Milagro brings Utopia to Rural Oregon

With the generous support of Umpqua Bank, Wells Fargo and the OAC Arts Builds Communities Fund, Teatro Milagro traveled to Prineville, Oregon to conduct a four day bilingual arts-integrated environmental sustainability theatre residency.
The cast arrived on Wednesday, April 15 to begin the residency with a BEAT – Bilingual Educator Arts Training. This first day was followed by two days of classroom visits, and all day rehearsal on Saturday and then a free community performance of Milagro’s bilingual play El Ultimo on Saturday night.

In attendance at the BEAT in-service were teachers from Spanish language, theater arts, visual arts, natural resources and home economics. All of the teachers participated in the exercise of designing a sustainable community. Pictured here is Anita Hoffman, theater arts and Brian Wachs, Natural Resources.
“It was a fantastic experience across the board; the residency was versatile and terrific!” – Anita Hoffman

The next two days were a little intense. The four Milagro actors spent the school days visiting over 300 students in thirteen different classrooms. Classroom visits included doing ecodrama with the drama students, making paper with the visual arts students, creating hand-crafted tote bags from scraps in sewing, solar-box pizza ovens in cooking class, designing utopia in Spanish class and creating cob structures in natural resources.

Student Ecodrama highlights included a scene about an oil worker who wants to do what is right to clean up his oil spill, but his company won’t give him the money. Hand-made paper, tote bags and cob structures were part of a lobby display, pictured here.
The natural resource students dug up clay from outside behind the school and straw for the cob mix came from the drama teacher’s farm. This community has been hit very hard by the recession, but teachers and students continue to come up with brilliant creative ideas to keep their projects going. Utopian designs included such innovative ideas as using parachutes for transportation and ropes made out of human hair.

In addition to spending the day visiting classes, after-school the actors engaged volunteer student actors in creating new original scenes to add to the play. These student thespians also became volunteer performers and performed with the Milagro cast on Saturday night as they donned simple costume accessories and became Mapuche Indigenous and environmental activists. Approximately 50 people from the community turned out to see this bilingual performance.

“The Milagro actors are really cool, great teachers and funny too. I hope other students have the chance to work with them” – Student actor

Milagro creating Utopia in Hillsboro, Oregon

With grant support from The Standard, Milagro artists visited students from Drama and English as a Second Language classes at Brown Middle School and Century High Schools in Hillsboro, Oregon for three weeks in April. At these two schools, students designed their own environmentally sustainable communities and created eco-dramas, an environmentally focused form of social justice theatre.
At Brown Middle School about 20 drama students from Batya Podos’ class wrote ecodrama scenes and performed for their peers, skits on littering, air pollution, smoking, alternative energy and recycling. Some of the creative choices included using llamas instead of lawn mowers to cut grass and using sky diving as a new “high” to replace smoking addiction. Milagro artists Matt Haynes and Dañel Malan worked with these classes to share their acting and improvisational skills both in English and in Spanish as needed.
In Gloria Campos’ English as a Second Language classes about 60 students engaged in a discussion of what an environmentally sustainable “utopia” could be and designed posters of their communities.
“Tarzanos of the Amazon” was one of the stand out examples of a community built in the Amazon jungle, where it’s citizens travel by swinging from vines and make soccer balls from rubber trees for both their own sports and a form of commerce with other communities. Other utopian designs included “The Sand Hood” where houses are built like giant sand castles or “Pom Land”, where the citizens build rickshaws for their mode of transportation. Most of the students chose a democratic form of government, preferred the idea of living in nature because of the health advantages, exercise opportunities and all agreed that growing your own vegetables was a healthier and safer life choice.
"I would love for Teatro Milagro to return and of our ESL classes in their activities.
They have great rapport with the students and keep them engaged. "
- Gloria Campos, Brown MS ESL
Meanwhile, over at Century High School, Milagro artist Omar Vargas worked with about 30 of Devon Julien’s English as a Second Language students, creating and designing utopia’s as well.
The student start the class with a brainstorming session about the problems that our planet is facing and discuss what would be some of the positive choices that could make Utopia possible. Utopian designs in each group showed different approaches to the idea of living in a sustainable community. For housing, some of the designs included wood, bamboo, clay and rocks. Many of the students chose fire as their principal form of energy and for transportation boats, walking and swimming were some of the options. Again, democracy was the favored form of government and speaking native languages was the most popular form of communication.
Omar is very energetic and made a really good connection with the students.
"I think this is a wonderful opportunity for our diverse student population.”
- Devan Julien, Century High ESL
Also at the high school, drama students had an opportunity to explore ecodrama in the outdoors on one of Oregon’s rare sunny days. About a dozen drama students explored such issues as deforestation, city beautification and animal rights with guest artists Matt Haynes and Dañel Malan. In the deforestation scene, a tree hugger convinces a logger to save the tree and build a tree house instead and in the city beautification scene, two students convince a business owner to pay for flowers that they will plant in exchange for free advertising, another “win-win” in the ecodrama world.
The residency concludes with a free community performance of Milagro’s El Ultimo at Century High School on Wednesday, April 29th at 7 pm in the campus theatre. Students from the school will appear in cameo roles in original work they scripted themselves for the occasion.
This residency was made possible with additional support from Juan Young Trust, Oregon Arts Commission, Target, Autzen Foundation, powells.com and El Hispanic News. For more information about the Hillsboro program, contact Saideh Haghighi at the Office of Hispanic Outreach at 503-844-1486.

