Children's Theatre Workshop is a class offered in the Department of Communication, Media and Theatre  designed to cover all aspects of production culminating in performances for elementary and  middle school  students.

Fall 2008 Presentation
¡BOCÓN! by Lisa Loomer
Miguel is stopped at the US border (L to R - Julio Padilla, Adrienne Grant, Norris Narsa, Rasa Aliukonyte; kneeling - David Mitchell)
 Miguel (a bocón or loud mouth) in the plaza, teasing his cousin Rosita (L to R - Julio Padilla, Aaron Olbur, David Mitchell, Shakaria Jones, Adrienne Grant)


Kiki La Loca, the mysterious Quetzal, performs the forbidden Dance of Freedom in the plaza (Rasa Aliukonyte)
 Miguel’s father tells him a Marxist version of the story of Adam (L to R - Julio Padilla, Rasa Aliukonyte, Aaron Olbur; standing - Norris Narsa)


Miguel’s parents are arrested for talking too much, and Miguel becomes mute (L to R - Norris Narsa, Connie Schneider, Aaron Olbur, Adrienne Grant, David Mitchell, Shakaria Jones, Julio Padilla)
 Miguel, deep in the forest running from the soldiers, is robbed by a Duende or trickster (L to R - Rasa Aliukonyte, David Mitchell)


The appearance of the terrifying La Llorona, who drowned her own children.
Miguel stands up to La Llorona (L to R – Lisa Torres, David Mitchell)


La Llorona is revealed as a noisy, but helpful 500 year old ghost (L to R – Lisa Torres, David Mitchell)
 Searching for his voice, Miguel braves a visit to the Voice Keeper, a civil servant / soldier who keeps all the dissident voices of the country locked up in a box (L to R - Julio Padilla, Aaron Olbur, David Mitchell, Rasa Aliukonyte, Adrienne Grant, Norris Narsa)


Miguel travels to the edge of the sea to find the Voice Picker, who collects the frightened voices which hide in shells (L to R – David Mitchell, Shakaria Jones)
 La Llorona encourages Miguel to search for his voice in his dreams (sitting – Lisa Torres; lying - David Mitchell)


In his dream Miguel confronts La Calavera – Death in army boots (Aaron Olbur standing, David Mitchell on the ground)
 Having reclaimed his voice and crossed the border into the US, Miguel is joined by the full cast in encouraging the audience to tell his story, and the stories of all immigrants (L to R - Connie Schneider, David Mitchell, Lisa Torres, Julio Padilla, Shakaria Jones, Adrienne Grant, Norris Narsa, Aaron Olbur, Rasa Aliukonyte)

 ¡BOCÓN! cast and crew (L to R standing – Lisa Cantwell (Assistant Director), Veronica Molina (Assistant Director), Diane Arunrung (Business Manager), Connie Schneider (Costumer), Shakaria Jones, Adrienne Grant, Solomon Britt (Assistant Stage Manager), Julio Padilla, Eric Senne (Lights), Sean Kelly (Backstage Assistant), Aaron Olbur, Norris Narsa, Bev Gronek (Stage Manager); L to R sitting - Lisa Torres, David Mitchell, Rasa Aliukonyte)
Pictures by Ann Hartdegen
¡BOCÓN! was performed from 3 November to 3 December 2008
by the Children’s Theatre Workshop
 CMT Department class, to about 900 area school children in grades 4 through 8.

¡BOCÓN! is a bi-lingual play by Lisa Loomer, set in an unspecified Central American country in the recent past.  It tells the story of a young boy whose voice flies away in fear when his parents are “disappeared” by soldiers.  In his attempt to find his voice and to make his way to freedom in the United States he encounters an unlikely ally – La Llorona, the “Weeping Woman” of Latin American folklore.  (Like Medea, she killed her own children, and now wanders the world by night, scaring children out after dark.)  The play examines the issues of the bravery required to speak up, to find one’s voice, and of remembering and honouring the past.

Post show discussions have focused on immigrants and refugees from Central America and from around the world.  The class starts by reviewing where they or their parents were born – Brazil, Iraq, Ireland, Puerto Rico, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Thailand.
 
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