Richard Montoya, Rick Salinas and Herbert Siguenza
What started out, as a weekend experiment on Cinco de Mayo 1984 has become a 30-year journey”.
—Ric Salinas, Culture Clash Co-Founder
By Bel Hernandez
Since May 5, 1984 when Rick Salinas, Herbert Siguenza and Richard Montoya got together (and three others) to become Culture Clash the Latino/Chicano comedy and theatre group, their mission was has been to cure America’s cultural amnesia with their collective productions which are consistently about Latino identity, historical perspective and big dose of their signature political, social, and biting satire.
Gearing up to celebrate their 30th anniversary, Culture Clash performed together again as a group, after a few years of working on their own projects, in January of 2014 for a run at the Segerstrom Center in Orange County of Keep Culture and Clash On: 30 Years of Revolutionary Comedy Remastered. As the name suggests the 90-minute piece directed by Montoya, is a remix of sketches from previous Culture Clash productions.
In February of this year Culture Clash officially began celebrating their 30th as they kicked off with an L.A. revival of Chavez Ravine, originally presented in 2003 at the Mark Taper Forum. This time around it was presented at the Kirk Douglas Theater in Culver City, California where it ran for over a month to packed houses. It was pure Classic Culture Clash.
Considered by many to be one of Culture Clash’s best collaborative production, in Chavez Ravine Culture Clash uses multimedia and on stage musicians to help tell the story of how a whole community of mostly Mexican-Americans were kicked out of their homes in the area near downtown Los Angeles called Chavez Ravine, for the subsequent building of Dodger Stadium.
I was lucky to have caught Chavez Ravine on the last day at the Kirk Douglas Theater. It took me way back to the early 90’s to some of their earlier stage work, The Mission and Bowl of Beans. It’s hard to believe it’s been 30 years, but it’s true and Culture Clash has the awards, acclaim, and millions of fans to prove it.
Continuing the 30th year anniversary performances, only ten days after closing at the Kirk Douglas they were in Boston’s Arts Emerson for the opening of Muse & Morros. Muse & Morros is an evening of remixes of the group’s previous work and new skits derived from interviews they have done with people of all walks of live and ethnicities. Infused with their irreverent theater style, making for an evening of comedic enlightenment and at time shocking content. Performances take place March 11 through 29, 2015 at the Jackie Liebergott Black Box at the Emerson/Paramount Center (559 Washington Street in Boston’s historic theatre district). Tickets, from $25?$59, are on sale now at www.artsemerson.org or by phone at 617?824?8400.
Its rare to see a group of artists with Culture Clash’s long journey, stay together for so long, and to be as relevant today as they were when they first started; their artistry touching millions of lives through their work in theater, TV and film.
Their collective work has been praised by notable social icons on both side of the aisle. Playwright/novelist Eric Bogosian said of Culture Clash, “These guys are funny daredevils of performance, totally fearless as they skewer convention and lazy thinking. Cool.” While iconic labor leader (and a close friend of Culture Clash), Dolores Huerta said their work was “Important social satire for these urgent times”.
For those who have seen some of their plays, we can all agree that there is nothing like a Culture Clash production. Together Salinas, Siguenza and Montoya have written and performed in close to two dozen production; In 1993 Culture Clash, with help from actor comedian Cheech, who saw them perform at the Los Angeles Theater Center, got their own sketch comedy TV show, Culture Clash on FOX; their plays have been published in three books; and Culture Clash has been the subject of at least one college dissertation.
Their TV show ran for 30 episodes before it was cancelled, but if they learned any thing from the experience it was what Montoya said in an L.A. Times article after the show went off the year, “I don’t think it’s a question anymore of whether we can be American enough for the TV audience,” Montoya said. “It’s more a question of being unapologetic and aggressive and claiming a piece of the American experience and the American pie”.
Siguenza, Salinas and Montoya continue to claim their piece of the American experience through their collective work and more recently through their individual projects.
“After being together for 30 years, we each seek out channels of creativity to explore as individuals, in conjunction with our collaborative efforts as a theater company (with a coordinated effort and schedule),” Salinas tells us. “So as part of our 30th each member of Culture Clash has branched out and has been busy this past year.