Merlo Station Social Justice Theatre Work

Throughout winter term, Milagro artists worked with teaching staff at Merlo Station High to share techniques of social justice theatre and help students craft their own scenes based on issues of their concern. This residency was made possible with the support of The Standard and the Beaverton Education Foundation.
Our students gained self confidence and new skills of risk-taking, and team building, which allowed them to create something together and succeed in giving a public voice to the Merlo High community.”
Elizabeth Rogolsky, CEYP Social Support Liaison, Merlo Station High School
Two really great final scenes came out of the class, one focused on pregnancy options and another on parenting and relationships. This second scene was written in Spanish and follows the story of a distraught single mother, first trying to collect child support from her former boyfriend, then trying to get her new boyfriend to help with child care so that she can get to work. In the end, after having thrown both men out, she phones her mother to ask for help.

La escena de la Madre – por Andrea, Joanna y Yesenia
El Novio toca la puerta
Novia
¿Quien toca, quien es?
Novio
¡Soy Jose!
Novia
¿A eres tu? Pásale, estas en tu casa. ¿Sete ofrece algo?
Novio
Nada, estoy bien
Novia
¿Trajiste el dinero?
Novio
No, no traigo dinero.
Novia
¿Por que no traes el dinero? ¡Si sabes que yo lo necesito para la niña!
Novio
Tú sabes que no hay trabajo.
Novia
¿Como que no hay trabajo, siempre la misma chingadera contigo?
Novio
¡Pendeja! A mi no me grites.
Novia
¡Yo te grito cuando me da la chingada gana por eso estoy en mi casa!
(cell - “Ring ring”)
Novio
¿Quien es?
Novia
¿Que te importa?
Novio
A ver, déjame ver el teléfono.
Novia
No, que te importa, quien me este hablando.
(El Novio agarra el teléfono)
Novio
¡Javier! ¡El que era mi mejor amigo!
Novia
Si, y como dices, el que era tu mejor amigo.
Novio
Y como se. ¿Que el no es el papa de la niña?
Novia
Pues pendejo, nomas anduve contigo.
Novio
¡Pendeja, como que cuando andabas conmigo no me engañaste!
Novia
Pues, si quieres nos asemos la prueba de ADN.
Novio
Yo no quiero hacerme ninguna prueba.
Novia
Si, no te quieres hacer la prueba va no vas a ver la niña.
Novio
Pos, no mete mujer.
El salió. La Novia le llama a su mama.
Novia
Mami, necesito que me cuides a la niña porque voy ir a trabajar.
Mama
Lo siento, pero no puedo, yo tengo que ir a trabajar. ¿No, que tu novio te la iba a cuidar?
Novia
Si, pero no ha llegado.
Mama
¿Entonces tienes un otro amigo si no te puede ayudar?
Novia
Pues, okay, a ver como me las arreglo, voy.
La Novia espera mucho tiempo a amigo Javier, llega Javier.
Novia
¿Porque llegas tarde?
Javier
Oh, mi hija, me tuve que arreglar para verte.
Novia
Pero, por eso yo voy a llegar tarde al trabajo.
Javier
Tú nunca aprecias lo que yo hago.
Novia
Tu bien sabes que yo apenas empecé a trabajar y por tu culpa yo voy a perder mi trabajo.
Javier
Perdóname.
Novia
¡Entonces, vete mucho ala chingada y como dice mi mamá, si no ayudes no estorbes!
Javier
¡Perdóname, lo siento mi vida!
Novia
¡No me tocas! ¡Largase!

