those days.” Zapata continued to land parts, and even had a regular stand-up comedy routine in which she also sang. “That was the first time my mother had seen me perform, and her only comment was, ‘How come you didn’t sing Granada?” laughs Zapata.

“I was never satisfied,” says Zapata of her long career. “I was always thinking of tomorrow.” Her long-term vision and commitment paid off. Among her many accomplishments, she can now count an Emmy Award and an Oscar nomination for her documentaries, in addition to being knighted by Juan Carlos of Spain.

Similarly, the ambition of BFA cofounder Galbán drove a storied career. Born in Cuba, she began her acting career in theater and in radio soap operas before moving to Mexico in 1959. There, Galbán continued to act as a member of El Teatro Popular de México, touring throughout North and South America.

“I was lucky to be part of the Golden Age of theater in Mexico during that time,” says Galbán, who received a Best Actress Award for her performance in Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba.

After winning a directing scholarship to Lee Strasberg’s Actors Studio West, Galban moved to the United States in 1968. A year later she founded Seis Actores, a Spanish-language theater in Los Angeles. Her directing career soon took off and she has since directed more then 50 bilingual productions.

The work of the foundation has served Hispanic communities for years and has become a beloved cultural institution in Southern California. Not only does it enjoy the support of the community, it counts among its major benefactors groups such as the Bank of America and Citigroup foundations, Wells Fargo Bank, the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department and many private contributors. And after overcoming the initial challenges, the BFA has established itself in a community that is living its own Golden Age of Hispanic culture.