Herbert Siguenza has three very successful plays he has written and performed in the interim. His had recent stagings of all there.
Herbert Siguenza as Pablo Picasso
In June of 2014 Siguenza premiered his play El Henry, a futuristic take on Shakespeare’s Henry IV at the La Jolla Playhouse. “With grit and wit, the playwright and actor hot-wires the Shakespeare original,” said James Herbert of the UT San Diego.
In December 2014, Siguenza performed his one man show A Weekend With Pablo Picasso transforming into the title role of Picasso at the San Jose Stage. He brings his talent as an artist (he studied art before turning to theater) to the piece, each night Siguenza created a painting right before the audiences’ eyes.
And earlier this year, Siguenza was doing double duty, as he was appearing in the world premiere of his play Steal Heaven while rehearsing for the run of Chavez Ravine, managing to pull off great reviews for the San Diego Rep’s Lyceum production playing activist Abbie Hoffman.
Meanwhile Salinas has recently put on his directing hat taking on directing duties for the “Cirque Du Soleil” type show called Teatro Zinzanni in Seattle and San Francisco.
Also, since 2012 he has turned in his comedy card and taken a serious turn starring in Paul S. Flores’ PLACAS: The Most Dangerous Tattoo, a bilingual tale of fathers and sons, transformation and redemption that illuminates one man’s determination to reunite his family after surviving civil war in El Salvador, immigration, deportation, prison and street violence.
PLACAS: The Most Dangerous Tattoo had a run at the Crest Theater in Sacramento in November of last year, however Salinas has been with the production since its development of the production at the Cornerstone Theatre Company developed and directed by artistic director Michael John Garcés. Since then he has toured with the production across the country, most recently in late 2014 at the Los Angeles Theater Center and at The Crest Theater in Sacramento, California.
Co-commissioned by four nationally respected Latino arts organizations (MACLA, Su Teatro, Pregones Theatre Company and GALA Theatre) through the National Performance Network, PLACAS was developed as a pro-active community response to the issue of transnational gang violence, presenting positive elements of Central American culture in the context of a hostile, anti-immigrant political environment.
In April PLACAS: The Most Dangerous Tattoo will play at the Merced Theater in Merced, California on April 17 & 18; at the Lincoln High School Performing Arts Center on April 23 – 25th; from April 30 to May 2 at the Scottish Rite Event Center. For more info www.placas.org.
As for Montoya, he took a detour from theater to film. After the critical acclaim he received for his play Water and Power that had its world premiere at the Mark Taper Forum in 2006, he decided to adapt it for the big screen. He was chosen to workshop his script at the Sundance Institute, a process that took year. It then took seven more years from finished script to funding and casting to finally the film premiere. Siguenza and Salinas would not reprise the roles they played roles in theater production for the film, as went with actors with more film credits, the roles untimely going to Enrique Murciano (Black Hawk Down, The Lost City) and Nicholas Gonzales (Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid, Spun).
By 2013 Water and Power was doing the film festival circuit, and on May 2, 2014 it released theatrically. For his work as writer/director the L.A. Weekly called Montoya the “Federico Garcia Lorca for East L.A. “ and have exalted Montoya’s “visual and aural cityscape in the movie is masterfully noir”. Edward James Olmos, who came on board as producer having seen the play twice at the Taper, fell in love with Montoya’s poetic dialogue, and believes that, given this was Montoya’s first film, “He’s proving himself to be a master.” (Water and Power is now available on Netflix).
Salinas, Siguenza and Montoya who started Culture Clash with three other actors in 1984, have survived and thrived for thirty years. They continue their journey of exposing the sometime painful blemishes, collision of cultures, positive and negative notions of diversity that continues to evolve in today’s society and beyond, with self-honesty and self-criticism. Critical thinkers with a unique aesthetic; smarty-pants plays, never too far from fun, who have found a cure for cultural amnesia.
To sum up thirty years of Culture Cash, who started out as the pride of the Latino community, and have now transcended cultures, and are embraced by audiences of all backgrounds, we turn to the New York Times, which proclaimed, “A multitude of characters. A sweeping vision of our country, an unstinting rant about war, race and class. And just three guys!”…and years of laughter!
Happy 30th Culture Clash!
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