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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us February 23, 2006 Language of dance on center stage By Jennifer Squires Ashland Daily Tidings PHOENIX — For some students, Friday evening will be their theater debut. And for the pair of students who’ve acted in past Teatro Milagro productions, the one-night showing of “Mi Vida Gitano” will be a much-anticipated return to the stage. “It’s really fun and interesting to act in,” said 17-year-old Jasmine Lopez, a PHS senior who also acted in the school’s Teatro Milagro production of “Cuéntame Coyote” last year with fellow senior Mariela Herandez, 18. Danel Malan (right) of Portland’s Teatro Milagro teaches Mariela Hernandez and other bilingual students to dance Wednesday at Phoenix High School. Denise Baratta | Ashland Daily Tidings Teatro Milagro — Miracle Theater in English — has brought its residency theater program to Phoenix High School for last nine years. The project exposes Hispanic students to theater and puts them in the spotlight for cameo roles in a specialized production that’s free to the community. “This is a really good way to introduce theater to Hispanic youth,” said Dañel Málan, the artistic director for Teatro Milagro, a Portland-based educational outreach group. “I think it really instills a lot of confidence in them.” Language barriers, not a lack of desire, shuts many aspiring Hispanic student-actors in the area out of traditional theater programs, according to Teatro Milagro organizers. “They have a sense that they cannot do this,” company actor Omar Vargas said. “Even if they want to, they do not go to drama class.” So the finale to Teatro Milagro’s three-day residency is one most students involved would have not seen without the program: The curtain in PHS’s Rose Street Theater goes up at 7 p.m., with nine Phoenix High students performing alongside four professional actors in an original play. “For some of our students, it’s the only contact they have with the theater,” said Julie Garcia, the English-language learners teacher at Phoenix High. “It really builds self-esteem, and there’s exposure to other areas of the world and other ways of thinking. ... It’s a way of broadening horizons.” Teatro Milagro is the international touring theater company of the Portland-based Miracle Theatre Group. Málan co-founded the group with her husband, Jose Eduardo Gonzalez, and in 1989 she created the bilingual touring program. In the time since, Málan has written and produced more than a dozen bilingual plays, including “Mi Vida Gitano.” “Mi Vida Gitano” is a cross-cultural romance between Liliana, a young Spanish gypsy girl, and Charlie, an American boy. The show debuted in January. At Phoenix High, the nine students have 2 1/2 days to create and learn their roles in the production. Four company actors from the Miracle Theatre Group take on the characters Málan scripted — Liliana, Charlie, Rose (his mother) and Don Armando, Liliana’s keeper. Students come up with supporting roles and scenes that will add to the story. “It’s very interesting,” Vargas said. “For me, it’s giving the chance for the play not just to give the information, but to show it.” Students may choose to add a scene showing Charlie trying to buy poison at the market, which will give color to the lovers’ attempted suicide that’s reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet. Another scene may show student-actors as Don Armando’s spies, collecting information on Liliana’s encounters with Charlie. “They make a lot of effort to work the scenes,” Vargas said. “I totally believe that they learn something.” And, on Friday night, they get the chance to be center stage in front of their friends and family. “And they like it,” Mariela Herandez said. Staff writer Jennifer Squires can be reached at 482-3456 x 225 or [email protected]. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Deep Muscle Stimulator Ceramic Piggy Banks FREE Entertainment Guide Women's & Men's Slippers Accelerate Weightloss Products Backpacks Online Pharmacy Vegas Travel Guide Search Engine Optimization Student Loans Hotel & Airline Reservations Hammocks Water Filter Helzberg Diamonds Online Casinos Community Bonus Casino Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Mailing Lists Click Here Advertisement .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams