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David Mendiz\u00e1bal, associate artistic director at Berkeley Rep, directed the theater company\u2019s production of \u201cAll My Sons,\u201d starring Jimmy Smits and Wanda De Jes\u00fas. (Courtesy of Ben Krantz)<\/p>\nMendiz\u00e1bal grew up in Orlando, Fla., where they were raised by a father from Ecuador and a mother from Puerto Rico. They learned about the art of performing from watching their father, an immigration attorney, defend his clients in court.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was like watching a play, like an actor telling people\u2019s stories,\u201d they said. \u201cIt showed me the power of performance and how the power of someone\u2019s story could change lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mendiz\u00e1bal\u2019s high school drama program set them on a trajectory to study theater at New York University. They stayed in New York working for various theater companies, including The Movement Theatre Company, where they worked for 15 years before joining Berkeley Rep in 2022.<\/p>\n
While New York is the epicenter of American theater, Berkeley Rep offered Mendiz\u00e1bal an opportunity to stage larger, more ambitious projects. Their previous productions for Berkeley Rep include Mexodus, Mother Road\u00a0and Sanctuary City, all of which were written by playwrights of color and featured diverse casts.<\/p>\n
Mendiz\u00e1bal\u2019s goal is to produce great art that incorporates their values of promoting social justice, radical inclusion, and anti-racism. They recalled that their mother discouraged them from pursuing a career in theater, not because she didn\u2019t believe in them, but because she couldn\u2019t see a path forward for them.<\/p>\n
David Mendiz\u00e1bal, associate artistic director at Berkeley Rep, directed the theater company\u2019s production of \u201cAll My Sons,\u201d starring Jimmy Smits and Wanda De Jes\u00fas. (Courtesy of Ben Krantz)<\/p>\n
Mendiz\u00e1bal realized early that they didn\u2019t want to be an actor or a writer. Instead, they wanted to focus on working behind the scenes to shape stories and bring productions to life.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality in arts and entertainment is who are the ones making the decisions \u2014 it\u2019s not the actors,\u201d they said. \u201cThere\u2019s real power in being the one who gets to invite people in the room to do the thing they love.\u201d<\/p>\n
When it came time to cast All My Sons, Mendiz\u00e1bal immediately thought of Smits, even though it felt aspirational despite Berkeley Rep\u2019s reputation for attracting big-name actors.<\/p>\n
Mendiz\u00e1bal had seen Smits in Anna in the Tropics more than 20 years ago in a rare all-Latino cast in a Broadway play. It turned out Smits and De Jes\u00fas had costarred in the Berkeley Rep production of The Guys in 2003, so they were interested.<\/p>\n
When I saw the play with my mother, I was captivated by the entire cast and the storytelling. One of the plotlines involves two brothers who fought in World War II. One brother disappears, and the other returns home and wants to marry his brother\u2019s former girlfriend, which felt very telenovela-like to my mom and me. The play\u2019s themes are universal, Mendiz\u00e1bal said, which is why it makes sense to bring a new lens to the characters.<\/p>\n
Experiencing live theater, especially when it includes actors like Smits and De Jes\u00fas, who you are used to seeing on a screen, was awe-inspiring.<\/p>\n
Even as the entertainment industry continues to sideline Latino actors and stories, meeting Mendiz\u00e1bal, Smits and De Jes\u00fas reminded me of the amazing art our people produce and why it\u2019s so important to support them, especially this close to home.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s no small feat for Smits, 70, and De Jes\u00fas, 68, to have sustained decadeslong careers in acting, a notoriously challenging field, especially for Latine artists.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a demonization of all things Latino, the culture. Unfortunately, this (presidential) administration has made half of the country afraid of the other and what it represents,\u201d De Jes\u00fas told me. \u201cOur culture informs us, but we are creative human beings. And working with David, he comes from the same mindset. He is Latino and proud of it, but his imagination as a creator, he works with people that can think beyond the tropes and beyond the stereotypes and that\u2019s what is so exciting. His future voice is very important in the theater.\u201d<\/p>\n
All My Sons at Berkeley Repertory Theatre runs through March 29 at Roda Theatre, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley. Tickets cost $25-$135.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mendiz\u00e1bal grew up in Orlando, Fla., where they were raised by a father from Ecuador and a mother…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215186,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-215185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}