Teatro Vista's Play "Fade" Resonates To Everyone

Teatro Vista www.teatrovista.org, housed at the Victory Gardens Theater www.victorygardens.org in Chicago, produced the masterful play Fade that explores class barriers and gender discrimination as they affect the Latino Community. While it’s about two Mexican-American characters, this play is universal. It was written by Tanya Saracho and directed by Sandra Marquez. The actors -Eddie Martinez and Sari Sanchez – do a great job of bringing the story to life.

Fade begins with Lucia starting her job as a script writer for a television show. Abel, the janitor, comes into her office to clean it. As they talk to each other, they discover that they are the only Latinos working at this television studio. This gives them a comfort level that launches a very unusual friendship. Although they are both Mexican-Americans, the difference in their socio-economic statuses soon becomes apparent. What ensues is drama at its finest. I urge anyone who has the opportunity to see this remarkable play which is playing through December 23^rd.

Eddie Martinez and Sari Sanchez in scene

After every performance, some ensemble member stays for a talk back. The audience was ethnically diverse the night we were there making the discussion especially interesting. Does Lucia speak differently to Abel than she does on the phone to her college-educated colleagues? Do we all speak differently depending on who we’re talking to? Do we consciously change our speech patterns when addressing people from backgrounds other than our own?

The subject had piqued my interest since reading the very articulately written book The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. This book is about an African-American teenager living in an inner-city neighborhood who has witnessed two of her best friends murdered by police. Afraid for her safety, her parents enroll her in a private school that is predominantly white and upper middle class. As Starr switches between her home neighborhood and her school, she consciously changes her speech patterns and the subjects she allows herself to discuss. This phenomenon has been referred to as “code switching”, an apt name for a frequent phenomenon in our multi-cultural, class-based society.

I have found myself code switching much more often since the 2016 election especially since the events in Charlottesville this past summer. While before I always felt safe as an American Jew able to say anything, that is no longer the case. I feel secure in Chicago and a few other parts of America and with the people I know. In other places, I find myself on guard wondering if the feelings expressed in Charlottesville have always been there. Staying at a hotel in Cincinnati where we visited our children, the hotel manager asked if we would return for Christmas. Hearing the slight southern inflection in his speech, I was put on guard. Instead of explaining that we were Jewish, didn’t celebrate Christmas, and besides our grandchildren had different winter break times, I just said, “I don’t think so.”

I wonder how often I will be code switching in the years ahead and how many others are doing it more frequently than they did before November 8, 2016. It makes Fade especially timely. If you have the chance, go see Fade. You won’t be disappointed.