Junk into Art

Students learn life skills from

Portland's Teatro Milagro
February 26, 2009
By Anita Burke

The Mail Tribune

CENTRAL POINT — Milk cartons, water bottles and aluminum cans bloomed into art in the hands of students at Crater Renaissance Academy this week as part of an exploration of how science and the arts could work together to improve the world.
"We wanted to make something beautiful out of the resources we have," said senior Kelsey Drake, an 18-year-old who envisioned a gardener tending a bed of flowers — all crafted from trash.
With hot glue, tissue paper and teamwork, students transformed a big bag of recyclables into the junk sculpture they imagined.
In a classroom next door, theater and Spanish-language students acted out short skits dramatizing environmental issues. Across campus, students in science classes made decorative planters from cob, a sustainable building material made from sand, clay and straw.
The projects were all part of a four-day residency program provided by Teatro Milagro, the touring arts-education company of Portland-based Miracle Theatre Group.
"The whole project is about a sustainable, utopian society. The goal is to push the imagination," said Dañel Malán, who founded Miracle Theatre Group 25 years ago with her husband, José Eduardo González, to showcase Latino culture. She started Teatro Milagro a few years later to expand the group into schools and enhance arts education.
The organization has worked with several Jackson County schools in the past and came to Crater this week to work with students in its arts-focused small school.
Malán expects the group to work with 585 students over the course of four days, tackling junk sculptures, paper making, haiku, cob construction and theater in Spanish and English. And all the while, they will focus on ways a society can be culturally and environmentally sustainable, she explained.
Tonight Teatro Milagro actors and Crater students will take the stage to present a play by Malán and Carlos Alexis Cruz, "El Último." The play tells the story of a logger who wants to create a utopian, sustainable, timber-supported community on a Patagonian island, but faces doubts from environmentalists and native people.
"It's a neat experience," Drake said of Teatro Milagro's visit. "We're doing a lot of projects based on the same theme. We're solving problems with the materials we have."
From a garbage bag filled with household items, Drake picked out a milk carton and saw something more.
"I looked at a milk carton and I said, 'I could definitely make a flower out of that,' " she said.
So she did. And other artists trimmed cans and bottles into other blooms, while yet another group created a gardener to tend the flower bed.
"It started as a boy, but became a girl," said junior Chris Beatty.
"I drew a chick face," said freshman Chauntell LaFever, displaying the full-lipped cardboard mask taped onto a Taco Bell cup topped with wisps of red tissue-paper hair.
The team then turned to a curvaceous Pom Wonderful juice bottle to further feminize the figure.
"At least you got to make boobs," freshman Rachel Kingslien taunted the boys, who modestly taped a "censored" sign over the model's chest so she would comply with the school's dress code until her teeny, yellow, tissue paper bikini was complete.
"I'm proud of the way they all came together," art teacher Katie Barber said of her students. "They saw what was needed and they did it, each playing to their strengths."
Group projects such as the junk sculpture build community, encourage leadership and help kids find their niche and take pride in their work, she said.
"Now I have to shoo them out of here so the science teachers don't get mad," she said, turning to remind a handful of students taping on a last-minute detail that the bell had rung and they were due at their next class.

