American Stage readies its first bilingual production

An earnest, well-intentioned dig for familial roots forms the core of Carmen Rivera’s drama La Gringa, opening July 19 at American Stage. American-bred Maria Elena Garcia travels to Puerto Rico for an up-close and personal ancestry quest, without the use of a convenient dot com.

Tatyana-Marie Carlo is directing the Obie-winning story of identity identification. “What is the idea of home?” she says. “What does home mean? There’s a saying, Ni di aqui, ni di alla. It means I’m not from here, I’m not from there.

“And I think why Ancestry dot com, 23andme, why these things are so popular is because people want to know about their ancestry. They want to know where they’re from, where their family originates from.”

Angela Reynoso plays Maria in “La Gringa.” Photo provided.

In La Gringa, Maria finds that Puerto Rico does not exactly welcome her with open arms. “At first,” explains Carlo, “she’s like ‘I’m so happy to be here, this is amazing, I can’t believe I’m here to touch the ground.’ And as the show goes on, she starts to realize that her experience has been so different from that of her family that grew up on the island.”

La Gringa is American Stage’s first bilingual production. “If you’re looking to be accessible, then including the second-largest language in the United States would be beneficial to everyone,” Carlo, of Puerto Rican heritage but born and raised in Miami, believes.

It’s all about staying true to the dynamics and the unease in Rivera’s story. “Maria doesn’t speak Spanish very well, so any scenes with her are pretty much in English,” the director explains. “And when there are scenes without her, where two older cast members – Norma and Victor – are together, they’ll talk to each other in Spanish. Probably 70 percent of the play is in English.”

Authenticity is admirable, but what about the English-speaking members of the audience? Will they be able to follow?

“Do they say the same thing when they go to the opera and they’re singing in Italian?” Carlo replies. “Yeah, sometimes they have supertitles above the stage, but not always. When they don’t, you understand everything that’s happening. And you find yourself being emotional.

“I saw the Nick Payne play Constellations in Chinese, at La MaMa in New York. I had never seen the play before, and by the end of it, I was sobbing. And I do not speak Chinese.

“If we’re doing a good job, then you’ll understand what’s going on.”

Equipped with an MFA in Directing from Brown University, Carlo specializes in bilingual productions. Currently a resident of Rhode Island, she works for regional theaters around the country. “I’m making a career out of this, so it’s really helpful that a lot of theaters are wanting to do bilingual plays,” she laughs.

Scenic designer Rodrigo Escalante is a frequent collaborator. His set for this production of La Gringa is unique, in that it seamlessly combines the family home’s interior with beds of live plants, their own roots deep in real soil.

“We have the house in Puerto Rico, the rainforest, a farm and a graveyard,” Carlo says proudly. “We have a lot of outdoor locations that happen in the play. In Puerto Rico, we don’t have ACs pop in like we do here; the windows are open all the time. And so there’s the element of the outdoors being indoors, and the indoors being outdoors.”

Simple arithmetic: “It’s one thing to know that you’re Puerto Rican, to know that you’re from somewhere But it’s another thing to touch the land from which your family came.”

July 19 and 20 are pay-what-you-can previews; the regular run of La Gringa begins July 21. The play will run through Aug. 13. Find information and tickets here.