EL GALAN
( a matinee idol )
In 1967 I moved to London England on the advice of my friend Kurt Christian. Kurt and I had met in the Broadway show The Royal Hunt Of The Sun. Kurt encouraged me to read every book ever written. While in London, I got to perform in front of a live audience at the Stork Room.The Stork Room was a smoked filled, upscale nightclub frequented by British gangsters. Kurt’s step father Peter was the maitre d and his mother Nalini was dressed in her native Sari from Sri Lanka. Nalini’s job was to go from table to table selling cigars, cigarettes. Peter said: Why don’t you go on the stage with the musicians and sing.I sang four songs and was happy at the reception I got from the audience. A few night’s later a fight broke out between the gangsters. Swinging London was my world! Twiggy was at the top of her career, the Beatles were on everyones radar and I fell in love with the French movie A Man And A Woman. I later moved to Munich, Germany where I hoped to pursue my career as a singer but, low on funds I was forced to return to NYC.
When I returned to New York, Laura Figueroa, a friend from my Performing Arts High School days said to me: Where have you been? They’ve been looking for you for a play opposite Raul Julia, Lucy Boscana and Miriam Colon in La Carreta, (The Ox Cart) by Rene Marques.. I came too late and Jose Perez was cast. The director, the incredible Lloyd Richards asked to meet me and I read for him and he hired me to be Jose’s understudy. I became part of the thriving and exciting Latino theater scene of NYC, which included Piri Thomas( Down These Mean Streets ), Pedro Pietri ( The Masses Are Asses ), Miguel Pinero ( Short Eyes ) Max Ferra ( Intar ), Kevin Conway, Miriam Colon, Carla Pinza and Raul Davila.I also worked with: Miguel Algarin ( founder of Nuyorican Poets Cafe ), Emil Belasco, Yvonne Coll, Eduardo Gallardo, Shawn Elliott, Victor Argo, Gloria Irrizary, Iraida Polanco, Iris Martinez, Jaime Sanchez, Miriam Cruz, Eduardo Machado, Tato Laviera, Elisa De La Roche,among others. Osvaldo Riofrancos an Argentinian director staged the balcony scene from Romeo And Juliet for me and Maria Cellario to do for Joe Papp in Spanish.
Pedro Santaliz, a brilliant Puerto Rican director who had formed a theater group called “EL NUEVO TEATRO POBRE DE AMERICA” ( the new Poor Theater Of America ) wanted to meet me. Pedro liked me and asked me to join his theater group as his Galan and I accepted. A Galan is the leading man and I was ready to follow in the footsteps of leading men of the Mexican and Spanish movies. Leading men in the Spanish speaking cinema included Jose Ferrer, Ricardo Montalban, Fernando Lamas ( coincidentally, I did the King And I with Fernando’s son Lorenzo at the Ogunquit Playhouse years later ), Cesar Romero, Gilbert Roland and Pedro Armendariz. My first Spanish speaking role as a Galan was called “ De Un Momento A Otro” ( moment to moment ). What I found strange was that we were playing this show at venues with photos of Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and the Chilean President Salvador Allende. I made sure to leave the theaters every night ASAP for fear that the FBI may just be lurking around jotting down names,checking ID’s. I became hyper vigilant because those were the days of the Patty Hearst kidnapping, the SLA, the Young Lords had taken over a church in East Harlem and Malcolm X. We also did musicals and broad comedies all in Spanish. Miriam Colon created a theater on the back of a small truck and called it The Puerto Rican Traveling Theater. She invited our company to produce a show which would play at NYC parks citywide. The musical comedy show: La Farsa Del Amor Compradito became a huge hit! The audiences went wild over this show. It was in the style of the French/Italian Commedia dell’ arte. It was so successful that our producer the very talented Miriam Colon said: This show is so much fun that I have to be in it. So, Miriam became the new ingenue. Our company of actors performed at Town Hall and I got to strip down in front of everyone in the audience. Luckily, I chose to wear a loin cloth underneath in a play about the Taino chieftain Agueybana.. We also did a special performance for Peter Brook the British icon of Avant-garde theater in the lobby of the Brooklyn Academy of Music :BAM.I remember these times fondly and although many of my fellow artists are no longer with us, we remember them through the work they’ve left us. After years of being a Galan I was cast in the first bus & truck production of Man Of La Mancha and Pedro Santaliz pleaded with me not to leave them: “With us, you’re a star with them you’ll end up in the chorus”!Being in the chorus became a training ground for me and prepared me for other work to come.Pedro Santaliz made me a Galan but the chorus paid my rent…