Canby "Art of Science" Residency

During the week of February 9th, Milagro artists visited three different ELL classes at Baker Prairie and four different ELL classes at Canby High in the first of the 2009 “Art of Science” residencies. Students learned about what environmental sustainability means for the future and designed their own idea of what a utopia could look like. Working in groups, they designed their own communities, created posters and made presentations in their classrooms. Some of the stellar examples were Volcano Island, Peruano, Madagascar and Kenya.
Volcano Island residents heat their homes with thermal energy from the volcanoes. Peruano citizens live on terraces carved in the mountains of Peru and have a strong community garden program. They also have designed a wooden sleigh that they use to pull their food and water up the mountainside. Citizens of Madagascar have a sound government and strong community participation. Kenyan residents live in adobe structures built into the walls of the Grand Canyon, and fish from the Colorado river in their hand carved canoes.
Most of the students believed in a fair and open government where everyone voted. Life was simple, with basic needs covered by fishing and hunting with a respect for nature, only taking what they would need and replanting when possible. Most communities had a communal system for gardening and cooking and were planning to use alternative energy via wind, solar and water power. Most of the communities also made no drugs or alcohol a mandatory law, along with no fighting and respect for others.

El Ultimo a success!

The language diversity was a great boost for my students. We’ve ben studying fantasy, and this was a culminating event that will lead into the next unit on ecology. My satisfaction was high with you folks!
- Meg Turner, Sandy High School ELL Teacher


I would like to thank the staff and the creative team at Miracle Theater for inviting the young professionals to see El Ultimo. It was a wonderful play!
I love it when the Arts can touch upon important issues concerning our environment. The cast was superb in their authenticity and the sense of humor.
Thank you so much for sharing this with me,
- Natasha, Oregon Children’s Theatre Young Professional


Thank you for the great performance! It definitely captivated many of the Laurelhurst students. They really enjoyed the sound and lighting effects, and the folkloric elements of the play. I look forward to seeing more productions at Teatro Milagro in the future.
- Kari Rychebosch, Laurelhurst School Spanish Teacher


Thanks for the opportunity to see a wonderful combination of bilingualism, art, and science. My students enjoyed the play very much.
- Celeste Colasurdo, Southridge High Spanish Teacher


I've been meaning to write and thank you all week. The kids all left the theater saying how much they liked the play. I was most impressed and really appreciated the perspective that is usually unheard. The discussion afterwards was very useful and helped also.
Thank you for all your hard work! You are a very talented individual!
- Erin Leake, International School Parent

Un estreno mundial de un eco drama bilingüe

Al filo del mundo, Shamanes Mapuches, una eco feminista y un leñador en busca de su alma se encuentran en un devastado bosque en la isla de los molinos de viento en la Patagonia. Allí, la naturaleza espera por su destino mientras la poderosa lucha entre la cultura, la ecología y la ambición determinan su futuro. ¿Qué se gana y qué se pierde cuando estos individuos intentan reconciliar su ideología personal con el futuro del planeta?

Kalani, un maderero asociado con la Trillium Corporation, adquiere una pequeña isla en la Patagonia donde intenta desarrollar una comunidad maderera sustentable. A su llegada es atacado por los espíritus Mapuches del bosque, y luego Solen, una vieja enemiga de las guerras por el medio ambiente llega para salvar a los Mapuches de esta invasión. El resultado es un choque cultural que desafía la integridad de todos los personajes en su búsqueda por la utopía.
El Último se presenta durante dos semanas en enero en el Milagro Theatre en Portland antes de iniciar la gira nacional hacia otros estados tales como California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado y Rhode Island entre otros. El Último forma parte de programa de aprendizaje integral de arte llamado The Art of Science que intenta compartir la construcción de comunidades sustentables y técnicas vitales a través del arte. Se podrán apreciar ejemplos de este proyecto en el folleto para educadores que estará disponible durante la feria sobre el medioambiente el sábado 17 de enero de 3:30-4:30 p.m. en El Centro Milagro (525 SE Stark St., Portland)