UCLA professor’s ‘Clock’ offers unique slant of Latino family
life
Palacios brings personal experiences to theater, enjoys new
playwright fellowship
By Kathleen Rhames
Daily Bruin Contributor
Taking a risk certainly proved beneficial for both the Mark
Taper Forum’s Latino Theater Initiative and one of its brightest
new playwright fellows, UCLA Professor Monica Palacios.
One of eight new artists to receive this fellowship, Palacios
teaches through the university’s Chicano Studies Program and is a
columnist for the Lesbian News.
Palacios specializes in stories and storytelling, and will teach
a class titled "Comedy y Cultura" this spring.
Currently, however, she is in the midst of writing her piece
"Clock," a comedy surrounding a Latina lesbian couple and their
attempt to have a baby.
"It’s important to me that my work always takes a different
slant," says Palacios of her play. "The fact that it is possible
for this alternative family to be raising a child and have their
family be supportive of that is a good thing. It’s all about being
open."
Taking a different slant is definitely what Palacios does in her
comedy, as she deals with culture, breaking stereotypes and
language use. She takes common social issues and applies them to
her play with a "lesbian twist."
For Palacios, family takes precedence in the play. "Clock"
portrays the Latino family as supportive and accepting of the
homosexual couple’s intent to have a child.
"In the ’90s, it’s so important for there to be a new definition
of family," Palacios says. "I used my own family as an example.
They know I’m a queer and accept me for that."
Palacios says that the background for the play comes from both
personal experience and witnessing friends’ reactions to these same
issues. In writing the comedy, she adds flavor to "Clock" by
weaving her style of Spanglish, a combination of Spanish and
English, throughout the dialogue. Palacios uses Spanglish, although
somewhat controversial in playwrighting, to bring out the essence
of Latino culture.
"Spanglish was the language of my generation and how I was
brought up," she says. "Using it is about not being intimidated to
put that into a play. So many directors tell you not to write in
Spanglish because people might not get it. But I think that it’s
time people did get it."
And that is exactly what Palacios attempts to achieve through
her play. Through her unique and nonconformist style of language,
she allows audiences to view another culture and appreciate its
individuality.
"Monica comes from a unique world in the way she uses language,"
says Louis Alfaro, co-director of the Latino Theater Initiative.
"She writes about nationality and sexuality in the same work and
that makes it exciting. Her proposals are mainstream: her comedy is
warm and human and yet revolves around something serious."
Alfaro is one of two directors heading the Latino Theater
Initiative in an active four-year attempt to increase Latino
audiences at the Mark Taper. Now in its third year, the Initiative
promises new dimensions in Latino works through the first annual
awarding of the 1995-96 Playwright Fellowships.
"The purpose of the Theater Initiative is to develop a new
audience," says Alfaro. "The best way that we know to do that is to
develop new artists and artwork."
The fellowships give the recipients a chance to create and have
their work performed through workshops while promoting Latino
theater and expanding audiences.
For Palacios, however, being part of this program came as a
surprise. Initially, she never even thought about applying for the
fellowship until a theater group called Words Across Cultures
alerted her to the potential success her writing could have.
"People came to me and wanted to read my stories on stage, and I
was hesitant at first," Palacios says. "But they assured me they
would use it as a play and stick to my words."
Reluctantly, she took the risk and let them use her story. To
her surprise, it was an amazing success and like a domino effect,
sparked ideas to turn Palacios’s story into a full-length play.
Again, Palacios was wary of the effects this would have. It was
her belief that only she could express her words with adequate
meaning. Allowing someone to turn her work into a live performance
could very easily distort the original essence of her writing.
In the end, however, Palacios agreed to let Words Across
Cultures produce her story as a play. The result was immediate
success.
"I’d always written for myself," Palacios says. "But the play
turned out to be very, very successful and it was fun to see the
audience enjoying my work. My feelings changed and I realized that
words can stand alone."
It was this mindset that eventually convinced Palacios to submit
pieces of her work to the Latino Theater Initiative and be chosen
as one of the eight fellows.
If there is anything Palacios wants the audience to retain from
her work, it is a sense of "visibility" and awareness. "Clock"
draws us into the struggle of a lesbian couple to have a child and
illustrates it with Latino culture and differences.
"It’s just another version of life, pretty similar to yours,
only different in that it happens to involve a lesbian couple with
or without a child. It’s a play on the concept of life, for life is
just one big clock."
Monica Palacios in "Mexican Denial"
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